2008 Mets!!! LETS GO METS!!!

So they fired him at 3:15AM. Classy.

 

Wow what a joke. They make the guy fly out all the way to LA and then fire him after a win? I'm sorry to say it but this is exactly why the Mets are just an average ball club and have been for a year and a half. I was someone who thought the Mets needed to change managers because it seemed like he didn't have the players respect nor was a very good manager but this is an absolute classless move by the Mets FO. They should have fired him last Thursday instead.

 

Actually, they should have fired him the day after the 2007 season ended. Randolph's been on borrowed time since then. Should they have handled this better? Yeah, they should have. But frankly, Randolph needed to go. The manner in which it was done isn't all that important. Hurt feelings aren't as important as getting the team turned around.

 

Makes it seem like Minaya was coaxed into firing Randolph doesnt it?

 

Now they need to can Minaya. He is the real problem.

 

Have to agree there. He and Steve Phillips have made some EPIC fails at GM.

 

I don't think so. The FO gave him authority a while back to make the move. I'm not real sure about why he waited this long. The whole "fire him after a win" thing doesn't bother me, though. He's had 3 1/2 seasons to do the job; one game one way or the other doesn't matter.

I'm not ready to go that far. He's had a bad propensity for turning treasure into trash in some minor deals (Bannister for Burgos just looks worse every day), but his big-ticket acquisitions have generally been good (Beltran, Santana, locking up Reyes and Wright long term), and the ones that haven't been great have been at least defensible (who knew that Carlos Delgado would lose his bat speed overnight? Or that Moises Alou would be THIS injury prone; I thought he'd at least be good for 120 games a year). He's done a decent job of drafting, for the most part, and he's turned some trash into treasure (Valentin, Gotay, Perez, Feliciano, Chavez, Darren Oliver).

 

Youre 100% right mary. Not just that but they fired him: After 3 games in 36 hours which he won 2 of them and just missed a great comeback in the 1 loss, after a 3000 mile flight to the west coast, and the day after fathers day where he just spent 11 hours managing Omar's underachieving concoction of injury prone leftfielders (Alou), washed up 1B (Delgado), dont know why we resigned him 2B (Castillo), and a pitching staff with no variation of pitching styles. Freakin brilliannt PR move. This from a team thats always saying no to players with any kind of negative track record because theyve had so much bad luck with Bobby Bonila types and Rickey hendersons. Looks like they can make plenty of idiotic decisions on their own.

They managed to make a manager no one in the fanbase or in the press liked in to a martyr. That takes some incredible amounts of dumb.

 

eh Minaya's been above average. He got Pedro to come here. Beltran. He managed to get John Maine for useless crap like Kris Benson, then flipped Jorge Julio in that deal for El Duque. He got Ollie Perez who for all my criticism has serious upside, for a 4th outfielder type in Nady. He got Duaner Sanchez for Jae Seo who has like a 8 era since he left Peterson. And Sanchez was brilliant before the injury. Hes done more good then bad.

Where he deserves to be panned is for relying on Alou to stay healthy, resigning Castillo for a 4 year deal, and depending on delgado to rebound.

 

By the way, just throwing this out there for next year: The return of Bobby V. And Hire Leo Mazzone to be his pitching coach! A manager with a brain and an outstanding pitching coach. Both out of work in the US...

Valentine should also include a ton of clauses on his contract if he does come back...such as: In the event that the club wishes to fire Mr. Valentine, such announcement will be made between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern Time, and will be done within the comfort of Mr. Valentine's home. Mr. Valentine will also be given a cookie at such time.

Pretty interesting take on it: http://faithandfear.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/6/17/3749017.html

 

What a bush league way to fire your manager....in the middle of the night. This is just going to cause further dissension in the clubhouse. It's not Willie's fault the team trails my PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES by 6.5 games.

 

There isnt any dissension in the clubhouse now so I dont know hw it will add too it. Dont worry the philthies are a choke team, always have been. 1 WS title in what 120 years? You should get more then that by accident bro.

 

Word is the White and Latin players dont get along very well in that clubhouse. And yes, the Phillies have over 10,000 franchise losses and are notorious chokers.

 

Media exaggeration. Lo duca said it and Wagner said it. Its since been squashed. If anything it wasnt race related, it was an accountability issue.

