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OK, I have shaken off "Castillo" and am ready to move on. Just one game Chins up boys.
The other day Vegas Rich stirred things up with his suggestion that Jerry Manuel is going to cost the Mets the playoffs which generated tons of mail which we'll get to in a second.
Did you catch yesterday afternoon's flurry. Fox Sports printed a piece yesterday that says Jerry throws his people under a bus. Sheffield and Wright quickly defended him.
I don't know whats true, but I do know that when someone in the mainstream prints something, where there is smoke there's fire. Maybe Sheff and Wright don't agree, but someone put that notion out there. There's always something to these stories. If the story is A-Rod, a giraffe and a box of donuts - maybe the donuts weren't there but I bet you there was a giraffe. The blogosphere might make crap up, but Fox Sports isn't. It's worth watching, especially with the Bobby Valentine PR machine gearing up. We finish second just fine without you Bob.
Onto the mail...from post "Jerry Manuel: Eliminating The Mets From Contention...":
Bobby V may have been the best manager in the Mets history. Davey Johnson was outstanding, but he had loads of talent to work with. Bobby V had Timo Perez, Benny Agbayani & Jay Payton as his starting OF when they went to the WS in 2000. That's awful.
I like Jerry Manual, but I don't think he's a great X's and O's type of manager. The players seem to really like him, which is very important, but overall he has not done a very good job this season. Last year was a bit of an aberation in the fact that the team could not stand Willie Randolph so when Manual was named manager it was a breath of fresh air.
Bottom line is, they need to get healthy AND make a trade for a power hitter. I have faith that Omar Minaya will eventually make a deal to get a hitter in here, hopefully it's not too late when he does.
I love the revisionist Valentine love. That team was picked to win the east every year, and he'd often have them 8 back on May 1st. V's teams were always very underprepared. But we digress...
i know i may be taking alot the 'fun' out of an argument like this, but i don't understand why a manager always gets so much blame when a team drops the ball like the mets did the past two nights.
the fact of the matter is, these are major league players, and if they can't rise to the occasion and perform when asked to, then they are at fault. simple as that. if ken takahashi can't get left handers out, why is he pitching in the majors in the first place? if bunts and baserunning are poorly executed, then the players are at fault. it seems that as the salaries rise, our expectations of players become more specialized and less across-the-board. i don't think guys like Bob Gibson and Rollie Ringers were left- or right-handed specialists. they were pitching specialists, and they didn't make a fraction of what takahashi makes.
for example, if Jerry decides to put in Murphy to pinch hit, his job is to get on base. if he doesn't, he failed and it's his fault, not the manager's for choosing him over another guy. it's the players job to perform, just like it's my job to perform when my boss asks me to do something. if i fail, i'm fired. if i succeed, i keep my job and get asked to do a tougher job next time. that's life - let's stop coddling these millionaires. and when we do that, it'll be a lot more fun rooting for them.
I think the frustration with the manager is less about whether or not Castillo can catch than it is about benching Church every time he has a good game. (This is Shannon writing now, the original piece was by Vegas Rich, one of the writers on the site - and I don't agree with him on this one, or many things, and that's why he's on board. Mets Police is all about polite discussion, even though in the end I'm usually right :) I'd say always but I made that Kazmir mistake that one time.)
I think Vegas Rich is absolutely correct by saying that Manuel's handling of Church and Murphy has been atrocious. It seems that every time one of these guys start to hit, Manuel puts them on the bench, thus barring them from finding any sort of a groove. Remember the beginning of last year when Church was the best hitter on the team? Some remnant of that play could certainly be captured if he was given the chance to play everyday.
As for F-Mart, this is where I disagree with Vegas Rich. The kid needs to play everyday, but is not yet ready to be a starter for this Mets team, so he needs to be in AAA. Manuel campaigned to keep him up, yet doesn't know what to do with him (let alone any other players) and, I fear, in turn, he may be hurting his development.
In the end, while the Mets have not had a great run with past managers (Art Howe), that doesn't mean that we now need to settle for Jerry's mismanaging that spans across the Bullpen to the Field.
Coop is with me when it comes to Pedro Martinez...
You had me till Pedro. Why on earth do you think or would you think Pedro would solve any ills of the rotation? Pedro screwed this team over more than once with his injuries and not being in the mood to pitch. We'd seen that since 2005. Fool me once...etc etc. That said, Bobby Valentine is the man and should be brought back immediately if not sooner. Only problem is, we have Jerry till...2012? I think? (I'm too lazy to look it up). Wilpons are not wont to pay someone not working for them. They did it with Howe. They did it with Willie and would have had to had he not accepted the Brewers job. Jerry is here for now...
I agree with this guy....and I'm still wondering if Santana's 41 pitch inning (and quick return to pitch the next inning) isn't going bite us in the mitts..
On stretching the starters--isn't that not "overmanaging?" And I believe that this is one thing Manuel has been consistent about--when Pelf' threw those back-to-back complete games in August, Manuel said that this is something he's looking to get out of his starters. That it "can be done," and that they shouldn't be off the hook or satisfied with a "quality start" that's only 6 innings long.
Let's wait and see--we might see more guts and gall out of our starters later on in the season when they go deeper into games, not to mention we're only halfway through the season. Do we really wanna blow the bullpen out already?
There's plenty more on the Jerry topic...but gotta run.
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