Yesterday morning, the Mets fired their manager, Willie Randolph. The Mets have been a .500 or worse team so far this season, which is extremely disappointing given their $138 million dollar payroll and the talent that exists on the squad.
After last September’s historic collapse, Willie and the Mets were charged with the task of righting the ship and making a serious run for the playoffs in 2008. The addition of Johan Santana raised expectations even further, but the team just hasn’t been playing up to snuff. They have shown this season that they are capable of winning, and almost everyone on the team has had moments of brilliance.
The problem seems to be that these moments don’t happen often enough, and that when they do happen, they don’t happen consistently with the entire team. When the pitching is good, the hitting stops. When the team is hitting and the starting pitching is getting the job done, the bullpen implodes. This team has not been firing on all cylinders all year, and one could make the argument that the team hasn’t been playing to its potential since the 2006 NLCS. Even before the team self-destructed last September, they appeared to be on cruise-control, winning just enough games but not dominating other teams as they had in 2006.
But does Willie deserve to be the scapegoat for the team’s lackluster performance? Does the team’s subpar 2008 performance undo the magic that he was able to perform in 2005 and 2006? Or is New York such a tough town that the only thing that matters is “What have you done for us lately?”
I personally am not convinced that firing Willie was the right move, but I firmly believe that the way he was fired was totally inappropriate. Firing the guy in the middle of the night, after a win, after winning three of the last four, and after the man just flew 3000 miles to the west coast is just, well, wrong. And that’s not even taking into account Willie’s crucifixion in the New York press this season.
Anyway you look at it, Willie had success with the team in the past, and that, if nothing else, merits better handling of his being let go. He could have been fired before going to Anaheim. Or on their next day off, which is tomorrow. Or maybe even at the All-Star Break. Or, if it had to be during this particular series, during normal business hours.
Whether firing Willie was the right move or not remains to be seen. Maybe his laid-back style was hurting a team that needed to be fired up. Or maybe just a change will do them some good. Although you wouldn’t know it from Jerry Manuel’s first game as manager, that’s for damn sure. Santana wasn’t at the top of his game, the Mets scored a single run on six scattered hits, and they committed three errors. Oh, and then there was Reyes’ tantrum. The team looked and played just as they have all year: sloppily.
To be fair, Willie lost his first five games as manager in 2005, and was still able to lead the team to an above .500 finish. Maybe Manuel will have similar luck with the team, and after a brief adjustment period, he’ll be able to get the Mets to play up to their potential.
That said, a five game losing streak is certainly not what the Mets need right now. What they really need, at the end of the day, is to start playing better baseball. My fingers are firmly crossed that Jerry Manuel can make that happen. And fast.
3 users commented in " What Went Wrong, Willie? "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackOmar Minaya should fly somewhere far away, wait until midnight, and then fire himself.
I’ll never, EVER forget “Lima Time”.
The way he was fired was awful, but I do think Willie was doing a bad job. My take on it:
Lets begin with last year. I don’t think Willie was responsible for the Mets collapse because
1. It didn’t matter what move he made pitching wise, nobody on the staff could get anybody out.
2. I just don’t think any manager has enough influence on games to be responsible for a collapse like that.
Now onto this year.
Everyone likes to call the Mets a small ball team, but the problem is that they don’t execute. So really they are a big-ball team that happens to have speed. Part of the problem here is that Willie is not a good small ball manager. He is always looking at the big picture of 162 games. Starting off the year, he keeps Delgado batting 4th, because he wants to get him going for the rest of the year. He keeps bringing in Heilmann in the 8th, becuase he wants to find out what he’s got with him. The result is that by not playing for an individual win, a lot of games were lost.
Now, it is not necesarily a bad thing to be playing for the 162 games, over trying to win just one game; but the Mets case was unique. They were coming off their huge collapse, and *needed* the fast start. Willies attitude of ‘getting guys going’ wasn’t the right mentality of a team who needed to excercise demons.
Also, this attitude is copletely wrong for being a small ball team. Small ball teams need to execute, and have everyone playing right to win. Instead, the players saw Heilmann blowing their 8th inning leads; they saw Delgado grounding into a double play everytime they got two guys on with no outs. This totally demoralizes players, and makes them try too hard, and try to do too much by themselves. Beltran thinks he needs to dive after balls. Guys start swinging for the fences, because they can’t count on the people behind them. They press for extra runs, not trusting their bullpen. It happens. People want to sit on their couches, and complain that millionaire baseball players should be able to produce on demand, and come prepared and motivated, etc. I’m sure they would if they could, but what these people don’t understand is that this is not a conscious thing. Ask anyone who participates in sports. You can decide that you want to turn it on, and perform better than usual, but when you’re team demoralizes you, it just isn’t there, even if you want it to be.
Willie’s style was just all wrong for this team at this time. It will not hurt the Mets that he is gone.
Good points, meh. Hopefully Manuel will provide the team with a more appropriate strategy and turn things around.
I remain cautiously optimistic (not unusual for a Mets fan), but it pains me that this firing was such a fiasco.
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