Further if the cause was simply Randolph, it could be surmised that Manuel himself has had no effect and that the sheer removal of Randolph led to everything.

Bud Harrelson once had a cause and effect relationship that lasted one second place finish.

No one mistakes him with managerial greatness.

Other cause & effect managers? Bob Lemon? Phil Garner?

Randolphs undoing was nothing especially manageresque, tactically speaking. His undoing was never for a minute allowing the idea that perhaps something could have been done differently in the final 17 games in its aftermath. Never once saying, perhaps I could have done this or that, and need to learn from that. He stood fast and strong that it was his way or the highway and then took if further with craziness this year. He moves Church into the two hole, and rather than saying “hey it has worked better than I could have imagined” when questioned about it, he says “that is not going to be the way we keep it:”

He was paraoid or at least hyper guarded his whole tenure and that became near insanity by memorial day this year.

1) The only reason he can use situational matchups so liberally now is due to the expanded rosters. For whatever reasons, last September there were not the plethora of choices that Manuel has now. Prior to the arrival of Ayala and the expanded rosters, the bullpen was as dismal as it was often under Willie.

2) As long as Wagner wasn’t on the DL, Willie had to use him as the closer, even though last year and this year, he started fading after the early part of the season. Manuel has the luxury of using an Ayala and Stokes as well as others to experiment with the closer position now. It has worked to the Mets advantage now to not have a fading and unreliable Wagner down the stretch.

I like the job Manuel has done so far but he hasn’t been perfect. For example, for the last two years, righties have hit Myers significantly better than lefties, yet Manuel loaded up the Mets lineup with lefties on Friday, a big mistake especially considering Easley has great numbers against Myers.

I think he Manuel deserves to be brought back next year too. Just don’t give him too much credit for the patched together bullpen. If anything, credit Omar for getting Ayala and Stokes and calling up a lot of extra arms this September.

Just kidding with you buddy, I know you’re still in Willie’s corner and anything short of a WS appearence by Mets will justify your love affair with Willie.

I for one give Manuel ALL the credit in the world. Cause and effect people. The numbers speak for themselves. There are allot of people on here that “Apologies” for Willie stating excuses like it wasn’t Willies fault that Delgado was crapy and that Wags blew saves and players were hurt. But if you look at it carefully, Manuel has had as much adversity (If Not More) with key players being hurt and the BP collapsing (For a long strecth) etc.