Willie Randolph was on WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog program today.

Did the meeting on Monday bring any closure?

“In my mind it did we have to continue to go out and win ball games, nothing is etched in stone, I understand that. We talked (he and the Wilpon’s) and put closure to it in our minds but we really talked a lot about the team. We talked about how we can get better.”

Was he disappointed that they didn’t commit long term?

“I felt all along that I’m the guy, but obviously I’m going to be here if we continue to play well and if we don’t then they have a decision to make. I didn’t need to hear that cause my focus and my main concern is to get this team pointed in the right direction.”

Do your Coaches and Players feel like this is your team and that you are not going anywhere?

“I think they do today. Initially I’m sure there was a little uncomfortableness around the ballpark that particular day. My coaches were concerned and I could sense my players were a little on their heels that day. We had a nice meeting, I told my players that my situation was not their concern. Just to focus on playing baseball. We just need to play the way we are capable of playing that’s the bottom line. I just challenged them all because we need to be accountable if we get the job done then all this stuff will go away.”

Which loss last week was the worst?

“Well, I thought the sweep in Atlanta, you can’t get swept like that. We came off the great series against the Yankees… we should have gone in there and played better than that. Three in a row would have been bad but you can’t lose four in a row.”

Asked about Jose Reyes?

“It’s funny, it could be focus because you lack confidence. I think with Jose sometimes he tries so hard and he tries to do so much that it backfires on. When you try to do too much even in the field you start to make mistakes. You try too hard, too quick, you try to do too much, He’s gonna be fine, his game is just so high speed, he just gets a little out of kilter.”

On Carlos Delgado:

“I spoke to him yesterday, I told him you’re struggling you need to exhale. Go out in the cage, don’t overwork, just clear your mind, I’m gonna give you a couple of days and he’ll probably be back in there tomorrow. It’s very rare that you can win without your four and five guys not hitting.”

Asked if he was nervous before Monday’s meeting?

“No, I was a little concerned about how I may react. I know I have a temper and I’m passionate about what I do and I’m very proud of who I am and what I do for this ball club and this organization. I just wanted to express myself and let them express themselves. I wasn’t nervous I was just making sure that I didn’t lose my cool.”

You think you’ve been given a fair deal?

“Yeah, every time we get together, Fred and Jeff just want to make this team better. They always listen to suggestions and they always ask how can we help you guys get better and that’s all you can ask from your ownership.”

SI.com’s Jon Heyman was a guest of WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog today.

On the Heyman/Carlos Delgado incident:

“What happened yesterday is I asked a question I thought I’d get an answer to…This is before they announced that Willie Randolph was coming back. I had an inkling he was probably coming back. I asked him, should Willie be the manager? All he had to do was say yes or it’s not my place to answer. He started to say it’s not my place to answer. But then he gave me a big wink so I started to see he wasn’t too happy with the question and then he added If your gonna be an ass then I can be an ass. Then he started to tell me what a bad question it was. I said well it’s the question on everybody’s mind. Then later, I guess he wasn’t satisfied with our exchange, later he came up within one inch of me, he was like one inch from me, he was like eyeball to eyeball and again he was berating me about the question. But I’m happy with question because it got me the answer. The answer would be, yes I think Willie should be the manager and if he didn’t say that then I have my answer. Obviously he doesn’t love Willie Randolph as the manager, at least that’s the conclusion I draw, he probably doesn’t love me as a reporter either…Isn’t the obvious answer yes Willie should be the manager, we support him, we love him, we want Willie to be the manager. I didn’t get that at all. He gave me the it’s not my place answer, which is fine we’ll leave it that, which is what David Wright said basically. But the fact that he got this upset about it, he (Delgado) even said something like you should ask me when we’re not in a group. I guess he felt like I was putting pressure on him but you know this is a big city, what are you gonna do. I just think he was in a bad mood. Obviously he’s nearing the end of his career, he’s not playing well, he’s getting booed. I think it was just a bad moment for him. That’s the way I look at it. Maybe somebody thought it was a bad moment for me but I thought he shouldn’t of done that.”

On Willie:

“Well, I think what happened was the Wilpon’s want stability. They did a study, they had their people do a study about what it’s like when teams change the manager a lot and they found out that it’s normally not a thing that is conducive to winning. That it doesn’t usually help you too much. You may get a shot in the arm for a game or two but that’s about it. They realized that there was not an ideal candidate. I think Jerry Manuel was a guy who was a possibility but I think to them and probably to many people he’s reminiscent of Willie in many ways. He’s a low key guy. He’s a nice guy. I know he got thrown out of the game the other day which Willie didn’t do and I think the Mets people wanted to see Willie get thrown out. They’re just not happy. They’re not thrilled with Willie and obviously they’re not thrilled with the way things are going. There was no way they could fire him last year. They just couldn’t, this is a guy who won 83 games then improved to 97 wins. He was one bad change-up from Aaron Heilman from going to the World Series. Then of course they had the collapse but they still won 88 games. I was even surprised they let him twist last year but I don’t think they are satisfied with him as the manager but they feel they don’t have a better alternative. That’s basically what it comes down to. They don’t want to be seen as a team that keeps changing managers. I don’t believe it can be the money. They just tossed away Jorge Sosa, that was two million dollars right out the window. That’s a very small amount of money for a billion dollar company.”

