FanHouse Tom Nieto

Headline: COLLUSION!

Barry Bonds is being kept out of baseball, and nobody can understand why. The fans don't understand. They want to see Barry hit the homers! The owners don't understand. Who wouldn't want a great player like Barry Bonds on their team? He has hit so many home runs! The MLBPA doesn't understand. Barry is a loving, pleasant man who brings smiles to faces wherever he goes. So what can it be?

Barry and his agent attempt to figure it all out in today's Dugout, after the jump.

Jose Canseco is a pretty cool guy, right? He did steroids, then wrote a book about how everybody else did steroids, too. He bragged about his boxing prowess and then got trounced in the first round of his Celebrity Boxing exhibition. He's made a post-baseball career out of exploitation and reality shows. And once when I was seven he refused to even look at me when I asked him for an autograph. Blogger remorse!

So with that said, it is with my deepest sincerity that I hope the first question on Canseco's upcoming episode of The Moment of Truth is "Are you a douchebag?" Canseco can answer no and fail right out. Or even funnier, he can answer "yes," THAT answer can be false, and he can go on a journey of self-discovery.

Whatever. Today's Dugout is after the jump.

When the Mets fired Willie Randolph, they also fired something much more important: first base coach Tom Nieto. A week and a half ago Jon authored Remember Tom Nieto, a pulitzer prize-quality Dugout about his exit from the big city and the ridiculousness of firing a guy when his last name is "Nieto." I'm with Jon, I wouldn't fire a guy named "Nieto" if he were in my employ, be he my stock broker, gynecologist, or street sweeper.

But to really remember Tom Nieto we have to explore who Tom Nieto is, so today, with the help of instant messenger logs from the mid-eighties and a heapin' helpin' of CGI, we explore a flashpoint in Tom Nieto's storied career: the day, the one and only single day he shared on the Montreal Expos with Terry Francona.

Remember Tom Nieto as we do, after the jump.

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."