Lennon: Promises, promises; Mets didn't deliver

Evidently, Sandy Alomar Sr. and Luis Alicea were not the problem.

A year ago, at the end of a 70-92 season, the Mets' biggest personnel moves involved firing a pair of low-profile coaches. That, combined with a handful of promises, transformed the Mets into a 79-win team. This time, the fallout will be much greater.

When chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon takes the podium today to deliver the season-ending postmortem, the casualty count is expected to include manager Jerry Manuel and general manager Omar Minaya.

In the same room a year ago, Wilpon professed his faith in Manuel and Minaya. By doing so, he set them up as the scapegoats if the Mets failed in 2010.

"We demand better, we expect better and our fans deserve better," he had said. "Ownership is dedicated to delivering a championship-caliber team. We have significant challenges ahead. Omar and Jerry must step up, and we are confident they will."

A year later, it's debatable how much blame Minaya and Manuel deserve for another disappointing year. But as we wait for Wilpon to meet with them on Monday, followed by the Mets' annual mea culpa, let's take a look at how much they delivered on last year's promises.

1. "We'll be providing Omar one of the highest payrolls in all of baseball to address our needs."

Say what you want about how wisely it was invested, but the Mets spent $66 million on Jason Bay last winter, and at roughly $130 million, they had the fifth-highest payroll - third in the NL behind the Cubs and Phillies. Of course, throwing money around doesn't always fix problems. Minaya's contracts to Oliver Perez ($36 million) and Luis Castillo ($24 million) helped to likely nudge him out the door.

2. "We are changing our medical protocols to better treat and prevent injuries."

Because of HIPA laws that don't allow teams to fully disclose medical information about their players, it's almost impossible to determine if the Mets have been negligent in handling injuries. Here's what we do know: The team again was hurt by star players' health issues.

Jose Reyes was delayed by a thyroid issue and struggled to recover from an oblique strain. Johan Santana needed season-ending shoulder surgery after being diagnosed with a pectoral strain. Bay's concussion, first called "mild," cost him nine weeks. Just bad luck? Or something more fundamentally wrong with the organization?

3. "I'm here with the bad news. Hopefully, next year it's Omar and Jerry taking bows and I don't have to be here because I'll step to the side when it's time for that."

This turned out to be wishful thinking on Wilpon's part. Not every team trots out its ownership group at the end of a dismal season to apologize to the fan base, but the Mets - ever sensitive to the ticket-buying public - have turned the "we're sorry" news conference into an annual event, as much a part of the baseball calendar as Opening Day and the All-Star break.

If Wilpon truly wants to "step to the side" and avoid these uncomfortable trips to the podium, he would be wise to hand over the baseball operation to an accomplished executive such as Sandy Alderson or John Hart.

4. "Oh, I know we will be a better team. I know we'll have a better makeup and a better team. If we don't, you'll be talking to somebody else."

At the time, it seemed to be a safe bet by Manuel, considering that 2009 was such an injury-riddled disaster. He was right about one thing, however: From now on, we will be talking to someone else in the manager's chair.