Alomar Sr. and Alicea will not return to coaching staff

The Mets have announced that bench coach Sandy Alomar Sr. and first base coach Luis Alicea will not return for the 2010 season.

Alomar Sr. will be offered another position with the Mets.

Third base coach Razor Shines and catching instructor Sandy Alomar Jr. will stay on staff, but their roles are yet to be determined.

According to Jon Heyman, it was Jerry Manuel’s choice not to fire Shines.

That means Manuel, pitching coach Dan Warthen, hitting coach Howard Johnson and bullpen coach Randy Niemann will be the only coaches sticking in the same roles.

Is this the start to the Mets off-season that you expected?

Johan mentored Perez

Joel Sherman has an interesting tidbit about Johan Santana and Oliver Perez in his Hardball column today.

Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen told me that over the final two months of last season into this spring training camp that Santana has taken on Oliver Perez Oliver Perez as a "special project." According to Warthen, Santana is a tremendous asset in the continuing efforts to get Perez to a) concentrate consistently and b) deliver each pitch with conviction, purpose and accuracy.
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"Maybe for the first time in Ollie's life he's ready to listen and Johan is there to help," Warthen said. The Met pitching coach said that Santana's stature and ability to speak to Perez in Spanish help deliver messages that Warthen might have difficulty getting Perez to fully comprehend. "We are mainly talking pitching theory and philosophy, and I think it means something coming from Johan Santana," Warthen said.

Santana becomes more and more valuable as time wears on. If Perez, a certified head case, is willing to listen to Santana (and hopefully Warthen), then the Mets may have made a great signing.

If he reverts back to fooling around and changing his delivery at will, then they're due for what they've come to know from Perez.

If Santana can impart just small traces of what he knows and how he handles pitching on Perez, then the Mets are in good shape.

Hoffman or Street could help the Mets

Two closers can be had, both are at very different point in their career, and both could help the Mets.

On one hand, we have a 41-year-old who has notched 554 saves in his career, all but two coming for one team. He's a six time All Star, with a career 2.78 ERA.

On the other hand, there's a 25-year-old former Rookie of the Year. He's notched 94 saves in four years, but is coming off of two sub-par years in which he's lost his closing duties. He sports a 2.88 career ERA.

Player one is Trevor Hoffman. The San Diego Padres and Hoffman have been negotiating on a contract for their old closer, but Buster Olney is reporting the Pads have pulled their offer and will not bring Hoffman back.

San Diego was offering Hoffman $4 million, plus incentives for the 2009 season. If the Mets match that, just for one year, I'd be willing to see how much he has left in the tank. I know he's not going to blow people away, but he has the mental mettle to pitch in the 9th inning. He's definitely worth at least a look.

Player two is Huston Street. As part of the Matt Holliday to Oakland trade, Huston is now the property of the Colorado Rockies. A hefty trade would be in order, but I've heard the Rockies linked to Aaron Heilman before, and maybe throwing in Nick Evans (since he had some great games against them) and another player would be enough to get it done.

He's much younger than Hoffman, but has struggled lately, with 16 and 18 saves the last two seasons. We know he can handle the pressure of closing, but something may be wrong with his mechanics. I haven't seen him throw enough to gauge what may be wrong, but with the coaching staff the Mets have in place, especially with Dan Warthen being used to teaching young players, I think the Mets should take a shot at bringing him over and locking him up for a few years.

Of all the holes the Mets need to fill in the bullpen, closer is their No. 1 priority. These are two very different players, as Hoffman would be more of a one-year stopgap, while Street, if traded for, could be a Met for years to come.

Johnson and Warthen are coming back, maybe Alomar too

Good. Even better that there is no mention of Luis Aguayo returning.

Marty Noble has a new article up on MLB.com where he says, "The club has all but decided to retain the respective pitching and hitting coaches, and it is inclined to bring back another incumbent, Sandy Alomar Sr., who served as Manuel's bench coach."

Dan Warthen will continue to do what he does best: fix young pitchers (Pelfrey and Maine) and keep his hands off of the big guy (Johan).

HoJo has no need to go anywhere. Yes, you could complain about the lack of timely hitting and how quiet the bats went during the last week of the season, but there is only so much a coach can do. He did his job, the players just failed to pull through at the plate. I also liked to hear from Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling how broken up HoJo was after the last game of the season. I like that kind of emotion in the game.

Alomar Sr., I really have no problem with. He seems to be a close friend of Jose Reyes, and anything that makes Jose happy, makes me happy too.

Aguayo needs to go. Give me Wally Backman.

Oliver Perez's day

Lost in the shuffle of Carlos Delgado's clutch hit, the Mets beating the Phillies, and the team taking over sole position of first place, is the performance from Oliver Perez yesterday.

Perez threw 7 2-3 innings. He scattered six hits, one of which went for a solo home run, the only run he allowed all day. Perez walked only one batter, and it was an intentional walk. Perez also struck out 12 batters yesterday, fooling Chase Utley and Ryan Howard three times apiece.

Perez has absolutely turned it on the last few starts. Since June 29th against the New York Yankees, Perez has thrown 33 2-3 innings, allowing 21 hits, and allowing only five earned runs to score. He has walked 12 in that span, while striking out 39.

