|
|
|
At MLB.com, columnist Jim Molony lists Willie Randolph and Tom La Russa as darkhorses, behind Bob Melvin, Bud Black and Ned Yost, in the race for the National League’s Manager of the Year.
…it has to be melvin…no way around it…
John Maine, talking to reporters, regarding Randolph’s visit to the mound during a crucial spot in last night’s game, said…
“I love when Willie comes out there. He always seems to know the right thing to say to me.”
…i think we all know where willie struggles, but it’s these situations in which he succeeds…
…actually, last week, while talking to WFAN, Astros manager Cecil Cooper told the show’s host that he tries to model himself after willie, because of the way he carries himself in the dugout and motivates his team to play so hard every night, all year long…
…i know i get criticized for not criticizing willie enough…
…but, to me, the manager is so overrated that i just don’t pay close enough attention to what he is or isn’t doing…for every decision that i assume to be black or white, odds are good that i just am not aware of all the grays…so why point fingers…as i’ll just be guessing at that point any way…
…what i do know is that the Mets win more times than not…they win when they’re hurt…they win when they’re short-handed…they win with a below-average pen…and they’re about to win back-to-back divisions for the first time ever…so, overall, it’s just hard for me to get all worked up over a pitching change, or a lineup move here and there, when his team continues to fight for him, play hard, and it continues to win…i’m not saying willie is perfect…not by a long shot…but he wins, and that’s the point…how he gets there is irrelevant to me…
…stop winning, and, believe me, things will change…just like they did with Art Howe, who i complained about relentlessly…
…until then, though, i’m content with just having fun, while enjoying the show…
…i hope you are, as well, because nothing lasts forever…
 |
 |
 |
RSS 2.0 Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Ned Yost should be manager of the year. I know he has the hitting talent that Melvin doesn’t, but he got a lot out of a young Brewers team with little starting pitching.
Has anyone heard if they have won the chance to purchase NLDS tickets? I think we’re supposed to find out today.
Thanks.
Last year they didn’t tell anyone until after 6pm.
As for Willie..sometimes things bother me, like last night with Mota, but watching him last year manage completely differently when it managed, Iwas very happy overall. I hope last night was yet another sign that he won’t use Mota in the postseason. I’m happy with Willie, and I don’t think you should feel any pressure to kill a manager that’s been one of the top managers the Mets have ever had. (we’ve never won a division title twice in a row before, and on Valentine’s made the playoffs back to back years)
My son was a winner in the ticket lottery. He received the e-mail message at about 4:40PM.
Last year, they didn’t alert anyone until around 6-7pm.
I’m not holding my breath….I won tix to the NLCS Game 2 and had my heart broken by Mota. But hey, it was a GREAT time! Hope I get to go again.
I don’t know, I read a pretty convincing argument against Willie over at WhoIsWrong.com….
http://whoiswrong.com/view-case/143/willie_randolph_must_go/
Basically you can’t argue with the Mota rant. And with Franco, no harm no foul, but, like Matt said, if the Mets weren’t in first you can be sure these would be isues….
At the time, I didn’t like that Willie brought in Mota more often than not, but in retrospect, it wasn’t such a bad idea. He does have explosive stuff. What he lacks are consistency and the ability to handle pressure situations. Willie needed to bring him in those situations to prepare him for October, when there’s constant pressure. He has been better of late (his September ERA is 1.69 with only one walk in 5.1 innings) and he almost was able to save the inning last night…
Let’s face it…Willie had leeway. The Mets have been in 1st all season. Maybe he plays it differently if the Phils or Braves catch up in June/July.
That’s one of the worst columns I have ever read.
1) Anyone who has been paying attention to the news knows that Franco was Omar’s boy. Not Willlie’s. Willie used Franco because he was supposedly the #1 righthanded pinchhitter off the bench and was being paid like one, Franco complained to Willie about not being used more, and the only way to get him off the team was to show Omar that he was washed up.
