A Manuel for Success

The Mets won their first game under Jerry Manuel tonight, coming from behind to defeat the Anaheim Angels 5-4 in ten innings, a game that may have been the Mets biggest win in two years. Not only was it a come-from-behind win but it came against a first-place team on the road.

There were several heroes tonight, among them Jose Reyes, David Wright, Damion Easley and Billie Wagner, but maybe the biggest hero was the new manager, Jerry Manuel, who the day before had outlined for his team how they would change and why the changes would help them win.

While Randolph was complaining in New York about the way he was fired, thinking it was just a couple of his coaches who were getting whacked, an outcome with which he would have apparently been totally okay, Manuel had already started implementing his plans for success, resting his key players and finding roles for his relievers, helping his team visualize success and outlining how it would be achieved.

Jose Reyes, who had been rested yesterday in Manuel's debut, looked rejuvenated all night and scored the Mets first run all by himself. Carlos Delgado, playing as the designated hitter, hit a home run. David Wright, who had been the DH yesterday, drove in the tying run in the ninth. He also made a terrific one-handed grab of a slow ground ball and rifled the ball to first base to nab the speedy Howie Kendricks, thus staving off a potential Angels rally.

And Damion Easley, who took over at shortstop for Reyes last night and looked bad doing it, failing to cover second in one case, tonight hit the game-winning home run in the 10th. But it wasn't over yet. Billie Wagner found his fastball once again, and shut down the dangerous Angels in the 10th. His fine performance followed another great inning by Duaner Sanchez, who got the win, in the ninth.

Hopefully, this huge win will take the heat off the Mets, at least momentarily, as the writers in New York continue their attack on Omar Minaya, the General Manager, and the way in which Willie’s firing was handled. Certainly a come-from-behind win is something that was seldom accomplished under Willie, who was 3-28 when behind after six innings.

The rotation tonight was as any reasonable person would have expected. Oliver Perez experienced his usual jitters but did complete his six innings allowing just four runs, followed by Joe Smith in the seventh, Scott Schoenweiss in the eighth and Duaner Sanchez in the ninth. Wagner finished up nicely. In short, we saw professional pitchers going out and performing in the roles for which they were acquired.

Willie may have decided to throw in Aaron Heilman again, or Pedro Feliciano, or, who knows, anybody who showed up with a mitt. Although I know the Willie apologists will take issue with still more Willie-bashing, I think it’s justified, given Willie’s response to his firing, a response that has me shaking my head.

Omar’s biggest mistake was that he did not pull the trigger sooner. He also played his hand so very close to the vest that Willie was shocked when the axe finally fell. I think Omar was done in by his own sense of humanity, which prevented him from acting with cooler determination.

His comments regarding the fact that Willie was the first black manager in New York, and that he was the first Latino General Manager in New York, also reveal a man torn between achieving success and sustaining the opportunity he had created for another minority.

That Omar emphasized several times that Willie was “his hire” also is a reflection of his own insecurities, and an extreme reluctance to admit his own mistake. It does not speak well to his confidence in his own position, one that he has coveted for his entire life.

In short, all these factors prevented Omar from firing Willie last year, when many less feeling General Managers would have pulled the trigger, and would have been entirely justified in doing so. That Willie should now express nothing but shock and resentment is entirely unjustifiable. He should have expressed his thanks for the opportunity, a chance that no one but Omar had ever offered him.

There also seems to be a great deal of resentment among the New York press for Tony Bernazard. And why? Because he didn’t get along with Willie! Maybe they should be asking themselves why Willie had so much trouble with this individual, one who has had a great deal of success in various venues in the baseball business.

I think the answer to that question would reveal a great deal about Willie’s inflexibility, his recalcitrance, his refusal to have his beliefs questioned, his inability to function well in an organization. And all or even any one of those characteristics would have contributed to his failure as a manager.

Jerry Manuel in just two days has exhibited managerial talents that Willie never had shown. Manuel has laid out a strategy for getting his team better. Resting key players, especially for an older team, can only help, and it may have already shown its effectiveness. Having clearly defined roles for players, a concept that should have been painfully obvious, was never that under the reign of Willie Randolph.

So let’s move on, New York. Willie was a New York hero as a player, as a Yankee, a great second baseman. He very nearly took the 2006 Mets to the World Series. But he had very little success as a manager after that. Let’s leave it at that for now. More could be said.

I’ll look forward as a Mets fan to a continuation of good baseball, come-from-behind victories and 25 players all uniting behind someone they view as a good manager, a fine tactician and strategist, someone who acts in concert with the rest of the organization and who can extract the best out of a team. His name is Jerry Manuel.

