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Willie Randolph, regarding rumors about his job, while speaking to reporters prior to today’s game:
“This is New York. I live here. I grew up here. I understand this is how it is sometimes. I’m man enough to deal with it. I just wish we could win some games.”
…me too, willie…me too…keep fighting, man…
…the buzz from shea is that, win or lose, willie will travel to Los Angeles tonight…as he should…though, in standard willie fashion, he joked with reporters about his fate, noting how he thought about it a bit while packing for the trip this morning…
LETS GO METS!!!
The last part sounds a bit desperate and makes it seem like his fate is already sealed.
Just shows he’s more worried about his team performance than his job. You have to admire that. Willie handling this way much better the second time around. I hope he perseveres. Because he’s been dealt a short deck this year.
I think he’s worried about team performance BECAUSE he’s worried about his job.
I agree- Better job by Willie this time. I think he realizes that it’s not personal.
Willie wants to win games? What a scoop!
But apparently Carlos Delgado doesn’t.
Carlos – Can you PPPLLLEAASEE dive for the ball and knock it down. It won’t hurt, I promise. And the Rangers wouldn’t have scored a run if you did.
and stop grounding into rally-killing DPs while you’re at it.
Yeah, yeah I know. He hit a home run earlier and a single as well. Still, that DP hurt.
enough with the willie love in… the job is purely performance based… the bottom line is he hasn’t won, and he deserves to lose his job.
Agree, when the players aren’t responding anymore, and the losses are piling up, it’s time for a change.
Was at the stadium last night, and the Randolph T-Shirts in the Club Shop were on the clearance rack for $15, coincidence?
They sell Randolph shirts? Who would buy one of those?
It will be a huge mistake to fire Willie. The Mets can point fingers all they want, but they are not losing because of Willie’s managerial skills. They are losing because their relievers can’t come in without getting a run, because they can’t advance runners, and they can’t hold leads. All this talk about the players not responding to Willie is a complete cop-out.
Willie will undoubtedly be fired if the Mets lose both games in this doubleheader. However, the Mets will continue to lose as Willie is not the problem. Our new manager will not be able to “light a fire” under the players, and Omar Minaya will be the next to go. At that point, we will officially be a team in disarray, without direction or leadership. If this is what you are looking for keep booing Willie. Keep asking for his head. Keep using him as a scapegoat. But when we keep losing, and this thing continues to spiral out of control, you will realize that Willie never should have been fired.
Firing Willie will be the beginning of a long string of mistakes. You think things can’t get worse? Fire Willie Randolph and you will soon learn otherwise.
I agree completely. Firing Willie is the solution that solves nothing. It answers the need to see someone punished for the team’s failures, but it has absolutely nothing to do with winning baseball games.
well he’s never shown us that he’s a decent in-game manager, so it would solve something.
im tired of people apologizing for him because he’s a nice guy. how come carlos delgado doesn’t get a pass for being a nice guy?
And how come Bobby V. got credit for getting overachievers like Agbayani, Payton, Timo Perez and Todd Zeile to a World Series, yet Willie gets a pass because he’s leading a team full of underachievers? If it’s not at least partly Willie’s fault, then what is the point of even having a manager? Isn’t it his job to motivate, help players make adjustments, show them how to improve, help them break out of slumps?
It looks as if we lost this game. Wonder if Willie gets fired after this game.
I would imagine if they get swept in the doubleheader, they’d fire Willie.
They won’t fire him hours before a road trip to LA.
Willie is in a ‘no win’ situation, both literally and figuratively. The PLAYERS are just NOT getting the job done. I think this team needs a complete overhaul getting rid of as many guys as possible. They just do not mesh as a team. I pray the the Front Office realises this and will admit that this team is going nowhere but down. Please be sellers and NOT buyers. Each loss becomes more and more painful and there is not one dependable player. I could at least live with some new blood and rebuilding. This team suffers from post traumatic blown pennant syndrome of last year and just will never rebound until we get a new core of players and we’ve got enough older and underperforming players to make at least a 50% or more change with this team.
Mets are fighting…for their season..and Willie’s job.
Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust a bit outside.
this is not a plate man.
willie hasn’t stepped into the batter’s box in years nor does he come out of the bullpen and hang “meatballs” over the plate. the players need to man up and step their game up! they don’t give out “heart” with the pine tar. so much talent going to waste. the mets are so much better than this!
Rumor has it that the Mets have suggested that Willie pack a parachute before the flight out west. :)
For all the people out there defending Willie, I have a question. But before I ask, I want to point out that I don’t think Willie is totally to blame for this team playing poorly. The players are responsible for this more than anyone else. But here’s my question:
If Willie is not to blame in any way, then doesn’t that basically say that managers are meaningless for the most part? Is it not his job (and that of the rest of the coaches) to get the players to play to the best of their ability? Isn’t it Willie’s job to put the players in the best position to win?
