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.

In response to the recent commotion over the Willie Randolph-Manny Acta drama, Brad Bortone over at Bugs and Cranks reminds us that…It’s Just A Game. And maybe, just a little bit, Willie needs to relax a bit.

Bortone says:

By purposely avoiding the batting cage camaraderie with Acta (a likable guy if there ever was one) and questioning the motives of his players who were there, Willie sounded eerily similar to his old employers.

Bortone also notes that while there is a rule concerning this, there are also rules prohibiting pitchers from rubbing the ball on cold nights, covering gear in pine tar, and wearing baggy uniforms.

I tend to agree with Brad here. When it’s time to play, the players are focused. What’s wrong with chatting up friends and former teammates during BP. Willie needs to focus less on player fraternization and more on the upcoming series against the Phillies.

David Lennon of Newsday reports that the Mets manager Willie Randolph is not entirely comfortable with the way many in the organization get a little too friendly with Nats mananger Manny Acta. Acta previously was a coach with the Mets. From the boss himself:

“How does that happen? How does that become normal?”

Wright too agrees with Willie’s sentiment.

I’ll be the first one to be friendly with other players before we come to the park or after leaving the park. But as far as that time when I have my uniform on and they have their uniform on, I want to go out there and kick their butt.

As the article points out, while fraternizing with members of other teams while in uniform is prohibited, it is a largely unenforced rule (much like the ones about steroids, the balk). Similar reports surfaced yesterday, as reported by Mets Blog’s Matt Cerrone.

While I can understand Willie’s feelings here, especially after yesterdays dragging 45 inning game in which the team seemed to take its time to victory, the other side of the coin is that you can’t expect these guys to end their friendships everytime the ownership and GM let a player go or trade someone away.

Paul Lo Duca will not catch President Bush, who is throwing at the first pitch at the Nationals new stadium. According to the Washington Post, formet Met coach Manny Acta will take Lo Duca’s spot.

The Post reported that this decision had nothing to do with the fact that Paul Lo Duca was mentioned in the Mitchel Report one or two 37 times. And for your fun fact of the day, last Nats catcher to catch President Bush: Brian Schneider.

Sure…nothing at all to do with Lo Duca and steroids. And Ruben Gotay won’t come back and haunt us either.

Nationals OF Lastings Milledge spoke today about the somewhat bumpy ride he had during his time with the Mets. According to the New York Post, Milledge did not offering up an apology for his actions, stating that he has no regrets and wouldn’t has done anything differently. His claim is that he just didn’t fit into the “rookie mold”, adding:

“When I came up to the big leagues, I felt like I could help the team. Usually rookies get in where they fit in, but I’m actually trying to help the team and be a big asset.”

According to the article, Milledge is expected to thrive in Washington because of the lessened media glare and the lack of long term veterans on the team.

I’ve said it before, but Milledge really does remind me of T.O., which makes me glad he’s off the team. The kid’s got talent, but I feel he really was going to be a cancer to the clubhouse. I also question Paul LoDuca and Manny Acta jumping to his defense, because I feel like if they were both still on the Mets, LoDuca would have been all over him for stuff like that. However, to quote Carlos Delagdo…what did I really expect them to say? If the kid proves himself, I will gladly admit I was wrong. Only time will tell…

The Mets experienced some losses this winter. They lost Chad
Bradford, he of the 1.16 WHIP, and the one home run allowed (one!) in 70
innings of work, to a three-year $10.5 million contract with the O’s. They lost
veterans Cliff Floyd and Steve Trachsel, allowing them to walk away. Although it’s
hard to argue with Mets management on these moves, I’ll miss reading Cliff’s
quotes, and I find it somewhat distressing that Tom Glavine has been a Met
longer than anyone else on the roster. (Pedro Feliciano was with the team in
2002, a year before Glavine arrived, but Feliciano spent 2005 in Japan
before re-joining us last year). Another loss occurred on the coaching staff,
when Manny Acta departed to manage the Washington Nationals. I normally don’t
spend a lot of time worrying about coaching changes, and at first this one was
no different. But then I read this article in the Washington Times. Compare
this quote from Acta: “We will run selectively. I think one of the things that
doomed this club last year is that they were first in caught stealing.” to this
one from Willie Randolph: “[Beltran] could steal 40-to-50 bases easy.”

Now I’m not knocking Willie, here. Carlos Beltran has
historically been one of the most effective base stealers in the game, with a
career stolen base percentage of 87.6%. That’s an astounding number, and if
Beltran can steal bases at that kind of clip it will be an enormous boon to our
offense. That said, Acta has the correct philosophy. The stolen base is only a
good play with an excellent basestealer. For example, assuming typical hitters
behind him and typical pitchers on the mound, a leadoff man on first base in
the home first inning needs about a 71% success rate to justify an attempted
steal of second. Half the teams in the National League had SB percentages lower
than 71% last season. In two years under Randolph,
the Mets have stolen bases at a truly remarkable 79.9% clip, second in the
majors (the Phillies were successful 80.0% of the time).

