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Click below to hear Willie Randolph’s post-game comments…
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No thanks.
O willie…..O WILLIE
i know u have confidence in your people. but WHEN DOES THE BUCK STOP?
REYES? dude…wats up? wat happened to ur heart? ur excitement for the game?
omar…you were a hero last year. a zero this year. you over traded this year. (health bell, lindstrom, ownens, bannister, bradford for mota and schoweise, )
we have so many question marks heading next year.
catcher? 2nd base? outfield? starting pitching? bullpen?
PLEASE DONT OVER SPEND FOR MEDICORE BULLPEN.
BUILD IT UP FROM YOUR FARM SYSTEM.
look at JENKINS, CHAMBERLINE, PAPERBON. LEARN FROM THEM.
FIRE BALLERS.
ANYWAYS. I FEEL FOR YOU FELLOW MET FANS. IT STINGS. IT REALLY DOES.
I NEVER EXPERIENCED 86 METS. CONSIDERING I WAS ONLY 5.
BUT THERES A LOT OF CHANGES NEEDED TO BE MADE.
MATT…
THANK YOU FOR SUCH A GREAT SITE. AND A YEAR I WONT EVER FORGET. YOU ALWAYS GIVE ME SANITY, WHEN METS ARE ANYTHING BUT.
I LOOK FORWARD TO THE OFF SEASON.
AND A ANALYSIS OF WHAT THE METS MUST DO TO IMPROVE.
DONT SUGAR COAT ANYTHING.
plummet~
They’re trying to groom a closer like those guys with Burgos.
Willie is far from perfect, but so is every manager out there. You should hear the callers on Dodger Talk excoriating Grady LIttle every night on the radio, and Jim Tracy before him out here in LA.
I really think that much more blame lays at the feet of Omar Minaya for the 2007 Mets shortcomings. He should and did get the credit for building the excellent 2006 team, but should also get the blame for deconstructing it for 2007. After all, Willie could only work with the players he was given by Omar. The truth is, our pitching staff OVERperformed for five months, then backslid tremendously in the last month. Where was Omar’s mantra about pitching depth when he dealt away Bannister for Burgos? I believe the front office said at the time that we had plenty of starting pitching and needed to improve the bullpen. We did indeed need to improve the bullpen–so what was Minaya thinking when NOT signing Bradford yet signing Schoeneweis to a three year deal and the steroid-cheater-headcase Mota to a two year deal? Instead he abandoned his own rule and sent a promising YOUNG arm to Kansas City for another hard-throwing arm that contributed little to the bullpen before being sent down to the minors. That trade showed an utter lack of ability at judging talent on the part of Minaya and his entire scouting staff. Bannister for Burgos. Unbelievable. And as it turned out, we certainly did not have starting pitching depth. We basically spent the year with a horror show in the fifth spot in the rotation–from Pelfrey to Lawrence to Williams, it was a black hole.
That being said, neither Minaya nor Randolph can be blamed for a big bat like Delgado underperforming so drastically for the entire season. Wright and Beltran still got their 30 homers and 100 RBIs, but there was a black hole in the cleanup spot. Minaya can be blamed for signing so many older players that there were sure to be health breakdowns, like with Alou missing half the season. However, he did cover himself there by having Endy and Lastings and Gomez as outfield backups. He couldn’t have foreseen the breakdown of Endy and Lastings at the same time as Alou. That is just bad luck.
We did play the toughest schedule of any team this year, facing all of last year’s postseason teams, including the Yankees twice and the Dodgers three times. And we did have a great deal of injuries (third most days on the DL this year in the NL I believe?). But we did have the lead in September when our schedule was favorable and the team’s performance was inexcusalbe. I just don’t see how the blame can fall on the manager when day after day the players he has to work with fail to perform on the field. To me, that falls much more on the players themselves and the GM who put the team together.
All that being said, I am a big fan of Omar and Willie and nearly all of our players, and I have faith that they will address our team’s many shortcomings and put a better team on the field next season.
