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…from what i understand, Willie Randolph will have lunch with his team’s beat reportersthis afternoon, as he has done during past Winter 
Meetings…i’m sure our favorite beat writers will provide a variety of interesting and stories and quotes from the lunch…
Meanwhile, Randolph talked with reporters while in the lobby of the Winter Meetings a few moments ago, and essentially said…
Lastings Milledge will be a good player, but needs to work ‘across the board,’ on offense, defense, base-running, ‘awareness for the game,’ ‘feel for the game,’ and developing a winning attitude, adding, “We see things you guys don’t.” The Mets are built to win now, and while some organizations can be patient with young players, as far as making mental mistakes and maturing, it’s a lot to ask of a young guy to be perfect in that respect, especially while playing in pennant race in New York City. ‘You cannot make mistakes when you’re trying to win a championship.’ Milledge may develop that ‘winning attitude,’ but he didn’t show it during his time in New York, and ‘you can’t be blinded’ by one asset of the guy’s game, ‘winning attitude matters in big situations.’
Jose Reyes just slumped at the wrong time last year, ‘that’s what it boils down to.’ He has talked to him about how the season ended. he went in to a ‘funk,’ and ‘picked the wrong time to go through a real tough growing pain,’ and he couldn’t find the rhythm and confidence to get on his game. Reyes learned a lesson last year, and will be better for it, noting that ‘he’ll be more determined next year.’
Ryan Church will have the opportunity to compete for starting jon in right field during spring training.
The team does not need to make an acquisition just for the sake of making an acquisition, as ‘that does nothing for a team,’ plus ‘you might regret that later.’
He has talked to most of his players by phone, and neither he nor them are harping on last year. They are eager to start fresh and are all looking forward to a good start.
Yesterday, SNY’s Matt Yalloff talked yesterday with Randolph about 2008, his memories of 2007, and the future of Milledge.
To watch the two-minute chat, go to SNY.
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Hopefully he is spending the bulk of his offseason reading Managing for Dummies….
hahahahaha
matt is that a wally backman card?
I get it!
it’s a subliminal message about willies competence and future with the team?
Thre is so much to like and admire about Willie Randolph that I feel bad saying this: I just don’t have any real confidence that he’s up to the task of managing a contender. If Gene Mauch over-managed the ‘64 Phils to their epic collapse, Willie under-managed the Mets to theirs last year. Poor bullpen management, daffy in-game strategy, and a sphinx-like impassivity while his team (other than Wright, Alou and Beltran) lumbered their way through four months of .500 ball punctuated by the debacle of the last two weeks. Then he cried. Sorry, but that’s just lame. Fred should have stepped in, fired Willie and hired Girardi before the Yanks got him. That’s a guy who has the brains and the fire to lead his team to the promised land.
Willie cried? When? That’s hilarious. I have even less respect for him now.
Girardi is exactly the type of manager that Mets need. On the flip side, Willie is exactly the type of manager the Yankees need.
It was said that when talking to his players after the loss on the last day of the season … he “spoke with tears in his eyes”. At least, that’s what I remember hearing.
From the Oct. 1 NYT, describing Willie’s final 2007 speech to his team (not exactly George Patton):
The search for words as he addressed his team was emotional. Randolph was no longer able to push or prod his players, so he told them that they had allowed a terrific chance to vanish. He told the players to remember how they felt at that precise moment, to remember how much losing this opportunity hurt. Then Randolph cried.
Two Mets who witnessed Randolph’s five-minute speech said his eyes became moist and his voice weakened when he talked about what the team had destroyed by playing listlessly for two and a half weeks.
2 points
1) Fire Willie
2) I wish the rest of the Mets had the same feeling.
2) same feeling as Willie. Seems to me they just didn’t care. Only one who did was the biggest scrub on the team so no one listened to him — LoDuca
I will be curious to see how Girardi does this year. Personally, I believe he was more lucky than good with the Marlins, and now he’s going to have to deal with veterans and the egos of future HOFers.
There’s no doubt that Girardi is intense and smart, but does he have the people skills? Or more like the laissez faire attitude? We’ll see.
But his personality is what the Mets are sorely lacking. And an ace of course. But, one at a time right?
My first pick to replace Willie would have been Tony LaRussa, but the Cards sewed him up for another couple of years.
