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The Times' Jay Schreiber wants your help to help the Mets:

Does anyone have any suggestions for the woebegone Mets?

Send Daniel Murphy back to the minor leagues so that he can actually learn to play a position rather than engage in this somewhat comical on-the-job training?

Send 20-year-old Fernando Martinez with him, so that he will stop being cannon fodder for a team that should have had other options when players got hurt?

Trade for Nick Johnson? Activate Howard Johnson? Let K-Rod pinch-hit a few times to see if he can get a run batted in to match Mariano Rivera's?

I included those last two because they're funny, but all the others are perfectly reasonable suggestions. Early in the season, I wrote that the Mets weren't handling Murphy with any sort of grace, and earlier this month I wrote that Martinez really isn't ready to help the big club.

On the other hand, I didn't think Gary Sheffield had anything to offer the Mets, and he's been one of the few bright spots. I didn't think Livan Hernandez could help much at all, and he's got a 4.04 ERA in 15 starts. Francisco Rodriguez has been fantastic.

The Mets are just 37-37 largely because Carlos Delgado and Jose Reyes have been hurt, and because Oliver Perez has been lousier than anyone could possibly have imagined. I mean, sure the Perez contract was silly -- no, he's not the new Sandy Koufax -- but did even the most skeptical of skeptics think he'd have one win and a 9.97 ERA in late June?

I don't mean to excuse Omar Minaya. He didn't have a great winter. But the Mets were the best team in their division in March, and it's worth remembering that now. If they're still sitting at .500 in three months, maybe we can revisit the issue.