Quote: Manuel on Improving Team’s Interior Defense
Yesterday, on day one of the team’s three-day mini camp in St. Lucie, Mets manager Jerry Manuel had the following to say to reporters, when asked about his job status, and starting strong:
“I feel like, just from a fan perspective, to gain people back, or get the interest back where it was, I think it’s important that we get off to a good start. I’m a manager, so my situation, regardless of contract, is no different than anybody else’s. If you don’t perform, they make changes… I think for us, because of the troubles and the struggles we had last year in keeping people healthy and playing well, I think it’s important to get off to a good start to invigorate the people again to come out and be a part of hopefully what we can accomplish… Pitching and defense, that’s going to be the game plan. We spent a lot of time last spring on the hitting program. We think we have that in place. It probably needs some tweaking here and there, but we have to play better interior defense. And if we can do that, we feel it will make our pitchers better. That’s going to be the big emphasis.”
…i admire the confidence he has in his coaching staff, but, the fact is, it’s a talent issue, not a matter of being more or less crisp… i think this is why, for right now, i’d start Henry Blanco or sign Rod Barajas, and sign Orlando Hudson or Felipe Lopez, because, to me, though it renders castillo useless, for around $5 million, it is the best way to improve the club’s defense up the middle, which is the best way to help the starting rotation, all while hoping reyes is 100 percent healthy with the same range he showed before last summer…
To read additional quotes from Manuel, who talked about Beltran, Ryota Igarashi, Kelvim Escobar, the starting rotation, and the competition in center field and behind the plate, read Adam Rubin’s post to his blog for the Daily News.
