In his weekly spot on ESPN Radio Billy Wagner spoke to Micheal Kay yesterday.

• “I feel pretty crappy right now… It’s the nature of the beast and it’s something I’ll have to overcome.”

• “I don’t take it home with me but I throw a few chairs into my locker… I can’t get so consumed with it that I take it into tomorrow. As bad as I feel today, I can go out there tomorrow and have a one-two-three inning and nobody remembers it. It doesn’t just go away but I have kids, when I get home they aren’t gonna care that I just lost a ball game.”

• “It could be me who loses his job, I don’t think it should be Willie. It’s up to the players…Physically I feel good, velocity is good. My breaking pitch is sharp. I’m in the area I want to be, it’s just a pitch here or a pitch there.”

• “When things are going well you get a call or the hitter swings through it. When you’re not going well you get the double play but the ball is hit too slow and they can’t turn it. All I can do is compete.”

Asked about losing his job as the closer:

• “I’m about winning the game. If they came to me and said we need to find a way to win at the end of the game and you’re not cutting the mustard…what am I gonna say?… of course my feelings would be hurt but I want the team to win. I wanna do my job but when you’re in that situation it’s for the team. When I go out there I am not pitching for Billy Wagner. I’m pitching for the team…whatever I can do to help us win that’s what I’ll do.”

• “I don’t think we’re in trouble as a team but I do think it would be nice to get a couple of lucky bounces. The consistency that is lacking is me… I mean lately guys are getting it done, I’m to blame.”

• “You go out there long enough and this game is gonna humble ya but I can’t say poor me. It’s about going out there and having a little luck on your side and getting the job done.”

As SNY anchor Matt Yaloff said, “Wagner tells it like it is.”

In his post game interview, Billy Wagner calmly showed his anger with himself over the last few games.  Among other things he said:

 ”I suck right now.” 

He also said:

The team is doing their job right now, I’m not.”

Alright Billy, the first step is admitting it - now you have to fix it. 

It’s all the more frustrating because Billy was tossing bagels to start the year, he even began the season with nine innings of no-hit ball.  Now, I think I’d be just as comfortable with Yorkis Perez going to the hill.  And that’s not a good thing. 

Man, that really looked like Mike Pelfrey’s night on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s game is one of those wins that really shouldn’t end up as an SNY ULTIMET Classic. It reminds of that 2006 Mets at Giants game where Brian Bannister was put on the shelf for months and Billy Wagner gave up a pinch-hit home run to Barry Bonds to force the game into extra innings. That was re-aired as an ULTIMET Classic. Yes, the Mets won that game, but there was so many bad feelings around it. I’d never want to see it again.

The same can be said about last night. As much as fans and media alike might say its a turning point for the team, let’s face it — the Mets only scored three runs in that fourth inning before finally getting Beltran’s homer in the 13th. That offensive production could easily be compared to any of the Mets-Padres losses. Most glaringly, the team ran themselves out of an 8th inning where they could have added an extra run. No, tonight’s story was all about the maturation of Pelfrey.

Grant it, Pelfrey’s recent success might not be completely all it seems. He put together two solid starts against the Dodgers and Padres, but those teams are both light-hitting. But on Wednesday, he took on Arizona, a team in the top 10 in baseball in runs scored. He actually pitched better against Arizona, going a dominant eight innings and giving up only five hits and two walks. He looked more dominant in this game than in his no-hit bid against the Washington Nationals.

Perhaps most uplifting was his strikeout total of 8. Outside of his start against the Dodgers, he has mostly had low strikeout totals, while still having higher pitch counts. He managed to double his average output of strikeouts, while also significantly lowering his regular pitch count. That’s a testament to how much Pelfrey simply overpowered the Diamondbacks’ lineup.

After he breezed through the 8th inning, I really thought that Pelfrey was unstoppable on Wednesday. Nothing was going to stop him from getting that complete game shutout. In fact, I was stunned that it was even a question whether Pelfrey would attempt it in the 9th or not.

Immediately after Pelfrey was taken out, I thought that he should have gotten another batter. This had nothing to do with the odds of winning the game because I didn’t think Wagner would blow it. I was just really rooting for Pelfrey to pull off the complete game shut-out.

