Thoughts on Willie and The Mess..er Mets

Jayme and I were thinking we would possibly have a kid today but this baby, much like Nathan, seems to want to wait it out for a while longer. So as I sit here waiting for labor to come sooner or later, I figured I would weigh in our beloved Mets and their now newly job-secure (I guess?) skipper, Willie Randolph.

First off, this is not about Willie. While I ultimately do not feel Willie is a good manager or the right manager for this club, I don't think this is his doing.

Let me explain...

As the expression in sports often goes.."you can't fire the players". And therefore the manager is usually the first one to go. My question is, why isn't the first guy to go the one who brought in the players? I loved the guy when he came but let's be honest here, Omar is responsible for the $138 million payroll. Not Willie.

Omar is responsible for taking on a back-loaded Carlos Delgado contract from the Marlins. Let's recap that deal...Marlins signed him to a 4-year $52 million contract with an option year or buyout. He played one season for the Marlins and got paid $4 million. He was traded to the Mets for Mike Jacobs and Yusmeiro Petit plus some other minor leaguer and the Mets also got paid $7 million from the Marlins in the deal. In the past 3 seasons, he has made $44 million. $37 from the Mets and has a $3 million buyout of his option. So the Mets are on the hook for $40 million of a $52 million contract. Anyone want to take a guess at which year of the four years was his most productive? Anyone out there wanna trade Delgado for the 27-year old Jacobs right now?

Willie didn't sign Luis Castillo to a four-year contract in the offseason, Omar did. Anyone with half a baseball brain could see that for a few years, Luis Castillo was on the decline. While Omar made a nice deal last season to acquire him, one had to question why the Twins would trade a former all-star 2B for 2 crappy minor leaguers, right? And did Luis do something great last season down the stretch to make him deserve such a contract? Did any other team make him an offer four years? Did Omar and Cashman get drunk together one night and did Cash break out his "listen, this is how you keep your own, past-their-prime-players routine."? Seriously, someone needs to explain this to me. This guy bunts 1/3 of his at-bats, limps 90% of the time and arguably has never spoken on the field of play.

Willie didn't committ to another year of 43-year old Moises Alou without getting better bench guys that Marlon Anderson, Endy Chavez and Damian Easley. Seriously, we all know Alou is one of the best pure hitters any of us has ever seen. My Dad has been watching baseball for 7+ decades and he says it all the time. But we all also know he is maybe good for 80 games. How do you not get someone else out there? And this was also made with the assumption that Church would work out as the everyday RF. Imagine if that didn't work out and Church sucked like, well, Brian Schneider sucks.

Speaking of which...Willie didn't committ to Yorvit Torreabla, then back out. Then committ to Johnny Estrada, then ditch him, then finally committ to Brian Schneider all while never speaking to his former catcher Paul LoDuca. Obviously this trade looks good right now just from the standpoint of how much better Church is than Milledge but let's also be honest about what we have heard about Church and his defensive prowness. It was complete BS. He flat out can not catch Johan Santana's pitches. My buddy Mark and I have been talking about it all year. He drops at least 5 pitches a game. And have you really seen him take command of Ollie or Pelfrey or even Maine once all season? Does he settle the team down? As much as LoDuca's overall skills were deteriorating, the man had a precense in the clubhouse and a precense on the field. He was badass and wasn't afraid to get in people's faces. Omar didn't like that and didn't even consider him as a backup. How is that working out? The catcher is the most important everyday position on the field. Pretty ironic that the greatest player to ever play for our beloved team retired just last week...we could certainly use that leadership behind the plate right now.

Willie didn't re-sign a 42-year old El Duque to a two year $12 million deal! He didn't committ four years to an already broken down Pedro and then hope the "unbroken" Pedro would save the season. He didn't draft Mike Pelfrey or Aaron Heilman. And he damn well didn't make Jose Reyes play with his head up his ass half the time, even if I sometimes want to think that benching him last year had something to do with his play. But let's be honest, if a player can't deal with a warranted benching from time to time, what is that player worth in the long run anyway?

People, and I was one of these people, seem to love Omar because of what he did for the franchise long term. As the last 162 games indicate, 79-83 is apparently the long term we are supposed to be loving him for. But it goes back before that.

Fink and I were together for Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright. It's etched in our brains forever. The team changed forever that day and unfortunately, it was for the bad. Endy made the catch and it seems like destiny was on our side. But it wasn't meant to be and this team instead of learning how to win and getting hungrier, learned how to lose and curl up under pressure. Instead of making wholesale changes, Omar has been chasing that feeling of Endy making the catch for 2 seasons now. He is to blame for the 2008 Mets.

I have said to many Yankees fans I know for the past few years "do you really expect this team to suddenly learn how to win together after season upon season of losing in similar fashion?"

What I have come to realize is my team is in the same position. Can anyone really expect this team to win together now after two seasons of ridiculously traumatic losing?

This is not Willie's fault. He has to go because he is part of the whole and the whole is broken.

The whole is Omar's fault.

Fix the whole.

Going On Contact

Willie Randolph, after the game:

“With the third baseman playing off third base, we thought we’d go ‘contact’ there. The worst thing that could happen happened.”



Wow. Really Willie? REALLY?!?!

Beltran, after the game:

“I’m going on contact; that’s the sign we got. As soon as he hit that ball, I just broke in. That’s what happens when you go on contact. You’re going to have a chance to get doubled up.”

Um, yes Carlos, that is what would happen and happened.

Seriously, what the hell is going on here? How did the media not fire back at Willie when he responded in this manner with a "Wait, are you being freakin serious?" Or a "Hey Willie, did you miss the day in Little League where they teach the base running rules?"

ONE OUT, DOWN A RUN, 9TH INNING, MAN ON 3RD BASE. YOU DON'T LEAVE THE FREAKIN BAG UNTIL THE BALL HITS THE GROUND!!

If freakin Willie wanted to send him "on contact" because the 3rd baseman was "playing off 3rd base" into the shift. BUNT THE BALL AND SUICIDE SQUEEZE HIM!!

I know this is the easy way out and doesn't change what the players do, but it's time to say it...WILLIE MUST GO

A blog-worthy weekend

OK...let's get this out of the way. If you don't score on the powerplay in the playoffs, you don't advance. It's as simple as that. The Pens were the better team but giving away game 1 and not scoring on the man and two-man advantage repeatedly throughout the series did them in. The King was far from royalty worthy and aside from Jagr (please come back), nobody had a standout series. Going out in round 2 for the 2nd year in a row just sucks but this team will be back, Jagr or not, next year, as the youth on this club is really something to be excited about for the Rangers fans out there. 3 playoff years in a row. Next year, I want a Cup!

Now let's talk about the boys out in Arizona. I know people wanted to bad mouth Wagner on Thursday and Friday but I think what he said got through to the team. I really do.

They played inspired baseball on Friday night and after the Delgado HR on Saturday cut the game to a run, I really saw some life and spunk in the team that I haven't seen in months. I know Duaner came out and shit the bed but I really think we may have turned a corner and, dare I say it, have started to develop a team identity. Taking 2 of 3 today, while robbing Johan of a win while doing it, was huge. The D'backs came into the series with the talk that they are the team to beat in the NL. The Mets, the team to beat the past 2 seasons despite the collapse, told them NOT SO FAST.

With the Rangers going home today, it's all baseball from here until late August. Jayme is 36 weeks so the blogs will come as time permits but I am now focused and ready to look ahead to a great May and beyond of Mets baseball.

I know many (all?) of you could care less about the Rangers so I kick the blog back to how it began....all Mets, all the time.

LETS GO METS