The Newark Star-Ledger’s David Waldstein handicaps the Mets’ free-agent options. In addition to Carlos Beltran, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Delgado and Carl Pavano, Waldstein makes the following assessment of 1B Richie Sexson.

He could fit in well except for a couple of things. He’s also coming off an injury — he dislocated his left shoulder and tore a muscle in there and his season ended after only 90 at-bats. But it was kind of a freak injury, so there shouldn’t be lingering problems. If he’s healthy, he can hit the ball a very long way and would be expected to produce 30 home runs and 100 RBIs. But his swing has holes and he might be better suited to the AL. An okay defensive player, but he makes a great target at first base.

Over at the NY Post, Phil Mushnick takes time out from his Francesca/Russo bashing to note that the Bombastic Brothers might not be out to lunch where their criticisms of new Mets manager Willie Randolph are concerned.

There’s a man of high baseball regard affiliated with the Yankees who a couple of seasons back told us that Randolph had been given the inside nickname “Wave-’em-Home Willie” in sarcastic recognition of his inability to quickly and correctly assess circumstances.

We told him that we noticed, halfway through this particular season, that Yankees base runners, as they ran toward third, instead of looking to Randolph for instructions, had begun to look over their right shoulder to see where the ball was in the outfield so they could measure the stick-or-stay situation for themselves.

He said he noticed the same thing, long before we had. He added that Yankees runners were not merely worried about being thrown out at the plate, they were afraid of being injured in a collision with the catcher at the plate, or worse, being injured in a collision with the catcher up the third-base line.

This man wished not to be quoted, not only because he didn’t want to make waves, but also because he likes Randolph; he didn’t want to hurt his feelings. And because he knows his opinion is respected, he didn’t, in any way, want to hurt Randolph’s chances to be a manager.

Does that mean Randolph was a poor choice to manage the Mets? Maybe. Who knows? We’ve been told Bear Bryant couldn’t name 10 guys on any of his ‘Bama football teams, but he was a king at selecting assistant coaches, a champ at delegating authority.

I’m not sure if I undertand Phil’s point. If he thought the Mets should’ve interviewed the late coach Bryant, perhaps he should’ve suggested it a long time ago?