|
|
|
In a post for Mets Fever, Ed Ryan makes a case for replacing Rickey Henderson with Mets Triple-A manager Ken Oberkfell, who has been 
coaching in the Mets minor-league system for seven years.
As Ryan points out, “He has coached or managed every Mets farm hand that has come up through the system for the past seven years and any vets who have been on rehab assignment.”
…it’s an interesting idea, and the man is certainly worthy of a promotion…the thing is, if the main job of the first-base coach is to advise and direct a player on how best to advance to second, how can any one in baseball be better at that than rickey…frankly, i think reports of rickey’s negative influence in the team’s clubhouse are way, way overblown…also, from what i can gather, willie actually likes him, and finds him to be a great resource…
…however, a case can certainly be made that rickey’s popularity and insight may be best served in his old job of roving minor league instructor, helping the team’s youngster talent prepare for big league base running…at the same time, minor-league people seem to love and respect oberkfell…
Last off-season, the 51-year-old Oberkfell interviewed with the Nationals for a position on Manny Acta’s bench. He also interviewed along with Gary Carter to fill the first-base coaching job for the Mets, which ultimately went to Howard Johnson, who later switched to batting coach.
Oberkfell was named Minor League Manager of the Year by Baseball America in 2005.
According to Wikipedia, he was part of the ‘Bearded Braves’ in 1985, during which he told the Houston Chronicle that, “the beards make us stand out from the clean cut Dale Murphy types. Consider us a modern era House of David team.”
 |
 |
 |
RSS 2.0 Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Forget 1B, let him take over for Willie!
And if they didn’t want jaramillo because it would make Willie uncomfrotable (looking over his shoulder), wouldn’t ken do the same thing?
Anyway, he would be a waste at 1B, but if Manual leaves as reported (rumored?), let him be the bench coach. And built in mid-season replacement.
I would actually prefer Oberkfell to be the new bench coach, with Manual moving to 1B or moving on to another organization. Willie needs some fresh ideas, a bench coach that will challenge him with ideas throughout the game. Oberkfell is not one of Willie’s guys but as they’ve been together for three spring trainings now I’m sure he has a decent level of trust and respect for Ken. I think it would be just enough of a coaching shake up to re-motivate the staff. Not sure why we dont hear more talk like this. Am I the only one who sees this?
As a former national league part time player, and long time minor league manager, I’m confident Oberkfell could handle any coaching position he was assigned. And do it well.
So how many members of the ‘86 team are now or have been pro coaches and managers? Here’s my count so far –
Gary Carter
Wally Backman
Tim Tuefel
Rafael Santana
Howard Johnson
Ray Knight
Dave Magadan
Roger McDowell
The effects of winning a championship are long term. it opens up opportunities in coaching as well as broadcasting gigs. Having that ring give your words and opinions more credence.
Randy Niemann, Rick Anderson, John Gibbons
Ed Lynch was a GM.
If you throw in the 85 team you can add Larry Bowa, Ron Gardenhire, Clint Hurdle, and Billy Beane
We both forgot Lee Mazzilli. And Bob Ojeda.
Ojeda coached where?
Can’t believe i missed Maz and Gibbons.
2001 Brooklyn Cyclones pitching coach
wasnt Mookie a 1B (or 3B) coach for a while? …or am I imaging that? :)
Yes.
…also, from what i can gather, willie actually likes him, and finds him to be a great resource…
If you believe Madden, then the clubhouse behavior of “the card playing coach” really irks Willie.
Frankly I don’t know what to make of Rickey’s time with the Mets. But the SNY guys say he’s pushed a philosophy of run at all costs on Reyes, and not to worry about getting thrown out. I think that could be really detrimental to him and the team. Not only does it wear him down by season’s end, but it can be bad strategically for some game situations.
Oberkfell should get a chance at the 1st base coach job. He’s paid his dues and been a successful coach and manager in the minors. Or bring back Mookie!
