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…the buzz around the new york media this afternoon seems to be that we will all know tomorrow, definitively, whether Willie 
Randolph will or will not be back as manager of the Mets next season…
…from what i can gather, while most media personalities assume willie will be back, and feel he should be back, there is an odd soap opera being played out right now, while willie twists in the wind…
…if you notice, Omar Minaya has yet to officially announce randolph’s future, despite holding court on two occasions since the season officially ended yesterday afternoon…from what i can gather, omar wants willie back, and will recommend so to ownership in a meeting that is probably still going on…the thing is, the decision ultimately belongs to ownership, and not omar…by the way, i thought omar had full autonomy…oops, guess not, because if he did he wouldn’t he just come out and say, ‘willie’s staying.’…however, he isn’t stating that…instead, minaya keeps repeating that he supports willie, and likes willie, etc, and by doing so he is basically letting the public know that if the manager is fired, a) it was not his decision, so don’t blame him if you’re unhappy, and b) if it happens, he does not come off looking like a liar…very political, by the way…
…if you remember, last week i wrote that, the way i hear it, the rift essentially breaks down as follows: any one who played professional baseball, such as omar, appreciate and believe in willie, while those who have never played the game, i.e., ownership, are disappointed in willie’s in-game strategy and blame him for the team’s lack of focus and fire since last year’s NLCS…this is not to say omar has blind faith in willie, it’s just that i sense he believes in willie’s overall approach and he believes he has a winner’s mentality…on the flip side, the team’s other executives only see the results on the field, and they’re essentially freaking out, understandably to some extent, as they’re looking down the barrel of a new stadium, a television network, and a ton of pressure to not blow this…
By the way, in a report for CNN.com, Chris Isidore explains how the Mets will likely lose roughly $15 million in revenue due to not making the post-season.
…either way, they all meet today, and since the playoffs start on Wednesday, if willie is to be dismissed, it more or less needs to be announced tomorrow…and if he’s staying, which i still think he is, they’ll make that announcement tomorrow, as well, probably when minaya appears as a guest on WFAN around 2 pm, so that it comes off in a more casual, less dire way…
Lastly, according to a MetsBlog.com poll of more than 3,100 of the team’s fans, 66 percent of those polled would like to see Randolph return in 2008, while only 33 percent prefer he be fired.
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i go to sleep tonite in dire anticipation. the future of the mets is at steak, with the worst manager the Mets have ever known in limbo. god i’ll be happy as a boy on christmas morning when I wake up to the news report that Willie is canned.
The worst manager? What? Unless you’re like me who often times blocks out the Art Howe era in his head, how can you even come up with a comment like that?
art howe: back to back runner up for manager of the year.
took oakland teams with minimal payrolls to division titles.
willie randolph: 2004 choke of the year, 2006 choke of the year, 2007 choke of the year. guides talent packed teams with mega payrolls to 2nd place division finishes, including worse records than the rockies and padres.
howe any day
I don’t know if you noticed but we are the NEW YORK METS NOT OAKLND ATHLETICS. Stop comparing Willie to Howe when he coached the A’s. Compare these two coaches when they coached the Mets.
How can you say 2004 was a choke of the year, he took a Met team that was below 500 the year before to over 500. 2006 choke of the year are you serious, do us all a favor root dor the Phils.
no, 2004 willie didnt choke for the mets. he was just part of the biggest choke in sports history with the yankees.
ok, fine, ill compare howe with the mets to willie:
willie: beltran, wright, reyes, delgado, pedro, wagner, lo duca (made an all-star game), and a pair of 15 game winners this year, not to mention rotation depth.
howe: jason phillips, john franco, kaz matsui, mike cameron, richard hidalgo, trachsel, leiter, jae seo, matt ginter
be serious….
I guess you missed the Joe Frazier years…..
George Bamberger
Joe Torre’s Met tenure was nothing to right home about either…the most the team ever won then was 67 games…
LOSERS!
I do agree that Willies’s in game decisions DID cost us more than a few games and that those few games woul dhave put us in the playoffs. I also think that he lost the team at some point after the All-Star break. It seemed that the team did not have that fire and the heart to play hard and win. Once they fell behind it was over and even a lead would find a way to cause another loss. We had our best chance in 2006 and blew it we had another chance this year and blew it again. The season was gift wrapped for us with 7 games against sub 500 teams at home and we couldnt get it done. When we make changes during the off season will we still be confident enough to make knock off the team to beat in 2008? Im not sure. How much more can we do that what was done in 2006 and 2007? Willie just could not get this team over the hump. Do you guys think that Bobby Cox is a good manager? He took the Braves to the playoffs 14 years in a row and only has 1 ring to show for it. Would you take that as a Met fan? If Willie is gone the only manager I would support in his place is Gary Carter. If he is not available then keep Willie.
atleast theres something to look foward too, i cant take it, we shouldve been playing tomorow vs the rockies or padres but no were sitting home thinking about this short season that we put so much effort into 162 times 3 is 486 hours woahhh
the problem is the people on this board showed more effort than the players…we don’t deserve to play another day.
I don’t think he’s going anywhere. I think he’s going to have to clamp down on his players next year. All the stern looks and such are not going to get it done. What happened to the days when Reyes would make a mistake and immediately go an apologize to Willie? Now he just seems defiant. There’s something that has changed and I don’t know what it is. I can only suspect that Jose no longer fears Willie.
Who knows. I just hope it changes before Jose’s ruined as a player.