Then after all the goodwill that Pelfrey had built up over eight innings, causing the Shea fans to rise to their feet in applause multiple times, Wagner let the air out by giving up that double and subsequent three-run HR to tie. After that, the fans were emotionally drained. So was I. If the Mets lost, it would have been the worst loss of the season by far.

The extra inning frames went by like a blur and when Carlos Beltran hit his walk-off HR, Gary Cohen seemed like he was desperately trying to amp up the emotion for the call. Ironically, he basically repeated the same call he gave when Beltran hit the walk-off HR against Jason Isringhausen in August 2006.

Mets fans are, of course, happy with the win, but it’s more of a sigh of relief. There’s no real joy in that win when it occurs like that. If the game was tied going into extras, it might have been a different story. If Pelfrey was less than he was on Wednesday, it might have been a different story. But Pelfrey gift-wrapped that win, and the Mets struggled to accept the present.

On his ESPN.com Insider blog Buster Olney writes that Johan Santana might be “Showing signs of decline”.

“The Mets were asking around about that in spring training, about what his true [velocity] baseline was,” said one talent evaluator. “They were concerned.”

Said an AL scout who has seen Santana this month: “His stuff isn’t even close to what it was [with the Twins].”

The statistics Olney provides back up his arguement that something is different with Santana:

His ratio of strikeouts per nine innings over the last six seasons has been 11.38, 9.61, 10.46, 9.25, 9.44, 9.66. This year: 7.79.

Onley also adds:

As I wrote a lot about during the winter of Santana trade talks, rival talent evaluators saw a noticeable — not dramatic, but noticeable — decline in his stuff after his 17-strikeout performance against Texas on Aug. 19.

On to the possible replacements for Willie. Some people have brought up Gary Carter’s name. Gary Carter is the new coach of the Orange County Flyers of the independent professional Golden Baseball League. You can read more about Carter’s doings here.

I found this answer to a question posed to Manny Acta interesting. Especially since some think Acta is a candidate to replace Willie and how some think Willie should be more boisterous:

MLB.com: How do you stay patient? It’s amazing how you keep your cool.

Acta: I have very good control of my emotions. I’ve learned that through the years…If I throw a phone around or turn over the spread, the score is not going to change. I have done a lot of research and have data to prove it’s not going to work. If I yell and scream at guys, it’s not going to make them play harder. So I think I get the best out of those guys by earning their respect, treating them fair and keep showing them that I do have faith in them.

Yesterday, Neil Best, from Newsday’s blog Watchdog wrote about Billy Wagner’s interview with Michael Kay on 1050 ESPN radio. Kay tried to find out why Wagner thought his remarks from last week were being interpreted as racist by some:

“When things like that get thrown out there, that doesn’t hurt Billy Wagner,” Billy Wagner said, “that hurts Billy Wagner and his four kids and his wife and his foundation and his charities he does and the people around him, and to me that almost gives me the right to say, ‘You know what, I don’t have to talk to the media anymore if you’re going to mistreat me when I’m there every day.’ I don’t have to be there every day.”…Wow. But who exactly was it who called Wagner a racist, Mr. Kay wondered, as he had not heard anyone accuse Wagner of that? …Um . . . Skip Bayless

Best added:

SKIP BAYLESS?! Billy Wagner is fed up with the media and might close his colorful mouth because of something uttered by Skip Friggin’ Bayless?

There is plenty of enjoyment in Atlanta and Philly over the Mets recent misery. The guys over at The 700 Level.com go after David Wright:

Anyway, even the infallible David Wright is jumping on the suck train. Wright was doubled up at first base last night to end the game and the Mets fans don’t really know what to say.

The Atlanta fans who brought us the Mark Teixeria song are at it again. This time they set their sights on the guys who put together the Johan Santana song and Mets fans in general. Watch it if you must at MetsBlog.com

Non-Mets related but interesting from MLB.com:

Angels manager Mike Scioscia plans to meet with the team in Chicago when a three-game series opens Friday night to discuss Major League Baseball’s initiative to step up the game’s pace by implementing several rules designed to eliminate some dead time during games.

