During the 1986 season, I was in the clubhouse at the beginning of the game doing something in San Francisco. The only way to the field was an entrance right next to the Giants’ bullpen down the right field line. A little chicken coop cage is where the pitchers sat during the game. I got to the heavy steel door and watched us hit in the top half of the first. When Wally Backman came up, a voice from the Giants bullpen said, “hit him in the f….ing head.”

I told Backman about it later and he laughed loudly. In fact several players did. It meant mission accomplished. Backman got under the other team’s skin. How many current Mets spark this sort of response.

Matt Cerrone’s reporting on Minaya’s commnets was excellent in that he noted how Minaya made his initial pointed comment that clearly was intended to point to this club’s particular passion and intensity. Another more appropriate word would be moxie, a term that measures one’s ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage.

Minaya’s use of the word, “edge” is more subtle and more ill defined. But to use my word, moxie, on the surface only a few current Mets clearly appear to have it: Johan Santana, Francisco Rodriguez and David Wright. When Jose Reyes is playing with his devil may care attitude and the other team hates him, he has it. But these times are not seen often enough. Essentially only one of these is an everyday player.

Yes, here is where that other ill defined term, chemistry comes in. It’s not just liking and getting along and/or respecting each other. Whatever the particular personalities, a sense of shared purpose needs to exist. Resolve to acheive you goals.

And yes, you are what you appear to be – to opponents, to fans and yourselves.

With the current batch of players, all of these issues and subsequent questions are out there. The 2006 team that reached Game 7 of the NLCS had two players with which played with the aura of these intangible qualities in Cliff Floyd and Paul LoDuca. Pedro Martinez was also still around.

Omar Minaya did indeed walk back from his thoughts not because he believed he was wrong, but beacuse he knew he was right and there isn’t a whole lot he can do about it.

Chemistry can develop though as a team begins to find its way. But this team’s starting rotation will have to do more. The model for victory in last’s night’s game – needing three relievers to win – cannot sustain itself over a season. The line-up cannot continue to watch leads they’ve gotten during the early innings fade while they are playing defense during the middle of the game. There will be way too much psychological drama and the bullpen’s most talented pitchers will be spent by the time August gets here.

Daniel Murphy’s first inning two-run homer held up last night. Its these sorts of things that can help build something. Murphy is batting 3rd alot and its a traditionally an important spot in the batting order for the Mets. See Keith Hernandez and John Olerud. He’s done nothing but hit since he’s arrived. Maybe it will be that his emergence as a young star the Mets will have a badly new source of positive energy.

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Good game by Mike Pelfrey, but the Mets organization has fallen into a pitch count trap thats a perscription for losing. The Mets organization is obsessed with protecting their investments and train their starters to go 100 pitches and 5 to 6 innings. Thats not enough. They need to make finishing a priority. Aside from Johan Santana, no Mets starter is capable of getting a complete game. Perhaps they should get Ron Darling (37 lifetime CG ) and Bobby Ojeda (41 CG) out of the the TV booth to teach the organization how to get their starters to get further into the game. The guy who’s autograph the Mets wanted to erase last week – Doc Gooden had 68 complete games in his lifetime.

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The Mets saw exactly what they wanted to in Oliver Perez yesterday and in the mean time learned alot about him.

Perez is a “hand’s on” pitcher in that likley thrives in a controlled, structured environment. After his last start was so universally and publically condemned, Perez responded with the sort of dominate performances the Mets and likely the Pirates always expected from him. Consistency is performance has been the key. The largess of the stage also is factor that affects Perez as demonstrated in his performances at Yankee Stadium.

So what to do now?

Hopefully after this week Johan Santana emerges as a role model for Perez whom will begin to model his work ethic and preperation. If Santana has this kind of influence, Perez won’t want to disappoint him.

Dan Warthen has shown he’s not afraid of being hard on his guys – and in the media, too. I hope this does not become a habit of Warthen as it will backfire in an extremely dangerous way at some point. Still, if Warthen motivates in a manner in balance with staying on his ass, this combination with Santana can be a productive one for Perez.

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Thank goodness someone finally said it. Matt Cerrone accurately tells how the tightness in Johan Santana’s elbow was blown out of proportion by the media for its shock value. Here’s Cerrone’s take:

…actually, if you paid attention during that week of spring training, elbow-gate never really started… he never really complained of pain in the elbow, he complained of pain in the muscle and tendon in the tricep, above the elbow… also, the Mets never needed to send him for an MRI, and, believe me, if it was truly an elbow injury, he would not have been allowed to look at a pitcher’s mound, let alone throw a simulated game three days later… he’s fine, so it seems…

It was always never more that tightness in a spot above the elbow in the tricep that always gets tight. Both Ray Ramirez and Mike Herbst learned under the late Tommy McKenna. They knew what they were dealing with, and so did the the rest of the staff.

Many in the media made fools of themselves and seem to have developed a tendency to go after the Mets medical staff. They did so last year in the Ryan Church concussion escapade.

