For Mets Fans
Posted by Steve L. on August 18th, 2009 · Comments (27)
Hey, by the way, if you have any friends who are Mets fans, why not be nice to them and offer some encouragement. How? Simple. Just look ‘em square in the eye today and say “Hey, good news. Pitchers and catchers report in six months.”
How unlucky are they? Wright gets hit in the head, those major injuries, a GM that makes Cash Man look brilliant and a manager who is more like a nutty professor than a baseball guy. It’s funny to hear all the Mets fans on talk radio whine about the team. Mike Francesa patently ridiculous notion that the Mets should try to get Halladay!!?? A They didn’t have enough to get him B why in heaven’s name would he go to such a losing team, he has a no-trade clause. I don’t wanna gloat in the Mets fans’ faces just yet….the season is not over. Can you imagine if the Yanks have a Mets-like Sept collapse. Their retort would be:hey good news, pitchers and catchers report in 5 months!
It’s a disaster of a season for the Mets, but I’m not one to take satisfaction in something like that. I do wonder how long will Minaya get a pass, though I think he may get a mulligan this year. He doesn’t really deserve it, but he may get one.
@ Raf:
I agree, I think Minaya will get one more year because three of his top four everyday players have missed a majority of the season.
I think the problem with the Mets runs deeper than just those injury issues but I can understand why firing him this year would be at least partially unfair and counterproductive. I’m sure Minaya knows that it’s make-or-break time in 2010.
[...] fans are starting to bloom in all their glorious doucheness over their teams recent run of good fortune. As I stated to my colleague who sits next to me at [...]
This may make me a bad person, but, at least an honest one…
There’s a part of me that’s very sad that the Mets season went down the crapper as fast as it did…because I was somewhat hoping for them to blow it on the last day of the season again, and then have the all-time choke hat trick on their ledger.
Oh, to dream…
Why? I guess because I’m such an open Yankees nut, that I take more than a fair amount of smack from Mets fans – I swear, I think they seek me out sometimes – and that’s why I get a kick out of seeing them really screw the pooch…
Steve Lombardi wrote:
Fair enough. I’ve taken my fair share of smack from them too. But it’s one of those things that I’m sure would bother me if I cared about what they had to say
Having said that, a majority of the ribbing I take from “rivals” is more good natured chop busting.
I agree, I think Minaya will get one more year because three of his top four everyday players have missed a majority of the season.
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I really can’t see the Mets going all crazy with firings this offseason. They’re already currently paying two managers (Willie’s $2.25 million and Manuel’s $1.5 million) and Minaya signed a three-year extension that doesn’t even kick in until next year. Will they want to pay two general managers too? On top of that, will they want to fire Manual and pay for two manager again?
Can you imagine if the Mets were paying two separate managers and general managers next year? Talk about a waste…
Can you imagine if the Mets were paying two separate managers and general managers next year? Talk about a waste…
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LOL, ask the Knicks what it’s like to pay for redundant ex-employees (Larry Brown, Isiah Thomas AND current regime…)
FWIW, I agree, not only will the Mets not chop heads because injuries are a reasonable excuse for why the season went south but they really won’t want to pay all that money out for ex-employees and their replacements.
The word recently on talk radio is that if Omar gets canned then the replacement would be an assitant GM from within (I forgot his name). This is horrible for the Mets. Another inexperienced GM who will have to take marching orders from the owner and his son.
If I were a Mets fan, I would want Omar gone and a ‘name’ GM to take his place who is promised complete autonomy (within reasonable limits).
ken wrote:
The real problem isn’t the inexperience, it’s that hiring one of Omar’s assistants is essentially replacing one problem with another. The Mets desperately need to clean house and hire an entirely new front office.
This is tangentially related to something I’ve been thinking about for a long time: how come baseball doesn’t do “copycat” the way football does? In the NFL, if something works, everyone else rushes to emulate it. This is demonstrated in the fact that Bill Walsh’s West Coast Offense spawned no less than 10 NFL head coaches from his program and just as many versions of that offensive scheme. Similarly, the Parcells/Belichick defensive strategies have been copied for years by all of their former assistants that have gone on to coach college and the pros.
In my opinion, Boston is the best-run franchise in baseball. Why wouldn’t teams in distress simply raid the Red Sox for front-office personnel? Irrespective of their big-market resources, their approach to scouting and drafting would work in any market, regardless of its revenue-generating capabilities. If the Mets were smart, they’d hire someone out of Boston and try to replicate their success in a bigger market.
