Joey's Letter To Sandy Claus (2013)

Dear Sandy Claus,

You're probably quite busy trying to figure out who's been naughty and who's been nice this past year (I've been the latter in case you hadn't gotten up to me yet), but I still hope you have time to read this letter.  I know you've been jetting back and forth recently after attending the Winter Meetings with all your elves, so maybe you can squeeze my letter in while you're in the air.

Anyway, in my letter to you last year, I didn't ask for much - just a new bullpen, a set outfield, a return engagement by Scott Hairston, a healthy Johan Santana, a dependable fifth starter, and patience with the kids in the minor leagues.

You were able to provide me with the new bullpen.  The new pitchers were definitely an improvement over what we had in 2012, but then again, Charlie Brown would also have been an improvement.  We didn't really have a set outfield at the beginning of the season, but by late June, the outfield of Eric Young, Jr., Juan Lagares and Marlon Byrd were far more productive than anyone could have expected, so you did a good job there.  You also didn't call up Zack Wheeler until mid-June, so your patience with him was appreciated.  Another fine job on that one.

But you weren't perfect. 

Scott Hairston didn't come back.  I know he had a subpar season and bounced around from team to team, but we were best buds.  You could have just used him as a power bat facing lefties off the bench.  Or you could have just signed him so he could play catch with me.  I miss him.

Johan Santana made as many starts for the Mets as I did in 2013.  Because of his inability to stay healthy, we had to endure Aaron Laffey at the start of the season.  I didn't find anything amusing about that.

And about that fifth starter, I have two words for you.  Shaun Marcum.  You should have left him with the Ghost of Christmas Past.

But this letter isn't about complaining.  After all, I don't want to be moved to the naughty list.  This letter is about what I want for Christmas this year.  So why don't I get to that letter before the milk I left for you near the tree gets warm.  There were cookies there as well, but I may have already had one or all of them.  Here goes!

Don't go chasing waterfalls.  Please stick to the smart free-agent signings you're used to.

I would like the Daniel Murphy trade rumors to stop.  He had a wonderful year in 2013, but not so great that he would bring back an elite prospect in a trade.  Murphy had one of the best offensive seasons by a Mets second baseman not named Edgardo Alfonzo this past year, and he became an adequate defensive player as well.  With continued faith in him, there's no reason to think he can't become one of the better players at the position in the league.  I'm with 28 and you should be with him, too.

I'm very happy with the new players that arrived before the holidays.  Chris Young and Curtis Granderson will provide good defense, outstanding power and some much-needed speed on the bases.  But the one player I'd like to discuss is Bartolo Colon.  Please put up a wall in the bullpen area so that when he's warming up before a start, he doesn't smell the food from Shake Shack, Blue Smoke and El Verano Taquería.  I'd like to be able to get food from these places without worrying that they'll all be sold out of food before the first inning.

Staying on the topic of Bartolo the Hutt, I think he should serve as Santa Claus at this year's holiday party.  It would save the team money by not having to add some extra cushioning to his costume since Colon already has plenty of his own.  That savings could turn into another arm in the bullpen or could contribute to the Bring a Quality Shortstop to Citi Field fund.

I would like to donate a dollar to that aforementioned fund, which I have enclosed in my envelope.  Please do not give that to Papa Smirk or Little Jeffy Wilpon.  I know they've been among the needy for the past five years since the Bernie made off with their money.  But Mets fans have been needy, too.  We need a shortstop.  And we need one now.  That dollar could be the one that brings Stephen Drew to Flushing.  Or at the very least, it could be used to buy Ruben Tejada an alarm clock so he can get to Spring Training on time in 2014.

Finally, I'd like Noah Syndergaard and Rafael Montero to be the real deal, just like Matt Harvey was in 2013 and Zack Wheeler appears to be.  The Mets haven't had a dominant young pitching staff since the mid-to-late '80s when Doc Gooden, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez and others were taking the ball every fifth day.  Those pitchers contributed to two division titles and a World Series championship.  For now, I'd be satisfied if the new blood contributes to a winning season.  We haven't had one of those since the team moved to Citi Field five seasons ago.  We can work on division titles and championships soon enough.  Just give me a winning season in 2014.  And give it to me with the hope of seeing many more in 2015 and beyond.

If I knew I was going to be writing this letter in a snowstorm, I would have taken it to the North Pole myself.

Well, Sandy Claus.  That's all for this year's list.  Did you get all that?  And please do not get it mixed up with Brian Cashman's letter or Ruben Amaro's missive.  I'd like what I asked for this year, not what they asked for, which is probably a couple of overpaid, 30-something, way-too-many-years-on-their-contract players.  (They're so predictable when it comes to their letters.)

Just as a reminder in case there is a mix-up with their letters, I'd like Daniel Murphy to stay and play.  I'd like Bartolo Colon to pitch well and lose his sense of smell.  I also want Bartolo to go ho-ho-ho.  I'd appreciate it if my hundred cents are well spent.  And I want our young hurlers to take this team further.

