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Many fans and pundits are calling for Willie Randolph’s head right now, blaming him for their “mediocrity”.
But, is it fair to blame Willie for being stuck with a team of immovable, underperforming players? He can’t bench (nor trade) Carlos Delgado, for example. He can’t heal Luis Castillo’s knees. He has little choice other than to wait for Carlos Beltran, David Wright, and Jose Reyes to work out of their funks. This isn’t football, so a pep talk is useless.
Similarly, there isn’t much Willie can do to prevent middle relievers from throwing gopher balls. To his credit, Willie has recently mixed and matched the arms out of the bullpen well, and pushed his starters to go deeper in games.
Take a look at the Detroit Tigers, who many pundits believed were the most talented team in all of MLB. Many “experts” agree that Jim Leyland is one of the best managers in baseball, yet his team is in dead last. Is it Leyland’s fault that last year’s “phenom” pitchers can’t get outs in 2008? That Gary Sheffield is hitting .180?
While the Mets are not playing consistently, it’s only 43 games into the season. The Mets are 2.5 games out of first, and above .500 despite the struggles of “key three” — Beltran, Reyes, and Wright. That’s a sign of optimism, not panic. Eventually, those three will get going — regardless of the manager — and the offense will be fine. Add that to the return of Pedro Martinez, and the future is looking bright.
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A brave man, that Joe Janish.
Yea…he was a good guy…to bad hes about to get ripped by all the negative bloggers…..
Well I never even thought about the Tigers issues…I think that was a great counter point to begin with, and kind of echos the thoughts of a few of us here, in that regardless of whether Willie gets axed or not, a managing change may not be the cure-all remedy this team needs.
There isn’t a cure-all remedy. It’s not that simple. You have to act with an understanding that you don’t have all the facts and can’t know in advance what’s going to happen. If you think you have the talent to win and are underachieving, there’s nothing wrong with changing managers. Don’t hang the guy out to dry, but tell it like it is — it’s probably not the right fit.
Wow Joe where can I get whatever your smoking???????? Optimisim that train left last September. Why cant Willie bench Delgado? Willie can effect the bullpen giving up runs stop putting Heilman and Sosa in close games. Bottom line is Willie is a major distraction right now and he needs to move on up to the Bronx.
For the same reason you can’t bench a guy like Frank Thomas. They won’t be happy. You either release Delgado and eat his contract, platoon him, or play him every day.
But even a platoon he’s likely to be unhappy with. And you better have a reliable backup at first base before you consider a platoon.
Who cares if Delgado is unhappy? If he doesn’t like the bench, then he has to do what it takes to get out of his 1 1/2 season funk. He’ll still make his money so it’s not like he’s losing anything but playing time. If he improves, he’ll get it back. Putting him in the lineup everyday isn’t helping him.
We also kept hearing the same garbage last year about the offense and how they’ll “be allright” It’s now 43 games into this season and they still haven’t turned it on. When’s it gonna happen?
Willie created this new mess by himself. His players have to deal with it. Willie has now become a distraction and it is time to go. It’s not his fault his players haven’t performed. Omar has to take the blame for that but whatever Willie is doing is not working and a change is necessary. His players (at least a few of them) have tuned him out. After telling Wags to keep his problems “in house” he went and publicly ranted again.
im thinking i should just cut myself off from all media….any form. watch the game on mute. cause im honestly tired of all this
I’m with you ..
Amen, exactly right.
well, why CAN’T HE BENCH DELGADO? joe.
because you say so?
it it a physical impossibility to put marlon at first?
down 8-2 and he’s just chillin’, joking around-
i’m sick of it.
i make 50,000 a year and believe me, I’M HELD ACCOUNTABLE.
who does this site REALLY represent? i’m starting to wonder
This “FUNK” has been going on since last June.
Idea…trade Willie to Detroit for Leyland
Jimmy will never come to the Mets as long as Shea is smoke-free.
Agreed. I am not happy with the team right now. But lets not forget in 2004 the Red Sox played .500 ball until August, then tore it up in the last 6-8 weeks of the season to win the series.
Yea, and let’s not forget that in ‘07, the Mets played .500 ball after June, and lost the division by a single game. I don’t know how the Mets stack up against the 04 Red Sox, but I do know they’re pretty much the same group as the 07 Mets, so , genius, which outcome do you think is more likely? Enough with the optimism, enough with the apologists. I was a Cowboys fan at one time until the switzer years of firearms, hookers, drug suspensions, etc. I have not watched more than a couple of NFL games since. Even when Romo came in and the boys looked good again, there was no going back. I have followed the Mets longer than any other sports team, through good and (mostly) bad, and never considered giving up until now. I spend hard-earned money for my extra innings package and many trips to Shea, I spend valuable time following every game, the offseason rumor mill, and spring training. I have traveled to Port St. Lucie from PA to watch games that don’t count up close and personal. This team is truly awful, the worst I’ve ever watched as a Mets fan. They should be playing so much better than they are. Willie should have been fired at the end of last year at the very least,and probably didn’t deserve the job in the first place. The Mets are disgusting right now, and so are all the fans who think Willie does a fine job or that it’s OK because we’re only a few games out. You are every bit as pathetic as the team is. I’m done with the Mets until Willie is replaced, and I urge everyone who feels like I do to do the same. Maybe if the ratings, the attendance, and the merchandise sales suffer as much as real Mets fans have, then the front office and ownership will finally try to set things right-only by then we’ll be 10 games out
The NY media is horrendous and it has gotten out of control with all the blogs and bs gossip every day.