If Willie gets fired at some point this season, the Mets will probably promote someone from within (probably Ken Oberkfell).
You are kidding right? LaRussa? Imagine how his DUI would have went over in NYC. And talk about ego, he can’t even handle the St. Louis Dispatch, how’s he gonna handle the relentless hounds of the NY media. You’re crazy.
yes, milledge is the reason the team couldn’t win a game in sept
if you’re not going to fire willie, you gotta blame somebody.
They didn’t blame him for the whole collapse. They just said he was part of the culture that does not know how to act in a collapse.
For example, with the score 1-0 in the Glavine finale and men on 1st and 2nd with one out, Milledge loafed after a blooper, which scored both runners on base and eventually the batter as well on the bad throws that resulted, making the score 4-0.
Glavine poured gasoline on the fire after that, but again, no one said it was ALL Lastings, just that he does not have the winning mentality it takes to hustle when in the important final game of the year.
all of this coming from sweet champagne sippin’, stupid, yankee willie
And the BS train keeps rolling.
Give me May 15th in the fire Willie pool……..
And the BS keeps rolling…
I don’t see anything in what Willie said about Milledge that doesn’t make sense. It seems totally straightahead. I don’t think anybody here has a basis for saying that Willie’s wrong about the ways in which Milledge needs to pick things up. Whether that is a sufficient reason for making the deal they made — that’s another question. Willie and Omar seem to think that it’s tough to expect Milledge to make those adjustments in NYC. It’s not a stupid sentiment.
The way the comments came out of Willie’s mouth were not as Matt has them framed.
He was asked by a Washington writer:
“What phases of the game do you think that Lastings Milledge needs to work on?”
Willie answered:
“Fielding the ball…hitting the ball…running the bases…”
Ya think, Willie?
“You cannot make mistakes when you’re trying to win a championship.” Ironic that Willie figured that out. I can’t even count how many mistakes Willie made last year and in the 2006 playoffs. He did a lot more harm to this team than Millege.
Jose Reyes just slumped at the wrong time last year, ‘that’s what it boils down to.’ Really? So the entire 2nd half of the year is “the wrong time to slump”. I think Willie has a tremendous grasp of the game of baseball. My only question is: is the entire first half of the season the right time to slump?
How much longer are we going to have to endure the new age Art Howe?
Reyes did not “Slump” the entire 2nd half of the season.
that’s the quote that stuck in my craw too.
it’s bad enough they bungled away Lastings, now we have to hear lame sour grapes justifications. K*zmirific!
Was Willie still with the shaved head and face in shameful penance for the crap job he did with his roster of bored losers?
How dare the catatonic leader of baseball’s worst choking (and bored) team say that a 22 year old kid with 184 at bats during the season “needs to work on developing a winning attitude.” It was Willie’s failure to not breed a winning attitude in the clubhouse, the dugout and on the field. Sad to say, but maybe Lastings will be better off freed from the gagging shackles of the Mets.
Tar and feather the fool!
Good attitude. I agree that the big mental cloud from “the Collapse” was going to be on the fans, not the players and team. Sure, they remember it, but if anything, it will help keep them focused, and not get complacent.
I also agree that they sholdn’t make a move just to say they did. If they can’t do something to materially improve the team, work with what they have, which is still more than most teams in the league, and plenty to get to the playoffs.
Good attitude. I agree that the big mental cloud from “the Collapse” was going to be on the fans, not the players and team. Sure, they remember it, but if anything, it will help keep them focused, and not get complacent
Yeah, just like losing the 06 NLCS was going to make the Mets “hungry” and “determined to win”
Instead they played bored.
Why will 08 be any different?
i agree, if losing in game 7 of the nlcs to an inferior opponent doesnt make you hungry nothing will.
in milledge’s first game back, he made a game winning slide at homebase and willie criticized it. milledge showed nothing but enthuasiam for the game. the mets hate anybody with personality. willie has no personality and that’s a big reason why they suck
Hmm, I thought Millz hated b/c of other acts such as walking away when your superior is talking to you.
You cannot make mistakes when you’re trying to win a championship…
Look in the mirror Willie.
Creep.
