Sorry but I’m trying to avoid the ubiquitous “getting the band back together” reference, even though Blues Brothers is a much better movie. Anyway:

The Mets hired Paul DePodesta today to be their Vice President of Player Development and Amateur Scouting. Cool.

The press release says this:

“Paul has one of the top analytical minds in the game and also has a strong background in more traditional aspects of player development and amateur scouting,” said Alderson.  “He will help establish direction, standards and continuity in all areas of our player development domestically and internationally.  Paul -– working together with J.P. Ricciardi and John Ricco -– also will advise me generally on other matters related to baseball operations.”

Alderson and DePodesta worked together in San Diego for two-and-a-half years.  DePodesta joined the Padres in July 2006 as a Special Assistant for Baseball Operations before being promoted to Executive Vice President in November 2008.

“I am thrilled to reunite with Sandy during this exciting time for the Mets,” said the 37-year-old DePodesta.  “I know first-hand the type of vision and leadership he brings to a franchise.  This is a tremendous opportunity to help develop a winning culture for the Mets and our fans.”

I’m getting a lot of email and reading a lot of blog posts telling me exactly what direction the Mets’ should go with their managerial search, but I’m struggling to muster up much passion on the subject. I already endorsed Tim Bogar. Doesn’t sound like that’s happening.

Here’s the thing: If we accept that 1) A Major League manager’s success has a lot more to do with the talent on his roster than his actual in-game managing and 2) Different leadership styles resonate in different ways with different people, then it’s difficult to eliminate any candidate just based on his past performance.

Bobby Valentine could hardly get out of third place when he managed the Rangers in the late 80s and early 90s, and Joe Torre entered his tenure with the Yankees with a career managerial record of 894-1003. Did they learn something from those stints that helped them in New York? It’s certainly possible. Or maybe they just had better teams and/or players more open to their motivation.

Who knows what the Mets will need for 2011 and beyond? Perhaps they’d respond to the fiery buntsmanship of Wally Backman or the calm prodding of Bob Melvin. Most likely the difference wouldn’t make a difference of more than a win or two in any case, since most Major Leaguers tend to be pretty apt self-motivators, what with making the Major Leagues and all.

What I’m certain of is that associating candidates with former bosses is a blisteringly bad way to evaluate them. So Terry Collins worked for Omar Minaya. So Chip Hale worked for Jerry Manuel. Who cares? George Washington worked for someone named Robert Dinwiddie once. Did the Continental Congress hesitate to name him Commander-in-Chief because they didn’t want “another Dinwiddie guy”?

Also, just because someone has one quality in common with a former Mets manager does not necessarily make him a bad choice to manage the current Mets.

Though it’s not at all surprising, it’s still kind of amazing the way the media and blogosphere work. Like three weeks ago, everyone seemed certain Sandy Alderson was the right choice for the Mets’ GM spot. Now that he’s faced with his first big decisions, all the same people want to doubt him and assume he’s moving in the wrong direction. Huh?

I mean, it strikes me that the best way to determine the best possible manager from the available candidates would be to sit down and talk with them all a bit: See who’s on board with the organizational philosophy and whose personality seems like it would appeal to the players and media.You know, some sort of interview process.

So you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t get all huffy about the Mets’ new manager, whoever it may be. I’ll wait until June for that, when I have a much better sense of exactly how he’ll be pissing us off. Until then, I’m going to try out having faith in the Mets’ front office for the first time this millenium, and just sort of assume that Alderson is doing a more thorough vetting of the potential candidates than anyone else will.

Mets clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels is under investigation by the NYPD and the Queens District Attorney’s office for allegedly betting on baseball and other sports as part of an organized gambling ring, providing inside information and tips for friends who also placed bets on games and for using his Mets accounts to cover gambling debts, according to law-enforcement sources close to the probe into the longtime Mets employee….

Samuels, who has not been arrested, is believed to have told Major League Baseball that he bet on baseball games, a strict violation of baseball rules. Samuels, the Mets’ clubhouse manager for 27 seasons, was described by a source as a “spider who sat in the middle of a money web,” a man who earned about $80,000 a year from the Mets but whose tax returns showed about $600,000 to $700,000 in income. He has homes in Huntington, L.I., and Port St. Lucie.

– New York Daily News.

