FanHouse DanWarthen

SAN FRANCISCO -- Even though Randy Johnson was the one who was pitching, catcher Dave Valle still woke up the next day with a sore left shoulder.

Valle, the Mariners' primary catcher in the early '90s, was the man who had to handle Johnson when he was more Wild Thing than Big Unit.

"The fastball would soar up and away (to righties) and if you'd catch it at the wrong angle, it would feel like your arm is going to be pulled out of the socket," Valle told FanHouse. "Then he'd throw that slider down at the back foot. So that was a lot of territory to cover for a catcher ...

"He was a rough day at the office for a catcher. He was throwing 100 mph and didn't have a real good idea where it was going."

Mets GM Omar Minaya cleaned house early this morning, firing manager Willie Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto hours after last night's win in Anaheim.

The news was hardly unexpected, though it's a little surprising to hear that players learned of Randolph's fate via text messages from beat reporters ("WILY WUZ CANNED. LOL!"). Our own Mullet brilliantly satirized Randolph's job security on his personal blog throughout Monday's game, joking that "The Wilpons and Omar Minaya have refused to shoot down the notion that the Mets coaching staff will be replaced by the cast of 'The Hills' for Tuesday night's game."

Instead of Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag, though, Jerry Manuel (Randolph's former bench coach) will take over as the Mets interim manager. He'll be joined on the big league staff by Ken Oberkfell and Dan Warthen, the manager and pitching coach of Triple-A New Orleans, respectively, as well as field coordinator Luis Aguayo. None of these promotions were unexpected.

Now that Minaya has purged the Mets dugout of scapegoats, the only one left to blame is himself. We've already seen on GM get canned this week; is Minaya close behind?

The Willie Randolph saga seems never-ending ... so forgive us if we try to portray it as "finally coming to a head". But the saga may be finally coming to a head ... sort of. From Adam Rubin's blog at the New York Daily News:

Sources have told the Daily News that principal owner Fred Wilpon and chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon have authorized Minaya to fire Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto. Bench coach Jerry Manuel would ascend to manager if Randolph is ousted, while Triple-A New Orleans manager Ken Oberkfell and pitching coach Dan Warthen would join the major league staff.

A team insider speculated that Randolph could survive a first round of firings, saying: "I think the coaches are in trouble. That may be the compromise for now."