Mike Guest Post - I Win
Poor Willie. As happy as I am to have officially won the Randolph/Cashman debate, I hate the way the Mets handled this. I mean come on. They've been undermining his authority for weeks, then they make him fly out to Anaheim, he wins the game, has to do his post game interviews, then they drop the bomb in the middle of the night? Are you kidding me? No class. It's like the Mets brass sat around and tried to figure out the worst possible way to handle this. While it's unlikely that Willie will do this now, I really wish he would accept his invitation to be on Clint Hurdle's coaching staff for the All Star Game. He'd get the ovation he deserves in Yankee Stadium. I think he'll get another chance to manage. If you look at his overall record with the Mets, and the fact that he had them just a few outs from the World Series, You have to admit he did some things right. It's amazing when you think about out. Had they won that game against the Cardinals, and managed to make the playoffs last year, we are not having this conversation. I really think it has way more to do with the lack of leadership amongst the players than it does with Willie. A guy like Mike Piazza wouldn't have put up with all the crap going on in that clubhouse. And it's not like Jerry Manuel is going to fix anything. That guy makes Willie look like Larry Bowa.
By the way, Billy Wagner does a guest spot every Thursday at 5:20 on the Michael Kay show on 1050 ESPN Radio - NY. If any of you who can't pick it up on the radio get a chance, you should go to 1050espnradio.com and listen. Billy just says whatever comes into his head, and pulls no punches. He'll throw himself and other guys under the bus, and usually refers to himself in the 3rd person at least once per interview. I would imagine that this weeks appearance will be a good one. I'll be listening.
Anyways, I have more important things to worry about, like who's going to fill the void left by Chien Ming Wang. It kills me the way pitchers just seem to always find new ways to hurt themselves... I'm ready for football to start!
- I have to admit I totally agree with what Mike said. It was complete BS the way the Mets handled it. I wish there was some way for me to defend my team, but I can't. I really can't. Plus, they fired the wrong person. Omar should have been gone. In fact, Omar should have been gone after the 2005 season. He's made one wrong move after another. In fact, I'm trying to think and I really can't think of anything that really went well that he did. I understand the Pedro signing, we needed to get a big name in NY and everyone knew Pedro was going to get injured and probably often. I also don't blame him for the Beltran signing because, well, Beltran's one of my favorite players. We'll still have to see what happens with the Santana trade. But he failed to trade for Dan Haren when he would have only given up Lastings and Heilman, which right now would have been a steal. The Delgado trade was bad. He had one good season but sucked after that. We could have gotten that kind of production from Mike Jacobs(I refuse to ever, EVER let this go) and for the fraction of the price. In fact, we'd have like $15/mil a year we could have spent on another pitcher and hitter. Ugghhh. The Lo Duca trade was worthless because we gave up nothing and we got 1 good year and 1 horrible year out of him. Then, in 2006 it seemed we were stocked with really good young pitchers so he trade Bannister to the Royals for Ambioux, who sucks. This team could be sooooo much different and sooooooo much better if he had done things the right way. Just think(because you know how much I like to think about this stuff), we could have a pitching staff right now of Johan Santana, Dan Haren, Pedro, Maine, Perez. Then, once Pedro's gone we replace him with Pelfrey. Or, now that we have $40 mil coming off the books after this season, maybe we could get someone like CC to come in? Oh well. As for Cashman, because of Wang, I could see him being gone at the end of the season because the Yankees are in real trouble now. Could he end up in Seattle after this season? It could be interesting.
7 comments:
Mark my words. If Brian Cashman leaves the Yankees after this season, it'll be on his terms, not theirs. All reports I've heard are that they want to extend his contract, but he's not ready to do anything yet.
I agree that this was poorly timed and executed, but I don't know if I disagree of letting Willie go. He has a winning record, but it should be much higher in my opinion with the players he had. Minaya made some dumb moves, but he brought in some studs (Beltran, Santana) and he kept the young stars (Reyes, Wright, Maine). I feel like a team with that core should not be losing very many series. Plus I've been watching a lot of the games this year and too often have I though Willie was making a bad move late in a game (or not making one that he should have made). It's not hindsight is 20/20 because I knew they were bad moves as he was making them, and I'm just a fan.
I don't know what Manuel will do, or who will come in after him, but I think it's good for the Mets to make a big change. Lets just hope they don't give up on the season now.
Also, Roger what do you think about Hank Steinbrenner claiming that the entire National League is to blame for Wang's injury? He said the fact that they don't have a DH yet is ridiculous and they're living in the 1800's. I think it's a crock of shit, and just shows how dumb he is. Wang was jogging home and it was a freak injury. He's sprinted to first base a ton of times and not gotten injured. If you're an athlete and you can't run around the bases, then you shouldn't be in the major leagues.
