SI.com Jon Heyman spoke with WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog:

Heyman spoke about the Carlos Delgado situation and sided with Delgado saying, “I don’t blame him, they (the fans) were beating on him all year so far.” “It’s tough to just forgive and forget that fast.”

Heyman was asked what Mets ownership thinks about all this?

Heyman said they are concerned, not that the fans don’t have the right but the negativity and the booing could scare off future free agents. Heyman said he thinks the Mets will go after Mark Texeira this off season. He added that the Mets are really only counting on Fernado Martinez from their farm system and they think that this situation could interfere with signing Texeira and other potential free agents.

Exactly, Heyman came across like he heard this stuff right from the horses mouth but whether he did or not, it’s common sense. Why would anyone want to “work” in an environment that reeks of negativity when there are other choices? Last time I checked the money is pretty good no matter where they land. Cmon fellow Mets fans lets make these guys feel welcome. You know, Root, Root, Root for the home team…

Carlos Delgado spoke earlier with reporters, and Adam Rubin’s blog has the transcript containing the questions and answers people actually care about. No real details necessary, aside from the topic de jour, Delgado touches on a few other issues including last years collapse and his feelings on the fans booing their own team.

A few snippets: Delgado on being booed by your own fans:

It doesn’t feel good, it’s not a good feeling when someone is booing you. It hasn’t happened (like this) anywhere else. But I haven’t had such a bad stretch anywhere else either. I’m not happy about it, but I understand. It’s to up to us to play better.

On if his reactions had anything to do with the way the fans had treated him earlier:

You’re asking me to react what other people do, in this case 45,000 people. I’m a smart man, but I’m not that smart.

Its a good interview, though Delgado does his best to avoid certain topics (such as the God Bless America debate from years past). Head over to the News and check it out.

Former Mets top pitching prospect Yusmeiro Petit has been optioned to AAA, to make room for Arizona phenom Max Scherzer.

Petit was the other top prospect dealt along with Mike Jacobs to the Marlins for Carlos Delgado following the 2005 season.  Petit was later traded in March of last year to the Diamondbacks for another Ex-Met by the name of Jorge Julio.

Petit has made it easy for the Mets to forget about him by posting 6.03 ERA thus far in his career.

Like it or not, right or wrong, Carlos Delgado’s decision to not come out for a curtain call is going to be news. We’ll hear about when Beltran reluctantly took one, at the urging of Julio Franco, because he too had received the Shea Boo Treatment.

For those who neither saw the game, watched the highlights, or read any of the blogs and/or mainstream media accounts of this afternoon, Carlos Delgado had two solo home runs, which turns even the most jaded boo birds into cheering, screaming fans. Add on that it was against long time enemies the Braves, and Delgado received something thats rare lately, a curtain call. A call he did not accept. He was smiling, laughing, celebrating with teammates. But he did not accept it.

Now Ron and Gary mentioned it on air. Ron, that as a player you should always take the curtain call, for the fans. Gary, how its understandable to not, after all, Shea Nation has been booing Delgado at every chance and turn as of late, large portions of last season, pregame, and quite possible on the street. Delgado is one of those guys who is effected more than others by that sort of treatment. Booing prolongs his slumps more than it motivates him to do better. Of course, there’s also the lesser known fact, Delgado doesn’t take curtain calls. Not now, or back when he was what we signed up for, a slugging first basemen. According to the AP , he’s done it only twice. Both times, where much more momentous then two solo shots.

Whether or not this is true (resident Hot Foot Obscure Statistician Sidd Finch is on assignment), can we truly blame Delgado for not taking it? Can we as fans continue to abuse a player on our own team, a player we know it gets to, and then turn around and demand he love us? As I’ve said before, you shouldn’t boo one of your own. Delgado has been booed almost nonstop for quite some time now, and while one well played game can often erase the doubts and hate of the fans, at least temporarily, one round of applause and cheers cannot undue the extra stress and burden the fans have put on Delgado. He had every right to stay put. As fans we cannot expect our team to provide their unconditional support of us, if we continue to boo them at every misstep. I’m not asking you to cheer Delgado’s pop outs, but merely to support him in both the good times and bad. Until then, don’t act surprised when he doesn’t want to embrace you back.

