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.

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.”

Dear Carlos Beltran,

The Mets faithful were giddy when their usually soft spoken center fielder said, “So this year, to Jimmy Rollins, we are the team to beat.”

Since then, the Mets have bumped and struggled into (going into last night) a 16-14 record.  People have said Carlos Delgado should be benched or released. For the NY Post, Joel Sherman wrote, “Delgado is to the Mets what Mike Mussina is to the Yankees: A once standout player whose current organization is hoping he can recapture just a piece of his past to survive the season competently.” Going into last night, Delgado was batting .216 with 4 HRs, 16 RBIs and a .313 OBP.

You Carlos, our soft spoken leader said this was our year.   Going into last night you were batting .221 with 2 HRs, 13 RBIs even though you had drawn 25 walks contributing to your .372 OBP.  That’s a lot of walks to begin the year, but we don’t need you to be hesitant at the plate and taking walks.  With your speed - another place and another time you could be a fantastic lead off hitter where your walks would be extremely valuable.  With Delgado struggling and Moises Alou hurt, it was you who had to produce runs.  And, you didn’t, so we only scored 112 runs in April, 25th in MLB.

So, I challenge you Carlos Beltran, step up your game. 

We probably should’ve expected Delgado to dip off by now. Come June, Delgado will be 36.  Since 2005, his stats have been going down, so we should’ve expected this sort of production from him pending him hitting some sort of renaissance (re-birth). However, you are the younger and better of the two members on this team named Carlos.  We’re not counting on Senor Delgado to produce runs for this team.  You my friend, though are still in your golden age - not that you need reminding but you are only 31 years old. 

You go to the plate and it is as if you are perfectly comfortable leaving that bat on your shoulder.  By no means am I saying you should stop drawing walks, but go up there and look to hit the ball.  Fans wonder why we’re not producing runs this year? You’re our clean up hitter and you’re batting .189 with runners in scoring position. Oh, but don’t worry, you have eight walks with runners in scoring position.  Walks aren’t scoring those runners. 

So, I challenge you Carlos Beltran, step up your game. 

Last year when Jimmy Rollins seemingly pompously predicted that the Philles would win the NL East, he backed it up.  He went out there, won the MVP and led the Phillies to the post season.  Carlos, you don’t call out your division rival and bring this sort of trash out to the plate day in and day out and expect to evade criticism.  Well here it is, I’m calling you out.  We don’t need Delgado to lead, he’s past his prime and was never as good as you.  Where is the stud that batted .435 in the postseason for the Astros, hitting eight home runs in 46 post season ABs in 2004?

As of now, you’re not that stud, but hopefully you can find him and tell him I want my all-star back.

Sincerely,

Andrew Beaton 

Carlos Beltran was pulled out of the starting lineup of tonight’s Mets-Dodgers matchup due to what SNY reports as ‘flu-like symptoms.’ Angel Pagan takes over in CF tonight.

Please do not spread to the rest of the clubhouse.

Took a look around the interwebs and some sports talk radio and this is what I found.

First up, Brian Schneider visited with Benigno and Roberts on their midday show on WFAN. Scheider told them even though he “hasn’t swung a bat yet” if they need him in an emergency he would “go out there”.

Asked if he had any thoughts on Oliver Perez, Brian said

“I just want to see an adjustment” when struggling with control. “I’ll go out there”, to the mound, “and tell him I don’t care if you throw the next two pitches in the dirt or if you hit this guy”… “He has to make an adjustment and I didn’t see that”.

Then I found these two nuggets that could kinda make you of scratch your head. First Adam Rubin of the Daily News tells us how higher-ups in Mets management mulled over the idea of replacing Rick Peterson this past off-season and Ed Ryan of Mets Fever points us towards a ESPN Jayson Stark article that reads:

So can Barry Zito ever get straightened out? We surveyed a half-dozen scouts and executives, and we found only one who thought he could. And that was a scout who said his only hope was to get reunited with Rick Peterson, “the only [pitching coach] Barry Zito ever had success with.”

So, baseball “experts” mull over whether Peterson was the problem with the Mets last year. Then six months later he might be the answer to one of the biggest flops in baseball free agency history…jeez.

Tim Marchman of the NY Sun has had enough of Willie Randolph an writes there’s nothing that Willie can do to change his mind:

It’s time for the Mets to fire Willie Randolph. They should fire him if his team sweeps the Arizona Diamondbacks this weekend. They should fire him if his team wins all three games by a total score of 27-0. They should fire him if his team puts on such a display this weekend that the greater Phoenix area literally burns to the ground around them, lit by nothing but the intensity of their passion and brilliance. The man’s time is up, and nothing can change that.

Jason at Faith and Fear in Flushing could not agree more.

NY Times Ben Shpigel gives us a pre-preview of the Arizona series in a small post he titled The Mets Past, Present and Future in Arizona.

Mets.com Marty Noble tells us about some bad memories Billy Wagner has from a ball that ricocheted off his head ten years ago in Phoenix.

