Love him or hate him, Willie Randolph will be back as Mets manager next season. GM Omar Minaya announced an hour ago at a Shea news conference that Randolph will return, despite a historic collapse that cost the Mets a division title that looked guaranteed only two weeks earlier.
It's the right move. Randolph was not the only one to blame for the Mets finishing 5-12 down the stretch. Even the players said so. Firing him would have been a knee-jerk reaction and I think the Mets can win with Randolph at the helm.They did last season, so why not again?
Comments (15)
Good thing that cooler heads prevailed here. Though I am getting afraid that lil Jeffy Wilpon is sticking his nose into the baseball operations again. Not good. Let Omar run the ship.
Atlanta should welcome Tom Glavine back with open arms as a hero, he gave Atlanta fans the next best thing to a WS ring, which was destroying the Mets season in half of an inning. After the massive collapse, he almost seemed to smile in post-interviews. Many Mets fans always knew Tom's heart was not in NY, so we respected him but never fully embraced him. Thanks Tom, you can dance on the Mets grave and whistle Dixie.
Willie Randolph says "he takes full responsibility" and so he should. he's the field boss. but he shud then resign as his team was a failure. The team reflects the manager's personality. Randolph appears to be a totally nice man; calm, reasonable,understanding. that's how his team played. no apparent drive or aggression. no determination. no new ideas. no winners.
But Willie does have brains and self-control, something the young fools on the Mets desperately lack.
He can't give them brains but maybe he can show them how to exercise self-control.
And really how much brains does it take to count up to three?
Does young Jeff have any Fredo in him?
Put some MSG in his food, now!
Willie Randolph has made mistakes but if anyone should have gotten fired its Omar. No matter what though I will still love the Mets. They are my team no matter what. Yes this is very disappointing and it seems that they just let the Marlins win without a fight but this is what baseball is about. The chance of losing. I think we should all show our support for the Mets like we have done all these years. Maybe hopefully one of these years will be our year.
Omar is the one who built the bullpen by trading off Heath Bell and bringing in veteren releivers. Willie coached the same way as Torre does. The only differences is that the Yankees G.M. knows who to keep in the organization and who to trade. The bullpen collapse this year put all the pressure on the starting pitchers and hitters to overacheive to cover their buts. If you look at every deal Omar has made since taking over he got punked on all of them. He went for trading Cammeron for Nady instead of throwing in a prospect or 2 for Manny or Shefield. As it turned out he traded Cammeron for a 40 year old reliever and a starter who wasn't good enough to pitch for the Pirates. He wouldn't give up prospects for Oswaltlast year. He needs to start addressing his own screw ups instead of his coacing staffs.
Because the Mets won inspite of Witless Willie last year. Everyone was so bad in the division the Mets buried everyone early. LAst year the Mets beat the Phillies and Braves at will. This year they could hardly score any runs. And the last I knew, Hitters score the runs not the pitchers.
Hey Dan... the Mets lost because their pitchers were too busy giving up 10+ runs a game, not because the offense could only score 7.
For Chris Baker, you must not read very well, it was not Omar`s refusal to give up prospects for Oswalt, if the deal weht through Milliage and if i remeber Heilman and pelfry would be Astros today. It was the Astros Owner who nixed the deal. So on that front your facts were wrong, as for the Nady deal Oliver Perez when he is on was one of our better startersand he is still young and learning, something he did not recieve in Pittsburgh, plus he saved our butts in the NCLS against St. Louis. Adain your facts are misguided. Yes this past winter Omar made some dumb trades, but before that all his trades worked out real well. Again Not this year though and part of it I say we have to blame ownership for not wanting to spend. The Wilpons need to take blame as well just not Omar and Willie
Omar always talks about wanting young power arms for the bullpen. Well, he traded them all away!
People should stop panicking, looking for scapegoats, and looking to clean house (as the moron Chris Russo said on WFAN - does that man know ANYTHING about the game? It seems he and Mike Francesa just talk out of the wrong side of their bodies most of the time).
I think Randolph's overall performance with the Mets during his threee years, in spite of the collapse, has been good. Many of the players should be retained, also. Do you think they can get a better catcher than Lo Duca out there? Maybe Castro should get more playing time next year, but Lo Duca should be resigned.
Exercising Alou's option is a no-brainer. At $7.5 million, he's a bargain. If he had enough at bats to qualify, his average would have won the NL batting title!
And I think they should keep Shawn Green, who was solid all year and hit .291. If he's willing to be a backup outfielder/first baseman, it's hard to find a better bench player than that.
Obviously they need bullpen help, and maybe another front line starter. But lets not forget how brilliant El Duque was most of the year. And Glavine was solid too. His last start left a bad taste in the mouth, but his innings (and productivity from a lefty) will also be heard to upgrade. I don't seriously believe the Twins are going to trade Santana.
We just need more bullpen help. Getting Duaner Sanchez back next year will help, but we clearly need more than that.
Juan Padilla
It has to be the field manager's fault for the collapse.He sets the tone,he oversees the pitching coach and players.These players do not run out pop ups and ground balls at times,he made a promise he would not tolerate but it repeated over and over.These same players came out of Spring training looking un beatable; pitching,hitting and fielding the same people.It is the field managers job to keep that momentum.When they got into an earlier losing slump it was because the batters were not getting enough walks...No rocket science here just the truth! The manager needs to figure how things get out of whack after all he has the power to question all of the staff and the power to correct what needed.Thats his job no player or coach has that responsibilty.
thank god it is over Now maybe the yankee fans will shut up and go help joe torre PACK