Overall, I think Willie deserved better and it was pretty rotten what the Mets did. I don't think any of the Mets fans can say he was an outright bad guy. I think the players just stopped responding to him and they need a change. It will be interesting to see what they do from here. Do you guys really think the bench coach is going to stay as the manager? What are the odds Bobby V comes back? Or Keith Hernandez comes down from the booth?
Also, I wonder if the NL will ever adapt the DH. Some people love it and others hate it. Needless to say, every time the Yankees play a game in an NL park I cringe. When the pitchers get up they have no clue what they are doing. They look like they have not one athletic bone in their body. Did anyone see Wang's at bat when he bunted? He wrapped his whole hand around the bat. He's lucky he didn't get hit and break it.
Also, when is my guest post?
I don't have any analysis of whether Randolph should have been fired or how the Mets will do now, but no organization - whether it's a business, a sports team, the government, etc. - should handle human resources in such a terrible manner. Like Mike said, the way that the Mets made Randolph pack his bags for the road trip, fly across the country, coach a game, WIN a game, do postgame interviews, take the bus back to the team hotel - then fired him - is inexcusable. Just fire him before the trip. Why treat a human being in such a way?
I agree that Hank Steinbrenner's comments are absurd. But unlike Perotti, I don't cringe every time Boston's pitchers hit in an NL stadium. I just shrug my shoulders and think "it's part of the game". Hell, Bartolo Colon is on the DL now because of an injury he got swinging the bat.
Also, does anyone else think that AL pitchers should be paid less than NL ones? Too bad Boston and NYY, who spend the most, are both in the AL which makes this question moot. But American League pitchers aren't paid any less than National League pitchers even though they technically do less work. National League pitchers do so much more work than AL - they hit, run the bases, and pinch run sometimes. AL pitchers have nothing to worry about, have far fewer injury possibilities, and get paid the same.
Yeah I agree that AL pitchers don't deserve as much money as NL pitchers, but that will never happen. Would you ever pitch in the AL if that were the case? Almost all pitchers in the majors hit until/through college, so there is no excuse that they can't have 3 AB's every 5 games. Suck it up and be a man.
First - Watch the video:
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200806152935802
He was not jogging. He was at full gate until he came aroungd 3rd and slowed up only after the injury happened. Although to be fair, his full gate could be mistaken for jogging...
Second - Hank's an idiot, but quite entertaining. That said, I much prefer the DH to pitchers hitting. Sure it adds a lot of strategy, but I want to puke every time I see a pitcher get a hit, and the announcer without fail says "He helped his own cause." We get it. He's pitching and hitting. BFD. Most of them look completely lost at the plate, and I'd much rather see a professional hitter. Pitchers have enough to worry about with elbow, shoulder, and hamstring injuries.
Third - Per Omar's press conference today, it seems that Jerry Manuel will see out the rest of this season, then they'll re-evaluate. Bobby V would be interesting, and I think he'd do well with this team.
Fourth - Pay should be the same. In exchange for having to hit, NL pitchers only have to pitch to 8 real hitters. I think it works itself out.
Well, well, it's nice to come home from work and see 6 comments on my post, he he. First off, Perrotti, if you email a guest post, I'll post it. And then make fun of you. What was wrong with my trade? Rob, the trade I sent you was fair b/c Hoffman is not the same guy he was before. But, if you want to deal another closer, can you send me an offer for me to look at?
Okay, enough of fantasy baseball stuff. I've had time to think about things some more and also, we had ESPN on all day at work so I saw enough of the Mets stuff to last me a lifetime. I think I'm going to put most of the blame on Omar but there is definitely some blame with Willie. You can't really blame Willie too much with the bad moves because all managers will make at least one or two bad moves. What I do blame Willie for is losing the club house. Once a manager does that the season is over. You then have two options you can either fire the manager and give up on the season and hope something changes with the club. This situation happened with the Mets and the Giants and the Mets fired the manager and the G-men let things go and some how Tom C changed his philosophy and wham, we won the super bowl. But still, Willie, there's no reason to lose the team. You're the manager, take control.
But, the Mets front office did a horrible job with the whole situation. What's I've learned is that we have a history of this, leaking information and stabbing people in the back. Great stuff. We need a gm to come in and tell the owners straight, tell them to get out of the way and let them do their job. That would be great. Omar won't do that. Oh well.
I think there's no problem with pitchers batting. You did it growing up, you did it in college, you probably did it in the minors, suck it up and take some batting practice. Not all AL pitchers are bad hitters. Johan is a decent hitter.
I have no idea who the Mets should hire as a manager. We'll see what Manuel does, but there aren't really any good managers out there now. It's not like there's a Barry Melrose doing play by play for ESPN. We'll see what happens. Also, Reyes just got injured. Good stuff.
Post a Comment