Better Late Than Never

Well, the timing was horrible, but then it would have been bad whenever the final decision on Willie finally came in. That the decision followed a great team performance is ironic at the very least. That it came at about 3 AM in the morning smells funny, like those stories of the Colts and Irsay leaving Baltimore in the middle of the night.

But they finally ANNOUNCED a decision. That they made the decision a week ago is perhaps indicative of what really ails these Mets, unprofessional management. To keep a good man hanging that long is despicable. While I'm sure there were reasons for the delay, they would seem to pale compared with the indignity they inflicted on a guy who did his best for them for three years.

Incredibly enough, some of the very players most responsible for Willie's demise were great last night. Aaron Heilman was especially good, getting two outs while leaving two Angels on the bases. Reyes was mercurial, scoring the first run virtually unassisted. Beltran, although he has been fine in other ways all year, smacked two home runs last night, helping cement his place in the Mets batting order. Sanchez and Wagner showed how to close things out.

This is a group that apparently needs constant pressure to bring the best out of them. Of course, that’s at odds with the reality of their fall from grace last year. The pressure of having a seemingly insurmountable lead in a pennant race didn’t prevent their 2007 disintegration. Maybe they just wanted to do something nice for their longtime mentor. I prefer to think of it that way.

And if they were feeling guilty, it was late in coming. Without singling out any individuals, their team performance was always just short of a win. And just unremarkable enough to send their fans off to the bar for a stiff one.

Some of you may recall Sparky Anderson’s style in leading one of those Reds teams to the pennant many years ago. Sparky was infamous for his pitching changes; he’d flash the hook with just the slightest provocation, sometimes just on a whim. But the quick hook worked for that team.

That’s what Willie could have used – a quick hook. And not just with the pitching staff. I really feel the Mets could have won ten games more this year if Willie just moved a little faster, faster to get a non-performer out of the lineup, faster to pull his relievers when it was obviously not their day.

Willie’s style would work only with a team that was solid, top to bottom. Willie constantly challenged each of his players to be champions. These Mets just weren’t. These Mets needed a riverboat gambler, someone who could maneuver a way to finish ahead, even with a bad hand.

Early reports seem to point to Bobby Valentine. While that would be nice, I don’t expect that to happen. But he’d be just the guy to revive this moribund group. This is a group that sits on its laurels, they win one or two games and think they’re world-beaters, then they revert to their old ways, the full swings when just a hit would do nicely, the stupid base-running when nothing fancy was required, the lack of focus in the field.

I hope the players don’t start thinking the pressure is off now. They need to start winning two out of three, and three out of four, to have a chance of making the playoffs at this juncture of the season. They have to climb over some good teams, Philly and Florida and Atlanta all present their special challenges.

Judging by management’s incredible bungling of the Randolph affair, I’d hope the new manager, eventually, is a strong personality, someone who can roll over obstacles coming from the front office. For now, we have a temporary fill-in, Jerry Manuel. It’s doubtful he can materially change anything unless the players buy in and start performing as they never did for Willie.

For now, it’s Omar’s show. Omar Minaya brought this group together and will be judged at the end of this season. We won’t see a permanent manager until a decision is made on whether a new general manager is needed. The new GM can then hire a permanent manager. The only thing this Wilpon Group has done right so far has been their decision to defer the naming of a new permanent manager.

Omar’s another one of those “good guys” whose force of personality alone brought the Mets players they otherwise would not have gotten, Carlos Delgado and Pedro Martinez for sure, and maybe a host of others.

This was a Mets team built to win a World Series, one that eliminated the risk of having any unproven players in the lineup or in the field. The only risk not eliminated was age. And age reared its ugly head. Just look around the clubhouse and see who’s missing, or who’s hurt again, or who’s too old to get motivated by a young upstart manager.

For this Mets fan, this firing is the beginning of payback, not for Willie really at all, but for all those players who wouldn’t perform for him. You can count on one hand the players who really did try their hardest all the time, or at least gave the appearance of doing so.

And, just maybe, these players were indeed trying their hardest and performing near the top of their capabilities. And, if so, then look to October and a new GM, a GM who’ll need a very large broom indeed.

Sometimes things just don’t work out. Look at the recent firing of Bavasi in Seattle. He had a team that won 88 games, so he brought in Richie Sexson and Carlos Silva. Any fantasy player could have told him those two wouldn’t have a positive effect. The good GM’s manage risk more evenly and don’t take huge risks unnecessarily.

The Mets risks know who they are. Hope they’re tuned in.