There’s another way to look at it, also. If managers like Joe Torre get credit for getting guys like Scott Brosius and Paul O’Neill to play above their talent levels (or Bobby V. with guys like Todd Zeile and Benny Agbayani), then aren’t managers like Willie, who have a team with stars playing below their talent levels, at fault for the team’s poor performance?
I’m not necessarily saying I think Willie should be fired, but to sit here and say he is in no way responsible for this is just ridiculous. If he can’t get this team turned around, it’s reasonable to think that it’s worth a shot to give a different manager a chance to do just that. The way to fix it would be to get different players, but that’s not how the sport works (at least not enough to revamp the team midseason), so changing managers is the only move that can truly shake things up.
Cerrone is really getting his Willie man-crush get the best of him. How about putting down the pom-poms and posting the results of some of those polls?
You don’t see the 39% confidence in Randolph image up there in the top left?
I think there was a poll after that where he did even worse. Even if I’m wrong about that one, what happened to the Omar poll where he was getting his head handed to him? Why bother doing it if the results don’t get posted when they’re not favorable?
It was 37%…he even added a few points to help the perception.
He added a few points to the results of a poll???
IF you do the math, it was 37%. I don’t know what math he uses to arrive a 39%. I even emailed and got no response.
The confidence rating is just a bullshit excuse to use Willie as a scape goat and honestly most of you people do not know anything about baseball or how the game is managed…Willie has no control over Joe Smith and Billy Wagner sucking ass for 3 straight games…he has no control over David Wright swinging at bad pitches and not going the opposite way…he has no control over Carlos Delgado’s aging slow reflexed body…it is not his fault that Yunel Escobar gave Ryan Church a concussion and Moises Alou’s best friend is the Disabled List…Did he trade for Delgado? Sign Moises Alou? Trade for El Duque? Let the leadership of Paul LoDuca go? No. He can only manage what he has to work with. You want to talk about change…then a new pitching coach and hitting coach is what is needed…anyone over the age of 35 not named Pedro or Billy should be moved, released or simply benched…players that don’t hustle should be fined
Also, did any of you Fair Weather Mets fans hate Willie Randolph when the team was winning from April 2005 till July 2007? I guarantee you all loved him so why the hate now? He has not changed…his managerial style has not changed…the players have gotten weaker and frankly a good chunk of them do not give a shit anymore because asshole fans are booing them whenever they do not get a hit…Guess what.. last time I checked the only player to get a hit even 40% of the time is Chipper Jones…so back off and deal with this shit……
I am a Willie Randolph supporter with 100% confidence.
You can’t pick one piece of a team and blame it for everything that goes wrong. Several different games were lost because of several different people. A team is one unit, period. This is why people are saying that we need to shake things up – it’s not working as is.
No and if we don’t fire Willie after this loss, we will continue to watch a team play sub .500 baseball for the rest of the season. At least put Jerry in control, he will play the best players on the roster, including rewarding a player who went 2-3 with a R, SB and BB with the opportunity to play in the second game. Where Willie rewards Nixon with a nice seat on the Tar! Genius! Willie knows how to work his players confidence, thats for sure.
I’m sorry, that meant to read “on the pine,” opposed to “tar,” this team has me drinking on sunday afternoons.
I think you are re-TAR-ted…Nixon is left-handed and the starting pitcher was a lefty…its playing the percentages dumbass…I swear you people will find any excuse to rip on Willie Randolph…Let me ask everyone here…can you find a better mid-season replacement manager? Yeah I know I’m right…there is no body
I love the spin now that says nothing is Willie’s fault because half this ancient team is on the DL:.
If you want to see what Willie does with a healthy roster, just go back to September 2007.
Willie stinks. Omar stinks. Fire one, then the other.
Then Delgado? Then Castillo? Then Easley/Tatis/Cancel/Anderson?
The next GM is going to inherit a horrible mess. Bloated payroll. Unproductive “stars”. Second worst farm system in the majors.
I have no clue how long it will take to undo Omar’s damage.
It’s not really going to be a bloated payroll after this season. Delgado and Pedro come off the books at the end of this season, so the only bad contract remaining will be Castillo’s. Find a team without one bad contract.
I’m not defending Omar, just saying that there’s an opportunity for him (or someone else) to completely revamp this team for 2009. Here’s a quick list off the top of my head of guys who most likely won’t be on the roster next year: Delgado, Martinez, Easley, Wise, Alou, El Duque. Delgado, Martinez, Alou and El Duque alone will clear $37 million off the books (counting the $4 million it’ll cost to buy out Delgado). Some of that will be spent to re-sign Church through arbitration and re-sign or replace Oliver Perez. But there will be money to spend for next season.