Let’s Go Mets in 2008
“It’s experience and it’s me,” Randolph said before Sunday’s game. “I know how to win, I know what it takes to win. I’ve been a part of it for a long time. This is what I know, that’s all. It’s very natural to me. I’m not trying to toot my horn, or anything like that. I just know what I am, and where I’ve been and what I’ve done.”
HMM WHERES THE HUMILITY WILLIE?
I’ll read it in the papers tomorrow. Absolute disgrace. If he says “I’m proud of my guys”, I will vomit.
he’ll say the champange will taste even sweeter next year.
I just took a quick look, but I can’t cough up some $$ to hear him make excuses…
What the hell is this?
Not worth the bandwidth to hear Randolph. I will watch the news later.
Matt,
I have no idea who you are, but thanks for the site and the catharsis it has provided. Wait til next year.
Willie’s gotta go!
If I was a CEO of a major corporation and I under perform this badly…I’d be iced in minutes.
Along with a $100 million severance package.
Boy, that was a squirrely answer on the accountability question at the end. “It’s a team thing.” A good leader takes accountability. It should have been “It was my job to find a way to get these guys going. I didn’t do it. These are great guys and they deserved better. I can’t play the games for them, but I have to be able to push the right buttons. I didn’t do it. The buck stops here.”
More than ever, I now think it’s time for a change.
Agreed – he should fall on his sword; however, the ‘between the lines’ of his comment was that he has no intention of resigning from the club. Can’t blame him for not wanting to walk away from more than $4MM hard cash + endorsements next year. Plus, if he goes willingly, its unlikely he’ll land another NYC coaching job at any point in the future.
Randolph does not have an impressive track record. Good leaders are able to calm the ship in rough seas and lead through adversity. Randolph showed a lack of ability in maintaining a large lead late in the season, even in the face of no real injuries to his team. He had his full staff available to him down the stretch and did not get his job done.
Leaders are accountable for results. When they fall this far short, they should be replaced.
I’ve enjoyed Randolph’s tenure, but for the good of the club, he should not return in 2008. He’ll never live down this situation, and will be disrespected by the media, the fans, and the rest of the division from day one of the season.
For the good of the Mets, Willie must depart.
I agree 100%. Well said.
Yawn,
I told you all this was the case in March. I didn’t think it would be this gutwrenching, but common. Who are the folks voting 8-10 in the confidence rating?
I saw the Mets in about 5 cities this year. I saw them in Spring I’ve said all year, and be proven right, that they took a step backwards this year while the rest of the division all improved. Now look at the Mets record vs. the NL East.
Jerry Manuel for Mgr! Unless you want to bring back Bobby, because he’s the best the Mets ever had…plus, he invented the wrap sandwich.
I’m thinkin’ Ken Oberkfell. He’s had a lot of success in the Mets minor league system, and he managed Wright and co to a title in St. Lucie.
I don’t think I’d like to see Valentine return to the Mets. Not sure why, just my instict doesn’t think a return to that era would equal success for this club.
There has been some talk of Gary Carter, and it might be a great idea. Former catchers make great managers (Torre, Melvin, Bochy,etc). They understand the pitchers far better than most, and the knowledge of the catcher spot translates well to club leadership.
Carter has tons of heart, understands the NYC media, and hearkens to the Mets winning heritage, not their fall short years of the late 90’s.
Yeah, someone should tell the Wilpons that they should have been listening to this Chaseh guy all along. I personally don’t know why they even hire a front office when they could just have asked Chaseh from Metsblog what he thinks!
Maybe Wilpon should do a one year trial of GM by committee – votes on the Metsblog site will determine all personnel and on field moves.
Blah Blah Blah, get away from my baseball team please.
Wayneo, are you a Wilpon?
The Wilpon’s should rott in hell!!!!!
yankee willie is stupid and stubborn.