All this time I thought that if Rick Peterson left the team (fired, quit, signed elsewhere) and Oliver Perez was still around, he would fall flat on his face without the Jacket looking over him. I couldn't have been more wrong. Perez and Peterson come from two different school's of thought.

Peterson wanted to analyze everything about Perez, break him down piece by piece and reconstruct him. Now, Dan Warthen seems to let Ollie be Ollie, and just throw the ball. If there are errors or hitches in his delivery, Warthen will say something, but for the most part, it's Oliver Perez on the mound, by himself.

Let's hope Perez can keep this up, and maybe we'll be seeing him in the orange and blue for many years to come.

Early Morning Madness: Tantrum edition

Jose Reyes is still maturing.

Every time someone claims Reyes has finally matured, become a man, stopped being a baby, he goes out and makes a bonehead move, then mopes about it. This time it was a throwing error allowing a runner on late in the game. Reyes took off his glove, tossed it to the ground, and stood with his hands on his hips.

When the inning finally ended, Reyes' sunglasses and glove were on the ground again, which he picked up before slowly making his way into the dugout.

Though it's nice to see him get mad at himself for botching an easy play, he needs to shake it off and get back in the game rather than sulk and take it to heart. Just turn around, say "I'll get it next time," and keep your head in the game, otherwise more errors will come your way.

** * **

Oliver Perez was simply magnificent yesterday, and most of it stemmed from his brand new windup.

While it wasn't a drastic change, Perez now has a bit of a rocking motion, where he steps back, then forward and his whole body goes into the pitch. This is something new pitching coach Dan Warthen has added to Perez's delivery.

Here I was worried that Perez would completely fall apart if not under the watchful eye of Rick Peterson, and then he comes out in his second start under Warthen and pitches a gem. I feel that Peterson had Perez over-thinking instead of just throwing. Perez came out yesterday pounding fastballs, throwing 25 of his first 30 pitches for strikes, almost all of which were his heater.

** * **

And welcome back to Ryan Church, who picked up two hits in his return to the Mets.

As I've said a million times before, his bat and presence was sorely missed in the Mets lineup, and now that he's back and healthy, this team is poised to make it's move.

Also, I dig the new facial hair sprouting up around the Mets, especially on Church. Maybe it's time to regrow my beard.

Oliver Perez to pitch in relief

For one game.

Oliver Perez, who is coming off his best performance of the year, a seven inning, three hit performance against the Yankees, is now slated to pitch Wednesday or Thursday against the Cardinals out of the bullpen.

Pitching coach Dan Warthen and manager Jerry Manuel are trying to split up the lefty/lefty of Johan Santana and Perez. Perez will pitch against St. Louis from the bullpen before being moved back into the rotation next Sunday against the Phillies.

John Maine will slide in between Santana and Perez, stopping the two lefties from throwing on consecutive days.

The Mets rotation for the next two series will be:
6/30: John Maine @ STL
7/1: Tony Armas Jr. @ STL
7/2: Pedro Martinez @ STL
7/3:Mike Pelfrey @ STL
7/4: Johan Santana @ PHI
7/5: John Maine @ PHI
7/6: Oliver Perez @ PHI
7/7: Pedro Martinez @ PHI

Interesting plan for the rotation. I think these two should be split up, and it's interesting the way they're going about it. Good to keep Perez fresh though.

It's interesting that Perez may pitch again on Pedro's day on the bump. Obviously this couldn't have been planned, but with the way Martinez has been throwing of late, it might be a sign of things to come.

It's 3:11 a.m. Do you know where your manager is?

Jerry Manuel is still the manager of the New York Mets 24 hours later.

Ken Oberkfell, Dan Warthen and Luis Aguayo are also still employed.

Just keeping you as updated as possible.

Coaches shuffle

Jerry Manuel just announced his plans for the coaching staff.

Sandy Alomar Sr. will be the new bench coach.
Ken Oberkfell will be the first base coach.
Luis Aguayo is the third base coach.

As reported earlier, Dan Warthen will be the pitching coach.

I like these moves.

Alomar is more than fit to be the bench coach, in my opinion.

Oberkfell, possibly, is being groomed to take over next year. Omar Minaya likes to promote from within, so it's a definite possibility. Don't count out Howard Johnson for the spot.

Good luck at third base, Aguayo. Don't send Brian Schneider home on a strong arm. His feet are practically lead filled.

Mets fire Willie Randolph

A day that has long been coming, is finally upon us. Willie Randolph has been fired as the head coach of the New York Mets.

Among the other firings, Rick Peterson and Tom Nieto were also fired.

Jerry Manuel has been named the interim head coach. Also, Ken Oberkfell, Luis Aguayo and Dan Warthen have been added to the coaching staff.

Obkerfell was the New Orleans manager, Aguayo was the Mets field coordinator, and Warthen was the AAA pitching coach.

I'm half-relieved the tip-toeing and dance is over. The rest of me is now worried for the future and uncertainty that lies ahead.

[The Daily News has a photo gallery of Willie's tenure as manager]