Part of me worries that Acta has been the one preaching
selective base stealing, and that Acta is the reason the Mets have done so well
in choosing the right times to run. Another, more rational part of me thinks
that Willie understands who should run and when, and that since the only real
base stealers we have are Jose Reyes and Beltran (and, to some extent, David Wright), we
should be fine. I just can’t help being paranoid when so many teams go so wrong
on the basepaths—so wrong that maybe they shouldn’t be attempting stolen bases
at all.

Ramblings:

-I don’t know if we’ll see a lot of doomsday predictions on
Oliver Perez following his 2 IP, 4ER outing today, but any such predictions are
not justified, in my opinion. First, his velocity clearly isn’t there yet, as
it typically is not there for any pitcher this early in the spring. Ollie
topped out in the high eighties today. We all know he has a mid-nineties
fastball when he’s full-strength, and that his fastball is one of his best
weapons. Second, Perez for the most part got hurt in the strike zone today. His
location wasn’t always perfect, but it was far from terrible. He threw more
than twice as many strikes as balls. For his first outing of the spring, I
think that’s a pretty good sign. In short, I wouldn’t read anything at all into
today’s start by Ollie. I still think he’s a big favorite to begin the season
in the rotation.

-It was the first game for everyone today, and that certainly
includes new third-base coach Sandy Alomar, Sr. On Julio Franco’s two-run
single in the eighth, Alomar stood still as a stone while Lastings Milledge approached
third base, even though it was immediately clear that Milledge had to be sent.
Not knowing what else to do, Milledge slowed down, and then decided on his own
to keep chugging along. Only after Milledge had rounded third and taken several
steps towards home did Alomar give a half-hearted “Go” signal. (Milledge ended
up scoring anyway.) The announcers, meanwhile, assigned almost all the blame on
Milledge, accusing him of not picking up the third-base coach. They never
realized there was nothing to pick up. Keith Hernandez finally did say that
hey, there was a new third-base coach out there and maybe that had something to
do with it. Also, it seemed to me that Gary Cohen et al were far too
results-oriented in analyzing Perez’s start. Every hard-hit ball he gave up was
“up in the zone” or a “hanger,” but his strikeout pitch, which clearly looked
like a hanger to me, was “down.” Ron Darling described a pitch that Curtis
Granderson ripped as “middle-middle.” I actually thought Perez got good
location on the inside corner on that pitch and that Granderson, a
good major league hitter, just turned on it. I love Cohen, Darling, and Hernandez in the
booth, but they’re definitely in preseason form right now.

-I found it an odd coincidence that two members of our last
World Series team were just traded for each other in the Atlantic League. Best
of luck to Edgardo Alfonzo and Pat Mahomes (but especially Fonzie) as they try
to work their way back to the bigs.

-Can someone explain to me how getting a major league
prospect to run around the bases qualifies as a practical joke? “Hey, this guy
is really good at this thing, so wouldn’t it be so funny if we get him to do
that thing he’s really good at? Then we’ll all have a hearty laugh!” When I
heard that Randolph
had played a practical joke on Carlos Gomez, I was thinking shaving cream, or some bubble gum, or at least a fat frog had to be involved somehow. I guess I’ll just never
understand jock culture.

According to TCPalm the three 'internal' finalists for the 2007 Mets third base job are Gary Carter, Ken Oberkfell, and Howard Johnson.

New York Mets manager Willie Randolph and general manager Omar Minaya could make the decision before the annual winter meetings, which begin Monday in Orlando.

“If (Johnson) gets it, hey, great,” Carter said. “He's as deserving as I feel I am.”

HoJo said “If I don't get it, I certainly hope Gary gets it. And I feel like, if I don't get it and Gary doesn't get it, I hope Ken gets it.”

Carter said he might consider coming back as the St. Lucie manager, but he could be promoted to the Triple-A manager if Oberkfell is named the major-league team's third-base coach.

I wish the Mets would consider Rickey Henderson for the third base job. I think it would be great bringing back. Not only do I feel he would do well as a third base coach, but also he could help out Jose Reyes and the other young players on the team whether its stealing bsaes or working on their hitting. If Rickey doesnt get the job though, id be fine bringing up the Kid, Obie, or HoJo, with Gary Carter being my preference.

Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal is reporting that Mets 3rd Base coach Manny Acta has pulled out of the Athletics managerial search and is close to becoming the next manager of the Washington Nationals.

Omar, do the right thing and bring Gary Carter up to coach 3rd base.

After getting swept by the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS this year, Ken
Macha was fired by the Oakland Athletics two weeks ago with two years left on a three-year deal.  The A's recently released a revised schedule of future interviews to fill the void, with Mets' third base coach Manny Acta and Angels' pitching coach Bud Black on que.