I heard about that “run at all costs” strategy as well. Now if that’s the case, I agree in that it can be bad strategically and for certain game situations. But, shouldn’t Willie be in charge of that? I mean, if he disagrees with it (which I would think he would), shouldn’t he be the one telling Henderson to change his approach? Unless of course Willie told Rickey about it and Rickey told Rickey to do what Rickey wants.
Reportedly, one of the reasons Omar brought Rickey in was to teach Reyes how to be a more successful baserunner. It was by design. Rickey was clearly Omar’s guy and Omar is the boss. How would it look if less than 2 months after the experiment Willie tried to put the kibosh on it. How could he sell Omar on the idea that it wasn’t working very well if he didn’t give it a chance to work?
Willie: Omar I don’t think this run-run-run strategy is working too well for Jose.
Omar: Give it a chance. You can’t expect results in just a month or two,.
Willie: Ok, boss.
Willie disagreed with the firing of Down. How did that go? Omar is the boss, and according to Rubin, Wilie gets a lot of things “dictated” to him.
To follow up on my point, the starters for SD, ATL, LA and the Nats all pitched fewer innings than the Mets. Yet all these teams had bullpens with better ERAs than the Mets.
Ooops, that post belongs below.
Matt, thanks for the hat tip…….
As far as “Ok” not only does he know the the Wright’s, Maine’s and Reyes but he has also seen the opposing players, Too many first start pitchers killed us last year.
I think Alomar calls a conservative game at third, held runners way too often compared to Manny. How about Alomar to first where he was fine in 06 and OK to third….
I think Manuel said if an MLB Mgr job doesn’t come his way he’ll retire in 2009 when a college near his home opens a new field or starts a program…but don’e quote me I just rem. reading something to the effect…
I thought I read that Manuel didn’t get a MLB managerial job this off-season, he would leave the Mets to coach a college team thats starting up a new program…
The bearded Braves were from 1985.
i don’t know if a first base coach is really all that important to winning. I really didn’t see too much benefit with having Henderson on the foul line. Nor is it necessary to have a great base-stealer as your first base coach. Some teams like having their hitting instructor as their first base coach, as did the ‘86 Mets (Robinson). Hell, isn’t Rafael Santana a 1st base coach somewhere in MLB?
I think the main attribute for a first base coach is that they are knowledgeable of the entire game and are willing to provide that guidance. Kind of a no-brainer.
That said, Oberkfell would be a great addition. He’s paid his dues on the farm, and obviously has knowledge/leadership that produces in success.
Most teams use a 1B coach as a means of getting an OF coach or IF coach on the staff. Its more about having all of the defensive roles filled, and then picking two of them to coach the bases on offense. I like the batting coach to be in the dugout to talk to the hitters before they go to bat and as they come back.
without Manual or Henderson I suppose Oberkfell would assume the OF responsabilities. Shouldnt be an issue, he’s covered all roles as a low minors manager.
It should be interesting. With all the negative reports out there about Ricky and Castillo, if they actually do both come back those theories should all be squashed. If they are not brought back then I’ll consider there was something to them.
yeah, how can anyone who plays cards in the clubhouse during a play off game not be the best guy to coach a team? furthermore, anyone who stands in front of a mirror naked and repeats “ricky is the best, ricky is the best, ricky is the best,” clearly has the tools to be a major league coach.
im half kidding, i like ricky, keeping him around is fine and i doubt 1B coaches affect the game much but i wouldnt be shocked if they found someone better to replace him.
I compeltely agree.
I think Ricky is not “coach” material. I would NOT classify myself as “old school”, but you can’t have a member of the coaching staff playin cards, putting rally caps on, and goodfing off. There is a professionalism needed to be a coach. It has not been overblown, Sir.
Is it weird that it appears that after the worst collapse in baseball history we’re going to be re-signing the same players, same exact coaching staff, same pitchers, etc?….Uhm, Minaya, what gives? I am not calling for blood, per say, but this team obviously didn’t have the leadership and mental strength to survive the storms last year…changes are needed…somewhere.