Not only do they not fear Willie, they do not respect him anymore. I got the feeling that they were waiting for him to give them the speech that was going to restore order, but he never did. Combine that with an average of 1.3 plays per game where the announcers seriously question a move Randolph is making, and its obvious he deserves to be fired. Whether he does or not is something else, but the bottom line is that he has not improved 1 inch since becoming manager, and will not. Bring him back next year and you will see the exact same thing, mark my words.
If Willie was fired, there would be a silver lining to this abomination.
He needs to go. He couldn’t pull this team out of it’s collapse and he’s part of the reason why they’re there. He never did a good job; Omar did. This isn’t Willie’s team; it’s Omar’s. Willie rode an overachieving team in 2005. Then a good team in a weak league last year. But when the game was on the line in Game 7, he didn’t know what to do.
This year he lost the players. He let them coast to the end. He needs to go. He got this team the 2nd worst collapse in history. Bobby V had worse teams and they got into the playoffs.
This team did not just collapse in the last 2 weeks. Its was lethargic and uninspired for 4 months. We just weren’t that good people! The only reason we even hung around first as long as we did was because the Phils and Braves sucked worse that we did.
Wow, they scored something like over 6 runs a game down the stretch. September and August were their two highest scoring months. Yup, guess they coasted.
Nah, more like a bullpen collapse plus poor performances by the starters down the stretch due to tired, old or hurt pitchers.
don’t forget June.. turned out it was a precursor of things to come
i would like to how omar did a good job? resigning moto, pushing pelfrey up to majors before he was ready, not having a better right fielder than greenie, not bolstering the rotation w/ a quality arm before the start of the season. the gm did nothing , outside of signing alou, to make this team better this year.
what we DONT want to turn this into is this becoming a situaton like the Oakland A’s and physco billy beane. OMAR CANNOT BE “THE TEAM” CHAOS WILL COME . trust me
If they decide to show Willie the door I hope they have something lined up. At least a short list of candidates. Firing him for the sake of firing him will reflect poorly on the decision makers, whomever they may be. I think Minaya and crew were able to get off easy with the Rick Down situation since they eventually installed a well known franchise face.
I’m sure all the sports cliches would apply (i.e. You can’t fire 25 players but you can fire a manager/The players essentially got the coach fired/etc.), but without other personnel moves, particularly in the pitching staff this team can’t expect to make signifcant improvements next year.
There should only be 1 man on their list.
******** JOE GIRARDI *******
The man to bring the Met’s back to their first glory days since Bobby V!!
tbs is really coming through with these playoffs on tbs everybody loves raymond is on and the rockies/pads r on in 15 minutes
When you make a personnel change by choice, as would be the decision to dismiss Randolph (unless he steps down on his own) it’s important to consider the pool of talent ready to step in.
Is there a manager available who can do better with the mix of talent the Mets will be able to field next year?
Frankly, Randolph did not get the job done in 2007. He cannot point to injuries or lack of talent. His bullpen was light, but so was every other team’s, so this was an equalizing factor. He had a great starting lineup, an amazingly deep bench, four highly competent starters.
Yet, no post season.
Someone’s head must roll to atone for Bloody September. Management is accountable for final results. They should get no free pass in this instance.
however, he isn’t stating that…instead, minaya keeps repeating that he supports willie, and likes willie, etc, and by doing so he is basically letting the public know that if the manager is fired, a) it was not his decision, so don’t blame him if you’re unhappy, and b) if it happens, he does not come off looking like a liar…very political, by the way
No goddammit. NO!
I don’t want either old man Wilpon or Junior Wilpon making this call. If Omar is the man with “full autonomy” then I want this to be HIS decision (which he should augment by letting Willie have his own staff if he stays but that is another discussion thread)
This is Omar’s show here, for good or ill. If they fail it want it to fall on 1 set of hands, not a collection- that’s how debacles like Kazmir trade happens, too many meddlers.
Wilpons, please write the checks and shut up. If you want to fire the GM you can but anything else baseball related is HIS play.
I’m sick of front office idiocy on this team. Let Omar run with it and that’s that.
omar doesn’t have the balls to make this on his own. that’s why he is looking for daddy wilpon to bail him out. omar’s looking for the smoke screen to hide the fact he did nothing to help the team reach its goals.
If Willie goes (never wanted him in the first place) who could possibly be our next manager? I have heard many names thrown around already, but I would like to hear everyone’s thoughts.
As much as it pains me to say it, since he played a role in 1988, I’d go with Mike Sciosia. Definitely won’t happen but he’s got the NL playing experience, plays an NL style game in the AL and has won a world series as a manager.
I would love to get Mike in here, I think he is the most underrated manager in the Majors. If there is any possbillity to get him go for it Minaya.
ANY OF YOU who are standing up for Willie ARE F**I*#&# retarded. The players DO NOT RESPECT Willie……of course they wont say it. HE IS WAY TO PASSIVE TO manage in NY, it works for Torre but not with the current Mets…… The players have no confidence (see Paul LoDuca’s interview 3 weeks back) in Willie. Jose Reyes not runnng balls out, theres no excuse. Lou Pinella would have killed someone if they do that. Willie softness refects on the field. We need a hardass in there. I love Willie as a guy but he is not hte right fit for this team.
I do not want Willie fired. IF he were to be fired I would like Frank Robinson or Felipe Alou. The players will certainly respect both of those guys and will listen. They are sound fundamentally as managers and the players always seem to play and like them as managers.
To mention a few names that would be exciting but not realistic
Davey Johnson
Whitey Herzog (j/k)
One guy who I love is Mark Grace……
What is everyone’s feelings on HoJo? Just a thought, not seasoned enough for the job> I think they need a veteran in there. Phil Garner anyone?
would love to see Davey back
I don’t know about you guys, but I hope Omar gives Bobby Valentine some consideration. At le