Manuel and Minaya are out: A belated celebration from a Mets fan

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Minaya and Manuel are GONE!!! Have there ever been five sweeter words spoken?

The Mets have finally decided to trim the fat, starting from the top down. Well, they’ve decided to trim most of the fat. Although Omar Minaya has been dethroned from his seat as Mets GM, the Mets have said that they are planning to retain Minaya. Perhaps they want to keep him around to share his winning ways with the new GM. The Mets would have to pay Omar for the next 2 years and some Mets fans are pushing to keep him on to do something (anything) for his $2 million salary.

This seems like a horrible idea. Firing Minaya and Manuel represents a clean break from the last four years of losing. Every girl knows that when you break up with a boyfriend you get rid of everything that reminds you of him so that you can move on. You definitely do not keep the ex-boyfriend around so he can do menial chores around the house. You just send him on his way. That is what the Mets need to do with Minaya -- cut all ties. Get rid of Castillo, Beltran, K-Rod, and many of the other relics that remind Mets fans of the ex-GM. The only thing that Minaya can do in the Mets’ front office is become a second schmuck that the new GM will have to cater to (the first, of course, being Jeff Wilpon). Why invite that headache?

Although Omar Minaya’s landing spot is still up in the air, Jerry Manuel’s fate is sealed. Manuel has been completely removed from the Mets’ clubhouse, with no carry-over possible. Most Mets fans are not going to miss Manuel. There is a laundry list of characteristics to dislike about our former fearless leader, starting with his demeanor.

For starters, Manuel had the most annoying habit of refusing to look at the dugout camera during in-game interviews. It must have been the highlight of Gary Cohen’s day every time he got to talk to the top of Manuel’s head. If Manuel didn’t want to deal with the media, he should have gone to Kansas City or Cleveland. In New York there are a lot of newspapers, radio, and TV networks dedicated solely to NY sports. Media comes with the job so Manuel should have looked at the camera, smiled, and at least pretended like he wanted to be there.

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NYaT's Expert MLB Predictions for 2010 Part Deux

Well, we gave the first part of our predictions yesterday, but as the first full day of baseball gets underway, let's take a look at the rest of NYaT's predictions for 2010.

	Andrew	Ari	Ben	Jay	Sarah
AL MVP	Evan Longoria	A-Rod	Mark Teixeira	A-Rod	Kevin Youkilis
NL MVP	Prince Fielder	Albert Pujols	Albert Pujols	Albert Pujols	Chase Utley
AL Cy Young	Felix Hernandez	CC Sabathia	Justin Verlander	Zack Greinke	Jon Lester
NL Cy Young	Roy Halladay	Roy Halladay	Roy Halladay	Roy Halladay	Tim Lincecum
AL Rookie of the Year	Brian Matusz	Michael Brantley	Austin Jackson	Neftali Feliz	Scott Sizemore
NL Rookie of the Year	Alcides Escobar	Jason Heyward	Jason Heyward	Jason Heyward	Stephen Strasburg

3 facts/3 fictions

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Some People Should Keep Their Mouth Shut

I think it's always true that some people should keep their mouths shut. But the past few days, I think there a few more than normal.

• Jim Rice decided it was a good idea to use his speech to a bunch of Little Leaguers to rip Derek Jeter, Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez, according to LoHud. Peter Abraham asks if it's too late to vote Jim Rice out of the Hall of Fame for being a "no-class idiot"? Why exactly did they vote him in in the first place? Rob Neyer responds by saying: "running down today's players is nothing but boring, self-aggrandizing poppycock."

• Our next idiot is Jerry Manuel show decided it was a good idea to use David Wright's concussion as an opportunity to rip on Ryan Church. Earth to Jerry, despite the injuries to your team this year, you're not totally immune. You haven't done a bang up job. Your team failed down the stretch last year. And you're supposed to be a bigger person. Ripping a guy who is no longer on the team is petty and immature.

• Speaking of the Mets, their GM is not doing much to improve his reputation. From Rob Neyer:

  • Whatever else might happen today, this is going to rank as the strangest news of the day:

  Jon Heyman has reported that the Giants claimed Gary Sheffield off the waiver wire, but the two teams could not come to an agreement on a deal.