It’s tough to mkae a lot of changes in a team that was 33-17 over the first 50 games. Granted, we had some injuries, but most guys were healthy by September when the team collapsed. Should we not have played .600 ball in September? If we do, we win by a game or two.
Some would say that we will learn from the collapse and not make the same mistakes. It’s hard not to bash Willie and his career .500 record in September (43-45). His team played either brilliantly or didn’t show up. What to do?
I would like to see Moise Alou come back. Otherwaise, I really don’t care who plays 2B (Gotay would be fine by me) C (there’s a ton of mediocrity out there) or RF (Milledge seems a lock barring a trade)
The Bullpen is fine. Just very overworked.
Get me two starters who can make it into the 7th consistently. Good pitching seldom slumps. Also makes the bullpen’s job a lot easier.
No reclaimation projects: No Colon, No Harden. I only want guys who threw 200 innings in 2007 and aren’t 40.
The bullpen is fine? What have you been smoking?
The Mets haven’t had so many bullpen regulars with ERAs this high since I don’t know when. Maybe since Casey’s days!
Yes, probably because they were overworked. I think if you can get a better power arm to replace Mota who was indeed awful in the pen, then I think it would be fine. But like the poster said as well, if they don’t have some starters that can consistently get into the 7th inning, then you’ll have the same bullpen problem again.
How many 5th inning exits did we have? This is what kills your bullpen.
I agree that the Mets starters need to go longer. But the starters were 7th in the NL this year in IPs. Squarely in the middle. San Diego and Philadelphia were worse. And Colorado’s starters logged just 3 more innings than NY’s.
So the Mets starters were at worst league average in their ability to go deep into games.
The problem was both in the starting staff and in the bullpen. But I would say mainly in the bullpen.
Many of our more reliable arms had meltdowns down the stretch, Heilman, Feliciano and Wagner. If it’s not just because of workload reasons, probably also had a lot to do with having to work multiple high leverage, high pressure situations. If you dump Mota, and relegate Show strictly to LOOGY or garbage-time long-man, there’s probably not a ton of tinkering needed to be done. I wouldn’t mind a right specialist upgrade over Sosa either, but you figure you have that from within with either Smith, Kunz or Muniz.
Agee, to follow up on my point, the starters for SD, ATL, LA and the Nats all pitched fewer innings than the Mets. Yet all these teams had bullpens with better ERAs. Their bullpens were stressed even more, yet pitched better overall.
carlos silva (202 ip), all it costs is money. sign silva and use the chips we have to trade for a 2nd starter. thats makes the bullpen: wagner, heilman, sanchez (?), feliciano, el duque, scho, then sosa or smith or muniz or heck even kunz.
ideally the rotation could be:
1. front end starter traded for (gomez, pelf, humber, carp, mulvey, fmart should all be available and would return someone worthy of this rotation spot)
2. pedro
3. ollie
4. maine
5. silva
to me this is a realistic approach that would improve this team immensely.
I think this is a solid idea. Only problem is that I don’t think our tradeable talent is good enough to land a top starter. I think we should make a full court press for Oswalt. Even then, I think we’ll come up short because other teams have the young arms we lack to pull this off.
Uh-oh . . . don’t let Orsulak read this!
LOL!!!!
I think that’s a very solid plan, and somewhat reasonable, for the approach this winter. Silva has alot of talent, isn’t too old, and can be the inning eater people cry about when they mention things like bringing back Glavine or signing Livan.
And landing a top starter somehow, even if it costs a hefty toll from Pelfrey, Humber, Milledge, Gomez, F-Mart, Mulvey or Guerra, is really necessary if this team is going to take the next step and push for a title.
The only thing I’d add to your plan is going hard after a top pen arm as well. A strong back end of the pen, like the Reds had with the Nasty Boys, will save your team alot of lost games, and is really they key to winning in the playoffs.
Plans like this are always alot easier said than done, but the teams that find a way to make them happen are usually the ones playing in late October.
An ex-Cardinal AND an ex-Brave. No thank you.