Dinkins has to go it is time for Giuliani . BV will right this ship.
If there was any silver lining in this, at least this team sort of prepared you for the heartache. It was a slow death over a 3 week period which conditions your mind to the fact that they may not be good enough to make it to the playoffs. For what its worth, this is certainly better from the dagger in the heart that I experienced when Beltran struck out in Game 7 of last year’s NLCS.
On another thought, the Mets totally lost focus during that three week period. And not just the players, even the coaching staff with their bizarre bullpen use, lack of planning (ie humber’s lack of use) and totally acting without a sense of urgency of passion. They are all to blame, but you still need your manager to lead you through that rough patch and not act like everything is alright and be cool about it. I’d hate to say it because he was such a strong force in the Mets rebuilding process over the past two years but I think his still of manager and lack of managerial experience just needs to go.
Bring back Bobby Valentine! or maybe get another ex-Yankee, Joe Girardi?
DEATH To Tom Glavine!!!!
i don’t know if Willie should be fired. I just feel like its so obvious. The quick fix thing the mets are always trying to do.
While I think Willie has underperformed, I also think the decisions to trade away banister, bell, lindstrom, owens should be blamed as well. So Omar is accountable.
I also feel you need to look at the Jacket. The way the bullpen fell apart is even more disheartening when you are supposed to have a bullpen guru in control. So the Jacket is accountable.
Not to mention the fact that Jose Jose Jose Jose has gotten such a big head, he needs to rest more and not run everything out… he didnt run hard out of the box in the last inning of the last game… Mookie should be pissed off. So Jose Jose Jose Jose is accountable.
Not to mention the fact that all of us fans let them down by booing every day and leaving them for dead in the beginning of September.
So is a knee jerk reaction of firing the manager gonna make all the difference?
Maybe we let this team learn from this and grow. We have many young guys that are very impressive. The end of the blowout yesterday was a showcase for them. There are some good players mixed in there. While we have an old team, we also have a young one.
Maybe for once we shouldn’t be so quick to yell FIRE! in a crowded room.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and now our young guys have something to think about. Do you think Wright will learn from this or let it get him? You don’t think he saw Rollins on baseball tonight? We didn’t have a leader this year. Maybe we will next year…
Being a mets fan isn’t for a season only… just think how much sweeter the champaign will be next year…
the manager has to be accountable. Bell and Peterson hated each other, they couldn’t be in the same room together. He was gone no matter what. Pterson should of been gone with him. Bannister is the only one you can have a gripe with, but it’s too early to tell in that one. Burgos has a terrific arm, give it 2 years. Lindstrom and Owens was a more or less bad trade. Both 28 years old and never had any true success at the minor league level. Nobody agrees with Willie’s manging talents. look at Franco, he was released because he didn’t agree with him. You know they have there little circles in club houses. 50 % of that team at least disagrees with him. I’m being nice about it. Just watch the backlash in the upcoming days.
If Willie says anything other than “I resign,” then I have no interest in what he’s saying.
How did the champagne taste, Willie?
willie is not getting fired, but he is on a very,very,very short leash next year, like forty games into the 08′ season. how do let a last place team, who,by everyone’s account, mailed it in weeks ago, say they’re gonna beat you, and they do just that.
disgusting,glavine i will give you your plane ticket to atlanta, but you can leave your wife in new york, just to “talk” with her
He doesn’t know how to open the bottle by himself.
Willie doesnt need to be gone solely because of the collapse, he needs to be gone because they won 87 games in spite of him, not because of him. He is the worst strategic manager I have ever seen. Embarrasing for a guy that has been at the major league level for over 30 years. Nice guy who should go back to coaching third, but not MLB managerial material. Bye Willie.
smh @ luis castillo being the best player for the mets this weekend
When did Willie lose this team?
They certainly stopped playing for him.
They haven’t played well since May, all summer long all that came out of the Mets’ clubhouse was “well, we’re still in 1st place….that’s part of the season, you can’t take a stretch of games like that and judge the team, at the end of the season you evaluate….”