Thanks so much for reading my letter, Sandy Claus!  I was good all year, so I hope I get what I want under my tree.  Say hi to your little helpers for me.

Love and best wishes for the 2014 season,
Joey Beartran

P.S. Just in case you come across the guy holding me in the photo below, give him whatever he wants for Christmas, too.  He's a good person and deserves to get everything on his wish list as well, regardless of how much it costs.  Thanks!

Phillies Tell Their Manager To Get The Fuqua Out

"You can stop right there, Charlie.  I know your firing is totally Fuqua-ed up."

Charles Fuqua Manuel is the winningest manager in the 130-plus year history of the Philadelphia Phillies.  The team from the city of Brotherly Love never posted a losing record in any of Manuel's first eight seasons at the helm.  But with a 53-67 record through Thursday's games, Manuel was relieved of his duties by Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr.  His replacement on an interim basis will be Hall of Famer (and former Phillies draft pick) Ryne Sandberg.

At Studious Metsimus, we find it sacrilegious to defend anyone who is (or was) employed by the team with the most losses in baseball history.  However, we do feel for Manuel for losing his job over something that's not his fault.

Did Charlie Manuel give Ryan Howard a five-year, $125 million contract extension?  Howard has combined to produce 25 homers and 99 RBI in the first two years of his deal.  The first baseman has also struggled to stay healthy since he started collecting the big bucks.

Was Charlie Manuel responsible for signing Roy Halladay to a three-year, $60 million extension?   Halladay's wins have dropped from 19 to 11 to 2 since 2011, while his ERA his risen from 2.35 to 4.49 to 8.65 over the same time period.

What about Cole Hamels' seven-year, $153 million deal?  Did Charlie Manuel have anything to do with giving that contract to a pitcher who is currently leading the league in losses and is posting his highest ERA and WHIP since 2009?

And although Cliff Lee (five years, $120 million), Jonathan Papelbon (four years, $50 million) and Jimmy Rollins (three years, $33 million) have all been reasonably productive, they will all be expected to continue their production at a high rate of pay until they're in their mid-to-late thirties.

Charlie Manuel didn't give these players eight and nine-figure deals.  Ruben Amaro, Jr. did.  It was Amaro who made the trades, free agent signings and re-signings that are now coming back to bite the team.  And it was Amaro who had the dubious distinction of removing the manager, because of course, it was the manager's fault that players past their prime got injured or stopped producing at the same rate they did when they were in their 20s.

As Mets fans, we're quite pleased that the Phillies have gone from the self-proclaimed team to beat in 2007 to a team that gets beaten quite often in 2013.  And if the Phillies continue to expect thirty-somethings to play like twenty-somethings, they're going to remain behind the Mets in the division standings for years to come.

Manuel did a fantastic job with the Phillies, leading them to five division titles, two pennants and a World Series championship.  But he did this with players who were in their prime.  Those players are now past their prime, and the general manager who put and kept the team together has done nothing to make the team any younger.  Oh wait.  He did.  He replaced the winningest manager in franchise history with an interim manager who is fifteen years his junior.  Our bad.

Charles Fuqua Manuel is out as Phillies manager after nearly nine years at the helm.  It's too bad for Philadelphia that the man who should have lost his job for the small fortune he doled out to aging players is still collecting a paycheck of his own.

What If Roy Halladay Had Been Traded To The Mets?

In Game 1 of the National League Division Series, played Wednesday between Philadelphia and Cincinnati at Citizens Bank Park, Roy Halladay did what no other National League pitcher had ever accomplished in a postseason game. He held the opposition hitless. The masterful 104-pitch performance helped the Phillies take a 1-0 series lead over the Reds.

The former (and perhaps soon-to-be) Cy Young Award winner had pitched for the Blue Jays from 1998-2009 without ever sniffing the playoffs. If he had any butterflies churning in his stomach before his first postseason start for the Phillies on Wednesday, they certainly did nothing to prevent him from making history.

Ever since the Phillies acquired him via a trade with Toronto, Halladay has been nothing short of brilliant. He led the league with 21 victories in his first National League season and pitched a perfect game against the Florida Marlins in May.

But what if Omar Minaya had swung a deal with the Blue Jays to acquire Halladay before the Phillies did? Would it have been the Mets playing in October and not the Phillies? A quick look at Mets history should provide us with the answer.


Had Omar Minaya acquired Halladay, the bearded righty would have succumbed to an injury in May. Needing his leadership on the mound, the Mets would have rushed him back to the rotation (especially since the longer he stayed out of the rotation, the better chance that Jerry Manuel would have given Oliver Perez another chance to start). That would have led to a period of ineffective starts, which would have also included key losses to the Phillies and Braves.

Once Halladay righted his ship, Dead Manuel Walking would have tried to save his pitcher from overexerting himself by removing him from games after a number of seven-inning, 90-pitch efforts. Since the Mets never had quite the firepower found in the Phillies' offense, Halladay would have found himself leaving games with small leads that Frankie Kunckles would eventually give up.

