Gary Carter has issued the following press release regarding his comments about the Mets managerial position.

GARY CARTER ISSUES STATEMENT ON RECENT CONTROVERSY

West Palm Beach, Fl.
“I have been inundated with requests for interviews regarding my comments about the New York Mets managerial position. In order to be fair, I cannot honor all the requests and would like to issue the following statement instead:”

“My goal over the past six years has been to work my way back to the major leagues as a manager or coach. In order to accomplish that goal I agreed to start at the bottom by managing two years in Port St. Lucie in the Mets minor league system. This year the Orange County Flyers of the Golden Baseball League selected me to manage their team, and to help me reach my goal. I took that position to allow me to stay in baseball and be close to family members who live in this area, and to come back home to where I grew up.

“As part of my arrangement with the Flyers, I have been given the option to return to the majors if a coaching or managerial position becomes available. I have always maintained an open dialog with the Mets, and my recent contact with them was to explore if there was something I could do to help this team that I care about. My intentions were not malicious, but I acknowledge that my actions have been hurtful to Willie and his players.

“I want to publicly apologize to Willie Randolph, and the Mets, for my radio comments. Throughout my career, and in many cases to my detriment, I have been open and honest with the media and at times discretion may have been a better choice. I continue to be an avid fan of Willie and the Mets, and have confidence that this team will be successful.

“Thank you to all my fans who understand my tendency to wear my heart on my sleeve and let my enthusiasm get the best of me at times. I am honored by your support.”

Reports indicate that his foot is still firmly planted in Carter’s mouth.

Marty Noble of MLB.com writes about Mike Pelfrey’s possible demotion and his reaction:

“I know I pitched well enough to win two of those games,” he said. “I had a no-hitter going in one. But I’ve been disappointed with the others. I haven’t pitched well. I know that. That’s why I hate the game right now. It’s miserable. I’m miserable. I haven’t been able to command my pitches. When I do, I win. But it just isn’t there.”

Ed Ryan of Mets Fever lobbies for Tony Armas Jr. to be promoted. Armas has been pitching great for the New Orleans Zephyr’s, Ryan writes:

Tony Armas Jr. is absolutely dominating AAA…Armas deserves a start and then could be moved into the pen as a true long-man. Last night Tony Armas went seven innings in which he allowed one run on six hits, no walks while striking out seven his ERA is at 2.23.

Anthony Rieber of Newsday’s The Final Score points us towards a newspaper columnist ( Pete Colaizzo of the Poughkeepsie Journal ) that actually wants Willie Randolph to remain as Mets manager and this is before yesterday’s win.

SI.com’s Jon Heyman tells us that Mets brass wonder if Aaron Heilman is “tightening up in tough situations” since his stuff is still very good. Heyman also writes a bit about Gary Carter lobbying for Willie’s job and Keith Hernandez’ reaction.

The folks over at the blog formerly known as Mets Geek received a lot of attention because of their name change to Rays Geek. Hot Foot’s own Anthony De Rosa wrote about it here. But according to the USA TODAY not all the attention has been positive:

“We were starting to get death threats from Rays fans that they hadn’t won since we switched the banner,” Eric Simon of Rays Geek said.

Keith Hernandez had some critical remarks during today’s Mets broadcast regarding Gary Carter expressing his desire to take over the Mets managerial job from Willie Randolph,

“I have great respect for Gary as a player,” said Hernandez, “He’s a Hall of Famer. When Johnny Bench left the game, he was the premier catcher in the National League.

“But, that being said, and I’ve kept quiet for such a long time, but for the people out there listening, just go in the dictionary and look up ‘unconscious’ and you’ll find a picture of Gary Carter.

“I know that’s strong, but it just happens too many times and it’s just, you’re walking around unconscious.

Before Keith’s comments, Gary Cohen was equally critical of Carter.

“Regardless of what happens, you can’t be any more indelicate or graceless than Gary Carter was in saying the things he said about being available to take over the job. I just cannot believe that Carter said what he said.”

If you read any of the accounts of the famed 1986 Mets, you’ll find that many teammates found Carter to be a bit overbearing, which led to his nickname “Camera Carter” as he often seeked out the press for his own self-flagellation. Keith seems to still bear some of that annoyance of Carter, and wasn’t shying away from expressing it in light of him undermining Willie Randolph.

