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During last night’s win against the Rangers, the Mets had the bases loaded in the sixth inning, with the score tied, and Pedro Martinez stepping to the plate, who had thrown 92 pitches and allowed just one earned run.
Willie Randolph pulled Martinez, and instead chose to use Robinson Cancel, who last had a major league hit in 1999.
The Shea crowd let out a raucous boo in response to Randolph’s decision, but Cancel singled to center field, driving in Carlos Beltran and Damion Easley with the game’s deciding runs.
Randolph, on the crowd reaction, talking after the game:
“Well, you know, no matter what I do it’s going to go the other way anyway. So, you know, I wasn’t concerned about that. I mean, they like me for a second and then they don’t. So, that’s the way it goes. Fans are that way. I’m just trying to win a ballgame. It was one of those iffy calls for me, because Pedro was throwing the ball great, but I just felt like we had to take the opportunity to take a crack at it – and, I guess, Cancel made me look good for a minute.”
Following the game, Cancel talked with SNY’s Kevin Burkhardt in front of the team’s dugout, but Ramon Castro interrupted the interview by slamming a handful of shaving cream in to Cancel’s face, which you can watch in the following video clip:
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willie randolph still sucks..
No way. He got one right. He’s smart now.
…but only for now.
After the way the bullpen has blown leads (or given away runs in bushels — see Game 1), I don’t think it’s shocking we wanted to see Pedro stay in the game.
It was that, and a love for Pedro, who we all love to see pitching well and having fun. When Pedro literally skipped over to first base to field a ball the ump had already called foul, it was fun for everyone in the stadium.
So no surprise, we wanted to see him in there as long as possible.
Granted, we also wanted to see the Mets win. But the odds haven’t been so good for that lately…
On top of that, I bet there were fans that thought it was an ok decision but just wanted to boo Randolph…
I think the decision was a no-brainer. This team can’t get runners home from 2nd or 3rd with two outs. Someone needed to get a hit eventually. Cancel had a much better shot than Pedro….though that is debatable I guess.
“Cancel made me look good for a minute”
Player execution is the most important thing in a ballgame, which is why I believe a manager does not have as huge an impact as many believe. Cancel made what could be seen as a bad managerial move a good one, because of the results. Also, Wagner made a good managerial decision (like bringing in your closer in the 9th inning in a save situation) a bad one when he blows a game. Again because of results.
Those are some really testy and paranoid comments from Willie about the fans. I guess he realizes he’s lost them and he has nothing to lose at this point.
Or that it’s completely true.
Fans who place much of the blame on Willie don’t want to admit the unfortunate truth: the Mets don’t have the players to be a top-tier team.
They had the players to be 7 games up in the division with 17 to play last year, didn’t they? And they added Johan Santana to that group, too. Their roster has flaws, but they should NOT be under .500 with this talent.
Well can you blame him for the talent not performing? You can’t blame him for Alou, Pedro, El Duque, and Church being on the DL. You can’t blame him for Ollie, Maine, Duaner, Heilman, and to a lesser extent Feliciano sucking. You can’t blame him for Reyes, Castillo, Beltran and Wright struggling. I mean, there is an answer for why everyone is struggling somewhere, but I can’t see how it can be the manager. You can easily make the argument that its not the manager’s fault, but I don’t see how you can use facts to blame him.
This “its not the manager’s fault” stuff is getting unbelievable. Why do we have manager’s in baseball? The team collapsed miserably down the stretch last year and now, after adding one of the best pitchers in the game, it is still a below 500 club. I dont know exactly what Willie could do better because I’ve never managed a professional baseball team before, but he’s certainly not doing anything to help the situation so firing him probably isn’t going to make the team any worse. And if you feel bad for him you’re insane because he makes millions of dollars either way.
This “its not the manager’s fault” stuff is getting unbelievable. Why do we have managers in baseball? The team collapsed miserably down the stretch last year and now, after adding one of the best pitchers in the game, it is still a below 500 club. I dont know exactly what Willie could do better because I’ve never managed a professional baseball team before, but he’s certainly not doing anything to help the situation so firing him probably isn’t going to make the team any worse. And if you feel bad for him you’re insane because he makes millions of dollars either way.
Well, the first fact is that what you say is an easy argument for the manager is flawed. You CAN blame the manager of the team for them underperforming. That’s his JOB — to get the most out of their players.
If someone wants to argue that they AREN’T talented, maybe. But as for not performing to their abilities? The whole team is underachieving and you don’t blame the person who is supposed to do just that — manage their abilities? When EVERYONE struggles it is clearly more than just a collective coincidence.
You cannot include Maine, Duaner and Feliciano in the same breath as Heilman. Are they lights out, no. But no where near as bad as Heilman.
read it twice
you could also blame the fact that willie hasn’t been able to field a major-league caliber player at 2 spots in the outfield for much of the season.
I don’t feel bad for him, nor do I really like him as our manager or anything I just think at some point players have to be held accountable. Obviously I realize its easier said than done, since you can’t fire the players. I just don’t think this team will suddenly be 10 games over .500 with a different manager. I have no idea what he could do better with this team, is motivation really a problem? Do these guys really need to be motivated to play baseball for millions of dollars for a living?
Yea, insult the fans, that’s the way to go.
“I mean, they like me for a second and then they don’t. “…Nope Willie…I can’t stand you 100% of the time.
But thanks for cheap shot at the fans.
