25 posts tagged “willie randolph”

Let's start with the New York Mets.

They're 5-5. Not a great start, but it's still .500 ball. What is overlooked is that unlike another team in New York, the Mets have been in every single one of their losses until the very last pitch of the game.

They're not getting obliterated (like the Yankees were 15-5 by Tampa Bay when Nick Swisher had to pitch.)

Nor are they getting completely embarrassed (like the Yankees were at their home opener once CC Sabathia left the game and the bullpen gave up NINE RUNS in the 7th inning, leading to a 10-2 Yankee Stadium opening destruction.)

Of the Mets 5 losses in this early 2009 season, the Mets lost 4 of those 5 games by 1 run, 1 of them by 2 runs. You often have to judge teams not only by their wins, but by their losses. Are they in the game until the end? Are they playing exciting baseball? Is the game over in the 9th inning or the 5th? Teams that play until the final out are going to allow themselves a greater chance of success and comebacks, and so far the Mets are doing just that. Of course, it'd be much nicer for them to win more of those close games, but there are 152 games left to play.

Tonight's game against Milwaukee was another nailbiter for the Metropolitans that saw Gary Sheffield get his 500th career HR in a key situation with the team down by a run, tying the game and allowing the solid bullpen to keep them in the game until Luis Castillo became the hero in the bottom 9 by hitting an infield single with 2 out that scored Carlos Delgado from 3rd for the CitiField walkoff victory.

Of course had the Mets lost tonight, fans would somehow find a way to blame Willie Randolph again.

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It's still very early in the season, and most teams seem to have their fair share of problems right now except perhaps for the Florida Marlins. The Red Sox are in the AL East cellar, and a lot of the standings 10-11 games in, are a tad lopsided. But fans and media pundits alike have to remember that what happens in April rarely reflects the final results at the end of September.

Both the Marlins and Padres are off to very hot starts. Are both going to win their division? Not likely with the Marlins, and no way in hell with the Padres. Is Toronto going to win the AL East? Not a chance. But it always leads to a never-ending string of panic from each team's fanbase that "drastic actions" must be taken in order to right the ship immediately!!!!

Maybe these same people forget how hot the 2008 Arizona Diamondbacks were for most of the season, only to fade away when August (and Manny Ramirez) came around.

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One team that's already had enough problems both on and off the field, are my 2nd favorite team, the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim).

Three of their top starters in their pitching rotation began the season on the DL: John Lackey, Ervin Santana, and Kelvim Escobar.

While Lackey began last season the DL as well (and Escobar spent the entire season on the DL),  Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana stepped up to hold the team together along with Jered Weaver and Jon Garland, until mid-May when ace Lackey came back.

This season, it's even rougher, certainly off the field. The tragedy that all of baseball suffered with the loss of Nick Adenhart, which has affected both the team and fanbase on multiple levels.

Add to that the injury to slugger Vladimir Guerrero, who will be out for at least a month with a pectoral muscle tear injury. There's hope that Vlad can heal without the need for surgery, but losing the team's power bat for any length of time is never a positive, and could potentially shake things up in the AL West. As it is, the Angels are off to a slow start, and Seattle is on fire.

The Angels opened a 3-game series tonight in Minnesota at the MetroDome, and pretty much every one of their pitchers did horribly tonight with the exception of Justin Speier, who ironically enough, usually is terrible out of the bullpen. He pitched 2 IP, 4 Ks, no hits. Everyone else, an utter disaster.

That was capped off by a Jason Kubel grandslam in the bottom of the 8th off of Angel reliever Jason Bulger which took the Twins from down 9-7, to an 11-9 victory taking the opener.

The Angels' bullpen, usually one of their greatest strengths, has not been too strong this season ever since Frankie Rodriguez went to New York. Jose Arredondo and Scot Shields, normally rocks of this team's 7th and 8th innings, currently have 7.20 ERAs on the season. I'm confident things will normalize over the course of the next couple of months, but it does raise an eyebrow or two.

It all comes down to this. Game 162 of the regular season. Potentially the last game ever played at Shea Stadium.

Game 161 of the 2008 Mets season was quite similar to Game 161 of the 2007 Mets Season. Johan Santana pitched a 2-0 CG SHO over the Marlins to keep the playoff hopes alive. Last year, John Maine flirted with a no-hitter for 7.2 innings against the Marlins while the Met bats scored 13 runs in a decimation, also keeping the playoff hopes alive.

It was the final game of the 2007 season which ended things for the New York Mets. While a lot is made of the abysmal pitching performance of Tom Glavine in that game, who managed to get one man out in the first inning while giving up 7 earned runs, one wonders how the Mets were going to win that game having scored a total of 1 run.

