Mets Sunday Brunch: Getting to know David

Today's Sunday brunch roundup of Mets news offers a great feature on David Wright, a nice little barb by Murray Chass concerning all of the Manny rumors, and the news of an '86 Met moving up as a manager in the farm system.

New York Post: David, Clean Your Room!
In this era when it is difficult for parents to shove their grown-up children all the way out the door, Kevin Kernan profiles one of the procrastinating offspring: the son of Elisa and Rhon Wright, Mets 3B David Wright, still hanging at home a lot with his brothers:

"He's spending as much time home as ever; it's just like it's always been," Elisa says with a smile. "They all pound on each other and play together."

Sometimes it's easy for us Met fans to forget just how young David Wright really is, but it's nice to hear that he's not in a rush to lead a prototypical "adult" life:

Spend a day with him, meet his family, his friends and his extended family of baseball and life coaches and you quickly understand why David Wright is the most mature 23-year-old athlete to come through New York since Derek Jeter.

His is a Wonderful Life here in this family-first area where David plays the role of Big Brother to the max. He beats on his brothers and they beat on him. He drops them off at basketball practice in his Land Rover or takes them out with him to go bowling - on Christmas night, and yes, his date did come along.

...Sure, Big Brother is a major league star, but he's one of four when he's home. He grew up sharing a bedroom and sleeping in a bunk bed until he became a professional ballplayer. David has earned the perk of graduating to the spare bedroom these days.

Kevin Kernan offers a really nice profile of David Wright that really does offer something about who Wright really is. Rather than pull a few more quotes out of it I encourage you to read it. Just one more quote that I couldn't resist, from David Wright himself:

I want to be a Met my whole career.

Sweet music...

New York Times: Murray Chass on the Manny rumor mill
In an interesting column that delves into such topics as why Jeremy Burnitz' agent was so leary of the wording about the physical in the letter of agreement with the Orioles, Murray Chass offers the following on all of the Ramirez trade rumors:

If Manny Ramirez indeed has changed his mind about wanting to be traded by the Red Sox, he will pull the plug on a journalistic cottage industry that has mushroomed the past couple of months, with its operators breathlessly playing general manager and relentlessly creating multiple-team trades that have strayed far beyond the imaginations of actual general managers. That's probably why general managers are general managers, and reporters are reporters.

One of the things that makes me nervous about Omar as a Mets fan is how little we actually know about his real plans. We keep reading, "Omar wants this, Omar is hot for this guy, etc., but whenever Omar is actually quoted he has the politician's knack for saying absolutely nothing.

The Mets have been notorious over the years for all of the leaks coming out of the organization concerning all of their plans. Rather than silencing these leaks, it appears that the flood of information coming out of their offices is boundless; an overload of information and often completely contradictory statements. One reporter can write that a Manny deal is imminent, another can say that the Mets aren't interested... You get the picture. Nobody really knows what's in Mr. Minaya's head. We really don't know him any better now than we did a year ago.

Food for thought: is Omar a madman or a genius? I'm starting to lean towards the latter.

TCPalm.com: Gary Carter to manage Port St. Lucie
Frank O. Schaeffer reports that Gary Carter, who managed the Mets' low-A team last season, is moving up to manage the high-A St. Lucie Mets this season. Schaeffer quotes the new St. Lucie manager:

I'll be managing in Port St. Lucie this year and I'm looking forward to that. It's one step closer to my goal of getting to the big leagues as a manager.

Carter's ultimate goal is to manage in the majors, whether with the Mets or someone else:

I figure I'll give it a couple of years. Who knows, if I do a good job this year in St. Lucie maybe an opportunity will come next year. Even though I would like to stay in the Mets organization, they have to realize that there are 29 other teams out there.

It's not what you know, but who you know. Look at (Florida Marlins first-year manager) Joe Girardi, he doesn't have any managerial experience, but he sat alongside Joe Torre and (Marlins' owner) Jeffery Loria took an interest and hired him.

Carter replaces fellow '86 Met Tim Teufel at St. Lucie, who is taking a year off from baseball.

St. Petersburg Times: Say it isn't so
D-Rays writer Damian Cristodero offers the following ultimatum to the Mets:

If the Mets really want Baez, they better get serious about letting go of pitcher Aaron Heilman. Speculation Tampa Bay is after second baseman Kaz Matsui apparently is overblown. The Phillies and Braves also want Baez.

Mr. Cristodero doesn't seem to realize that the Mets don't want Baez enough to trade Heilman, hence the Duaner Sanchez deal. As for the Phillies and Braves, it's somewhat revealing that, as bad as they need bullpen help, no deal has been done. I understand that people that follow the Rays are somewhat frustrated with their inability to complete any deals so far this winter, but players like Lugo and Baez will be attractive to teams in-season, too, so the Rays probably feel they can hold out and get more.

AP: Braves still need a closer
Speaking of the Braves bullpen, the AP has an interesting article on all of the options John Schuerholz is considering to close games in 2006.