No wonder they throw away a player like Milledge, look at our excuse for a manager.
what about delgado and el duque laughing in the dugout as the mets kept losing one game after another.. is that a winning attitude
Right on! Willie was a loser allowing Delgado and El Duque laughing in the dugout during the collapse…no way he should have allowed his veteran players to display such non-caring attitudes…..and now Omar is looking to add Livan to the mix so more guys can laugh in the dugout while they lose…unbeliveable
Without even addressing Willies tactical/strategic failings –
This quote is frightening:
“you can’t be blinded’ by one asset of the guy’s game.”
Is he referring to the asset sometimes know as “the ability to hit a baseball?” Come on.
You can teach “winning attitude” (arguably the only purpose for a manager) – but you can’t teach ability to hit a ball. How frustrating, I still hold out hope that Milledge was dumped for some other reason (??) then just attitude.
HOJO FOR 2008!!!
(Bench coach Lenny Dykstra?)
What about Wally Backman?
As depressing as this offseason and these winter meetings have been……do we really need to be remined that this dingbat is our manager? Talk about adding insult to injury!!!!
i had a nice streak of not hearing or seeing anything willie related for a while and now i read this post and realize how little confidence i have in this man.
I was listening to WFAN a little while ago and Sweeney Murdi played snippets of this interview with Willie. As far as the quotes on Milledge are concerned, they didn’t quite go the way that Matt framed them out in his post.
A Nationals writer asked Willie about Milledge and where he thought Lastings needed to improve his game. Willie’s answer to the question was “fielding the ball”, “hitting the ball”, and “running the bases”. He did not mutter the phrase “across the board” once.
All in all, he did not come off sounding like he had a real grasp of what was going on.
is there a bus nearby for willie to throw lastings under?
wow. so errors,poor pitching, mental breakdowns, and oh yeah, poor managing had nothing to with it?
interesting
Well, you guys did lose Manny Acta who knows a thing or two about motivation….
True enough, but Acta has never been the “main guy” in a clubhouse full of egos the way this one is.
In no way am I saying that Willie’s job is an easy one, but I am saying that his work so far certainly does not garner an “A” grade.
I don’t hate Willie Randolph, and I have not been completely unhappy with the overall job he has done as manager.
That being said, I am shocked that he was not fired for what happened to this team at the end of last season. This was my initial feeling, but I gave it time and allowed my head to cool. I came to feel that I was being too harsh, and maybe he deserved another shot.
I find myself once again feeling as though Willie should not be the manager of this team. The 2007 Mets suffered one of the biggest collapses in the history of the game, and absolutely nobody is called out on it? I still find this unacceptable. Everyone except Tom Glavine and Paul LoDuca get passes? Just about all of his players disappears at pressure time, and Willie doesn’t have to answer for it? I, for one, don’t like it.
willie is basically admitting he’s an awful teacher. he’s saying there’s nothign he can offer a young player. willie take a hike
Correct me if I’m wrong but…how the hell do you develop a winning attitude on a team that failed to have one single 4-game win streak in a 162 game season!?
Don’t know what team you were watching, but the mets had at least 7-8 four game winning streaks last season
Oh excuse me, 5 game win streak. I suppose that defeats my whole point.
Willie is a piss poor manager… he should have figured all of this out DURING the season AND DONE SOMETHING about it, not look back at it now.. Remember, HISTORIC collapse of MASSIVE proportions and NOTHING from OMAR…
Omar didn’t get pitching before last year’s deadline, and he is doing NOTHING NOW…
Well, at the least the good news is that we have 3 backup catchers on the team.. nice.
And exactly what is a winning attitude, Willie?
The problem with Reyes:
1. Rickey Henderson
2. Luis Castillo
3. Willie did not rest him enough, or at all. Reyes needs to take some time off here and there-he was overworked.
4. Willie does not know how to handle young players and should have been fired after last year.
That sound you heard was the bus rolling over Lastings.
Somone tell Willie Randolph to SHUT UP! Hey Willie, lets blame everyone else but yourself for the disaster that YOU managed last year. Everytime you open your mouth you make less sense than the time before. Blaming the collapse on Reyes and Milledge is BS. How about reminding everyone how YOU NEVER gave Lastings a chance to play. How about being a man instead of trying to bury Lastings further. I dislike you more each day. Willie is Omar’s puppet! Willie and Omar should both be fired!
Are they going to Subway?