So for the second year in a row, it all comes down to the final game.

The New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers come into this game with identical records of 89-72 competing for the National League wild card. It'll take at least 90 wins to grab the Wild Card this season.

Both teams ultimately control their own fates. If both teams win or lose their respective games today (Mets against Marlins, Brewers against Cubs), the Mets and Brewers will face each other on Monday at Shea Stadium in a one-game playoff to determine the NL Wild Card winner.

If one team loses and one team wins today, the winner gets the NL Wild Card. If it's the Mets, they will face the Cubs in the NLDS. If it's the Brewers, they will face Philadelphia in the NLDS.

Today's Mets-Marlins game pits two leftys against each other. Oliver Perez against Scott Olsen.

Marlins starter Scott Olsen is 1-5, 4.89 ERA over his career against the Mets. That should bode well for the Mets except their offense desperately needs to come alive. 1 run on Friday, 2 runs Saturday, that's not gonna cut it, especially with the superwonky Mets bullpen and Oliver Perez having pitched terribly in September.

The rain in NYC has pushed back the start time of today's game from 1:05pm ET to at least 2:05pm ET, but baseball will happen at Shea Stadium today. That much is certain.

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ALL TIMES PACIFIC

Top of 1st inning:

11:01am: First pitch. Oliver Perez gets ahead of Cameron Maybin with a 1-2 count, and this Shea crowd is super pumped.

11:02am: Perez throws a slider by Maybin for strike 3. 1 out.

11:03am: John Baker flies out to LF Nick Evans. 2 outs.

11:04am: Jorge Cantu grounds the first pitch from Perez to SS Jose Reyes. 6-3. 3 out.

Bottom of 1st Inning:

11:06am: TBS announcer Harold Reynolds notes as I have, that Scott Olsen is not having a good year, and even less so against the Mets.

11:07am: Scott Olsen goes full count on Jose Reyes before inducing a flyout to CF Cameron Maybin. 1 out.

11:09am: Carlos Beltran has a career .444 BA against Scott Olsen.

11:11am: Carlos Beltran hits a hard grounder directly at 2B Dan Uggla. 4-3. 2 out.

11:12am: With "the shift" on, Carlos Delgado singles to leftfield.

11:14am: David Wright is up having a career year with 33 HRs and 124 RBIs. Yet it is well-known that Wright's numbers with RISP and 2 outs are very poor this year. However, Delgado isn't in scoring position this time.

11:15am: David Wright lines out to CF Cameron Maybin. 3 out.

Top of 2nd Inning:

11:18am: Mike Jacobs lines a rocket into the falling/diving glove of 1B Carlos Delgado. 1 out.

11:20am: Dan Uggla hits a hard shot towards Oliver Perez who deflects it off his pitching hand and the ball deadens before 2B Ramon Martinez can grab the ball. Uggla with the infield single and there is concern from the Mets trainer along with manager Jerry Manuel and pitching coach Dan Warthen. Hopefully no issues will occur out of this. Perez is ok for now.

11:21am: Josh Willingham skies a flyout to shallow right-center, caught by 2B Ramon Martinez. 2 outs.

11:22am: The dangerous Cody Ross is up, and he hits very well against Oliver Perez. Oliver throws 3 straight balls to Ross.

11:23am: Cody Ross walks on 4 straight. Dan Uggla to 2nd base.

11:24am: After another ball is thrown, this time to Alfredo Amezaga, pitching coach Dan Warthen comes out to the mound to make sure Perez is ok. Amezaga is 0-for-12 lifetime against Oliver Perez.

11:25am: Oliver Perez now gets ahead of Amezaga with a 1-2 count.

11:26am: Alfredo Amezaga lines out to CF Carlos Beltran. 3 out.

Bottom of 2nd Inning:

11:29am: Nick Evans leads off the inning by lining out to CF Cameron Maybin. 1 out.

11:30am: Ramon Martinez grounds out to SS Alfredo Amezaga. 6-3. 2 out.

11:31am: Ryan Church strikes out. The fans cheer mid at-bat because the Cubs just went up on the Brewers 1-0.  3 out.

Top of 3rd Inning:

11:35am: Scott Olsen strikes out swinging. 1 out.

11:37am: Cameron Maybin walks. He has amazing speed so Perez is gonna have to be careful.

11:40am: John Baker chases a down-and-away breaking ball way out of the zone and strikes out. 2 out.

11:41am: Jorge Cantu skies a ball to RF Ryan Church. 3 out.

