Mets’ Small All-Star Cast Reflects Dismal Season

Every manager who fills out an All-Star team is viewed with a measure of suspicion when it comes to considering one of his own.

Everyone knows he can’t be totally objective. Everyone knows which way the manager will lean in a virtual coin toss.

But when it came to completing this year’s National League roster, turns out Bobby Valentine didn’t have to sweat much.

For the first time in a season gone haywire, the New York Mets made it easy on him.

They spared him any close calls.

There was no reason for Valentine to fret over using Edgardo Alfonzo to spell the San Francisco Giants’ Jeff Kent, or compare Robin Ventura’s average with Albert Pujols’ of the St. Louis Cardinals, or weigh the won-lost records of Al Leiter and the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Curt Schilling. After rummaging through his own clubhouse to find deserving All-Star reserves, Valentine came to a quick, logical and rather painful conclusion: Less is better.

The reason the Mets are stuck in fourth place after reaching the World Series last October can be found in the NL roster for this year’s midseason classic. Their own manager didn’t have enough good excuses to squeeze in a handful of Mets. Their own manager wasn’t even presented with a few judgment calls.

While New York Yankees Manager Joe Torre was busy painting the American League team in pinstripes, Valentine was wondering where all the Mets were.

“I wanted to bring every guy on my team,” Valentine said, half-jokingly. “I did. I brought six of them. They’re all coaches.”

Mike Piazza and his bum toe was chosen to start by the fans. Rick Reed, a far better pitcher than his 7-4 record suggests, was picked by Valentine. And that, Mets fans, is it.

“I apologized to my guys who were a little less deserving than guys on the other teams,” Valentine said.

A little less deserving? Actually, the Mets are 11 games under .500 partly because not enough convinced Valentine they were deserving.

Certainly not the injury-plagued Alfonzo, who should’ve been a toss-in. Three months after opening day, he still can’t find a groove at the plate. He’s Exhibit A when it comes to dissecting the Mets’ inability to hit and drive in runs. For a player who was on the same level as Roberto Alomar a year ago, Alfonzo is showing no signs of cracking .300 anytime soon.

Ventura’s numbers are actually decent, and he’s the Mets’ most reliable hitter after Piazza. Still, Ventura’s the same as he was with the White Sox, nothing more or less, a player who’s consistently productive but never accused of being among the elite third basemen.

Leiter would be an All-Star if he had any run support. But on this year’s Mets team, as Reed knows, you almost have to go seven shutout innings per start. After saving his 17th game in 17 chances in Wednesday’s 2-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs, Armando Benitez would’ve been chosen for the All-Star Game, according to Valentine, but begged off to rest a sore right knee.

Actually, the Mets would have had a third All-Star. But Mike Hampton will wear a Colorado Rockies cap next week in Seattle.

The Mets’ two-man contingent will be dwarfed by the Yankees, who’ll send seven. You could nitpick Torre’s choice of Derek Jeter, who’s hitting slightly below his standards. Yet the point is, the Yankees who were supposed to be All-Stars are indeed All-Stars. They aren’t underachieving like so many of the Mets. They gave their manager enough excuses to justify being selected.

Right now, the Mets are mostly giving Valentine a good performance every fourth game. As the calendar flips to July, we find them closer to the bottom than the top and unable to make up ground on the leaders. The same problems that put the Mets in this position are still pummeling the club as we speak. They beat the Cubs Wednesday despite their offense, which could muster only two runs and were bailed out by seven strong innings from Glendon Rusch and three strikeouts by Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa.

In a stat that captures the Mets’ season, their starting pitchers have a 1.50 ERA in the last six games, but the Mets have won only three of them.

Therefore, given the responsibility of choosing the All-Star reserves, Valentine’s headaches were created by players from outside his clubhouse. All the close calls involved other players, not his own. That made for not only a tough job, but in some ways, a depressing one.

“I wish I could’ve taken a lot more of my guys, I’ll tell you that,” Valentine said.

Load up the NL team with Mets? That would’ve been cause for an investigation.