Listen: Jerry Manuel on WFAN
Jerry Manuel talked with WFAN’s Mike Francesa today, which you can listen to here.
During the interview, Manuel said Johan Santana is healthy, and just finished throwing a strong bullpen session.
Manuel said he is still concerned about his team’s offense.
He acknowledged that Fernando Martinez and Daniel Murphy are not providing the level of production, i.e., power, the team needs right now.
He added, if the team is not winning games, and Martinez and Murphy do not show improvement, the Mets will need to reconsider their involvement – however, if the team is winning, he has no problem sticking with them.
Manuel said, at this point, Jose Reyes still has a week or so of rest ahead of him, before he even begins a rehab program.
…here is an exchange between manuel and francesa, which ended the interview, that i found noteworthy…
Mike Francesa: So, this team’s resilience has kept you from getting frustrated with this group?
Jerry Manuel: No question.
Mike Francesa: So, as long as you stay around where you are now in the standings you can hold off doing anything major? Is that where you think this organization is right now?
Jerry Manuel: Yeah, that’s the way I feel… It’s not so much as the standings as it is being above .500…
Mike Francesa: This is a strange year, isn’t it? For you and your team, this has become a very strange year.
Jerry Manuel: Oh yeah, this is something else here.
Mike Francesa: But, you and the team seem to be holding up pretty well. I gotta tell you, I’m mildly surprised and mildly impressed. The team has hung in their very well.
Jerry Manuel: Yeah, well, I think we have some people that understand and have been through some things here, and are still here, that understand what it takes to compete here. They really understand how important winning is to New York, and I think that’s what is carrying this team.
Mike Francesa: You like this team?
Jerry Manuel: I love the team.
Mike Francesa: Well, that says it. Do you have a good feeling about how this is going to work out?
Jerry Manuel: You know what, I feel good. I’d feel real good if those other two guys could show up, I’d really feel good (laughing).
Mike Francesa: You mean your shortstop and your first baseman?
Jerry Manuel: Yeah, I feel like, man, we’d really have something going here then.
Mike Francesa: I think the way it sounded is the way it is. The Mets are basically playing this season day to day. If they go in to a deep hole they’d be forced to do something. Each day they click a day off the schedule and get closer to re-enforcements, be it Maine, Perez, Reyes and eventually Delgado, they can wait and not hold up… They do not consider the Phillies to be the number. They number the consider is hailing distance of five over .500. The feeling is, if they can stay within a game or two or five over .500, that they can launch a Wild Card bid from there… So, as long as they don’t lose touch with that, they’ll sit tight as long as they’re close to that number, and they are. And, ironically, just three games behind the Phillies.
