SI.com’s Jon Heyman was a guest today on WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog program. Heyman had some really interesting things to say about Aaron Heilman…

“There are guys in the organization that are worried about the way he is reacting to NY. I know, he has been here for a few years but this is the first time that he is getting a real taste of the booing. They are wondering if he is a sensitive guy.”

“He’s very talented and teams are trying to “bottom Fish” for him now. I know Arizona is interested and Colorado. I’m sure half the league is interested. They may think they can get him at 50 cents on the dollar. But the Mets have said, “No we want him on our team”.

“There are other teams that see him as a starter. The Mets do not see him as a starter. He’s a two pitch pitcher plus with his mechanics, he has what they call a “high back elbow”. He moves his elbow way back and it’s not real conducive to a breaking pitch. They think with that form, if he throws more than a 100 innings he will put himself in jeopardy for an injury. They site Mark Prior, who is a guy with a similar style. He threw over a 100 innings and was injured right away. So, they are being safe. They want to keep him as a relief pitcher. Also, there is the fact that he does not have a great breaking pitch.”

Heyman did a great job explaining the mechanics of Aaron Heilman’s pitching style and why the Mets won’t use him as a starter. The Mets tried to change Heilman’s delivery in the past but he was not comfortable or effective with the adjustments. I think I actually see what Heyman is talking about in the picture up top… Interesting stuff.

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.

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…

Neil Best’s media blog on Newsday reports that Tom Verducci will no longer appear on YES network’s “Yankees Hot Stove.” because of comments in his recent SI.com column where he called Yankee ownership ‘disorganized’ and ‘cowardly’.

YES spokesman Eric Handler made this statment regarding Verducci

“recent remarks pertaining to the Yankees’ ownership were extremely personal and cutting, and we decided it would not be in our interests to have him on the show going forward.

“Also, Tom is collaborating with Joe Torre on a second book. It’s unfortunate, but we figured it was an action that had to be taken. We appreciate the work he’s done for us in the past.”

“The recent disclosure of Tom’s collaboration with Torre on yet another book highlights a conflict in his ability to write a balanced column about Torre’s departure from the Yankees,” Handler said.

SI.com’s Jon Heyman has replaced Verducci on the show, and appeared on Thursday night.