MJ wrote:
It’s the same in baseball. Witness the way closers are used, and how managers use their bullpens. Or deploy platoon players. Look how recently teams have started to put a premium on defense. Or before that, OBP. Or look at the “new wave” of GM’s, that are college educated and never played the game at a pro level. So on and so forth
Raf wrote:
I understand all that but I’m talking about a tangible hiring pattern (or lack thereof). Hiring college-educated GM’s that never played pro ball is fine but why aren’t teams hiring individuals from winning, successful programs? Like I said, I think it’s crazy that no besides Arizona has hired decision-makers from Boston’s front office.
MJ wrote:
They are. Toronto did it with JP Ricciardi (learning under Beane in Oakland), Seattle did it with Jack Z (player development in Milwaukee), the Diamondbacks did it with Showalter. So on and so forth
I’m confident that working under Torre during the Yankees’ run helped Mazzilli, Girardi & Willie get their managerial jobs.
I wonder, if the Wilpons called the Brothers Stein and offered them Omar and Wright for Cashman and A-Rod, contracts included, would the Yankees take that deal?
Steve, the Yanks would be far worse off with Omar, even if you think Cashman sucks. IMHO, Omar’s horrendous at what he does.
They are. Toronto did it with JP Ricciardi (learning under Beane in Oakland), Seattle did it with Jack Z (player development in Milwaukee), the Diamondbacks did it with Showalter. So on and so forth
I’m confident that working under Torre during the Yankees’ run helped Mazzilli, Girardi & Willie get their managerial jobs.
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I don’t agree that they are. Firstly, I’m not talking about managerial jobs, I’m talking about GM jobs. Secondly, Toronto hiring Ricciardi from Oakland and Seattle hiring Zduriencik from Milwaukee hardly seems to me like the type of phenomenon I’m talking about like it happens in the NFL.
Like I said before, I find it hard to understand why teams aren’t hiring from Boston’s front office.
Since you mention David Wright, does anyone have any theories on why he’s stopped hitting for power? He’s on pace for the same number of doubles as in previous years but the HR power has been missing in 2009. Consequently, his SLG is down 11% this year…
Wright’s SLG% is .571 this season when he bats 5th. When he bats 3rd or 4th, it’s around .425. Makes me wonder if he’s mentally pressing = lack of power when batting 3rd or 4th. But, that’s just a quick theory…
Steve Lombardi wrote:
But a #5 hitter has no less responsibility to drive in runs so I can’t imagine it’s really that. Were these splits true from 2006-2008? I’m sure he hit third, fourth or fifth in a number of games over that previous three-year period, right?
MJ wrote:
But it is. Billy Beane begat Ricchiardi & DePodesta when Moneyball was the “in” thing, and teams were looking to copy his philosophy. Seattle’s rebuilding, so they hired a guy who has had a good track record in scouting and development in Milwaukee. John Hart is responsible for Mark Shapiro and Jon Daniels. I’m sure there are other cases like this.
The managerial jobs also speaks to your point about head coaches, as well as hiring people who’ve worked in successful programs.
Right now there is something of a “sea change” in baseball where organizations are using more tools to analyze their players. Remember how Davey Johnson used to have his computer printouts of matchups and the like? He used to be the exception, now it’s the norm to have things like that handy.
I think the Mets season went downhill the night Castillo dropped the pop-up.
@ redbug:
i’d actually disagree and go with Beltran’s injury. He was on the cusp of having another brilliant year when he went down, and they were 21-31 since he was last in the line up. Plus, when Beltran was in the line up the Mets at least felt like if they got a solid outing from their pitching they could score enough runs to keep them afloat in the NL east till Delgado and Reyes got back. That obviously didn’t pan out in any way, and the Mets have had a horrible year.
and it’s going to get worse before it gets better
Anyone else think Jose Reyes is milking it, big time?
Considering he has had problems with his hammies, I don’t think he’s milking it. Matter of fact, I’d recommend that he take as much time as he needs since the Mets aren’t going anywhere.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
i do…heck, nobody knew he was hurt at the beginning of this they thought he got benched for not hustling!
as an addendum: how anyone could compare him to Jeter is beyond me
as a 2nd addendum:
(i’m right there with ya just jokin; i’m not a fan of hughes the starter yet myself)
since we’re on the mets subject, havn’t seen many Pelfry-Hughes comps in a while eh