If you’re looking for a way to get canned from your job in Major League Baseball right quick, bet on some baseball games. The league and its teams take gambling very, very seriously, and for good reason: Any threat of a fixed outcome would severely jeopardize the integrity of the sport, which is predicated on the notion that both teams are always trying to win. I’ve written before that gambling in sports is potentially worse than steroids, since for all the bluster about performance-enhancing drugs, they’re used in the effort to better the player and help the team win.

No one has suggested that Samuels tried to fix any games or anything like that, but it’s impossible to fault the Mets for not taking chances (and I don’t think anyone has). No one with that much access to the players should ever be so caught up in high-stakes gambling, and Major League Baseball is vigilant about it. This is why I have no sympathy for Pete Rose: It is made abundantly clear to all players, coaches and managers that you do not bet on baseball games.

Gambling problems are a sad and terrifying thing, and if Samuels is addicted, I hope he finds help. But he probably should not be allowed back into a Major League clubhouse anytime soon.

One note, though — the Daily News story makes it sound vaguely like Samuels is raking in $520,000 to $620,000 a year through gambling, and that’s almost certainly not the case. Clubhouse personnel earn the large part of their wages through tips at the end of each season, and a figure as popular and important to the team as Samuels probably gets a ton of them.

That’s right, the Mets did a bit of roster housekeeping today and dispatched Extra-Base Omir, Eddie Kunz, Jesus Feliciano, Raul Valdes and Mike Hessman from their 40-man roster.

All have been assigned to Triple-A Buffalo. Presumably Hessman has long since been institutionalized in Triple-A — like the characters in Shawshank Redemption — and hit so poorly in his 55 at-bat stint with the Mets on purpose so he could get back to the familiar confines of the International League, where he has starred since 2002.

I still think Raul Valdes might make for a passable bullpen arm. His ERA and struggles with Major League lefties seem to suggest otherwise.

Predictably, Joaquin Arias was claimed off waivers by the Royals, meaning the Joaquin Arias Era in Flushing is over. Long Live Joaquin Arias!

The Mets now have 34 players on their 40-man roster, which gives them flexibility to add any additional Minor Leaguers they feel need protection from the Rule 5 draft.

The Mets picked up Jose Reyes’ $11 million option yesterday, a no-brainer. Mike Lupica seems to think otherwise, as does at least one reader of this site. But Fangraphs valued Reyes at slightly over $11 million even last year, when he straight-up sucked for the better part of two months after returning from his thyroid issue.

People seem to think shortstops who can adequately field the position and hit a little bit grow on trees. They don’t. Even in 2010 — undoubtedly a down year statistically — Reyes ranked fifth among Major League shortstops in OPS and fourth in wOBA.

Reyes is worth $11 million even if he performs only as well as he did last season, and way, way more if he produces like he did from 2006 to 2008. Certainly there exists the risk of injury, and if Reyes is going to post a .322 on-base percentage he shouldn’t be hitting leadoff.

But the investment now buys the Mets time to determine how much they’re willing to offer on a long-term extension, plus it’s not like there are any better in-house options laying in wait.

The more interesting roster move, I think, is a minor one: The Mets added Minor League reliever Manuel Alvarez to the 40-man roster, presumably to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft.

That’s good. I mentioned Alvarez a couple times here while wading through the Mets’ bullpen issues. I can’t say I know a damn thing about the guy except that he absolutely dominated High-A and Double-A hitters in 2010.

For the season — including a six-inning stint at Triple-A — the 24-year-old Venezuelan posted a 2.17 ERA and struck out 84 batters in 78 2/3 innings while walking only 12. That’s a near Cliff-Leeian 7:1 K:BB ratio, the type of performance that suggests he could probably contribute to a Major League bullpen soon.

Alvarez did not pitch well at all in his first four Minor League seasons, but the stats suggest he made some sort of adjustment before his 2010 campaign. Toby Hyde described him as a four-pitch pitcher in a post in July, so I wonder if Alvarez added or improved one of those offerings in the offseason. Whatever it was, it worked.

Perhaps Alvarez succumbs to the same fate as Carlos Muniz, drifting between Triple-A and the Majors for a little bit before suffering the inevitable injury setbacks, but if the Mets are hoping to be more careful about letting valuable arms like Heath Bell slip away, protecting Alvarez is a nice first step. Bell’s Minor League peripherals — especially once he hit age 24 — were about as impressive as Alvarez’s, but, of course, he lacked Jon Adkins’ Major League pedigree.