Either way **** Philly.

 

I know Omar isn't a good public speaker but he came off looking very bad in that interview today (on the flip side Jerry Manuel came off looking pretty good and showed some personality).

 

Yep, this is working out well for them...

 

And it keeps getting better as reyes left the game with an undisclosed injury

 

The Mets are in a tough spot right now (even if Reyes injury is serious or not). Part of me says that the team realistically won't make the playoffs and continue to be a .500 team so why not try and see what you can get from everyone and anyone in the organization not named Wright, Reyes, Santana, Pelfrey, Maine and Felix Martinez (that's his name right or is it Carlos?). I think the Mets might be able to get a nice package for guys like Beltran, Billy Wagner and possibly Oliver Perez and maybe Pedro. That way the Mets can rebuild via trades and get rid of some of the dead weight and also guys who I don't think are mentally tough to handle the pressure of New York (and I'm talking about the Beltrans and Delgados of the team).

BUT on the other hand they're moving into a new park next year so they can't rebuild, especially after trading for and signing Santana. I guess they can get rid of the dead weight when they leave after the year (Delgado, Alou, Perez, Pedro) and use the money to sign Teixeira, a corner OFer to play LF, a decent #3 or 4 pitcher and a set up guy.

I don't know the Mets are kind of in a tough spot on what to do right now, especially since they only have Martinez in the minors that's close to the MLB and can make an impact.

 

I tend to agree with you bro as it becomes clear this team has a lot of holes and no organizational depth. It leaves Minaya in a tough spot because ownership wants desperately to be playing meaningful games in september but they have no farm besides King Fernando (who by the way is hurt again) to get the missing pieces. Their best hope is to hope Perez gets hot and can be traded for a middle of the order bat who can play 1B and OF. The way Pelfrey is pitching hes simply not necessary at this point. Trade Perez and throw Vargas in the rotation or give Jon Niese or Bobby parnell a look.

The tough part for Omar is the bottom of the system looks pretty good with some serious talent in the very low levels of the minors. But its tough to expediate the process when ownership is telling to spend on FA's and you dont have 1st round picks for 2 years.

If he cant turn the ship around by say the all star break then you trade delgado for whatever and give Evans/Carp a look, trade Perez/give Parnell or Niese a look, trade alou (if hes healthy enough long enough to do so) and give Fernando a look maybe.

I dont think Beltran is the problem, I think hes being asked to do more then 1 person is capable of right now. Ditto for Wright and reyes. Theres nothing coming from LF RF 1B and on many days 2B in terms of production. You have 0 home runs from LF 65 games in to the year...how is that even possible?

 

Oh and for next year:
Sign Sabathia/lose Ollie
If Pedro wants to come back he does it at a discount price otherwise get an innings guy like Derek Lowe.

The position players are a bit trickier. Teixeira is very hot and cold and a 2nd half player. Dunn is very hot an cold and K's a ton which bothers me to know end. I would take Dunn for his consistency but Im hearing he wants to go to a Texas club, either Houston or the Rangers. I tend to think the Yanks wont be outbid for Teixeira with Giambi's contract due. Where does this leave the Mets? IMO they should go get a guy like Garrett Atkins if he comes available and with ian Stewart playing out of position, he just might. A guy like Prince Fielder may be available as well as he has refused a long term extension, is a Boras client (with a small market team), and is still a baby (not literally). The Brewers are also loaded with corner infield prospects.

Lf is tricky also....you may need to think outside the box and go get a guy like Raul Ibanez or an Aubrey Huff/Xavier nady type. At least you know theyre consistent types who will give you 275/20/80

 

Didn't the Braves sign Teixiera long term?

 

I wish bro. Just this year for 12M (I think?) and then hes a FA. There are rumors that Atl will offer him a contract and that Scott Boras will turn it down and spit on the paper its drawn up on like he did with JD Drew and Gary Sheffield...

Honestly I think If Tex ends up on an NY team it will be the one in the Bronx.

 

The media is all over it up here. They claim Omar made up his mind last weekend and still let Willie make the trip cross country anyway. The Mets' organization is not looking good up here AT ALL.

