It takes real gall to run a good baseball team, and that’s what Mets manager Willie Randolph showed yesterday. In the decisive game of a weekend series against the team with the best record in baseball, and with a starter seemingly as liable to give up 10 runs as he is to give up none, Randolph dredged the depths of the Mets roster. With tough left-hander Chris Capuano on the mound for Milwaukee, Carlos Delgado sat in favor of a 48-year-old man. The backup catcher started. The bizarre spectacle of Damion Easley, starting second baseman, continued. Endy Chavez, the fourth outfielder, opened the day in the starting lineup. And mystifying Mets fans by the thousands, your starting right fielder was one Carlos Gomez.

In addition to gall, Randolph has proved he has unnatural powers when it comes to the likes of Easley and Chavez, so of course the Mets destroyed the Brewers as Oliver Perez carried a one-hitter into the ninth inning. On a day when Perez went a fair way toward quieting haters who simply can’t believe the Mets may have picked up a legitimate ace last summer in exchange for Xavier Nady, though, the most important story was Gomez. He stroked the ball all over the field, made a wonderful diving catch in right field, stole a base, scored two runs, and looked ready to play outfield for the Mets for a decade.

This shouldn’t really be much of a surprise. Gomez is one of the better outfield prospects around. Mets officials have been crowing about him for years, since he was signed as a 16-year-old displaying ridiculous raw athleticism, but he’s never been hyped as much as he might have been. This is partly because he’s been a level behind Lastings Milledge, a first-round draft pick who’s always done a lot to draw attention to himself, in both good ways and bad, and a level ahead of Fernando Martinez, a freakish prodigy. His minor league statistics have also been superficially unimpressive. Still, a close look at his performance shows he’s probably ready to stay in the big leagues.

You might not think this is true if you look at his minor league numbers. Before his promotion, he was hitting .286 BA/.363 OBA/.414 SLG with 17 stolen bases in 21 attempts. Last year, he hit .281 BA/.350 OBA/.423 SLG with 41 stolen bases in 50 tries. Not only are these not great numbers, but they’re an improvement on how he played earlier in his career. Why, then, did the Mets call him up?

Gomez’s numbers illustrate how important context is in judging a prospect. There is, first, Gomez’s age — he only turned 21 in December. There is also the fact that he’s been playing at high levels. The first batting line above was put up in the Pacific Coast League, which as a whole has hit .272/.345/.420. The second was put up in the Eastern League last year, which as a whole hit .252/.323/.381. While his raw batting lines don’t look all the great, then, you can see that he was a high-end offensive performer in Double A at 20, and he’s so far been an average or slightly above average one in Triple A at 21 — and this after the Mets skipped him over high A ball entirely as part of their policy of aggressively promoting top prospects. It’s very impressive, and as Mets fans should recall when they think of Jose Reyes, the very fact that a prospect is able to hold his own at advanced levels at a young age is a better sign than putting up monster numbers at lower levels would be.

What’s more, Gomez hasn’t come close to his full potential. As he showed in stealing his base yesterday, he’s probably the fastest player in the entire organization — yes, faster than Reyes. His throwing arm is also rated about as well as his speed. When you have an unrefined player with this kind of physical talent holding his own at such a young age, it’s hard to say exactly what he might become — but Gomez gave us a glimpse yesterday, and it was tantalizing.

The Mets have an interesting problem on their hands. Gomez might be major league ready at 21, and he also might be their fourthbest option for center field alone. The guy who plays there now is pretty good. They also have Milledge, and they also have Martinez, who’s an absolute beast. If Gomez gets high marks for doing well in the Eastern League at 20, what exactly do you make of the fact that Martinez, who’s 18 years old, is playing there and hitting better than Gomez? And of course the Mets have a couple of more than solid veterans in Shawn Green and Moises Alou, along with a tremendous fourth outfielder in Endy Chavez. What to do?

Right now, there’s no reason to do much of anything. Gomez is up because of injuries to Alou and Milledge and will assuredly see more action with the New Orleans Zephyrs this year; next year, barring a trade or unforeseen contingencies, he’ll probably move into the roster spot Milledge now occupies, while Milledge graduates to full-time starter status and Martinez moves up to Triple A. Still, with long-term needs at catcher, second base, and first base, and the same voracious need for starting pitching that every team has, it would be unwise for the Mets to hold on to all their outfield talent. Something has to, and will, give, but I don’t envy Omar Minaya’s task of deciding which one of their studs to heave overboard, nor the task of timing the market so as to get the best possible return. Ultimately, though, I envy his competitors far less. David Wright’s struggles this year aside, there’s no reason to think Randolph isn’t going to get the most out of his young flock of center fielders. Imagine a Mets outfield that looks like the left half of their infield, and then think about the giant money spigot the team is building right next to dumpy old Shea Stadium. It almost makes up for Generation K and Alex Escobar.

tmarchman@nysun.com