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.

The Human Rain Delay, Steve Trachel, has signed a minor league contract with Baltimore. He played for both the O’s and Cubs last season, struggling off and on.

The man of a thousand spellings, Doug Mientkiewicz, has signed a minor league contract with the Pirates. He could make $750,000 if he makes the 40 man roster, assuming someone in the Pittsburgh front office can spell his name for his checks. He was a Met for a season, in which he did nothing you remember.

Red Sox pitcher Jonathan Papelbon has come out and said that his Dog, Boss, ate the ball from the final out of the World Series.

This comes a few years after Doug Mientkiewicz’s prolonged dispute with the Sox over the 2004 Ball.

Ive heard a few strange stories, but this is up there with the best of them.

Ex Met Mike Piazza had an RBI single in the first today, as Oakland beat the Yankees 5-4. It was his sole hit for the day, his 16th for the season.  He's also had 8 runs and 3 RBI's as the DH for the A's.  Not helping the Yankees in their loss, former first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz who ended a streak of 24 at bats without a hit by getting a single, only to be caught at home trying to score on a wild pitch.  Dougie is now batting .138.

At least Dougie will always have that Red Sox WS baseball controversy for people to remember him by, since his time with the Yankees seems like it be even less memorable than his time with the Mets.  Maybe he's just trying to become one of the least popular NY firstbasemen of all time.

In related news, the Yankees added Mike Mussina and Carl Pavano to the DL.

And everyone was concerned about our rotation? The Yanks are a few injuries away from having to start Andy Pettitte every other game.