Bottom of 3rd Inning:

11:44am: Ramon Castro hammers a leadoff single into LF.

11:45am: Oliver Perez lays down a bunt but it's too close to the plate, so the charging 3B Jorge Cantu grabs the ball and throws down to 2nd base to get the slow Ramon Castro out at 2B. Oliver Perez barely beats the throw to 1st. 1 out.

11:47am: Jose Reyes strikes out on a 3-2 changeup. 2 out. Unfortunately, Scott Olsen is looking pretty good so far.

11:49am: Carlos Beltran flies out to RF Cody Ross who tracks the ball down just in foul territory. 3 out.

Top of 4th Inning:

11:52am: Oliver Perez gets Mike Jacobs out on 3 pitches. Two sliders in the zone that Jacobs lays off of. A third away that Jacobs swings and misses at. 1 out.

11:53am: Dan Uggla grounds out to SS Jose Reyes. Carlos Delgado makes a very nice play at 1B fielding a weak Reyes throw in the dirt. 6-3. 2 outs.

11:55am: Josh Willingham flies out to CF Carlos Beltran on a 3-1 pitch. 3 outs.

Bottom of 4th Inning:

11:58am: Carlos Delgado leads off the inning. He is 2 shy of 40 HRs this season. Can he work his moonshot magic today with the sun out?

11:59am: Nope. Delgado lines out to LF Josh Willingham. 1 out.

12:00pm: David Wright flies out to CF Cameron Maybin. 2 outs.

12:01pm: Nick Evans hits a grounder past Scott Olsen but is easily fielded by SS Alfredo Amezaga. 6-3. 3 outs. I love me a great pitching duel, but not today please!

Top of 5th Inning:

12:03pm: Cody Ross hits a 1-2 curveball on the ground to SS Jose Reyes. 6-3. 1 out.

12:04pm: The rain has returned to Shea Stadium. Fans around the ballpark begin to cover up.

12:05pm: Alfredo Amezaga strikes out swinging. 2 outs. I think I see Matt Dillon in the seats behind home plate.

12:07pm: Scott Olsen goes down swinging. 3 outs. Mets need offense now. Badly.

Bottom of 5th Inning:

12:09pm: Ramon Martinez hits a weak groundball to 2B Dan Uggla. 4-3. 1 out.

12:11pm: Ryan Church strikes out again. 2 outs.

12:13pm: Ramon Castro flies out to CF Cameron Maybin. 3 outs.

Top of 6th Inning:

12:17pm: Cameron Maybin hits a ground-rule double to leftfield. Maybin can easily score on a single anywhere.

12:19pm: John Baker is up to bunt Maybin over to 3rd.

12:20pm: Baker can't lay the bunt down and falls to 1-2, but Baker then strokes a single into CF that scores Cameron Maybin easily. Marlins go up 1-0.

12:22pm: Jorge Cantu singles to CF. John Baker to 2nd base. Pitching coach Dan Warthen takes the trip to the mound to chat with Oliver Perez. Joe Smith begins to warm in the Mets bullpen.

12:24pm: Mike Jacobs flies out to Nick Evans in deep LF but both runners tag up. The announcers get on Nick Evans for throwing to David Wright at 3B instead of to 2B. 1 out.

12:25pm: With 1st base empty, Dan Uggla gets the intentional pass.

12:26pm: With righty Josh Willingham coming up with bases jacked, manager Jerry Manuel goes to the mound and that's it for Perez. Joe Smith is coming in.

12:29pm: Joe Smith commits the unforgivable sin of walking Josh Willingham with the bases loaded. John Baker scores. Marlins now up 2-0.

12:31pm: Cody Ross fouls out to 3B David Wright. 2 outs.

12:32pm: Pitching coach Dan Warthen comes to the mound to make sure the defense and pitching is in sync. Alfredo Amezaga turns to the left side, and Joe Smith is not good against lefty hitters.

12:34pm: Amezaga grounds out back to Joe Smith, who runs towards 1st and tosses it to Delgado for the 3rd out.

Bottom of 6th Inning:

12:37pm: Robinson Cancel is pinch-hitting for Joe Smith.

12:39pm: Scott Olsen issues a leadoff walk to pumpkinhead Cancel.

12:41pm: Jose Reyes flies out to RF Cody Ross. 1 out.

12:42pm: Carlos Beltran goes SLAMMALAMMADINGDONG with a 2-run bomb to LF. Mets tie it up 2-2 and the crowd is electric for Carlos Delgado to slam another one.

12:44pm: Delgado strikes out swinging at ball 4. 2 outs.