SI.com’s Jon Heyman spoke with WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog today.

Heyman on Carlos Delgado:

I was joking with one or two of the people in the Mets organization the other day and he said “Yeah, I think I’m gonna be sent out looking for a first baseman really soon”…Heyman continued, the scouts said his bat has really slowed down. They said it last year, they say he’s cheating quite a bit, getting this swing started early and that he’s swinging too soon and that is a sign that he knows it. He’s not gonna say it, he’s a proud guy. He could be nearing the end. I don’t think there’s any question about it. Some people on your show brought up steroids but this is a guy that everyone in baseball believes has always been clean. This is just a normal progression in baseball. He’s in his mid-thirties. This is the time guys normally slow down.

Heyman on the Milledge/Church/Schneider deal:

I liked that trade better than most people did at the beginning… Milledge is just not a contending player right now. I don’t think he’s a center fielder and I don’t think he’s gonna hit 30 home runs, so you’re talking about a corner outfielder who will probably hit .300 but I don’t think he’s ready to play.

Man, can we give the guy just a bit more time. This is actually making me root for Delgado harder, if that’s possible. Go CD shut everyone up. Oh, how I’d love to see that …or should I say hear that. Wait, you can’t hear people shut-up, this whole thing is making me crazy, Enough!

Carlos Delgado opinions are coming in from every corner of the baseball world, including our brothers to the north. At The Tao of Stieb blog, a post in-titled “Irresponsible speculation” they wonder if Delgado should come home to the Blue Jays.

Then there was this insanity that I missed while putting together the Willie Randolph quotes from the Mike and the Mad Dog show. This happened right after the Randolph interview was over. According to Metsradamus at 5:35pm the always annoying and most times strange Chris Russo actually said this while speaking about Delgado’s slump:

There’s not a solution in sight first half of the season … Maybe there is in July, maybe in July they can get a first baseman, they could kill him, they could bench him, they can do a million things then.

Well, Chris I’ve heard of people trying to live up to their nicknames but this taking it a bit far, don’t ya think?

But the funniest read so far comes from the blog Legend of Cecilio Guante.com. Where they inform us that even though as of yesterday Dr. Howard Johnson held out hope, Carlos Delgado’s bat is indeed dead.

Perhaps exacerbated by his refusal to try a new experimental form of therapy called “going the other way,” the bat’s health spiraled perilously out of control over the last few weeks of April manifesting itself in weakness, shortness of breath and only one hit in its last 27 plate appearances….A memorial service will be held on April 24 in Puerto Rico. At time of death, Carlos’s bat weighed only 34 ounces and appeared even thinner from the stresses and fatigue of the previous two seasons.

Finally, in Eddie Coleman blog, Coleman’s Corner over at WFAN.com Eddie C wants to know where Carlos and Carlos have gone, Betran and Delgado.

No need to worry about Beltran Eddie C, two hits tonight and two runs scored. So far this season Beltran’s hit in a lot of tough luck and he’s played an amazing centerfield.

Well you can add SI.com’s Jon Heyman to the list of reporters who seem to be singling out Carlos Delgado.

First, Vic Zeigal of The Daily News didn’t seem to keen on Delgado’s “About what” response when words like disappointed or disgusted were thrown his way by the press following yesterday’s loss to the Brewers, I blogged about that here earlier today.

Second, Kevin Kernan from the NY Post quoted David Wright yesterday saying

“Willie’s angry, the clubhouse is angry,” Wright said. “I think everybody in the clubhouse is pretty upset.”

Kernan added, If that is the case, Delgado didn’t get the memo. Perhaps his style is stay cool and calm. That’s fine, but one Met has to step forward - and quickly.

Lastly this from SI.com’s Jon Heyman

It appears that the Mets have already honored Carlos Delgado by erecting a statue of him that’s placed near first base whenever the Mets are in the field.

I am guessing that was some sort of snarky attempt at humor on Heyman’s part. But something is up here and to tell you the truth I am just not getting it.

Heyman also wrote, Believe it or not, there are tickets for the Mets’ Shea Stadium finale (vs. the Marlins) going for $20,000 on the Internet. Good seats, of course.