I am not convinced the offense is going to be fine. Also who says Church and Scheidner are going to continue to hit .300. Delgado is what he is at this point. A less than .250 hitter with some pop and horrible obp. We’ve waiting for reyes to return to his first half of ‘07 for the last 2 months of ‘07 and the first two months of ‘08
Joe, you know I love you and all, but comparing Randolph’s situation to Leyland’s is, well…… a poor comparison, imo. Leyland has a track record, he has led teams to World Series rings, he’s managed for years, he has the confidence of the fans and the players. And the fact is, his team IS woefully underperforming, yet the pereception may very well be that the team can turn it around BECAUSE, or at least PARTIALLY BECAUSE, of Leyland at the helm. Can the same perception be said of Willie’s helming? If helming is even a word, lol? I don’t really think so.
And even if that weren’t the case, every situation is different, every team is composed differently, and in the Curious Case of Willie Randolph, where we have ample evidence of disconnects with the fans, the media, the players (especially Jose Reyes), the front office… I think Willie’s time has come and gone, quite frankly. He can’t and won’t be given the lattitude of a Leyland, for obvious reasons.
On my blog today, I kind of tongue-in-cheek (sound familiar? lol) talk about trading managers with the Yankees, Randolph for Girardi, straight up. You gotta laugh during these tough times, you know?
Very good points.
Deb, teams? teams?
Leyland led one singular team and the biggest set of hired guns ever to set foot on one field together at that to title.
He fell short three straight years with arguably the best team in the National League and survived that.
His Tiger team plummetted at the end of 2006 recall, lost their division title, fell back into the wild card, beat a crappy Yankee team that was not playoff ready and then got CREAMED by the team that knocked off Randolphs.
And where is the disconnect with Reyes? Are we now saying Reyes lack luster play since last August is because of Randolph?
The Red Sox once dismissed a sour apple of bigger magntitude, but I don’t think Reyes is as malignant as is being played.
Randolph very well may need to go, but lets not pretend that a guy like Leyland is from another stratosphere altogether.
Oh, but he is, Take a look at his managerial record. He’s managed 18 years, most of them in the NL. He’s been to two World Series, and has actually won one (yes, Willie, he has). He’s won three Manager of the Year Awards. Willie isn’t fit to spit in Leyland’s direction, not at this point, and probably never.
OH BUT HE IS NOT…his managerial record took a great deal of sculpting.
For his first 4 seasons he was under .500 by far with one positive step to a second place finish in 1988 followed by a big step back to 5th before he got to the top of anything.
You said he has lead TEAMS to world series RINGS, that implies multiple and that is far far far from true.
He has twice as many 5th place finishes as he does first place finishes and needed the good fortune of the Wild Card in both of his world series appearances.
Randolph is three years and two months into his managerial career and at the same point and time has achieved more head to head than Leyland.
Perhaps it will take Randolph 12 seasons as a manager to get to the World Series and win. Time will tell.
But one thing is certain whether you I or the wall likes Randolph or not, Leylands legend is more myth than fact.
But he HAS A TRACK RECORD, and a pretty good one, which is something Willie doesn’t have, and may not ever get. And why is that? Because of Willie himself. There’s a reason why he interviewed for like 20 managerial jobs and never got any of them, and don’t even try to tell me that it’s because he’s black.
And the fact is not every manager who is a good solid manager can win. That’s just the nature of the game. But managers get a rep for being good because they usually are (with the possible exception of Dusty Baker, who imo is the most overrated manager ever), not because the image is “sculpted.” And fcol, Leyland managed in Pittsburgh, Florida, Colorado and Detroit — hardly media meccas with people carefully sculpting images.
And here’s also what happens to some guys — they start to believe their rep (see: Dusty Baker). They become larger than the game (see: Bobby Valentine). But generally, this happens AFTER the manager wins a couple of titles or rings, NOT before, like in the Curious Case of Willie Randolph, who arrogantly seems to believe he’s entitled to something, having done little or nothing to earn it.
Call me crazy, but Willie isn’t even close to being in that stratosphere of managers.
Do you always ignore statistics? Three people have pointed out that Leyland is NOT the manager everyone thinks he is, that Randolp to date compared to Leylands first years is BETTER and he has more non first place finishes than 1st place finishes…
And the talent on the Tigers is heads above the mets and they are playing much worse. They would be tinkled pink to be playing 500 ball.
Your logic is faulty at best.
I wonder how many Tiger games any of us have watched, including you. Perhaps if I WAS a Tiger fan, I’d be clamoring for Leyland to be gone. I really don’t know, and I don’t care. The point is, Leyland has a good reputation, has had a good solid managerial career, has won A RING AS A MANAGER, has won some division titles, and has the respect of the players.
Like I said, sometimes even if you’re good, you’re not going to win all the time.
And Leyland, let us not forget, had the Tigers, a lowly last place team not a couple of years before, in the World Series.
I’m not saying Leyland’s God, but what I am saying is the man has paid his dues and Willie Randolph shouldn’t even be in the same sentence with Jim Leyland.
And Jim Leyland has not, to my knowledge, presided over a collapse of historic proportions, folllowed by a subpar performance of the same caliber the following year.
Joe Janish should be fired
lol, I agree.
Just admit that this team is not that good. It makes it much easier to watch the games.
it’s nice to see some optimism and perspective in the main posts.
That said, I’m sooooo sick of this topic (fire wille). I almost wish it’d happen just so we can move on to complaining about the new guy.
loll me too bro. We all want willies head at this point…lets talk about something different for a change
Exactly, just give me back my blog.