Beckett to Miss Start
 
Red Sox ace Josh Beckett will miss his only scheduled start this week.
 
The shakeup in the rotation is due Daisuke Matsuzaka's return from a shoulder injury and Bartolo Colon's placement on the disabled list Tuesday. Matsuzaka is slated to start Saturday's game. Jon Lester's start has been moved to Sunday and Beckett will start Monday against Arizona.
 
Sexson May be Released
 
Days after the Mariner’s fired GM Bill Bavasi, Richie Sexson may be the next to be sent packing.
 
The Everett Herald reports the lanky first baseman is likely to be released by the club, possibly as soon as the end of the week. Sexson, who is in the final year of a four-year/$50 M deal, has seen his numbers regress considerably since hitting 39 homers and driving in 121 during his first season with the Mariners.
 
This season, the former All-Star has posted nine homeruns, 23 RBI and a .219 batting average. The M’s recalled catcher Jeff Clement Tuesday to split time behind the plate with Kenji Johjima, who’s also struggled this season. Johjima has reportedly been taking pre-game reps at first base recently.

This writer got it wrong last week when discussing the possible landing place for maligned starting pitcher Sidney Ponson.  I thought that it was safe to eliminate all previous destinations as a possible new home for Ponson but today the New York Yankees signed him to a Minor League deal.  The same New York Yankees that signed him in 2006 -- one week after he was released by the Saint Louis Cardinals.

The 31-year-old Ponson will report to Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre and could soon provide the Yankees with starting pitching depth in the wake of the loss of ace Chien-Ming Wang for at least six weeks.

This season, Ponson is 4-1 with a 3.88 ERA but was exiled from the Rangers after a series of the off-the-field incidents.  No time table was given for a return to the Majors for Ponson and Dan Giese is still set to make his first Major League start on Saturday against the Cincinnati Reds in place of the injured Wang.

Rarely does breaking sports news occur at 3:14 a.m. EDT.  Usually, that time is reserved for the sports news wire to cool down and ESPNEWS to run on a loop.  If you took the shock of owner Robert Irsay's move of the Colts from Baltimore to Indianapolis at 3 AM and the embarrassment of former Dodgers pitcher Dave Stewart being caught in an alley with a transvestite hooker, you have the reaction brewed up from the firing of Willie Randolph on early Tuesday.

There were a number of ways that Mets GM Omar Minaya could have handled the termination of Willie Randolph but public perception indicates that Minaya might have picked the worst possible way to do it -- even if it was "standard procedure."  Who could blame the Mets for terminating Randolph?  They could have done it last year when Randolph's Mets lost 12 of their last 17 games and blew a seven game divisional lead to miss the playoffs.  The Mets could have fired Randolph in mid-May when the team was swept by the Braves.  No one would have been surprised if the Mets fired Randolph after he criticized SNY -- the team's own television network -- and played the race card as a possible reason for him not being in control of the team.  Even if Randolph was fired last Thursday after the team lost six of seven, no one would have blinked an eye.

Instead, on an early Tuesday morning, after the team's second consecutive win, Minaya met Randolph at the team's hotel and verbally handed him the pink slip... then told the world in a 3:15 a.m. EDT press release.  Less than 36 hours after Randolph asked Minaya to fire him if he was going to during a private chat after the Mets split a doubleheader with the Rangers, Minaya "stunned" Randolph by summoning him to his hotel suite in California and informing him that his services would no longer be needed.

In a press conference yesterday, Minaya defended his decision.  He blamed the media circus and the lackluster play of the team.  He claimed the decision was made on Sunday night but he felt he needed to sleep on it to be sure.  In the press conference, Minaya said, "I could not do this on Friday.  I could not do this on Sunday.  The reality is, I made the decision myself after sleeping on it on Sunday.  [The rumors] surrounding this past weekend created a lot of bad pressure.  I didn't think that was healthy for the club.  There's only so much of that that can go on."

The story played out more like Shakespeare's Julius Caesar rather than a managerial firing.  Like Caesar, Randolph had been warned.  Not by Minaya as the GM claims but by the countless media reports and the Shea fans' chants of "Fire Willie!"  Minaya -- Randolph's Brutus -- landed the fatal blow in a way unlike any other manager had been removed from his seat of power and still had the audacity to call Willie a friend.  (Note to Omar: You might want to read Willie's comments when he met the press today detailed on the New York Post's website.)

In firing Randolph the way he did, Minaya added a bigger, better attraction to the circus he had attempted to avert.  Many think the decision was made to fire Randolph away from New York to distance the event from the sometimes vicious New York press.  Today's New York Daily News front page?  "Cowards In The Night" with a picture of Willie Randolph and Daily News writer Bill Madden's words, "Never in the history of New York baseball has there been a more shameful, indecent firing of a manager."  Today's New York Post headline?  "MEET THE MESS."  Throw in amNew York (featuring a quote from our own managing editor, Joe Hamrahi) and the New York Times and New York news readers were treated to over 25 pages of coverage of the "Midnight Massacre."

Now, Randolph -- heavily criticized by the media during his tenure as the Mets manager -- had his Mark Antony.  And based on the fans' reaction to the way the Mets handled the Randolph firing, the already crumbling Mets' empire could be facing darker times.  Unless interim manager Jerry Manuel can turn things around and get the underachieving Mets to play to their potential, the dissenting public voice heard towards Randolph's managerial performance will pale in comparison to the wraith ownership and their GM are already starting to feel.

In the shadows lurk the Wilpons -- the conspirators -- who have allowed Omar Minaya to take most of the collateral damage.  With Minaya's shield removed, the Wilpons could make Minaya next.  It was Minaya who said, "You have to understand that Willie was my hire.  It was my decision to hire Willie, and it was my decision to fire Willie.  I'm responsible too." 

With the bullseye moved from Randolph's back to Minaya's front, it could be the beginning of the end of his tenure as the GM of the other baseball team in New York.  After this, it's doubtful Minaya will get the noble send-off from the media that Brutus received from Mark Antony after his suicide were he to suffer a figuratively similar fate.  Then again, at least Brutus and the conspirators had the courtesy to assassinate Caesar by light of day.