Posted by
ChrisR on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 2:58:24 PM
GREAT NEWS! Remember about a month or 6 weeks ago I made a promise not to discuss the Mets at length until Willie Randolph was fired? Well great news! Willie Randolph was fired! So here comes all of that bent up frustration watching a $138million .500 team! ucky readers!
But first, recognizing that not everyone cares as much asbout the Mets coaching situation as I do, I will start with a semi-normal blog post, then go on my rant.
In Paraguay: "a couple jailed on suspicion of having a same-sex wedding were freed Monday after a doctor determined that the groom was a hemaphrodite." Oh, of course. It was so simple.
Are Indian (and other South-Asian) kids better spellers? or just better at spelling bees? Seriously,
who paid to research this?
BBC reports that gay men have brains that more closely resemble heterosexual women; lesbians have brains that resemble men.
I think the BBC just sits around a board room table and says "I think we should conduct a study on.... " and does.
Today is the anniversary of the
Watergate burglars' arrest. What a bunch of morons. Why'd they get caught? Not because they weren't smooth enough, etc etc. It was because they - yes this is true - forgot to remove the piece of tape from the door which held it open. During the test run the day before, they put a piece of tape over the part of the door that would lock it, and forgot to take it off the next day. A security guard found it, thought it was strange, but whatever. The next night, he saw the same thing, and raised on eyebrow. Then called the police and caught the burglars. Seriously. The biggest scandal in American history was caught because of, literally, complete stupidity.
And on that note, remember this awesome commercial? I do. Especially because of the purple stuff.
And now: part II of this post. The Mets.
Willie Randolph was fired today. I am thrilled. I don't think Willie is a bad guy. For 2 1/2 years, I didn't think he was even that bad of a manager. He took a team that was absolutely miserable and made them an 83-79 team in his first year. The next year, the Mets win 97 games and are one fluke homerun (stupid Yadier Molina) from the World Series. Big time first half in 2007, then comes mid-summer. The Mets start to struggle. Willie insists on stuffing 10,000 year old Julio Franco down our throats in every pinch hitting situation, despite his incredible .160 average, The bullpen starts to fall apart from overwork. Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, El Duque are all onthe DL at the same time. John Maine is getting tired due to his innings overwork, and it shows. Wagner goes throuhg a dead-arm period. Mike Pelfrey can't live up to the hype. The Mets suddenly can't get their starters through 5 innings, the bullpen is destroyed from overwork, and they lose a 7 game lead over the last 17 games of the year. Morale is terrible. Then, we sign Johan Santana.
This should have been the turning point. Too bad it wasn't. This team is worth $138million this season. So what's the problem? Why are they 2 games under .500? Is it the starting pitching? Maybe. Oliver Perez is stinkling up the joint, El Duque hasn't had a single pitch yet, Pedro has 3 starts in 3 months and Mike Pelfrey is struggling mightily. But is this staff really that bad?
On the other hand, the bullpen has blown 13 saves. THIRTEEN! And that's just games where there are more outs to be made than there are potential at-bats to tie. For example, 3 runs to start the ninth inning (since there are 3 outs needed to prevent a tie). Not all of these are on Billy Wagner, but 5 are. In the same light, this does not count tie games blown by the bullpen, or close games that become blowouts because of the bullpen. If the bullpen changes its fortunes by even 1/2, then the Mets are a first place team.
The offense stinks. They are 20th in the majors in average and 20th in slugging. Reyes is "underwhelming", Wright and Beltran are yet to heat up. Ryan Church, our first-half MVP has been on the DL twice for extended time. This is one of the major problems - Castillo, Delgado, Chavez, Schneider and the pitcher are automatic outs in every single day's play. Alou has played 12 games (and 5 innings!) this entire year. He offered stability and protection for Wright and Beltran. Last night's lineup, for example, went like this. Reyes, Castillo, Wright, Beltran, Delgado, Marlon Anderson, Trot Nixon, Brian Schneider, Endy Chavez, Mike Pelfrey. I count 3 guys in that lineup hitting over .270. That's not acceptable. How do you score runs when there is such a low probability of getting hits? But how is this Willie's fault?