After getting burned in 1991 over some back spasms John Franco had, Frank Cashen put a muzzle on Steve Garland and me. I don’t know what the situation is now. But if the writers had either listened to or had gotten their information from Ramirez, the story would never had grown legs as it did. But the way the New York print media likes to run with things, accuraccy can’t get in the way of a good headline.

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Bart Hubbuch has a thoughtful piece to day on concerns about the manner in which the unusually high number of Mets have been utilized in the WBC. The stats that Hubburt supplies are telling:

Hubbuch is on to something and I can feel the “I really don’t like the way my guys are being used.”

Will the club be less willing next time? Yes. Especially with Mexico and Venezuela I think. But the Mets have alot of Latin players on their roster now and the nationalistic identity of baseball is stronger there than it is in the US. It will be hard to tell Johan Santana no in three years and the political considerations are potentialy messy with the strained relationship between the US and Venezuela.

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Two main themes are currently being reported in the print media this morning. First is of a potentil rift between Johan Santana and pitching coach Dan Warthen. The second is the feeling that Jose Reyes is making a big issue of batting third. Both of these storylines have been driven by reporters and their headline writers. They need to sell papers folks. Don’t get the impression there’s a there there.

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Johan Santana’s pain-free session yesterday is indicative of a common overuse issue in pitchers. The insertion of the tricep muscle at the elbow joint is frequently a hot spot where muscle tightness and inflammation occurs. This causes a general feeling of tightness and mild discomfort in the elbow when throwing. Santana was wisely put on a no throwing status. The work that Ray Ramirez and Mike Herbst put in on Santana obviously helped alot. If Dr. Alchek were in Florida, he probably would not have been flown back. The MRI that’s been ordered is now routine. At the professional level, they take advantage of this remarkable diagnostic tool. We’ve gotten alot better at reading them in two decades this technology has been available.

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I love not having to wait until the morning to see the box score. If you’re under 35, you have no idea what I’m talking about.

I know Met fans were so happy for Aaron Heilman. Six straight outs. He vultred that win a bit yesterday, but justice was served. If Heilman is going to be ok, it could mean alot for that bullpen. I’ve always liked the kid.

Speaking of kid….how about Dan Murphy? Two more hits tonight with one in the first in front of Wright’s homer. I can’t imagine any player that Minaya brought in could have had the impact that Murphy has had. It reminds of Gregg Jefferries’ 1988 August call-up. Damn, that’s now 20 years ago. What an tired old blow hard I’m becoming.

Here’s hoping Murphy’s Mets days are more memorable than Jefferries. What a great thing for the organization it will be if they can develop a young everyday player in Murphy.

Do the Mets try to sign Oliver Perez afterall? I’d say its changed to yes, but its Scott Boras as his agent. However, the Mets have always had a fairly constructive relationship with Boras. It may be because around baseball, the Mets have always been considered as one of the better paying clubs.

Perez is young, healthy, energetic and seems to thrive on the big stage. New York’s baseball teams have a tendency not to let those kind of pitchers get away. Or they bring them back like an Andy Pettitte or Roger Clemens.

It would be nice going into next season knowing that Perez, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana will be four starters that open the gates of the new ball park.

So if the team finishes well, it can comfortably resign Perez and Delgado. Dan Murphy can either play left or he can be farmed out this winter to learn to play second base. Add a power bat for the outfield corner. Maybe even Manny Ramirez if the club decides Murphy can play 2nd. This would leave more valuable time to develop Fernando Martinez.

The emergence of Dan Murphy as a viable everyday player has changed everything for the Mets. In just a few days, one young virtually unknown player from AA made the overall Met outlook for this year and beyond much brighter.

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Interesting observation from Mike Steffanos of Mike’s Mets.

Then again, this is a pitching staff that specializes in giving up the long ball, as Johan Santana learned to his dismay as another lead went up in smoke while Scott Schoeneweis was giving up a monster blast in the ninth. Then again, Santana allowed one himself to push his season total to 19 allowed. As a staff, the Mets have allowed 122 on the season despite pitching home games in big Shea. The Phillies staff has allowed two less in their bandbox.

Mike’s correct. Shea’s always been considered pitching friendly, and his application of the number of home runs is more than fair. Thank goodness the one’s allowed yesterday by Santana and Schoeneweis were with bases empty. But man, that one SchoScho gave up to Jody Gerut could count twice. What a freekin bomb!

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Ron Darling proved prophetic when he indicated prior to David Wright’s 9th inning time at bat that sometimes when a team has a bad day, the great players bail them out. Wright’s 2-run homer off Heath Bell bailed out the Mets on a days it’s bullpen blew Johan Santana’s 6th lead. The one justice in the game came when hard-luck Aaron Heilman got the win.

Nontheless, even with the spark the young players have provided, this remains a flawed team. Bullpen drama, spotty defense at times with players playing out of position and all too frequent poor situational hitting makes this team lose ugly.

Still the occassional magic like David Wright’s homerun today leaves one with feelings of affection……and hope. Somehow order can be restored to the bullpen. Somehow career infielders will play like outfielders. Somehow they’ll start getting bunts down and getting runners in from third.

Somehow.

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