I’m not gonna lie: I was asleep when Fernando Nieve blew the game last night. Put me down for the ol’ WW — wasn’t watching.

I can think of a few reasons Nieve shouldn’t have even been in the game, but I’m going to ignore the one I usually touch on, about how managers should probably use their best relievers in close games rather than manage to a silly stat. I mean, that’s baseball.

Instead, I will argue that Nieve shouldn’t have been in the game because he shouldn’t even be on the Major League team, or, really, any Major League team. Nieve has a 6.00 ERA. He walks too many batters and allows too many home runs. After pitching in 28 games in April and May, Nieve has only been used in 12 games in June and July.

Now maybe the Mets love Nieve’s stuff and really think he’s a better fit for the Major League bullpen than anyone else in their system. But the way Jerry Manuel is using him — or not using him — seems to imply that the Mets are still hanging onto Nieve out of some combination of the vague inertia that often dominates their roster management and the fear that they’ll lose Nieve, who’s out of options, if they attempt to send him to the Minors.

And that’s not really a good reason to keep a guy with a 6.00 ERA in your bullpen if you’re trying to win a pennant this season. If the Mets were rebuilding and thought Nieve was a legit part of their future, sure. But not if they’re actually trying to win.

Especially — especially! — considering that they’re presumably only carrying Oliver Perez in their bullpen because they’re unwilling to swallow sunk costs and set him free, or, alternately, convince him to toil on the Kei Igawa Circuit of world’s richest Triple-A pitchers.

Two of the Mets’ Triple-A starters, Dillon Gee and Pat Misch, would likely upgrade their Major League bullpen right now. Lefty reliever (and former Nat) Mike O’Connor might too.

And another guy — a righty I’ve never before heard of named Manuel Alvarez — has posted a 1.36 ERA with an awesome 7:1 K:BB ratio in 53 innings across three levels this season. I don’t know anything about the guy, there’s not much in his history that indicates he’s this good and he only has 4 1/3 innings above Double-A, but, well, I’m not certain Nieve could dominate Double-A hitters the way Alvarez did. So there’s that, too.

If Manuel and Omar Minaya were so desperate to win earlier this season that they pushed their top starting-pitching prospect into Major League mopup duty, it’s absurd that they should now be carrying multiple players who are not the best fit to help the team win. And you could argue it goes well beyond Perez and Nieve.

The Mets are losing a lot of games, and that sucks. And they’re not necessarily losing games because they’re carrying Perez and Nieve. But those pitchers’ presence on the team speaks to a larger issue in roster optimization that has persisted throughout Minaya’s tenure in Flushing, one that absolutely does contribute to the losing.

David Wright, dressed in his Mets uniform, was weaving his way quickly, and somewhat nervously, through the crowd, adjusting his cap along the way. Some of the fans pointed and told companions who it was. One woman gasped, surprised at the sight of a real player, a star no less, walking by her. Most of the fans just stared, trying to make sense of a player seemingly on his way to buy a hot dog so close to game time.

But minutes later, Wright was the one who was somewhat speechless, honored to be in the presence of one of the greatest players in baseball history, Willie Mays. The get-together before a game between the Giants and the Mets reinforced a growing relationship between the two men, who are separated by background and age (Mays is 79, Wright is 27), but not in their admiration for each other.

– David Waldstein, New York Times.

Good read from Waldstein on Wright’s burgeoning friendship with Willie Mays.