Willie is at fault for not recognizing this. Much in the same way that he shoved Julio Franco down our throats last summer, he is doing it with these players. I don't care about contracts and who makes how much money. Delgado should be platooned agains lefties - he is batting .229 again. Or, for your SABR-metrics nerds - he has an OBP of .273 against lefties. This is not a guy who should face lefties. Willie, though, refuses to take action.
In the absence of Alou and Church, Anderson, Nixon and Chavez will have to do. Not an ideal rotation of players, but this is an extreme circumstance. Willie gets a pass on this.
In the catcher spot, when it's obvious that you could use a decent bat, Willie insists on using Brian Schneider. Yes, Schneider is the starter, but he is clearly in there for his defense. But with only 3 "boppers" in the lineup, how do you expect to score any runs? His defense isn't worth what is lost in offense when the lineup is this depleted. Willie's complete non-recognition of this is his fault. As is the fact that Schneider has played 45 of the teams 69 games, including an 8 game DL stint where he COULDN'T play. So in 61 games of availability, Schneider has played 45. That's fine when the lineup is at full stregnth. But when the Mets are in dire straights for offense, Ramon Castro should be playing. Willie, you are at fault for not making a better lineup.
I also fault Willie for bad decisions when it comes to pinch hitting. Why is Endy Chavez pinch hitting ever? He is a defensive replacement, not offensive. Why did Nick Evans get the "primary" pinch-hitting duties when he was called up? The guy is a double A player who couldn't catch up to anything in the majors. At least Tatis has shown the ability to get hits at this level, yet he has a grand total of 6 pinch hit appearances this season (and hits in 3 of those). Another example of terrible in-game managing: this past weekend, Pedro is lifted with the bases loaded for a pinch hitter. A fair move. But then Willie brings up Robinson Cancel, a backup catcher called up from AAA this week? Not Ramon Castro, a major league quality bat, who has 2 consecutive seasons of an OPS over .800. No - Cancel, who had not had a major league hit in 9 years. Did it work out? Yes. Was it a terrible move? Yes. The ends do not justify the means - Castro was the man to go up in this situation, not Cancel.
Then, there's the bullpen. Willie has, quite simply, no clue how to use a bullpen. Take, for example, this year. Aaron Heilman is brought in in high-leverage situations, and deserves to do so with his ERA over 6. 33 appearances - meaning he is coming in just about every other game, to literally ensure that the Mets will have no chance to win. Earlier in the year, he did the same thing with Jorge Sosa - ERA over 6, with 20+ appearances before Omar Minaya cut him loose. Why has Scott Schoenweiss been used 16 times in 20 days (18 games)? Yes, Schoenweiss has been great, but after seeing the products of an over-worked bullpen last season, why not spread the appearances around? Pedro Feliciano is just as effective - if not moreso - against lefties, but is used far less. Joe Smith is dominant against right-handed hitters, but does not have nearly the number of appearances. Willie gets favorites and plays them until they can't stand anymore. Then he plays them some more.
Are Wagner's 5 blown saves (including 3 in a row last week) Willie's fault? No. But on Day 3, after 2 straight blown saves, when Wagner comes in and gives up a walk, another walk, and a double, shouldn't the manager take him out? No no, says Randolph, this is the prime time for a closer to work through his struggles. This is Willie's problem - he gets in his head that his proven veterans are infallible - whether it be Wagner or Delgado or Franco or Heilman - there is no reason these guys can't perform at the highest level (even if they have proven otherwise).
Don't forget about Willie's non-belief in the long reliever. His refusal to utilize a long-man is speeding up the murder of his bullpen. Last year, Aaron Sele was so seldom used you would forget he was on the team. This year, there really is not long guy. Relievers under Randolph never go beyond 2 innings - which can spell disaster if your starter is lifted in the 2nd inning. Willie is too stubborn and stuck in the old-school for his own good.