Jeff Bercovici of Portfolio.com has a story about ex-Met Lenny Dykstra and some trouble he’s having with his publishing venture.

Lastly, Matt Cerrone over at Mets Blog writes about a story from the NY Post’s page six regarding Carlos Beltran’s 31st birthday party at Sofrito. Among other guest’s Jennifer Lopez was in attendance. Matt goes on to quote the page six story:

“Just when you thought it couldn’t get any wilder, Jennifer Lopez grabbed the birthday boy and shook her world-renowned booty. Then, the crowd improvised a song with the lyric, “We’re going to win the World Series.”

Then Matt totally cracked me up with this remark to finish up his post:

…take note, as this may be the first and last time the term world-renowned booty appears on MetsBlog…

After yesterday’s ugly loss to the Bucs the story had to be the worrisome performance of Oliver Perez. Even though Willie Randolph did criticize Perez after the game on WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog, he was mostly tempered.

But according to Adam Rubin from the Daily News Billy Wagner was not gonna let Ollie’s poor effort go by without making his opinion heard. Billy came out swinging putting the blame on Perez for not having more “willpower” and “desire”. He felt that Perez should have realized that the bullpen had been overworked and to take it upon himself to log some innings. Here’s what Wagner said:

“You’ve got to have that willpower and that desire to go back out there and fight,”. “This guy (Pirates starter Tom Gorzelanny), he wasn’t throwing the ball that well to shut down our offense. Perez has honestly got to step up and know that we’ve just used every guy in our bullpen the night before. He can’t come out there and decide that gee, he hasn’t got it today, and so be it.”

Also, in Bart Hubbach’s game story for the NY Post when Wagner was asked if talking to Perez about his notoriously short attention span was like trying to talk to a wall, Wagner pointed his finger and said: “Pretty much.”

For more notes and quotes about Wagner, Reyes, and Figgy, go to Adam’s Daily News Blog Surfing The Mets.

According to Ed Ryan’s blog Mets Fever the Mets have signed 29 year old 1B/OF Valentino Pascucci who was recently released by the Phillies.

Pascucci will join the Mets triple A affiliate New Orlean Zephyrs along with Brady Clark who was sent down when Gustavo Molina was promoted.

In his column at Newsday Kevin Davidoff writes that only time will tell if the Yankees made a mistake by not giving up Phil Hughes in a deal that could have landed them Johan Santana. Davidoff goes on to write:

Omar Minaya performed an excellent job in waiting for the Twins to settle for what still looks like an uninspiring package of players. Have you seen Carlos Gomez’s numbers? Yeesh. As you can see here, Kevin Mulvey is pitching decently for Triple-A Rochester, while Phil Humber is not. Deolis Guerra is pitching all right at Class A Fort Myers.

But you can bet that Minaya, who is set to ignore baseball’s slotting system for the amateur draft after adhering to it the last couple of years, wants to build his organization to a point where it doesn’t have to invest nine figures in a pitcher from another team in order to pick up an ace.

Davidoff went on to write that that the Santana trade will allow the Mets to close Shea Stadium with their first World Series title since 1986.

Over at my favorite Mets blog name Church of the Fonz they decided to look “On the Bright Side” of yesterday and focus on Aaron Heilman’s two perfect innings and this quote from former Met Doug Mientkiewicz on Johan Santana:

“Let’s put it this way: When that team needs him the most, he’s going to be there. Come August and September, he’s going to be dominant.”

The NY Post’s Joel Sherman from his HardBall blog thinks Willie might be overusing the bullpen and he has some pretty startling numbers to back up his assertions. Sherman also has some thoughts on Oliver Perez and his probable free agency problems.

Former Met and now SNY studio analyst Darryl Strawberry is writing a book about his life. According to this AP report Strawberry will collaborate with John Strausbaugh on his memoir.

In an article about how rainouts are handled in MLB I saw this interesting tid-bit that may come in handy to Mets fans who may not know about it, I know I didn’t. At CNBC.com referring to the Monday’s rain out vs the Pirates:

The Mets have an extremely generous policy. If you really wanted to see the Pirates and can’t make this homestand, you can use this exact ticket for the makeup game on Aug. 11. If you want, you can also exchange your ticket for a seat of a similar value or use the money towards a credit towards a seat for this year (the final season in Shea Stadium) or next year (in the new facility).

Lastly, back to the Willie Randolph interview with Mike and the Mad Dog. Willie was asked about Carlos Beltran’s sluggish start at the plate and Willie said that he doesn’t think that Carlos is 100% yet, coming off surgery on both knees. He’s still having problems with strength, pushing off his back leg in the batter’s box. But he’s working hard with Howard Johnson and he will be fine.

This is classic Wagner here, I love it. Some tough love for Ollie, hopefully it helps. I get the the feeling he’s the type of guy who wants to be liked so maybe this will be the push he needs… My only concern regarding Beltran is playing on weak knees. I hope he can continue to play and strengthen his knees simultaneously. He has hit a ton a shots right at guys and he has played a flawless centerfield.

