So the Mets have won a couple of games. I even watched Armando do the unthinkable and actually save a game last night. The thing that’s of note though is the people who are playing when they’re winning, Shinjo or Timo Perez in the outfield, this kid Gonzalez they just called up, Vance Wilson behind the plate, Tony Clark at first, Wigginton getting the key hit, Jay Seo starting, Jaime Cerda relieving. All those big signings Steve Phillips made, Cedeno, Vaughn, Cone, Sanchez not really working out the way he probably thought they would. Of course, you couldn’t help but notice over the last week or so, there have been a bunch of stories on the papers, on TV and on the web about Phillips being on the hot seat and in danger of losing his job. Yogi Berra said once “It gets late, early” and the 2003 Mets season is no exception. There’s a lot of dead weight on this team and I for one would feel tremendously better as a fan if the Mets would shed a few of those big contracts (see Vaughn, Alomar, Burnitz and Cedeno) to bring back some younger players. You can be in last place with much less of a payroll (nevermind the second highest payroll in all of baseball after the Yankees). If I owned the team I think I’d be pretty concerned about how Steve Phillips throws money around with abandon. Then again, he seems like a lot of management types I’ve run across in my lifetime in that he plays fast and loose with other people’s money and not his own.