Here it is….the end of the season.
Evaluation:
Team chemistry-C
Not as much fun in that dugout like last year. “other teams don’t like the dancing and such” who cares? The fans like it, the players like it, if the other team doesn’t like it then do something about it….don’t buckle under.
Fielding – C
Too many costly errors this year, there was no flash and flair no spectacular plays to win games….
Hitting – C+
Outside of Wright the Mets were a team that could be pitched to for most of the season. There were spurts of torrid hitting but all together…eh.
Pitching – D
Starters get a C+ here…Maine’s fading down the stretch minus the last game was a let down. Glavine’s fade was terrible. El Duque was injured..(what a surprise). Perez couldn’t keep a continued focused run. 1 game good 1 game bad 1 game eh. All season. Pedro lifts the grade, good comeback and there’s promise for next season for him to be a solid 6 inning pitcher.
Bullpen, they get an F. Probably the entire reason for the Mets’ demise this season was the predictably poor performance of what was once considered a strength. Mota? Shownoguts? Sele?….Let me ask….is there a reason that you may want to use your relievers for 2 innings? Close games…use Mota for 2 innings….does well the first gives up the store in the second…so on and so on with all of them. Seems anytime a reliever was used for more than 1 inning it blew up in Willie’s face….
Willie’s fault or the bullpen?
Great question…I answer Yes. The bullpen is responsible for holding a lead and keeping a game close, although there were times this year and you know the times I mean that you’re screaming at the TV/Radio/Computer wtf are you doing bringing in? Then he’s pitched for 2 innings? It would be a different story if the arm was a successful one that was overused but overusing a crap arm?…
Management – D
This team didn’t think it could win and played scared and tight down the stretch when the games mattered the most they choked. See NLCS of ‘06. Willie may one day be a good manager but can he manage a successful team first? This Met team has the most talent in the NL. Arizona has the best record this year……the D-Backs boys and girls….think the Mets have more talent than they do?
Upper Management – F
Looks like the Midas touch works except everything that’s touched turns to crap.
rant off
Thank god I was able to buy post-season tickets 3 weeks ago!
My refund for games 1 & 2 better be processed by Tuesday. The Mets have enough of my hard earned money, they dont need me floating them too for tickets I would never get to use.
What a freaking letdown. I’ll be eating crow for months to two of my closest friends that are Phillie fans.
I want to just puke!
and another thing…
You can’t have a season like this and not do something about it….something has to be done.
Peterson is done. They aren’t listening to him and if they are then it is the wrong thing. Henderson must go…I know he’s a Hall of Famer but I still have visions of him playing cards ….if he was brought in to help Reyes then how did that work out?
more to come..
Jeez, all the 20/20 hindsight here. We fielded an imperfect team, like everyone else. The blame lies squarely on the players’ shoulders.
Omar’s year wasnt as good as 2006. So what? You compete with what you have. If Omar was right 100% of the time, he’d be a god, not a solid baseball exec.
People wanna hang Wille now, but he’s put together some solid years, winning records.
I won’t bash Willie. I won’t bash Omar. They took chances, they didnt come out as well as they could have.
Everyone was down on Alou, and he was a stud. So many ‘fans’ here have long term memories of a goldfish.
Athletes are human, they arent robots. They tried, they blew it. Think about it all winter, make better calls. and don’t – this means you Jose – rely on your talent, because Jeter has a fraction of your skills, but twice your cold-blooded assassin instincts.
I will point the fingers at people like Reyes who let those little things slip. I dont think he cant turn it around, but he’s no longer in the discussion for best shortstop in NYC much less in MLB.
I am still a MET FAN. They’re our team, and we’ll be back in the spring.
Well, this was indeed a debacle.