2) Willie does not bring Mota into “every big game” and uses him because if he doesn’t he’ll be overusing others who have been used enough this year. Smith, Feliciano, and Wagner all have had fatigued arms this year. Want more of the same or worse?
3) This is the topper. This dunce of a writer blames Willie for the poor performances of just about every met including Delgado and Schoeneweis. Worse he stupidly says “Schoeneweis was awesome in Anaheim.” Huh? :roll: With the Angels his cumulative ERA is over 5.00! What weed is the writer smoking? Some powerful stuff!
Or maybe that was written by a grade school kid?
Good points. The question is, if it was a close race, would Willie have still played the Franco game?
And, if by some miracle, this were to become a race at the end, would anyone look back at all those games where Franco was inserted in tight spots? It probably would have been better to just bury Franco than take that risk.
then you don’t get marlon anderson & jeff conine
True, but to be fair, has Jeff Conine done anything? I know he’s a veteran presence, but so far he has looked pretty pathetic at the plate.
I think Willie more or less plays the Franco game regardless. Because if he didn’t, you’d now be looking at Franco on the team and probably being on the postseason roster.. Do you really think Omar would have DFA’d him if he had been buried by Willie? I don’t. He would simply tell Willie to play him more in the mistaken belief that Franco had something left. So in essence, if games were sacrificed in the early part of the year, it was for the long-term and greater good of the team. And if the Mets lost out on the postseason, I’d probably be looking more at Mota and Schoeneweis than what Franco did or didn’t do off the bench.
Also, as mookie points out, if they don’t get rid of Franco, then we likely don’t have Marlon who has been one of the brightest lights in the second half and will probably be a good presence and bat in the postseason.
you’re right, conine has done nothing, and may not even make the post season roster, but Marlon has been a serious force … and you know he only came cuz he wanted to play for Willie
I can’t envision a scenario where Conine doesn’t make the roster. I know there’s talk of Gomez, but that’s probably at the expense of Sele or someone.
Conine sucks! Why the hell has willie started him at first base instead of green? Even against lefties I rather take my chances with green. Conine looks like he does not even want to be here. Omar made a bad move here too getting another washed up guy ready to retire. He has looked pathetic at the plate…..
You thought THAT was a compelling argument?
You have low standards…
It took Willie a lot of interviews to finally land a Major League managers gig, and I think he proved a lot of people wrong. The guy can manage million-dollar ballplayers like few managers can, and get them to play as a team.
Yeah, they were pretty lackluster from May-June and other parts of July, but the injuries created a lot of distractions and they couldn’t really get any continuity going.
It ain’t where you start, it’s where you finish!
look, these awards are dumb. the voters are dinosaurs who still use wins as the deciding factor in cy young voting and still just look at homers and rbis to determine mvp. that said, manny acta is very clearly the manager of the year in the NL. every preseason projection had the nats losing somewhere in the neighborhood of 105-120 games. plus, acta (and his staff) actually use statistical analysis and has sound reasoning behind his decisions. he doesnt just manage “from the gut.” it’s a no-brainer.
he wont win though.
Why does the use of statistical analysis mean anything in determining the manager of the year (or whether a manager is any good)?
And how else do you measure the MOY other than wins?
I do, however, agree that Acta should win the manager of the year award because the team that most out-performed expectations based on the roster has been the Nationals and I can’t think of any way to objectively determine the MOY other than that.
It took awhle for this team to get its feet under them….there were definitely chemistry issues in that clubhouse, but the team never fell out of first place despite all of it.
We got spoiled last year….it was nice to see that, for a change, the Mets won a division title and had to fight for it. Typically, the Mets win division titles in runaway fashion (see 1969, 1986, 2006), although 1973 was pretty tight.
I hope that was sarcasm about 1973 or I hope you were to young to remember. They won the division on the day after the regular season was supposed end. So yeah I guess that
just maybe that is about as tight as you can get without a playoff.
Well, 1969 was a runaway after the Cubs fell apart in August/Sept….