 

I continue to be amazed at why anyone gives a damn. So it was a jerk thing to do, so what? The guy should have been fired 8 months ago; he got a bunch of extra time that he didn't deserve (plus the best pitcher in baseball) to right the ship. And he's getting a year and a half's worth of pay to sit on his duff.

Why on earth are we having a public outpouring of sympathy for this man?

 

Probably because they had interviews with both of them on the news this morning. Willie was described as "dejected" while Minaya was described as "cocky" in their statements. There is definitely an outpouring of support for Willie Randolph but alot of people like him up here, for whatever reason.

 

Because:
A) Who likes watching someone get strung along for the ride
B) They made him fly cross country after 3 games in less then 36 hours
C) They'd won 3 of their last 4. Who fires a manager on a hot streak?
D) He's missing 2/3rds of his OF, has a black hole at 1B in the field and at bat. And a bullpen thats blown 13 saves (not just wagner, the entire pen) since September 12 07.
E) He just spent 11 hours at the ball park managing your team on Fathers Day.
F) Who fires a manager on the road?
G) You fired him at 3:15AM. Are we supposed to be the Colts leaving Baltimore in the middle of the night?
H) This has been rumored for weeks and the manner in which it was handled was utterly childish and silly.

I didnt like Wilie that much as a manager but there are serious flaws with this team and to put it al on him when he hasnt had a full deck to play with much of the year is well stupid. You put all the above factors in with it and you get an empathetic figure for the public and a faux media to milk the story for all its worth.

Now Manual has the same deck and ill bet the results are no different. What I have come to realize the last few days is that we could have freakin Sparky Anderson, Lou Pinella, Joe Torre, Casey stengal or anyone else you want managing this team, but theres still serious flaws and unless serious changes are made in terms of personnel, I doubt we can make the playoffs.

 

If you're objecting to it on the grounds that it should have been sooner, you'll get no argument from me. But to make a big deal out of how it was done seems very petty. He's a big boy, he'll get over it. Yeah, they should have handled it more professionally, but the bottom line is all that counts here.

 

Fair enough but it wasnt petty. It was flat out unprofessional and embarrassing. It was at least equally as embarrassing as the way the Yankees handled the Joe Torre situation and they took a 100 times more crap for that. And he was actually good at what he did.

 

I think jerry is a good manager but Im just not sure he has the tools to succeed.

One thing I will say for Reyes: 2 years ago he never would have come out and apologized to the team. If he wins Reyes over and gets him to become a leader...Game set match for the rest of the NL. He can be that good. Hes got HOF ability and was making it all star talent. If he turns that around....wow. So good job by Manual there in what was a big spot for him early on with this team. That something we may look at, at the end of the year if we make the playoffs or win the division and say "thats where it started".

I heard the comments about the lineup..not much different then what we have said on here much of the year. Hopefully he follows through.

 

Good. This could be really good for Reyes. The white collar baseball team thing never made sense to me.

 

All I know is last night was a Met win I havent seen in a while. A come from behind, probably had no business winning type of win against one of the top 2 or 3 closers out there. Wright came through in the clutch and was going to the opposite field. Reyes even on pop ups was sprinting to second and trying to field balls well out in CF. We looked good yesterday and alive and thats something I havent been able to say in a long time.

 

Your Muts better make hay while you can playing cupcakes like the Mariners and Texas Rangers ,while the Phillies play real teams like the Red Sox and Angels. I guess the Little Sisters of the Poor weren't avaialable when MLB decided to make out the schedule for Interleague play this year?

It's ok though, even with our best players playing like crap we are giving the World Champs all they can handle. Hope your Mets can come alive so the Phils have a little competition.

 

I was at the game last night and actually commented to my friend on how hard reyes was running out a fly-out. If it had dropped he could have been to third, guy was flying. Disappointing game for the Angels, if Hunter hadnt forgotten how many outs there were maybe they could have added a little insurance, and Frankie picked a poor time to end his 25 save streak, and Damian Easley...come on!

 

Ya, god forbid we forget that the Mets played the Angels and Yankees (6x no less) in interleague. I mean those are what 2 of the top 4 or 5 teams in the AL? And imo the Angels are right there with boston as the best team in baseball.

For the record we havent played Seattle. maybe you should check these things and get better at this whole trash talking thing....