It’ curious that same comment can illicit different reactions from different people. I didn’t even remotely take Willie’s comment on the fans liking him for a second as anywhere near a cheap shot at us. Sounded like the truth and dead on to me. No matter what he does, ‘you can’t please all of the people all of the time’…..
I saw that comment as fact and his conveying the thought that he can’t make decisions to please the fans. He’s trying to win ballgames. If his decisions result in that, he’s a genius. If it doesn’t, he’s a no good sob who can’t manage his way out of a paper bag.
There reaches a point where you can get delusional with your thinking, but I’m not seeing Willie as anywhere near that point – yet…..
i agree – it’s just the way it is, esp in ny. Remember when the boobirds came out for Santana’s first start at Shea? Now they love him. But they could hate him at his next start. And they came out for Wagner recently, but they all loved him last night
I agree. I don’t think WR is worrying about the fans and I don’t think his comment was meant to be an insult.
Whether he’s doing it well or wrong, I believe he’s trying to win games, he’s trying to find a way to win. He has to make difficult decisions every time he fills out the lineup card, because he knows he’s got so many underachieving players to put in there. He knows no matter when he goes to the pen there will be flack from the fans — but worse than that is, he knows the pitcher he chooses may fail.
With that in mind, I’m pretty sure he’s not really worried about a couple of fans opinion of him — not at this point…
I imagine all of the people getting bent out of shape over Willie recognizing his current relationship with the fan-base are also the same fans and media members that wanted to go after Delgado with torches ablaze when he didn’t take his curtain call.
Everyone who dislikes Willie thinks its a cheap shot…all those who think it’s the players and the injuries thinks its not…I for one didn’t think it was a cheap shot but a dead on statement, A coach who coaches for the fans lands up sitting with them.
A little sensitive arent’ we? I mean….isnt it true that “….like me for a second and then they don’t. “ Get over it dude. The man can’t win, no matter what he says or does.
AND I am NOT even a Willie supporter!
With this circus-like atmosphere continuing, the Mets increasing look like the Yankees during George’s prime – the Bronx Zoo moves to Flushing. The Wilpons’ and Omar’s handling of this entire matter hardly brings credit to them or inspires fan confidence.
anyone ever consider that the Mets might be trying to figure out what spineless rat keeps floating out unsubstanitated rumors to the press?
They may have long decided that looking at the they way things are Randolph is not the problem and Minaya may have admitted that the roster gambles he made are largely to blame, in the meantime as they look for solutions the press continues to assume Randolph should be fired, moslty because that is what the fans want.
As best I can tell in the last four years only three individuals voices matter in the Mets front office, Wilpon, Wilpon and Minaya.
So whomever these other “sources” are might just be weasels that are afraid they might take some heat…like say Tony Bernazard.
I think the weasels are: Bernazard and Delgado (when you hear about anonymous players)
I think Jeff Wilpon is the rat who is leaking stuff to the media; I don’t like the way the Wilpons run the ballclub, but if Jeff Wilpon ever has as much influence over the Mets as Jim Dolan does over the Knicks, I’ll start a pool on which Mets player will be the first to have sex with a Mets employee in his suv.
There have been at least two newpaper articles in the past few days reporting that the rat is Jeff Wilpon and that he consistently feeds self-serving info to reporters.
whats the problem? Omar is saying, “Willie right now is my manager but his performance sucks. If we continue to lose, I will fire him.” I see nothing wrong with that. This city tries to blow everything up. Thats the real world, you don’t perform, you get fired.
Willie isn’t underperforming.
Wright is batting .269. Beltran has 8HR. Delgado is batting .240 and playing careless 1B. Alou has 20AB’s. Church has had 2 concussions. Heilman has been terrible. Wagner has blown 3 saves in a week (although it’s tough to get on him. he has pitched well for the most part). Pedro has just come back. Maine and Ollie have been inconsistent. Duaner is still trying to find his way back.
I just can’t blame Willie or Omar for this. I think the players need to respond and play better or up to their capabilities.
though I agree with you, his inability to make the right basic on the field decision for the past year and half is the problem. The players have sucked, but he also not shaken them up enough, IMO.
Curious to see that there are plenty of comments on how a controversial player switch that happens to work out, but nothing about how there were runners on 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs before the bases got loaded?
I’m with you. wall st. if cancel doesn’t bail us out there, it was still not willie’s fault. If we can get a fly ball there, he probably leaves pedro in
I completely agree. However, this is different from what has been plaguing this team all season long. Normally, they get one runner in, when they have 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. They also usually fail to get the big 2-out, 2-run single.
This time, they did it. Something to be happy about, but they have gone away from the little ball that you need to play to win these close games.
yup, they had to at least have gotten a sac fly with none or one out.
very good point. If Delgado (who has been hitting well) does hit a 3 year old girl grounder or if Casto doesnt strike out (which I knew he would), Pedro stays in the game.
does “not”
There goes Willie whining about the fans again.
But pulling Pedro was a no-brainer. I mean how many times has Willie let a pitcher hit then pull him in the middle of the next inning?
Pedro had 90+ pitches, he’s only had a few starts off the DL, so the absolute most he’s going to still give you is one inning anyway – the benefit of getting at most 3 outs from Pedro is far outweighed by the chance to take the lead with a major league hitter at the plate who can draw a walk or get a base hit in that spot.
So it was a no-brainer to pinch hit, however Cancel or Chavez could have been used, Cancel because he’s a righty and Chavez because he pokes singles off lefties well. with Chavez struggling, the L/R matchup was probably the best bet.