Comments on: Recap: Willie Randolph on WFAN

By: Gomets000

Gomets000 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:25:00 +0000

I definitely agree that Willie likes younger players better than older ones. Look at Jose Reyes and David Wright. They have turned out to the the big Mets leaders. Reyes gets on base, steals, and produces runs all by himself using his speed to sometimes create extra base hits. David Wright just is a hitting machine. His average last week was in the mid 300s. He has all kinds of power. Willie has molded his young star infields into greatness. With Delgado, Willie just lets him slump till he gets on a hot streak, and when he does the Mets win. You have to keep hitters who are struggling in the lineup if you can trust them so they’ll learn from the mistakes and ultimatly become better hitters. Willie is doing a great job with his Mets

By: Conor

Conor — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:04:34 +0000

Well first of all, you could do the obvious to create a roster spot and cut Mota.

I would have given Muniz a shot before September. I am not sure he could have been worse than Mota. Humber; well I was just throwing his name out there, I don’t think there was a real chance of that happening.

I could give some more innings to Feliciano; Sosa. Aaron Sele had an ERA half a run better than Mota did last year; I am not necessarily saying pitch him, but Mota had the worst ERA of anyone in the pen and he threw the most innings. Schoenweiss had an ERA 3 quarters of a run better and he’s Schoenweiss. Giving innings to any of those guys would have been a better idea than giving them to Mota. There is no way that makes a lick of sense.

Mota threw 13 and 2 thirds innings in August and allowed 13 runs. Aaron Sele could beat that.

Quite literally, everyone else in the Mets bullpen outpitched Mota last year.

By: VCarver

VCarver — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:46:09 +0000

conor, you really didn’t get my point. Which was — given the general shakiness of the bullpen last with Show and Sele being poor options, who were you going to pitch.

So please answer me. Assuming you take about 15 innings away from Mota in 2007, who should have pitched them.

The reason I put Heilman in there is to have a reference and to show that he shouldn’t have pitched more than he did.

So how are you going to cover those innings??????

Please answer this.

And don’t say Humber or Muniz because they were just September callups and even you said it — Mota pitched relatively well in September.

The problem was earlier in the year and you can’t callup Humber or Muniz unless you create a roster spot.

By: jamie

jamie — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:28:47 +0000

…but I think I’m getting lost in the details (it’s a pet peeve of mine, this whole clutch business)…becauase I get just as nervous as the next guy when he’s out there at the end of games, and I don’t want to be disingenuous by getting all caught up in the facts, when I think we’re really talking about the feeling in the pits of our stomachs.

By: ryno

ryno — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:55:22 +0000

So much for getting Castillo out of the No. 2 spot for good.

Can anyone take Willie seriously when he says silly things like “Castillo is one of the best No. 2 hitters in the league.”

By: jamie

jamie — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:32:55 +0000

Actually, I can deny he’s prone to the long ball…he’s given up 14 in 239 IP as a reliever. And they’re all tight spots, he pitches in the late innings of close games! Yes, he’s a K/Flyball pitcher, and occasionally those turn into HRs…and the worst of those moments may stick in our collective memory, but it’s cherry picking to define him by those. For instance, he did his job and held leads (or ties) in his other SIX appearences in the 06 playoffs, which if he didn’t we don’t even get to a game 7. So some scrub hits a homer off him at the worst possible time, and he is forever unclutch. I say hooey.

By: Conor

Conor — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:24:46 +0000

“and I don’t recall any one decision during that horrible September stretch where I could say “Willie lost that for us””

His decision to pull Feliciano after 1 batter in the 9th inning of that crazy game in Miami in September was pretty brutal. I’m not saying it cost us the game, but it was a very poor decision.

By: ToastyJoe

ToastyJoe — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:39:26 +0000

My point exactly, which is the last thing you want in an 8th-inning guy.

By: shadesofshea

shadesofshea — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:24:38 +0000

The point is that he has the propensity to give up home runs in big situations. NOT that he gives up a homer in every single pressure situation. (If that were actually the case, he wouldn’t be on any major league roster.)

The guy has good stuff. However, you can’t deny the fact that he’s prone to the long ball, particularly in tight spots.

By: Conor

Conor — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:21:42 +0000

Mota was one of the worst pitchers in the pen last year. To give him the most bullpen innings when he came back was absurd.

I understand the pen wasn’t great, and Omar was the one who signed him to the contract. But Mota was pretty much horrible all the time; September was his best month of the season by ERA, and that was 4.05. Honestly, by the time September rolled around, I would have rather seen a guy like Carlos Muniz out there than Mota. Give some of those innings to Sosa. Or maybe even use Humber out of the pen for a few weeks; of course Willie would never do that.

Bottom line is Mota was horrible, but Willie found him worthy of more innings than any other reliever. You don’t see something wrong with that?

I don’t know why you are throwing Heilman in there; Heilman was a good reliever last year and should have been used as he was.