On Omar Minaya

“Omar is the biggest supporter Willie’s got I do think there other are people in the front office that are not as big a supporter as Omar but Omar is the one making this call. You can look at it a couple of different ways, if Omar switched to someone else, say Jerry Manuel or someone else and the team played the same then the onus is on Omar. But then again if he sticks with Willie and things stay the way they are well its still on Omar. I don’t believe it was to save himself or to keep himself further away from the chopping block. I think he genuinely likes Willie he grew up a Yankee fan. He was one of his heros. He’s a likable guy. He did do good things his first few years but the problem with this team is its not a resilient team. I know earlier in the year they won a game, they came back from a bad defeat and won a game and Willie started talking about how resilient they looked but the fact is they have not shown any resiliency whatsoever.”

On why they didn’t commit to Willie for the whole season yesterday:

“Well, two things, first I don’t think they love Willie and they are not sure if he’s gonna be here for the year and they don’t want to lie. The other thing is they think holding something over Willie like this might trigger something. I don’t know, they’ve tried this before, during the subway series they told him you better turn it around and you better turn it around fast. He won the two games and then disaster struck. He had a horrible week, the comments that were made. That was discussed at the meeting. It was a very bad meeting for Willie I’m sure, very uncomfortable. They are just not pleased at all.”

For more on Reyes. Plus, Heyman tells a story about Rickey Henderson “taking” money from some players while playing cards last season that “guys were not pleased with”. Go to WFAN.com to listen.

While many players showed their support for Willie Randolph following his two and a half hour meeting with Mets ownership, Carlos Delgado had this quote regarding if he thinks Randolph should be the Mets manager, on ESPN News

“I’m not in the position to think or not think, they don’t pay me to think. They pay me to play baseball.”

Delgado is right. He does get paid to play, so maybe he should start playing up to the level of money the Mets are paying him.

Jon Heyman of SI.com prodded Delgado, asking him to address the question of if he thinks Willie Randolph should be the manager, to which Delgado replied,

“If you wanna be an ass, I can be an ass too.”

Most players put it on themselves, saying that Willie doesn’t deserve the blame, and that its up to the players to turn things around. Carlos Beltran was supportive, and said Willie should remain as manager. He said that someone should speak to the team about Willie’s status and he’d prefer they tell them that Willie would remain with the team through the end of the season, John Delcos of the Journal News reports.

“I think they should say that,” Beltran said. “It is a distraction. The reality is people say it doesn’t effect the ballclub but it does. You come to the ballpark wondering what’s going to happen.”

Omar Minaya said that Willie was never in danger of losing his job and that the controversy was a creation of the media. They simply wanted to speak to him in person about the comments he made regarding SNY and wanted to discuss a game plan to improve the team going forward.

As players were talking to media, David Wright walked through the clubhouse clapped his hands and said “We got a game to play tonight guys”

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.

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.”

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”.

Here is yesterday’s Billy Wagner Report with Michael Kay on 1050 ESPN Radio.

About the road trip:

“When you go .500 on a west coast trip that’s good but we could’ve easily went 4-2 on that trip. When you hit and pitch you win ball games, it goes hand in hand. I’ll tell one thing, Arizona has got a fantastic pitching staff, whoever they face in the playoffs is gonna have their hands full.”

On the aftermath of the Oliver Perez stuff and Willie Randolph’s reaction:

“Well, Willie didn’t know that I had spoke to Oliver before that. But how Willie reacted is understandable, he’s trying to protect his players. So, if he thinks it wasn’t handled right he’s gonna say something, Willie handled it correctly. He just didn’t know that I spoke to Oliver and settled it there and voiced my opinion. We had come to the conclusion that I handled it my way and he (Willie) would much rather it be handled a different way. But like he said, I’m Billy Wagner, I’m not the voice of the NY Mets and I don’t have any ownership or any command of that, but as a player I voice my opinion and that was it”

Will this incident muzzle you?

“No, I think they (the Mets) understand, that I wasn’t out there to say that I didn’t like Oliver Perez. I wasn’t trying to be critical personally. I was just saying from a player-team situation I felt we could have used a strong performance. There are times where you can’t go out and say things, you gotta handle it in house. There’s no doubt this was a situation where we were frustrated and felt like we needed a strong showing so I voiced my opinion and that’s all it was.”

