White Flag

Sometimes things just happen when you know it is time to give up and you just need to admit defeat.

And now pitching for the New York Mets, Todd Zeile.

Doctor: I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?
You: The good news.
Doctor: Ok, you have four hours to live.

Finding out the hooker you just paid for has plenty of junk, but it's not in the trunk.

Now batting for the New York Mets, Gerald Williams.

Has it really gotten to this point before the All-Star break? Being a Met fan is like a nightmare that you just cannot wake up from. Cammy is on the verge of rejoining the team and Diaz will resume his spot as the fourth outfielder basically negating any need for Ice with Woodward and Anderson able to play the outfield in a pinch. The fact that Williams had a place in the organization was disturbing enough, but now he is a Major League player again. Not even the Pittsburgh Pirates have a player as bad as Gerald on the team. Was he really the best use of that last roster spot?

In the coming weeks, Mike Cameron will most likely be traded. There is a lot of interest and with the direction this team has decided to go, there really is no reason whatsoever to keep him around. I heard a ridiculous rumor from a very unreliable source about Robinson Cano for Mike Cameron, which would just be highway robbery of Kazmir-like proportions. We all know Cano alone would never get a deal done and it sounds like a Michael Kaye show caller proposed deal, but I do not even know the Yankees could even make a match. Philip Hughes is their best prospect, but he is a low A-Ball pitcher who can have many, many things go wrong during his ascension to the majors, as any young pitcher can, and is just not enough of a sure thing to trade Cammy for. In fact, Cano, Hughes, and Eric Duncan may not even be a great deal for the Mets.

Many think the Mets should take it even one further and trade Mike Cameron and Cliff Floyd, amongst others. I'm not ready to go that far to think Omar should even think about a fire sale, but I think they should use their one and only valuable chip when the bidding reaches a fever pitch, and it looks like it will. As bad as the Mets have looked, they are not this bad. With some tweaking to the roster and using the right players in the right spots will make them undoubtedly more productive a team in my opinion, but right now, it is hard to figure out if the Mets are even going to try and go down that road. Playing under expectations seem to be an organizational philosophy and the Mets have been reluctant to do the things that need to be done and continue to mismanage this team on all fronts. It looks like another long summer in Flushing.

* * *

Adam Rubin lays out the mismanagement of the New York Mets.

Would Carlos Beltran still be struggling to reach expectations had he gone on the DL in late May, rather than go unused for 10 days, then prematurely return from a quadriceps strain that he estimated would take three full weeks to heal?

And wouldn't the Mets be better served with Triple-A call-ups available on the bench rather than going long stretches with unavailable players?

Earlier this season, Miguel Cairo stayed active for nine days while limited to one pinch-hit opportunity because of hamstring tightness. He returned to the starting lineup June 10. The injury obviously didn't mend. Six days later, Cairo went on the DL with a recurrence.

You just cannot make this stuff up.

Minor update:

• St. Lucie beat Jupiter 7-3. Lastings Milledge went 2 for 3 with one run scored and one walk. The disappointing part of Milledge's season is his lack of power. His SLG% is only .418 and he has only three homers, but his doubles are decent with eleven. He also has a stellar .382 OBP to go with his .305 average so there are a lot of good things going on with him, but it would be great to see him return to the complete package and knock some more out of the park.
  
• New Britain beat Binghamton 4-3. Anderson Hernandez went 2 for 4 with a walk, Wayne Lydon went 2 for 4 with double, and Mike Jacobs knocked his 12th homer of the year and knocked in two RBIs to bring his total up to 46. Matt Lindstrom surfaced in the bullpen and pitched one inning, giving up two hits and no runs.
  
• Buffalo beat Norfolk 4-3. Eric Valent went deep for the second time since being demoted and placed behind Gerald Williams on the food chain. Steve Coyler went one inning, struck out one, and allowed no earned runs.

Koo and Cammy back, DeJean and Matsui out.

Matsui is open to a deal.

"I chose New York and I want to stay in New York. But there is a certain limit to a player's feelings on this matter," Matsui said. "There could be a situation that could come up that would benefit me and the Mets. I would have to be open-minded if that were presented to me."

Who can blame him? The guy gets verbally mauled nightly.

"I don't sympathize for him," Randolph said. "We all have a job to do. Just do it, that's all. It's his second year with the ball club. We want him to play and the environment should be comfortable for him. At some point it becomes a game of production. I have to see that production."

That hard stance is great and all, but he needs to apply to all 25 men and not just one or two. Willie likes to flap his jaws, but not meaning comes out.

"We just have to figure out something soon here," said Cliff Floyd, one of the few Mets who has produced. "But I was telling (Mike Cameron), 'Players, because we're so competitive, think we're worse than what we are.' It seems bad because we've been losing a little bit, but what are we, three games under .500? It could be a lot worse.

"We feel it should be a lot better. It's just right now it's unfortunate that it's not. There isn't anything we can do about it. We can't go back and change anything. We just have to keep going forward."