Dumb and Dumber

Today I find myself a little sore after having spent hours on a ladder painting my shingles on Thursday. "Oh well", I said to myself, "at least I got the house painted".

If Willie Randolph had had the job, he'd have put Mike Pelfrey on the ladder, then with the job almost done, he'd have replaced him with Billy Wagner. After all, Mike has to live to paint again.

Then when Billy dropped the brown paint can for the shingles all over the white stucco foundation, he'd drag out somebody else. Or two or three more somebody else’s. And the wall still wouldn't be finished. But everybody'd be fresh for the next time. Doesn't that make you feel better?

<>Nobody knows the affects of exercise on the body better than I. And there's no doubt that pitch counts have an affect on a pitcher's performance. But I believe the data is being misinterpreted. A little information can be a dangerous thing.

While the brainiacs in baseball are getting a little smarter with respect to the effects of exercise on the body, they still aren't dealing with the information correctly. Instead of losing a well-pitched game by removing your starter after a certain number of pitches, wouldn't it be smarter to let him go as long as he can, through nine innings if he can, and simply rest him another day?

You then maximize your team's chances in the current game. You get a happy pitcher, one who's met the challenge of the day. The fans aren't frustrated by some nebulous decision resulting in a loss. And your pitcher not only gets rested, but maybe gets even stronger for his succeeding starts.

<>Wouldn’t that mess up the rotation? Well, it would certainly affect the “every fifth day” maxim. But how smart is that? When compared to the nonsense being perpetrated on Mets and Yankees fans today, all in the name of pitch counts, a minor alteration to the rotation is certainly more favorable.

A change in the roster could also be needed. There might be another long reliever required, another someone capable of giving five full innings. How hard would that be?

The current thinking, managing pitch counts within each game, does not take into account other key ingredients to the psyche of a pitcher, the starter’s confidence and sense of success or the reliever’s entirely understandable misgivings about messing up a heretofore successful outing.

There’s no more superstitious lot than baseball players. Evidence how many pitchers jump over the baseline, or wear the same hat all year, or until they lose a game anyway. How difficult it must be to relieve in a non-relief situation!

The brainiacs are setting the relievers up for disaster. And hurting their starters self-esteem. Not to mention the manager’s psyche. It’s really very simple. I just ask that, instead of managing pitch counts game by game, manage them over the course of the entire season. It really would be easier on everyone, the pitchers, the manager, the fans, and more importantly the team.

There’s been no more shell-shocked team than these Mets. There’s been no more shell-shocked manager than Willie Randolph. The entire situation has swung from questionable to laughable.

The Mets are cursed. They don’t need a new manager or general manager. They need an exorcist. And, while I say this tongue in cheek, there has been some kind of cloud hanging over Shea, and every other stadium the Mets happen to be occupying.

Something always happens to these Mets. They either don’t hit, or get good starts and horrible relief, or they make a mistake running the bases. Or make a critical error. What we have here is a self-fulfilling prophecy, the prophecy of doom.

This team expectation of doom is not without reason. And I must put the fault on management. Blame whoever you want, ownership or Omar or Willie.

Willie only makes a mistake when a decision is made. Every decision he makes comes up zeroes. And, while part of the reason for this lies with the aforementioned curse and team expectations of doom, those expectations have only matured after long experience of failure. Very often, they have been Willie’s failure, Willie’s decision.

While pitching hasn’t been the only problem, it has been the major one. Willie saves his starters and kills his relievers. He kills his positional guys as well, especially the ones he relies on, “his guys”.

Carlos Delgado and Luis Castillo, these men are old. They show it just about every day. But Willie keeps them in the lineup. You may say that he has not had good alternatives. But in most cases, any alternative would have been better than playing these two old-timers.

Sometimes, you have to wonder how much control Willie really has. The pitching coach isn’t his choice, for example, and it’s unclear to me who makes the decisions there. Or, even worse, does every decision become a committee meeting?

The hitting coach also makes me wonder. When asked about the team’s failures in situational hitting, his reply was to the effect that he didn’t think his players were the kind of players that could successfully adjust to a situation. Well, I must say, that explains a lot. And their failures in situational hitting have led to quite a few losses.

So let’s recap. The players aren’t the right players, the manager has made bad decisions, the pitching and hitting coaches are kind of questionable, and the team itself seems to be cursed.

Add to this the fact that the owners have apparently leaked some information to reporters that they haven’t bothered to share with anyone else. Where else would the media get the idea that Willie’s job is in serious jeopardy?

While some will question whether a Billy Martin-type or Bobby Valentine could have done any better with this team, I say they could have and would have. At this point, anybody not named Willie would be better.

So let’s pull the trigger already.