“Just clean up some things within the game,” Scioscia said of the effort to reduce the average time of game by a few minutes. “Umpires … will try to get pitchers to deliver within 12 seconds, get hitters in the batter’s box, trim down some time.

Its funny how now that the Mets have taken two games from the Yankees over the weekend that what was perceived by many in the media as a firestorm in the form of Billy Wagner’s locker room comments is now being framed by the same media members as the fire the Mets needed to get back on track.

Perception is reality, and the perception of Wagner’s outburst, as innocuous as it may have actually been, as Wagner is often known to wisecrack in the locker room for comic effect than for actual effect, was too good to pass up and run with as the Molotov cocktail that would divide a clubhouse and put its manager in the hot seat.

Funny what a difference two days makes.

So now the story is framed as the turning point of the Mets season, whether or not that is the case could change again in the next two days as the Mets actually play a team that matters in their divisional aspirations. Will the press reframe the story again if the Mets trip up in Atlanta?

In the fickle back pages of the New York tabloids, you’re only as good as your last performance, and the perceptions of that reality can get reframed in a New York minute depending on the direction the wind happens to be blowing from out of the mouth of your outspoken closer.

According to Bart Hubbuch of the NY Post’s Mets Blog David Wright told reporters that the Mets are going to have a players only meeting today at Yankee Stadium.

According to this post from Hubbuch and from Willie Randolph on WFAN today, Carlos Delgado and Billy Wagner already spoke about Wagner’s post game comments.

Since it was Wright who made the media aware of this pending meeting, I’m hoping it wasn’t Wright who called it. It will be interesting to find out who did.

From Bart Hubbuch:

6:25 P.M. UPDATE: It turns out that Willie Randolph and the coaching staff were also involved. The meeting lasted between 30-45 minutes, with Delgado and Wagner among the players speaking.

I am normally a glass half-full person, but after yesterday’s loss and the Mets pathetic showing in their series at Shea against the Washington Nationals, I’ve had it. I’m dumping the glass.

This team has no heart. Yup, I said it… NO heart.

Wags, DWright, Moises, Johan, Mainer, Ryan Church and Brian Schneider are the only ones on this team who have shown they are gamers; so let’s get that out of the way. I’d even put Nelson Figueroa in there.

However, guys like Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes, and Oliver Perez aren’t getting it done. Reyes has become a shell of his former self and has reverted to that pre-2006 player than hacks at everything. He had a week and a half where he appeared to be getting on track, but now he’s off again.

We all know that Delgado has been hit or miss; it’s been mostly miss this year. I can’t say I’m too surprised after last year’s swoon. He told everyone that would listen in the spring that he broke down everything this off-season and re-taught himself how to hit. Unfortunately, his re-teaching has made Carlos Delgado into Wilson Delgado.

The most disappointing person, to me, is Carlos Beltran. He was very boastful in the spring, telling reporters that the Mets were this year’s team to beat. They sure are (as my Phillies fan brother keeps telling me); teams just keep beating them and beating them.

Beltran has done absolutely nothing this year, aside from his spring declaration. I especially enjoyed watching him yesterday; he swings at the first pitch with runners and first and third and two outs. Perfect opportunity to hit in the clutch and work the count; of course, that didn’t happen.

I’ll keep it short on Perez. I have zero confidence in him when he’s on the mound. Someone, anyone want to tell me where the passion is? Where is the hard work that this team was built on when Willie Randolph took over as manager in 2005?

I know Gary Grund has called for an overhaul of the coaching staff, but I can’t put all of the blame on Willie and Co. Is he the one that hits a wall in the 4th inning? Is he the one that can’t play fundamental baseball? The answers are no.

Sure Willie will take the fall, but you can blame Reyes, Beltran, Delgado, et al, for his ouster.

There will be some that believe that since it’s May 16 that there is plenty of time. It’s an excuse. This team is running out of time… and fast. Losing two of three, or getting swept by the Yankees, and

Billy Wagner said it best after Thursday’s game:

“We’re not earning our money.”

That is an understatement.