But Chris, you say, Omar Minaya is the one who put this team together! He is to blame for this mess! ...And you may be right. However, Willie has proven himself to be a below-average in-game manager who is actully costing his team games at this point. This isn't even that the manager is not contributing to the success of the team - no, he is actively detrimental. It's not necessarily his laid back attitude, either. It's the fact that he is, plain and simple, a bad manager. Yes, Omar is now on the hot seat. Too many aging stars signed to big, long-term deals. But since he and Willie were brought in together, the owners of the Mets have made a statement that they want to see what Omar's team can do without Willie - a very fair assessment given Willie's record. He had 1 great season in 4 years. He is being replaced by Jerry Manuel, also of the laid-back persuasion, who had 1 great year in his 5 years at the helm of the Chicago White Sox. The major difference, though, is that that team did not have a $138 million payroll. If Willie, at his absolute best, can squeeze 97 wins out of this roster, then maybe Manuel, who squeezed 97 wins out a far less talented team, can do much better. At the very least, it was time for a change.
The three major questions surrounding the Randolph firing are these: did Willie need to be fired? Will his firing improve the Mets? And Was his firing handled properly?
The answer to #1 is obviously yes, he needed to go.
Second, the answer is maybe. But clearly Willie wasn't getting the job done, so they can do no worse.
And third, no, his firing was not handled properly. A press release sent out at 3:15am after a win and on a west coast trip is not properly handled.
However, it should be noted, to have handled it properly, Willie should have been fired back in May. Just because the team goes on a winning streak does not mean that the manager is doing a good job. Three times now Willie was on the verge of being axed but saved his job with a short winning streak. Unacceptable. When should Willie have been fired? Immediately after the stupid race comments. First telling reporters from the TV station owned by the team that they are being too hard on him - ridiculous. Follow that by saying that they are being too hard on you because of race? Get the F out of my franchise. He should have no longer been welcome to even put Mets on his resume with that statement. He has disgraced the history of the team, its fans, its owners, and SNY - the TV station owned by the Wilpons. Does he seriously believe this? I hope to God not. Nobody can be this delusional. Maybe it was that Willie was a bad manager? No no, the cop-out for poor performance is to blame race. To even make this claim makes me literally sick, as a lifelong Mets fan. For those fans who claim that race had ANYTHING to do with this - pure and simple - you are wrong. Race is a non-issue, especially in a city as diverse as New York. Funny- race was never an issue when Willie was winning. But once he was exposed to be a poor manager, suddenly there is hyper-criticism because of the color of his skin. I used to like Willie Randolph, if not as a manager, than at least I knew he was good person who meant well. Now, I have no respect at all for him.
The root of Willie's problems was his performance. He was not good enough. Below .500 is not acceptable on the heels of last year's collapse. The problem is that Willie is the protege of another bad in-game manager, Joe Torre. Torre has succeeded in 1 managing job in his career, and was wildly successful. He also had arguably the greatest conglomeration of talent and money backing him in the last 3 decades. I'm sure was a complete non-factor.
Speaking of performance, pitching coach Rick Peterson was also fired. Another one - good. But he's white, so it must have REALLY been bad. Peterson came over from Oakland having produced one of the best young staffs in baseball - Zito, Mulder, Hudson. Now, his legacy is tainted. Did he help Oliver Perez control himself? For 2007, yes. Did he turn John Maine into a very good starter? Yes. Did he do anything for Pedro, Duque, or Johan? No. Has he been a major factor in the success of Mike Pelfrey? Or has he held him back from success? Peterson is a fastball - slider guy, and wants everyone to be that way. The curve has been completely erradicated from the Mets system - every pitcher must throw fastball - slider. Is this good for a staff, having every pitcher throw the same repetoire? Changing a young pitcher's natural pitch for one that he thinks will work better (but never develops)? Are these necessarily good things for an organization? No. Has Peterson done anything to develop new stars, outside of Maine (since Oliver had already proven himself in the majors before Peterson)? No. Has anyone in the bullpen succeeded in 5 1/2 years of Peterson? No. The biggest product of Rick Peterson is probably Scott Kazmir, but that could also be credited to the Rays developmental system. Victor Zambrano, Kaz Ishii, Jae Seo, Mike Pelfrey, 2008 Oliver Perez, Chan Ho Park, Kris Benson ... these are guys who came over with expectations who vastly under-performed. All of them were under Peterson's watchful eye.
The Mets needed a shake-up, to put it bluntly. There is no excuse for performing that badly with so much talent. Willie Randolph is public enemy #1. If this team does not turn it around, Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya will both be cut in the off-season. This managerial job is Ken Oberkfell's to have. Watch for it.