With injuries to Pedro Martinez, Moises Alou and now, hopefully not serious, Jose Reyes Mets fans can look at their team’s 5-5 record and sigh. But with positives like Ryan Church hitting lefties, so far, and the excellent contributions from Angel Pagan it seems the guy who everyone had marked down as “done” Carlos Delgado might still have some big time game left. He’s hitting .300 has 3 doubles and his swing looks good. Today he crushed an rbi double off the wall that just missed going out and he made an excellent scoop of a errant throw by David Wright that would have been David’s third error on the day. Now, I don’t want to get ahead of myself but if your looking for things to feel good about and some people who panic early do, then maybe you can look to Delgado. Over at Yoders Yard they blog about seeing Delgado up close in spring training and how much he’s improved since. Well, I’ve always found it real easy to root for Delgado, his smile is contagious and Moonshots that hit the scoreboard are always fun to watch. So, I hope he really does have a lot left and that this is just the beginning of a Monster season.

Last season, I watched Opening Day from Row U of the Upper Deck of Shea Stadium. This year, having advanced in age, I decided to watch Opening Day from the comforts of the couch in my rec room. Each method of game-watching has its advantages. As it turns out, I’m very glad I didn’t have to wait for the 7 train amongst a mass of angry fans after the disaster that took place out on the field yesterday.

Before I get into the negatives from the game (and of course, there were plenty), let me mention two very small positives to take away. I enjoyed the cut of the outfield grass. I can’t remember seeing Shea in that particular triangle pattern before, and the contrast in greens really showed up well on the broadcast. Our stadium looked as good as it can in its final opener.

Also, I was weirdly happy for the home plate umpire, veteran Doug Eddings. Eddings has had his share of hard times (see his indecisive umpiring in Game Two of the 2005 ALCS for the most obvious example), but maybe those hard times forced him to perfect his craft. I think I agreed with every one of his ball and strike calls—and I never agree with the home plate umpire on balls and strikes. Not only that, Eddings was clear, immediately declaring “ball outside” or “ball low” as soon as the pitch hit the catcher’s mitt. He’s come full circle from his own Buckneresque moment of a few years’ back. If we get quality umpiring like this all season, I’ll have that much less heartburn.

Unfortunately, neither of these positives has anything to do with the quality of our baseball team, but I think right now we should take whatever victories we can get.

The game itself started to go bad for us when Oliver Perez walked the 45-year-old opposing pitcher who was trying to sacrifice bunt. It continued to go bad when every other one of our pitchers continued to walk everyone else. Met pitchers had seven walks yesterday against two strikeouts. That’s just not going to get it done against a good team.

Then, of course, we have the glaringly obvious problems with our team that were on full display in the home opener. 1) Our manager doesn’t know how to use his bullpen. Many of us have been saying it over and over—Scott Schoeneweis should never face a righty. And yet Willie Randolph had Show in there against two righties yesterday. Unfortunately, I don’t expect this to change. Show faced more righties than lefties last year. Utterly ridiculous. 2) Carlos Delgado is not good at playing first base. His lack of defense was much less of a problem when he was hitting 38 home runs. Now that those days are past him, it’s clear we’re going to get well-below-average production from the first base position this year, much as we did last year. 3) Many of our guys are old. Case in point, 32-year-old Luis Castillo pulls himself out of the game (presumably because it was too cold out), and he is replaced by someone six years older. A lot of our regulars are teetering on the brink of the DL all the time, and we’ll have to deal with it all season long. 4) We’re just not that good, especially without Pedro Martinez. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Over our last 162 games, we are now 86-76. Even if Johan Santana adds five wins to our total (and that’s a monster number for one player to add, considering that he’s replacing a serviceable major league pitcher in Glavine), that makes us a 91-win team. Ninety-one wins would be all fine and good, but it’s foolish to think we’re an elite team who can threaten 95 or 100 wins. We’re a decent team, but certainly a flawed team, at least for now—and we’re going to need some things to go right to beat out the Braves and Phillies for the division title.

But there is always hope. Today, hope comes in the form of our beleaguered starter Mike Pelfrey. I think I speak for all of us when I say Go Big Pelf! Let’s put the seven walks, one error, and two passed balls behind us and let’s actually enjoy baseball tonight. Let’s Go Mets!