This team is currently under .500 (74-75) since June 1st of 2007. Yes, just about 150 games that totals out to, and the Mets and under .500 in that timespan. Obviously, some blame has to be towards the players, but you would be wrong not to point blame in the direction of the current coaching staff as well.

Willie Randolph is clearly no genius when it comes to managing a bullpen, and the in-game managerial mistakes are becoming a constant trend these days. He is simply losing his players, not physically, but mentally.

What is the solution?

I propose the Mets front office give the rest of the month to Willie to show signs of a turnaround. That’s three games against the Yankees on the road, three against the Braves on the road, three against the Rockies on the road, three against the Marlins at home, then four at home against the Dodgers. I would call that a fair chance to prove that you’re better than a .500 team.

If Willie fails to do so and this team remains to seesaw their way through May, there should be no choice but to find an alternative and hope for the best. At the very worst, you will get a head start on a possible manager option for 2009, but with four months of baseball left to play, and with the team still in contention, that is clearly not the motive. The passive, laid back style of play is simply not working right now and the way Billy Wagner has made his presence felt through the media regarding this awful play proves that Randolph is losing his players trust.

Perhaps the best option is right under their nose and could be Triple-A manager Ken Oberkfell. After bouncing around the independent leagues hoping to land a managerial position with a minor league affiliate, Oberkfell caught on with the Phillies organization when then-Phillies GM Lee Thomas gave him a shot with low Class A Piedmont in 1997. He remained there until 1999, leading the Boll Weevils to the playoffs in 1998.

After parting ways with the Phillies, the Mets picked him up and brought him in to coach their then Class-A affiliate, the Capital City Bombers. After one season with them, Oberkfell took over Class A St. Lucie, leading the team to the playoffs in 2002 and winning the Florida State League title in 2003.

In 2004, he moved up to coach Double-A Binghamton, and finished 10 games over .500, making the postseason.

He moved up again last year, this time to Double-A Binghamton, where the B-Mets finished 10 games over .500 and made the postseason. Counting this year’s appearance, Oberkfell has four consecutive playoff berths at three different levels.

He has managed the club’s AAA affiliate for the past three seasons and is currently in his fourth season managing the team. In his rookie season (2005) as a manager in the Triple-A level, he was named the Minor League Manager of the Year by Baseball America, winning the International League’s south division with a 79-65 record by 14 games.

This man has undoubtedly paid his dues with the organization to receive consideration for the job. If the Mets don’t improve over the next few weeks, could we be hearing this man’s name more and more as the team’s coaching staff becomes more in question?

WFAN’s Eddie Coleman just spoke to Mike and the Mad Dog and said Billy Wagner snapped angrily at reporters in the clubhouse saying “Why the bleep am I being interviewed? I didn’t even play in the game today. Oh, I know they’re bleepin gone already”.

According to Eddie C. Wagner directed his comments towards Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran …. Eddie C added that Beltran did speak to the media but Wagner may not of been aware of it.

UPDATE 7:30: David Lennon of Newsday has the entire transcript of The Michael Kay Show on ESPN 1050. Billy Wagner just spoke with Kay. Head over to Lennon’s blog for more. Here’s a few things Wagner had to say:

WAGNER “Well, I mean, it gets to a point where, I didn’t even play today. I was not a participant in the game, and the guys that had participated were gone. I mean, we’re all upset, we’re unhappy with things that are going on, and how we’re playing, and I just felt like I hadn’t even played. I had no role in the game. David Wright’s always there, and the same guys are always there. But there needs to be other guys that are accountable. It gets a little old when the same people keep getting interviewed even when they don’t participate.”

KAY: Can I ask who do you think should be there that wasn’t there today?

WAGNER: “No, I think that will be rectified tomorrow.”

KAY: How so?

WAGNER: “Well, I think that those guys will be talked to about how you need to stand there in the bad times rather than just stand there in the good times. So that will be something that will be focused on tomorrow by the team I’m sure.”

WAGNER: “I think it’s just certain guys. I don’t think it’s Latin or white or black. I don’t think it’s a color thing. I think it’s just as a whole there’s guys that need to stand there and take the bad with the good.”