12:47pm: David Wright grounds out meekly to SS Alfredo Amezaga, 6-3. 3 outs. Brand new ballgame.

Top of 7th Inning:

12:50pm: Brian Stokes is in to pitch for the Mets. Luis Gonzalez pinch-hitting for Scott Olsen. He grounds out to 2B Ramon Martinez. 4-3. 1 out.

12:52pm: Cameron Maybin smokes a ball to LF that hits the bottom of the wall. With Endy Chavez in the outfield, Maybin can't make it to 2nd base. Long long single.

12:54pm: Brian Stokes is ahead of John Baker 0-2, but Baker fights/fouls some pitches off.

12:55pm: Even on a pitchout, Cameron Maybin steals 2nd base easily. Partially due to a bad throw from Stokes, and Castro not throwing it to Reyes' target.

12:56pm: John Baker can't lay off the high heat and strikes out swinging. 2 outs.

12:57pm: Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen goes out to the mound to talk with Brian Stokes. Jorge Cantu up at the plate.

12:58pm: Scott Schoeneweis is warming up in the bullpen, and Brian Stokes throws 3 straight balls to Cantu. Schoeneweis will likely be pitching to Mike Jacobs if Stokes can't get Cantu out.

1:00pm: Jorge Cantu smokes a ball to deep LF but Endy Chavez makes a fantastic catch running back towards the warning track to get a ball that would have scored 2 runs otherwise. 3 outs and the Mets squeak out of a jam.

Bottom of 7th Inning:

1:04pm: Your hero and mine, Endy Chavez, leads off against Marlins reliever Joe Nelson.

1:05pm: Brewers just tied things up in Milwaukee 1-1 thanks to a Michael Wuertz-bases loaded walk to Craig Counsell.

1:06pm: Endy Chavez flies out to RF Cody Ross. 1 out.

1:09pm: Ramon Martinez strikes out swinging on a full count. 2 outs.

1:11pm: Ryan Church strikes out again. 3rd time today. 6th in a row. 3 outs.

Top of 8th Inning:

1:14pm: Lefty Scott Schoeneweis is pitching for the Mets. Righty Wes Helms pinch-hitting for lefty Mike Jacobs.

1:15pm: Wes Helms golfs a low pitch out of the zone and into the LF bleachers. Marlins go up 3-2 and that's all for Scott Schoeneweis.

1:18pm: Double-switch. Argenis Reyes is into play 2B and Luis Ayala is on to pitch.

1:20pm: On a 3-2 count, Luis Ayala serves up a golden ball to Dan Uggla to pound into the LF bleachers as well. Marlins now up 4-2 off the back-to-back jacks.

1:22pm: Josh Willingham flies out to CF Carlos Beltran. 1 out.

1:23pm: Cody Ross flies out to deep RF but Ryan Church makes the catch. 2 outs.

1:24pm: Alfredo Amezaga flies out to LF Endy Chavez. 3 outs. Mets are in deep shit as the Brewers just went ahead on the Cubs 3-1 thanks to a 2-run HR from Ryan Braun.

Bottom of 8th Inning:

1:27pm: Marlins closer Kevin Gregg is in to pitch, and perhaps early? Jorge Cantu moves over to 1B as Wes Helms plays 3B. Dan Murphy is in to pinch-hit in Ramon Castro's spot but strikes out swinging. 1 out.

1:28pm: Marlon Anderson is in to pinch-hit for 2B Argenis Reyes' spot. I imagine Murphy will go to 2B.

1:30pm: TBS announcers point out that you can blame the bullpen all you want, but the Mets have scored only 2 runs today. And yesterday. Team no hit, team no win.

1:31pm: Marlon Anderson hits a grounder back to Kevin Gregg which deflects off his glove but to 2B Dan Uggla who makes a nice throw to just get Marlon Anderson at first. 2 outs.

1:32pm: Jose Reyes golfs a ball into death valley in right-center. CF Cameron Maybin dives but can't make the catch as the ball hops over the wall for a ground-rule double. Lucky for the Marlins or Reyes would have tripled easily, if not scored on an inside-the-park HR.

1:34pm: Kevin Gregg walks Carlos Beltran, and that's it for Gregg as Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez goes to lefty specialist Arthur Rhodes in the bullpen to face potential lefty Met hero Carlos Delgado.

1:35pm: The Milwaukee Brewers just won their game 3-1 behind CC Sabathia's CG. Can the Mets come back right now? They're gonna have to.

1:37pm: Carlos Delgado flies out to deep LF but Josh Willingham makes the catch. 3 outs.