Therefore, had Halladay been a Met, he still would have had a good season, but he would have led the league in no-decisions. He also would never have pitched a no-hitter or perfect game because signing with the Mets automatically prevents any pitcher from ever throwing one.

Perhaps it's for the better that Omar Minaya didn't trade for Roy Halladay. For one thing, we might never have seen R.A. Dickey become the quality starter he became. (You can ignore the fact that Dickey lost his only head-to-head matchup against Halladay at Citizens Bank Park on August 8). Also, it is a well-known fact that bearded players don't do well in blue and orange. Just ask Jeff Reardon.

Face it, Mets fans. Roy Halladay was never going to become a Met. Neither was Cliff Lee last season at the trade deadline. Neither was Roy Oswalt at this year's trade deadline. They all went to the Phillies because our now ex-general manager didn't have the clout he thought he once had.

Five years ago, Omar Minaya could just show up at any star player's door and say "if you can live with the fact that I say 'that being said' every other sentence, then I can give you more years and more money than anyone else is willing to give you." Now, players stay away from Flushing like if it had blue and orange cooties.

Jason Bay came to New York last year because no one else was willing to give him the exorbitant deal the Mets gave him, not because of Omar Minaya. The bottom line is that Omar Minaya couldn't give players what Phillies' GM Ruben Amaro Jr. could, and that was the promise that his team would be successful.

The Phillies have become one of the best teams in recent memory, while the Mets have become the team no one wants to play for. Roy Halladay is lucky the Phillies traded for him. Had he been a Met, he'd be trying to leave through the same door that Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel used on Monday.

It's The End of Their World As They Know It (And We Feel Fine)

We interrupt your regularly scheduled day of blog reading to give you breaking news that's already been broken. Omar Minaya has been relieved of his GM duties and Jerry Manuel's option for the 2011 season was not picked up.

Of course, this wasn't even breaking news before it became official. It was a foregone conclusion that the man famous for inserting the words "that being said" into every other sentence and the man known as Dead Manuel Walking were not going to retain their positions after the completion of the 2010 season.

The team had underachieved since the end of the 2006 season. The players were performing below expectations and if there was camaraderie between the players, it wasn't as evident as it should be with winning teams.

It is the general manager's job to put the team together and the manager's job to get them to perform between the white lines.

Omar did his best to put Los Mets together. That being said, that also included offering contracts that were far too long to the ostracized Oliver "El Perez-idente" Perez and Luis "Squeam Queen" Castillo. Other players that were signed for more years than they should have been were Orlando "The Dookie" Hernandez, Pedro "I Left My Fastball In Beantown" Martinez and Carlos Beltran (sorry, we like Don Carlos, so we won't give him a demeaning nickname). He also traded for fan-favorite, but now increasingly fragile Johan Santana.

Jerry Manuel was forced to manage an oft-injured group of ragtag players, a job that most managers would have difficulty doing, although a fellow Manuel (Charlie) had no problem doing that when his star players were dropping faster than Citi Field's paid attendance figures.

Part of Charlie Manuel's success with being able to survive his club's injuries was that his GM, Ruben Amaro Jr., was able to provide him with the right players to fill in the holes left by the disabled players.

When Rip Van Winkle (Jamie Moyer) went down with an injury, Amaro swung a deal with the Astros for Roy Oswalt. All four infielders for the Phillies (Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Placido Polanco) were also hurt at some point of the season. Amaro made sure each player had better than adequate replacements in Ross Gload, Ben Francisco and Wilson Valdez. Those three players combined to hit .266 (170-for-640), which was higher than the team's collective batting average (.260). In those 640 at-bats, which are about the same amount an everyday player would collect over a full season, the trio collected 37 doubles, three triples, 16 HR and 85 RBI, while scoring 77 runs and going a perfect 16-for-16 in stolen bases. They also excelled defensively, combining to make a total of four errors in 569 total chances.

While the Phillies didn't miss a beat when one of their star players got hurt, what did Omar Minaya give us? Either not yet ready for prime time players (Ruben Tejada, Jesus Feliciano, Lucas Duda) or the curious case of Joaquin Arias, who, like Benjamin Button, seemed to age backwards as seen by the photos below.



A general manager is the head talent evaluator. His job is to put together the best team possible so that his manager can put the best possible lineup on the field. Unfortunately for Jerry Manuel, the best team possible was never THE BEST TEAM. There were 25 guys, or 23½ as suggested by The Better Half in her recent post for Mets Merized Online, but these guys were never a team. Ruben Amaro has put together a team of guys in Philadelphia, not guys who were part of a team, like Omar Minaya put together in New York.

The new general manager has to realize that teams win games. He has to give the manager not just the best individual players, but the guys who stand the best chance to become a cohesive unit that can all contribute to winning ballgames. Twenty-five individuals don't lead teams to championships, but one team of players can do that.

Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel had early success with the Mets because they had a team of guys. Over the past few years, that team dissolved into a group of guys whose only common trait was the shirts on their backs. The formula is simple: Have team, will win. If the new general manager can't get the new manager a team of guys to work with, then they stand a good chance of being shown the same door that Omar and Jerry were last seen walking through.