OK all around!
Well…I feel so much better now. Willie wants to win games. And I’m soooo glad that Cerrone backs him. All along I thought Willie wanted to lose games. Now I feel better. You know what…fire everyone else. Keep Willie. WILLIE FOR MANAGER OF THE YEAR!!! HE WANTS TO WIN GAMES!!!
Please forgive me…its father’s day…started drinking at 12 at the BBQ and I can’t take much more. I had to watch them come up just short again because Joe Smith and Schoe can’t keep a game close and because Willie has no idea how to manage ‘pen. I’m sick of it. All I know is that he better be gone by the time I take my yearly road trip to FL with them.
“know what…fire everyone else. Keep Willie.”
Be careful what you “wish” for… I can see that happening.
Re: Amazin Mets
Youre 100% correct. Getting rid of Willie will effectively end the season.
CASTILLO = “slappy mc happy”. . .this team is a joke. OMAR needs to go. we need somone with a youth idea. omar diddnt even bring wright or reyes here, STEVE PHILLIPS DID! that is saying something.
Slappy McHappy,
We’re not related.
I know three other Slappy’s. Do you spell your name on your birth certificate Slappie? One of them spells it like that and it helps him get laid. It’s a cool twist to an already-cool name.
I don’t know if anyone heard Leo Mazzone on the FAN this morning, but I definitely want him on our staff. He was talking about how awful the pitch count was and how managers needed to watch the games and have common sense with their pitchers. If a pitcher was going good and not laboring at 100 pitches, you leave him in. He even said that he had them remove the pitch count from the scoreboard in Baltimore because pitchers were using it as an excuse to come out of games.
He was so much better than Peterson and his pyramid and the Jedi mind tricks.
As good a pitching coach as Mazzone is, that is the most ridiculous and shortsighted thing I’ve ever heard.
While it makes sense if you’re looking at in the scope of A SINGLE GAME to go based on how good a pitcher is doing, you simply can’t do that over the course of a season. The fact of the matter is, if a guy goes good the first month or two, and you leave him out there to throw 120+ pitches, you are going to absolutely destroy his arm for later in the season. Look at Maine’s second half stats, an obvious result of not being used to the grind of a full season. Look at Sabathia’s poor start, and even Beckett. Both threw an incredible amount of innings last season due to the playoffs.
I have no problems with Peterson. Most detractors do nothing but point to his V. Zambrano comments, which is sad, because the magic this guy has worked with out pitching staff far outweighs any negatives he brings to the table.
Short-sighted….right. Don Drysdale, Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Warren Spahn, etc. The list goes on. All these guys routinely pitched 300+ innings for their careers and all of these guys are HOF’ers. You want to say it’s a different style game now? Fine, but that’s exactly the point that Mazzone was making. We are grooming these pitchers to have a mental, NOT PHYSICAL, but mental limit when it comes to pitch counts. When they are nearing 100 pitches, they automatically feel their day is coming to an end. Pitch counts are all essentially set at 100 and that’s such an arbitrary, BS number. There is no reason a pitcher can’t maintain longevity throughout a career, no less a season, if they exceeded 100 pitches. The whole logic that 100 is the magical limit for pitchers is absolutely absurd.
Willie was never going to be fired. This was a very nicely crafted strategy by the Mets front office after they lost the series to the D-Backs. With a Mets win in the second game of the DH today, they are actually going to convince some of their fans that the Mets had a successful homestand. If the Mets hang on and win it will be 3-3 but it seems like it was better than that with Willie being “safe” again. Too bad the record is still what it is…
Still 2 games under .500.
Like I said, too bad their record is still what it is, but we’re not supposed to notice THAT part! :)
Willie for life!!!…oh wait, thats Cerrone’s chant. But his site isn’t pro-Willie..
It is incomprehensible that heads have not rolled yet at Shea. At this point, I am beyond caring whose head(s)…just restore some sort of accountability into this organization!!! Personally, I’d satrt with Willie and Bernazard and put Omar on notice. But, my God, just do SOMETING to turn the page!
Maybe they want to stall. Maybe they aren’t captain proactive monsters.
How ’bout firing Omar, Bernazard, Peterson and Howard Johnson. Keep Willie, hire Leo Mazzone as pitching coach and bring in Gary Carter as hitting coach?
I want them to hire The Hulk or somebody like Daniel Day Lewis in the movie, “There will be blood.”
Or even Wally T. Backman.
…and i want to win the lottery