To me the main thing Willie brings is a winning attitude and know-how. He has World Series rings to show for it and that can’t be over rated. Sometimes I just wish he’d get thrown out of a game when the Mets get hosed on a call but that even-keel approach has seemingly won out over all the other managers in the NL and that is what counts.
willie does a great job. it’s about winning, period. just so you know one of the biggest willie supporters in that clubhouse is david wright. 100% true.
you can criticize any manager. the braves fans (on their blogs) are killing bobby cox now after a decade of winning. if torre’s yanks don’t win the world series, yankee fans will be calling for his head like last year…and he won 4 titles there.
marlins claimed 23-year old pitcher (marcos carvajal) off waivers from the mets today.
You have to give Willie credit for utilizing Milledge and Green correctly when most of us wanted Green gone. Right now, he’s getting very good results from both of them.
I like Willie a lot.
However, I am not going to write “I don’t understand why N hates Willie,” anymore, because N will assuredly rant for ten screens about how Willie commits crimes against baseball and eats raw kittens.
Yeah, I’d much rather have Art Howe back, with his winning attitude and dynamic personality~:c( I’d rather watch my grass grow.
Willie is not a perfect manager, but he’s a good fit for a NY team. I do like how he works in all of the players, making it a real team instead of just a starting eight position players. He gets a lot of production out of guys who seem to be fringe players, but prove otherwise. Has he made errors? Sure, but he’s also made good moves. With the injuries the Mets have had, they could’ve tanked easily, but he has the attitude to keep them going.
More and more I’m getting the gut feeling that we’re heading for another subway series. I’d love to return the spanking.
for those who complain that the mets never beat good teams…they have the 2nd best record in baseball against playoff teams according to jayson stark of espn:
“Finally, do you ever get curious about what the standings might look like if the best teams in baseball just played the other best teams? Here’s a look at how the current playoff teams (including both the Cubs and Brewers in the NL Central) have done in games against each other this year:
Red Sox 22-16
Mets 18-14
Yankees 20-16
Padres 21-17
Angels 15-14
Cubs 16-20
Diamondbacks 20-24
Brewers 13-18
Indians 7-16″
If I may present just one example of why Willie frustrates me, and it’s not about pitching. I mean, come on guys, the pen just isn’t as good this year, what’s he supposed to do, let every starter go 9?
Last night, Reyes was on first with no out. Rather than letting Reyes take the base against a pitcher with a noted poor pick-off move, Willie insists Marlon Anderson attempts to bunt him over, despite the fact that Anderson is a PH and very rarely is asked to bunt. He had plenty of guys on the pench that he could have gone to for a better bunt attempt (i.e. any right hander). After Anderson demonstrates his awkwardness on the first two pitches, he doesn’t put Reyes on the move when Anderson has two strikes. Anderson grounds into a DP.
Had Reyes been encourange to run at any point in the AB, he is probably on first for Anderson to hit his weak grounder to second to move him to third with one out.
Now, the Mets won, so I’m not going to kill the guy, but it’s these little tactical mistakes that can cost a playoff game.
Just saying.
I meant to say probably on second*
if you don’t like the bunt in that situation, fine.
however, you can’t get on the manager for not running reyes since he always has the green light. reyes has stolen and attempted more steals this season than any other player currently playing EVER has. he just passed lofton who had 75 steals a decade ago.
he could have called for reyes to go on that pitch. but, like i said above, that was really a salvage move. he should have thought about the implications of having marlon bunt.
again, don’t feel the need to defend willie so much. i like him, i do. i’m just saying, he’s not he best strategic manager. probably much of his deficiencies come from spending the majority of his career (and all his manager-prep) in the AL.
How is Manny Acta not on that list? He has a 3B, a closer and NOTHING ELSE yet his team is competing. That’s managing, not putting Ryan Braun #3.
Agreed. Acta is more worthy of manager of the year than Willie, Black, and Yost.