According to the NY Post, first baseman Carlos Delgado would not respond well to a platoon situation against lefties. In a brief interview last night, Delgado said he would have to talk to Willie about that one somehow implying that the idea is not a good one(PS – it is). Although he stepped up in last night’s game going two-for-four with a run scored and a great diving catch, for the most part he has been a shadow of his former self so far this season.

If Delgado really wants to keep his full-time job, I have a bit of advice. The Big Guy needs to revive that notebook of his. In 2006 there were whole articles written about his notebook and how after every at-bat he would write the name of the pitcher he faced, how many runners were on base and what pitch sequence he saw. I have not seen said notebook in a really long time. In fact, not until somebody else mentioned it today did even remember the notebook’s existence.

I used to keep a diary when I was in sixth grade. I would write in it every day for about a month and then not pick it up again for like a year. So I totally know how it is buddy. Keeping a notebook requires a lot of dedication.

I imagine that compared to 2006, the entries might look a little different today. In 2006 every other entry said:

Dear Diary - Another home run. yay.

If he were to pick up the notebook today, I imagine the entries would look something like this:

Dear Diary, You just struck out again. Some advice: Start swinging when pitcher is in the set position.

Dear Diary, I love missing that breaking ball by two and a half feet. Let’s try and make it one and half next time.

Dear Diary, I’m so bored. How many hours until Sex and the City The Movie?

In all seriousness, I really love Delgado and he has been one of my favorite players of the past few hears. It hurts me to watch him these days and when I see a flash of the old player I get excited. I hope he heats the hell up and proves us all wrong. But sadly, I think he is just old and has lost too much bat speed and a little bit of heart.

It’s hard to tell how much of Willie Randoloh’s interview in The Record today was baited. Outside of a straight up Q&A transcript we can never know how much columnist Ian O’Connor poked or what sore spots he hit to make Willie say the things he did.

One thing is clear: Willie would rather prove so-called ungrateful fans wrong on the field with performances like yesterday than wage wars in the newspapers. But even when he is trying to get fired up for our sake he comes off as a sniping bitter man. In one short interview meant to come off as breezy, Slick Willie sputtered like a PR machine in need of oiling. Rather than shutting us up, he added more converts to the growing chorus calling for his head. And he’s surprised a lot of us “don’t like him.”

To parse a bit of Randolph’s comments:

1. Mets fans were in hiding before he came to Queens.

Before 2005, legions of Mets fans were apparently tucked away in their baseball bunkers praying for the day that a fearless leader would come and march the team to one of the worst regular season collapses in baseball history. I know we are not supposed to talk about The Great Collapse anymore and I don’t like to do it but if Willie is going to declare war on the fans we might as well ammo up.

2. SNY painting Willie poorly.

“They’re the artists, I’m the canvas, They paint the picture the way they want to.”

Awww, it’s just like The Truman Show! All the fans and SNY want to see is a little bit more ass patting, Willie. You’re absolutely right. Just throw over one teeny tiny table of food and we’ll be happy, Skip. Oh, you have? I stand corrected. The puppet masters over at SNY clearly don’t film enough of Willie standing on the top step of the dugout. They only film him standing on the second step and that’s.just.wrong. Bottom line: We don’t care about theatrics. We care about results. Quit blaming camera men or they will film you from even worse angles than they do already.

3. The whiff of racial bias.

Nobody was going there. To be fair, in the column, Willie appears to be answering a rhetorical question, maybe his own/maybe thrown out there by O’Connor.

“Is it racial?” Randolph asked. “Huh? It smells a little bit.”

Somewhere along the way Isaiah Thomas is referenced. I don’t think Willie is playing the race card but it sounds like there is some sort of chip squarely on his shoulder. I hope this doesn’t become the Next Thing for talk radio to obsess about but sadly I think it might.

The New York sports media is a prism and it has bent many words and wrecked good intentions before. For a guy who has spent so much time in this city you would think he would have learned by now.

Over on Mets Blog today, Star Ledger writer Dan Graziano popped up in the comments section to defend himself and the role of official blogs in journalism. Some commenter’s leveled criticism on the journo, calling him unprofessional for putting the contents of a recent email between himself and Carlos Delgado’s agent David Sloane on his blog.

The email exchange centered around the accuracy of details of Delgado’s contract as published in the one of Graziano’s recent sidebars. Graziano did not publish the email today to set the facts straight. He published the email to show all his readers that Sloane is “insane” as he clearly headlined - “Breaking News - Delgado’s Agent is Insane”

Sloane does prove himself to be a number of things, mostly unprofessional for calling Graziano a retard. He even got a yo momma dig in there for good measure. Nobody is arguing that Sloane is a normal human being.

But the post raises questions about whether the same rules that guide journalists’ stories should loosely guide what they write on their official newspaper blogs. Graziano argued via MetsBlog that since he published the email on his blog and not in the newspaper, it was kosher. According to Graziano, the blog is supposed to show the funny side of the beat writer’s experience.

While the email is in and of itself kind of funny, I think publishing it was an abuse of Graziano’s power. As a journalist myself I can’t count the number of times I wish I could publish a PR person’s rant after the fact. It happens on a weekly basis- flacks and sources call up to complain after a story runs even when they did not call you back for comment in the first place. I’ve been called names(although never a retard) and had my sourcing questioned. It’s part of the job - you argue your point, you print corrections when they are warranted and then you write your next story.

I’m sure it’s not news to other journalists that Sloane is insane, and so these sorts of exchanges should be saved for the press box. I’m not as sure that Sloane’s comments fall under the definition of what is news for most readers. It’s a slippery slope. We like to see how some of the sausage is made but I found this example a bit vindictive. While official newspaper blogs can be a little bit looser with some standards and should share some behind the scenes stories, I don’t see how they can have carte blache to fire missiles even at those that are “insane”.

Citigroup, the Great American Write-Down Machine and buyer of certain New York stadium’s naming rights, announced their new slogan today. No longer will Citi “Get It Done” but rather from this day forth Citigroup is the Financial Wal-Mart that Never Sleeps. Cute. So you’re like New York and stuff. How clever.

The Mets and Citi Field need to adopt this slogan immediately like they quasi-did with Let’s Get It Done last year. Because right now the Mets appear to be asleep on the field.

A lot of their bats need to wake up. Their defense is a mix of flashes of gold gloves mixed with painful-to-watch nonsense.

Willie Randolph is the worst of them all - dude needs to drink some coffee, take a cold shower, go back to 1999 or whenever it was acceptable to take some Stacker Twos, something! Enough cheesy, predictable post-game quotes. Wake up man, because you guys almost, kinda suck right now.

Billy Wagner should not be the only audible voice of reason on the team. Sit up Willie, look those reporters(and through them, the fans) in the eye and assure us all that you are not asleep at the wheel of the league’s most complacent team.

The Mets: We Never Sleep. I like it already.

Nicoletta is a financial reporter living in Astoria. When not writing about so-called financial weapons of mass destruction, she can be found on the 7 or on her couch watching the Mets. John Maine is her favorite current Met although she is also a Church Lady (hat tip to my boy Dykstraw)

Born and raised in New Jersey, Nicole (as the non Greeks of the world call her) obviously loves diners and clearly went to Rutgers.