John Delcos of The Lohud Mets Blog reports that Carlos Betran, who was not in yesterday’s line-up due to a stiff neck is back in there tonight against the Phillies.

“I feel a lot better,” Beltran said. “It’s not great, but it isn’t as bad as it was yesterday.”

As I gathered the Jose Reyes quotes, posted earlier, I, like anyone else reading or listening to Reyes, realized that Carlos Beltran really took the initiative with Reyes. I was surprised by Jose’s chat with reporters; I assumed he was going to tone things down this year and to be honest I didn’t think it would be a big deal either way. But obviously Beltran felt a totally different way and did what leaders do. He did something we all thought he wouldn’t do: he went to Reyes and told him “be yourself, we need you to be the old Jose Reyes.” Now, if the team actually “needed” Jose to revert back to his entertaining self, only players with their finger on the pulse of the team would know. But you can’t deny this is Carlos Beltran taking on a leadership role.

The Daily News Christian Red quotes Beltran

“I had a conversation with Reyes. I said, ‘Don’t change.’ When he’s doing that, jumping around, we like it. We’re happy,” Beltran said at his locker last night. “He’s a fun guy.”

Most saw the change in spring training when somewhat tongue in cheek Beltran stepped out of his usual quiet, cliche baseball talk style and declared the Mets as being “the team to beat in the east” adding with a smile to reporters “you can tell Jimmy Rollins that”. But I remember during spring training reading about the stress he was under along with his wife Jessica, who had two miscarriages. Carlos said in a article by NYT Ben Shpigel that it was a big concern and a distraction.

“Sometimes you’re out there and you start thinking about how your wife’s feeling, what she’s thinking and why is this happening to us,” he said. “I think that’s normal.”

Now, with that behind him it seems a huge weight has been lifted with the birth of his baby girl Ivana back in October. Later in the same article Shpigel quotes Carlos again.

“I used to care about what people said about me and what kind of player I am. I don’t care about that anymore. I know that every day I do whatever I can to help the team win. And even if I go 0 for 4, not that I ever want to go 0 for 4, I come home and see my baby girl, see my wife, I feel like I never went 0 for 4. I never thought that could happen.”

Earlier this season, maybe a week ago, Beltran struck out in a clutch spot and fired his bat down in disgust. It stood out. Not that I’ve never seen any emotion from Carlos, but it is rare. I remember commenting on Beltran’s reaction to a friend that I loved to see that from him. I loved the intensity, my friend remarked, “I would have loved a hit”, funny line, but maybe a little thing like that gives you a window into how Carlos is thinking now. He can actually get caught up in the game or situation at hand, kind of lose himself in the moment more with the worry of his wife and future fatherhood behind him. Maybe, that is what gave Beltran the clarity to notice this thing with Reyes. That it is not good for Reyes to change and it is not good for the team. I know I am playing amateur psychiatrist here but I see a difference and there has been a change in Beltran’s life. A beautiful little daughter named Ivana.

The Mets beat the Washington Nationals 6-0 tonight.

• Mike Pelfrey was brilliant, allowing no runs and only five hits and two walks over seven innings. He struck out two and 65 of his 100 pitches were strikes.
• Jose Reyes began the game with a spark, hitting for a single, double, triple in that order in his first three at-bats.  He failed to hit for the cycle, although he singled again in his fourth at-bat.
• David Wright was 3-4 with a 2 2Bs and a 2-run HR to start the game. He scored two runs and had five RBIs, and now has 15 on the season.
• Carlos Beltran was 1-4 with an RBI.
• Ryan Church batted 2nd, behind Jose Reyes while Luis Castillo batted 8th. 
• Duaner Sanchez pitched the ninth for the Mets, striking out one and allowing one hit.

Game ball definitely goes to Mike Pelfrey who had a fabulous outing.  He was in control the whole time and never got out of control.  He was phenomenal.

Reyes had a fantastic game, but his hammy doesn’t seem 100% yet.  If he was hustling the whole way, that 3B could’ve been an inside the park HR, and he was caught stealing in the first inning.  Take your time Jose it’s a long season.  It was also nice hearing fans chant the ‘Jose-Jose-Jose-Jose’ rather than it being blasted over the loud speakers.

Nice to see Wright getting back into the groove of things, a HR and a 2B, plus another hard hit ball to his former high school team-mate Ryan Zimmerman.

Aaron Heilman still doesn’t look like himself, but I still trust him with the ball in his hands…call me crazy. He got out of the 8th unscathed, but it was scary.

Awesome to see Duaner back in a real game again, he can be such a lift to this team.  Plus his goggles are pretty boss.  Also amazing to see how emotional he was after the game in the post-game interview, behind those goggles I swear I saw tears.

Finally, I told all my friends today it was a guaranteed win because I wore my Mets tube socks today.  Make fun of tube socks all you want, but they get it done for our Mets.  Everybody then asks, why I don’t wear them everyday and you simply have to understand that you cannot abuse the power of the Mets tube socks.  Might’ve been a bit early too early to bring them out, but this was a nice win and I don’t regret it.

By the way, Luis Castillo should bat ninth.