  Last night, I contacted one of my sources, a Giants front office official, who confirmed for me that Omar Minaya was asking for "high level talent” for his aging slugger, something that Giants GM Brian Sabean was not willing to part with.

  We were also told that there is a strong possibility that Minaya will be asking for the same type of "high level talent” for Billy Wagner, if and when he decides to finally move him.

  "Minaya just doesn't get it, does he? No, he doesn't. Maybe he'll blame it on Adam Rubin.

• Three's a charm with the Mets, it seems. This has to be the most bizarre. You knew that Gary Sheffield wouldn't be a good citizen all year long. Via the New York Post: "The Mets rejected his bizarre request for a contract extension. So Sheffield, according to sources, initially became verbally abusive, then demanded he be released or traded to the Marlins, then threatened to return home to Florida, and finally just pulled himself from the starting lineup." According to the New York Times, he doesn't remember this today but can't understand why the Mets didn't send him to San Francisco. Joel Sherman think that this guarantees Sheffield unemployment in 2010. Nice work, Sheff. No wonder no one wants to go watch the Mets.

• Lastly, someone made a claim on Jose Valverde but the Houston Astros pulled him back. Why? Their General Manager, Ed Wade, doesn't want to trade anyone but Ivan Rodriguez. Ummm...This team is going no place this season (9 games back in the Wild Card, 10 games back in the NL East, and -71 run differential) and they have Valverde, LaTroy Hawkins, Miguel Tejada and maybe a few other pieces they could dump, save some money, and maybe pick up a few prospects. All three become free agents after the season is over. Nice way to run the organization.
  

Some people are better off keeping quiet.

(pictures from the Providence Journal, Getty Images, Amazin' Avenue, New York Daily News, and Delaware Online)

You Heard It Here First: Mets Will Play Until The Last Day Of The Season

I've been saying it to my friends and now I need to say it in public so I can be on record: despite how bad the Mets are playing, they will start mounting a comeback this season, springboarding a huge showing against the Rockies this week and push towards a playoff berth. They will play on the last day of the season with a chance to make the playoffs.

And they will lose again.

How is that for torture for Mets fans?

Some more fun links for Metropolitan fans:

• Deadspin looks into that unbelievably bizarre press conference. Amazin' Avenue has the transcript of the press conference. ShysterBall is amazed that Mets can even make the firing of Bernazard a crazy affair.
  
• Adam Rubin responds!
• Buster Olney says that Omar Minaya has shifted the glare to himself now and his own clock is ticking. Rob Neyer notes that Minaya is losing control.
• Deadspin on a sort-of-maybe apology from Minaya
• The New York Times looks at Bernazard's career before this debacle
• Deadspin takes a few more rips at the Mets (picture courtesy of Deadspin, too)
  

And, lastly, I don't know if SNY showing the whole press conference, the interviews afterwards, talking about it on the network and running clips of the meltdown on their website is one of two things: transparency from a team not trying to hide from its mistakes or complete and utter disdain for the fanbase which it seems to want to torture at every turn. It absolutely amazes me that a team that once employed drugged out Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, (allegedly) women-crazy David Cone, firecracker-wielding Vince Coleman, poker-playing Rickey Henderson, reporter-threatening Bobby Bonilla, bleach-spraying Bret Saberhagen, sexually-harassing Steve Phillips and Mo Vaughn could only now be deemed a total mess.

Either way, it keeps A-Rod off the backpages so as a Yankees fan, I can't complain

Under pressure from No, You're a Towel, Mets terminate Tony Bernazard

Ok, NYaT is probably not the only reason Tony Bernazard won't be coming into the office tomorrow - but it was certainly pressure from media outlets and the blogosphere that led to his dismissal. Bernazard has been an issue in the Mets clubhouse for well over a year now and had clearly become a major distraction for a team that seemingly can't concentrate on the simplest of baseball tasks (read: catching pop-ups).

Now let's see if this leads to some strong play from the Mets, much the way the ouster of Willie and Rick last year seemed to wake them up.

Let's Go Mets!