Over at Yahoo! Sports, Jeff Passan thinks Johan Santana isn’t vocal enough on his role as leader of the pitching staff and is too lax on his need to become the ace of the Mets staff and dominate every time through.

Of Santana, Passan writes:

“Such things happen, and were Santana not so laissez-faire about his role and his responsibility – so patently dismissive of his duty to dominate – it would have been just another game. Problem is, Santana does not yet seem to understand that with a $137.5 million contact in your pocket and the words New York striped across your chest, attitude and swagger are requisite. The entire concept of team needs to be put on hold, because aces win games by themselves”.

He also used the world “pedestrian” when describing Santana’s start last night, whatever that means. In any event, you don’t have to be a “loud-mouth” to be a leader. A leader, in my opinion, goes out every night and produces. Just because a guy is vocal, does that make him a leader, if he is not producing on the field? Santana has been more than we could have hoped for, especially in the second half.

Passan goes on to say how Santana should become more like Pedro Martinez:

“Two lockers down from Santana, Pedro Martinez listened. Martinez was a true ace, one who frothed for the big moment, delivered regularly and bore every ounce of responsibility when he didn’t. Certainly you remember the time when he called the Yankees “my daddy.” Martinez understood that there is the ace, the guy who puts up great numbers, and the ace, the one who does so in games big and small – the one in his own category, the rarest of sorts”.

Responsibility? Santana’s responsibility is to win ballgames, and if it weren’t for the bullpen, he’d have 16 or 17 this year.

Listen, there has only been one Pedro Martinez, and there will only be one Pedro Martinez. Pedro was his own person, and didn’t care what people thought of him. From what I’ve seen from Santana so far this year, he doesn’t have the Pedro demeanor, and I do not believe he ever will. Santana has the most will to win on this team, and relishes taking the mound in big games, just as last night’s, just as much as anyone on this team. I don’t see why he has to be more vocal about it as long as he produces, like he did last night.

As far as I’m concerned, this team already has two leaders: David Wright and Martinez, and that’s plenty for me.