I tried to be positive as long as possible, tried to believe til the last out, and tried to find the silver lining over these final overcast weeks. In that spirit: We have two young, very good starting pitchers; we have a franchise player who (I think) we can all agree ‘gets it’ and will use this experience to build upon; we have a top player at a key position (cf); and we have a ton of money.
Good/Bad–depending on POV: Pedro, Glavine (yes, will live in infamy, but he can still be be an effective starter), Milledge, Pelfry, Gomez, Gotay, Castro, Omar (he was golden last year, not so much this year–great with the Spos, though, so I still believe).
Jose has, somehow, turned into a question mark. He’s young, of course…but he took at best a step sideways, at worst a huge step backwards (I know all his numbers and their relative value; who can question what we’ve seen in his eyes and attitude?)
And then there’s Willie. I don’t think he’s solely responsible for this team’s performance by any means, and I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt right up to the moment we lost the division. Obviously, he makes questionable tactical choices. He also has never gotten any kind of credit from most fans for the team’s success. And he will return next year.
But I have had it with him, and it happened at the game Friday night. David Newhan? Jeff Conine? Yes, these were instances in one game of 162, but I’m finally convinced that his demeanor and decisions had enough effect to cost this team the division.
Of course the players must perform. Of course Omar owns a significant portion of responsibility.
For everyone who has said this would happen, congrats: you were right, I was wrong.
There’s a lot to do this winter, and honestly there are maybe five players I would adamantly protect: Maine, Wright, Perez, Pedro, and Pelfry. This doesn’t mean I’d give up on the rest, just that I’d be…more accepting of their departure if it meant improvement. And including Jose on that list sucks, and it would take a lot, but there it is.
Way to go everyone who went and cheered these guys the last 3 weeks, and to those who stayed for the last out today.
Ugh.
You gotta protect the pitching for sure – Maine and Ollie, no matter their struggles – can you imagine what their records would command on open market?
yup.
Willie is not gonna be fired…Wilpon would never pay him to sit home…Omar is not going anywhere either…they will both have at least one year to fix this team…I do not know what Omar will do…it looks like the only way the Mets can improve the team is through trades as the free agent class outside of A-Rod is garbage…should be an interesting offseason.
My condolences to all you fellow Met fans…if you can take any positives from this collapse…maybe from now on these players will no longer be bored during the regular season.
Omar’s Bullpen moves didn’t work out. Eit. Relievers are unreliable from year to year. Go around the majors: there is a shortage of quality consistent bullpen guys.
The Pitching fell apart because the short-manned bullpen caused everyone to be overused in turn.
Bad pitching killed the morale of the team, because hitters want to know that there’s some point to swinging the bat. That’s why Pedro is still amazing: not because he’ll give a one run perfomance but because he won’t give a six run blowup.
And as for Willie’s performance down the stretch, he did get some quality hitting in these last 2 weeks. But he can’t regrow the torn and bruised muscles in an overworked pitcher’s arm.
What Willie did wrong was overuse the guys in the pen who were good in the first half (Heilman, Feliciano and Smith), just like Joe Torre does.
But unless you were willing to pitch Schoe or Mota in the seventh during May, you shouldn’t complain about Willie not doing the same to save arms. I bet if he had done that, you’d scream like the Yankees fans do when Torre pitches Farnsworth.
Get rid of this arrogant SOB… please!!!
I cannot stand his managing style… I do not know how many times his decisions (or lack of) caused the Mets a game…
Lets get someone here other than him… I’ll even take Bobby Valentine back…
Willie Randolph’s Managerial Record in September
2005 13-15 .464
2006 14-15 .483
2007 14-14 .500
We’re improving! Plus, he made sure to give Wilpon his precious meaningful September games!
The September thing is glaring when you look at his tenure as Manager. The team has quit on him for three straight years, and if they hadn’t had the big lead in 06, they probably wouldn’t have made the playoffs then, either. Willie’s teams always collapse in September. He needs to go because he doesn’t know how to push them beyond August.
anthony lapaglia pictures…
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