The Movement Has Gone Mainstream

Everyone's talking about it. Lots of influential people want him to go. Except me?

Now I'm always a fan for seeing Willie get the axe, but I don't think you can do it in May - at least with the team playing over .500 with some key names on the DL.

The time to fire Willie was last year - specifically the day after a certain not-devastated someone went 0.1 innings. You just can't do it now, not a month into the season that has seen the Mets go 2 games over .500 with Pedro and Moises on the DL, Raul Casanova starting 10 games, and Perez and Pelfrey battling it out to see who does the best Lima impersonation.

There was a time to fire Willie. That time has passed and not yet presented itself again. At the All-Star Break when the team is still treading water? Yes. Getting swept by the Phillies to fall more than 3 games back of the division lead? Yes. But not today, not tomorrow, not anytime soon unless the wheels come off in a big way.

But in all honesty there's not much to worry about. Judging how the team has looked in every game save for the extra inning win against the Phillies and Friday night in Arizona - the wheels shouldn't take that long to come loose.

Hope Springs...

All the thanks to Riding with Rickey for this...If he makes them, I'll place my order. Kinkos won't give me a reasonable price for blowing up the "Choked to Death" NY Post cover - featuring the unluckiest non-devastated taxi rider in the city.

Lastly, someone needs to get on the Lastings Milledge Facts and re-coordinate the color scheme...navy and red perhaps? I'm sure Metstradamus would be up to the task.

In other news concerning the still Victor Zambrano-less Metropolitans, Omar is upbeat and confident something will get done...to improve the team that is.

From David Lennon in Newsday:

"The fact that we are having dialogue, you know you're in the game," Minaya said. "But it's really hard to tell. I can tell you when these things develop, they develop quickly. There's a lot of back-and-forth going on and we're pretty much in the back-and-forth area."

Minaya found Aaron Heilman to be in great demand, and a National League official confirmed that there was talk about swapping him for Rockies lefthanded reliever Brian Fuentes, as first reported by Foxsports.com. Minaya is likely to need Heilman, however, in a bigger deal for the top starters on the market.

Now pay attention here: Lennon throws some of those scented wood shavings on the pile of vomit that was the Bartolo Colon/Livan Hernandez rumors. Is everyone paying attention? You can come in off the ledge now. Yes, I'm talking to you 'Damus, Rickey, and just about every other Met fan with half a brain.

If the Mets are unable to do that, Minaya did not sound very enthusiastic about the free-agent market, so it doesn't appear that adding Livan Hernandez, Bartolo Colon or the rehabbing Freddy Garcia is an appetizing fallback position. Rather than package pitching prospect Kevin Mulvey, the Mets could always give him the chance to win a rotation spot and skip the free agents.

Ketchup On Your Ice Cream Works

If I was John Maine I'd have some questions. The Mets swept the National League's player of the month awards, with Johnny taking home the pitching honors and Jose Reyes winning the offensive hardware. The real question is why does Reyes take home a brand new Sharp TV while Maine gets a trophy and a pat on the back?

And as GC would say over at CSTB...isn't it time for an apology from Anna Benson?

Glavine looks for win #294 tonight in Arizona against Micah Owings and the D'Backs. Owings for those of you who aren't familiar with him is pitching to the tune of a 2.93 ERA this season...so he isn't a pushover so far. But the Mets have won 11 games in a row dating back to 2004, let's keep the streak alive.

House of Horrors, Here We Come

If last season was any indication the Mets' troubles in Atlanta should be over. But, being the ever pessimistic fan that grew up watching the events that inspired Turner Field being dubbed "The House of Horrors," you can never be too sure.

Sending a message this early in the season by handling the Braves at home will only help the Mets down the road. A sweep would be euphoric, but 2 of 3 will do. A highlight will be (assuming they don't use a 5th starter yet) Smoltz v. Glavine on Saturday at 3:55.

I'll go out on a limb here and say that the Braves are the Mets biggest competitors in the NL East this season. The Phillies bullpen is terrible, their starters aren't as good as they've shown so far, and a lack of pitching means death in Citizens Bank.

The Braves improved almost every aspect of their team this offseason. Tim Hudson can't possibly be as bad as he was in 2006, and their bullpen is significantly better. Did I mention their bullpen was much, much better? They have an all-star catcher and a superstar CF in a contract year. Renteria should be better sans the problems of Boston, Chuck James looks like the real deal, and we shouldn't see any Tyler Yates unless it's in Rich Rodriguez-esque mop-up situations.

It should be a return to the rivalry years of 99'-01' from the looks of everything. And I don't know about you, but if history is any factor that's a little scary.

• Tonight, Perez looks to repeat Game 7 against Mark Redman at 7:35, SNY & WFAN