Wright, Murphy bunking at HoJo’s (Not the hotel chain)

Buried at the bottom of a Winter Meetings article, is a good tidbit that should brighten up some Mets fans mornings.

David Wright and Daniel Murphy each spent a week living at hitting coach Howard Johnson’s house and training at the Mets facility in Port St. Lucie.  Jeff Francoeur was supposed to join them, but he isn’t fully healed from his surgery yet, according to Adam Rubin.

Wright is focusing on increasing his power stroke for next year, according to the article.

I like these kind of stories.  Just reaffirms the fact that you know these guys want to be at their best.

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?

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.

HoJo goes to the beach

Just got this press release in the mail. The accompanying photo is classic.

HOWARD JOHNSON TRANSITIONS FROM THE DIAMOND TO THE SAND COURT FOR THE
CUERVO BEACH CITY CHALLENGE
Mets Coach/Legend Competes With & Against Top AVP Pros
at South Street Seaport

Howard “HoJo” Johnson, NY Mets legend and current team hitting coach joined Team Cuervo, 14 of the hottest athletes on the beach this morning at the South Street Seaport bringing all the excitement of professional beach volleyball to Manhattan with the Cuervo Beach City Challenge.

Local fans were able to come out and set, serve and spike against AVP pros and “HoJo” at the South Street Seaport, which was transformed with 120 tons of sand, official AVP court set-up and the players themselves.

That's all well and good, but the photo is the icing on the cake:

Such grace.

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.

Early Morning Madness: Happy trails, Willie

I had an entirely different post thought up, but here it goes...

Anyone in their right mind knows the Mets completely botched the handling of Willie Randolph. Rick Peterson and Tom Nieto, as well.

There's no refuting it and it's almost practically a fact. There's nothing more to say on this matter more than "it's over."

*****

Howard Johnson must be thanking his lucky stars right now that he's still employed.

*****

I wonder if Gary Carter has made any phone calls this morning.

I think he shot himself in the foot with what happened. I don't think it's a bad thing, what he did, but it was blown completely out of proportion.

*****

Good luck, Jerry Manuel. Maybe you can just stick around for a while.

Early Morning Madness -- 5/30

I never worry about David Wright. Any time he looks like he's going into a slump, or actually goes into a bit of a slump, I know within a few days, he'll turn it around.

He's rumored to be the hardest worker on the team, and when he was in the minors, they had to stop him from doing drills, lifting, etc. because he was wearing himself down.

He's a stellar young player, only 24 and years away from getting into his prime.

#####

Scott Schoeneweis is having a stellar year. After stumbling through his first half year as a Met, he turned it on at the end of last year. That has carried over to this year, where he's been downright dominant against opposing batters. He's having a Carlos Beltran-esque sophomore explosion.

But feelings still linger, and as recently as 20 days ago, while Schoeneweis was still sporting a 1.74 ERA (down to a 1.25 ERA now) people were calling for his head.

#####

I think Howard Johnson has earned a raise. This team is hitting again, and some guys are looking like they're going to have career years. Ryan Church and Wright are his disciples, and he's teaching them very well.

That two finger handshake needs to happen more often.

News: HoJo at first and other notes

Howard Johnson has been hired as the new first base coach for the Mets.

Sandy Alomar moves to third.

...the burning question for me is...
can alomar still do the windmill?
i dont want him breaking a hip or anything...

~~~~

Seems the Dodgers have reached an agreement with Jason Schmidt for a 3-year, $47 mil.

...damn...

And Mike Piazza is very close to signing with the A's.

...as long as it's not the phillies.
...and i think mikey will look slick in those white shoes...