Did Oliver ever say anything to you about what you said?

“Nah, no, nah, he never said anything and even though he didn’t fair too well in LA he competed. I mean he took a line drive off his stomach and honestly gave us a chance to win that game. He kept us in the game, with the opportunity to win. That’s what you want, you want to compete and he competed he went out there and gave us a great opportunity. So, after the game I get barraged by the media asking what I think and really it’s not my opinion it’s about what he did for our team. I mean he really stepped up. He could of very easily, after giving up some home runs and some runs, he could of shut it down but he went out there and competed and that’s what you really look for as a teammate. How much are you gonna give us. I know my day is coming when I’m gonna be criticized about a performance and I understand that and I can deal with that from up here from the experience of being a closer, it having been a criticized position.”

Every time Perez pitches the media is gonna ask you for a review:

“Well, that’s ok. That’s fine, we all have to be held accountable and your teammates are the best judge of how you perform and how you work. Your held at a higher standard by your teammates and you just have to be accountable.”

Do you think the fans are being ultra negative this year?

“No, I just think that’s just the nature of being a fan. I mean, when I blow a save they boo but that’s just the nature of the game. I think sometimes it can be malicious. When a guy is battling and trying to do everything he can, I mean you look at Carlos Delgado, the shift is involved and is a part of the game but I mean he hits the ball exactly where your supposed to. He’s been going up the middle and the other way. But he hits the ball hard and it’s right into the shift and a lot of times fans don’t see, he’s doing what he does. I mean if you don’t have that shift there he’s hitting .270/.280 and things are all happy go lucky. I remember in ‘06 before they really started putting that shift on him, he’s hitting .285/.290 and nobody’s saying a word. I mean the fans have to see he’s up there and he’s battling and competing. If the fans get on you to the point where everything you do is seen negatively. I mean Carlos Delgado is a great teammate. He works hard, he goes about his business as a professional. I guess its tough for me to see that type of player get that type of criticism. There are other reasons to boo, when you’re not hustling and you don’t show the effort. That’s when you boo. I mean the effort is there, he competes, he plays hard, he’s fantastic, I mean he really is. He doesn’t get his just do because of the average but you ask any pitcher, they don’t wanna go out there and have to face him. They can’t tell you how many times he hits a line drive right at somebody or a hard ground ball to a hole that the shift has taken away. I think he’s handled it a lot better than most.”

On the fans not forgetting about last year:

“I can understand that to. We should have won our division last year. I mean, the fans are
hungry, they want a championship. So do we, and until we go out there and get to the playoffs that’s not gonna be put behind us and we know that, we know that as a team we can’t let the crowd influence the way we play but we also know we won’t stop hearing about ‘07 until we play consistent baseball and get into the playoffs.”

What does Billy Wager do on an off day?

“Well, right now I’m outside with my kids (you can hear them in the background) who are waiting on me to hit ground balls and probably throw a little BP and just enjoy family.”

Do you bring it hard while throwing BP?

“They let me know when enoughs enough.”

Obviously, Billy’s trying to put the Ollie stuff behind him, he gave Ollie a lot of credit for staying in the Dodger game after getting hit in the stomach, but I get the feeling Billy was trying to take a bit of credit for Perez toughing it out and maybe he’s right.

His points about Delgado and the shift are good but only if the shift was employed often very late in Delgado’s career, Billy seems to think so, I really don’t know. But if Billy is right, that would seem to be tough, I can only assume to make an adjustment from a successful dead pull hitter to a go the other way (on the ground) type hitter has got to be hard. It makes sense, especially when your struggling to just automatically revert back to the things that got you here. I think when people say “just go the other way” or “lay down a bunt” they think it’s easy. We are talking about a guy who has had an extreme amount of success in his career and to ask him to become a different type of hitter, well, easier said than done. It takes a little more thought than “c’mon adjust”.

But that’s the problem with this whole booing thing in general. There is no thought process behind booing it’s pure emotion and immediate gratification. The player or team you root for is not coming through so BOOOO!… I’m not saying that everybody has to weigh all the pros and cons of their reactions at a ball game but if it affects the team you root for and spend your hard earned cash on, it seems to reason that if you can verbally have an effect on the players, positive or negative than you boo birds out there should give this some thought. At the same time that Wagner starts to say he doesn’t have a problem with the fan reaction he then goes into a long explanation about Delgado… No matter what they say, the effect is obvious… It is counterproductive. Be selfish, realize your hurting your team and with the media coverage, talk radio and the internet players know how every fan base reacts to their home team. SI’s Jon Heyman spoke about this exact point while talking about Mark Teixiera and where he may end up. To have a reputation as a “negative fan base” is not good no matter what the rational.

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