Gary Carter’s recent comments on Sirius radio show were perceived to be undermining to Willie Randolph, he spoke with Steve Sommers of WFAN to clear the air on his aspirations to become the next Mets manager.

Click here to download the call to Sommers.

Mets Blog is reporting that Gary Carter is very interested in managing the Mets, should they decide to fire Willie Randolph.

“Boy, I’ll tell you what, I would love that, guys. When I saw that on ESPN today, Mike & Mike, they were talking about it and immediately I got on the phone and I called Jay Horowitz and I asked, ‘Should I try to call Mr. Wilpon?’ If there is this going on I just want them to know of my availability. I’m only a phone call away because my contract allows me to leave the ball club. I could be in New York tomorrow, if necessary, because if there’s anything at the major league level I can leave this job”

You can read the comments Carter made in their entirety on Mets Blog.

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.

Newsday’s The Final Score blog makes us aware of this # 54 Mets used Dromerhauser 1988 playoff jersey that is up on Ebay. Back then Dromerhauser was the Mets bullpen catcher. Jim Baumbach writes that neither he nor the guy who selling the jersey know Dromerhauser’s first name. So I was curious and googled it. The first entry that popped up is this NYT story that not only gives us his first name, Rob, but a story of how in 1989, with Gary Carter, Barry Lyons hurt and Mackey Sasser their only catcher left, then GM Joe McIlvaine had a contract drawn up for Rob Dromerhauser because they weren’t sure if Phil Lombardi who they had called up from Tidewater would make it to the game on time. Lombardi did make it by the first inning so the rest is history. McIlvaine went on to say of Dromerhauser,

“For a while, Robbie was our Walter Mitty.”

Robbie’s jersey is going for $95 if interested. I seem to remember SNY’s Kevin Burkhardt doing a piece on the Mets current bullpen catcher, am I mistaken?

In this 1987 Mets promo, Gary Carter, Mookie Wilson and Roger McDowell (father of the Hot Foot), tell Mets fans to “Think Big!”

The 30 minute musical performance centers around the three Mets helping two younger friends win in a computer baseball game against a fictional team called the Megabats.

According to the players, Think Big is:

• Think about what you’re not doing and could be doing. (Gary Carter)
• Think big is like trying to better than your best. (Gary Carter)
• It’s like having confidence in yourself and knowing you can do it. (Mookie Wilson)
• It’s working together being a team. You know, two heads are better than one. (Roger McDowell)

Here is Part I of “Think Big”:

It’s endlessly funny, and it reminds me of how much I miss Mookie as a base coach, thinknig of him reminds me of winning the World Series. Plus, its a nice reminder that sometimes we should think big.

• For the New York Post, Mike Vaccaro writes how Brian Schneider could be next in a long line of great Mets catchers, beginning with Gary Carter through Paul Lo Duca. Vaccaro writes that the Mets value him for his ability to manage pitchers and such, and when you build a team around your pitching that probably makes sense.

He quotes Omar Minaya (and then makes fun of it):

“But we wound up in a pretty good position, I think. You’ll see what Brian [Schneider] can do. He’s a player you appreciate more when you see him every day.”

Of course, coming from a general manager, that could be the equivalent of a guy setting his buddy up on a blind date and telling him the girl has “a great personality.”

• For more on Schneider, check out the New York Times and the Daily News.
• In the Daily News, Adam Rubin writes how Willie Randolph plans on resting Jose Reyes more often this year, which would favor giving the last bench spot to Ruben Gotay who played SS in winter ball. In the same article, Rubin writes how Matt Wise looks like the favorite to claim the final spot in the bullpen, and how the Mets will be using former closer Brant Rustich as a starter in order to replenish their weakened starting pitching due to the prospects given in the Johan Santana trade.
• For ESPN.com, Jayson Stark writes about Carlos Beltran’s recent trash talk, “This year, tell Jimmy Rollins we’re the team to beat.”
• For ESPN.com, Bob Klapisch writes how bringing in Santana has given the Mets their swagger back.