Top of 9th Inning:

1:40pm: Luis Ayala is still pitching for the Mets, and Jeremy Hermida is in to pinch-hit for Arthur Rhodes.

1:41pm: Jeremy Hermida hits a leadoff single to RF.

1:42pm: Cameron Maybin goes down swinging. 1 out.

1:43pm: Luis Ayala is done as Jerry Manuel is going to the bullpen so lefty Pedro Feliciano can face lefty John Baker.

1:46pm: After falling behind 3-1 to John Baker, Pedro Feliciano strikes out John Baker.

1:48pm: That's it for LOOGY Pedro Feliciano. Jerry Manuel, much like his predecessor Willie Randolph, is forced to play the lefty/righty matchups with his bullpen. Righty Bobby Parnell is in to pitch against righty Jorge Cantu.

1:51pm: Jorge Cantu flies out to CF Carlos Beltran. 3 outs. It's now or never. Literally.

Bottom of 9th Inning:

1:54pm: Former Met prospect Matt Lindstrom is in relief for Florida to rub it in. David Wright leads off.

1:58pm: After a long at-bat, David Wright pops out to 2B Dan Uggla in shallow rightfield. 1 out.

2:00pm: Endy Chavez hits a hard grounder right back to pitcher Matt Lindstrom. 1-3. 2 outs.

2:01pm: Damion Easley is in to pinch-hit for Bobby Parnell.

2:03pm: Damion Easley works the count full before taking a walk. Unfortunately, the non-hitting Ryan Church is up now. Now is his chance to atone for his 6 Ks.

2:05pm: Ryan Church flies out to deep center, but Cameron Maybin makes the catch for the final out. Marlina win 4-2, Mets are eliminated from the postseason as the Marlins celebrate their win on the field.

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While the bullpen has blown many games this season, and were the big-picture problem, this entire Florida series came down to the Mets offense not doing anything. 1 run on Friday, 2 runs on Saturday behind Johan Santana, 2 runs today.

Even more disheartening when you consider that Marlins starter Scott Olsen is not someone who historically does well against the Mets. And yet, this offense absolutely and collectively DIED against the Florida Marlins.

Of all the permutations that could have occurred today, this is the one that should never have happened.

The Mets miss the postseason again.

Go Angels and Go Cubs!!!!!

Game 2 of the 3-game interleague series between the New York Mets, now managed by Jerry Manuel, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, ended with the Angels beating the Mets 6-1 behind the insanely great pitching of John Lackey.

While this was billed as a big-time pitching matchup, a battle of staff aces, Johan Santana doesn't pitch well against the Angels, and even less so when he's at Angel Stadium. Santana was 2-3 with a 4.05 ERA in 10 games - eight starts - against the Angels. After tonight's loss, make that 2-4 in 11 games, 9 starts against the Angels. I don't know the ERA offhand but it's definitely gone up.

Here are the key points of the game:

• Angel John Lackey was great. He scattered 6 Hits in 7.2 IP, walking 1, striking out 7, and the only run he gave up during the game was when David Wright hit into a double play, scoring Damion Easley, who replaced Jose Reyes after was pulled from the game by Manuel after he seemed to tweak his hamstring running to first on a leadoff single. I'm told that on TV, Reyes was shown throwing a tantrum in the dugout after being removed from the game. Apparently he thought it was just a temporary thing, but Jerry Manuel thought otherwise. All I could see from my vantage point was when Reyes threw the helmet, but no one knew what had happened.

• The Mets defense was terrible. They would've lost the game either way, but they committed 3 charged errors, and probably committed another 2-3 during the game that didn't make the official scorecard. Carlos Beltran could've nailed Vladimir Guerrero at the plate, but his throw to Brian Schneider was on the first base side of homeplate, allowing the Angels' 3rd run to score in the 1st inning.

• Johan Santana didn't pitch well, and earned the L in this game on his own. 4 of 5 Angel runs were scored on 8 hits in 6 Innings. Santana walked 2 and struck out 5. Angel catcher Jeff Mathis also connected on a solo blast in the bottom 6.

• Aaron Heilman pitched again tonight, and was perfect in the 7th. Heilman quite possibly saved last night's game by striking out Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter with 1 out and runners on 1st and 3rd. The Mets led 8-6 at that point, so it was imperative to escape the inning.

• Claudio Vargas pitched the 8th, gave up an unearned run thanks to some more poor defense by Fernando Tatis and Luis Castillo, but at that point the game was pretty much over anyways.

The teams will meet tomorrow night in the rubber game of the series when Oliver Perez faces Jon Garland. Initially I thought this matchup favored Garland since he doesn't pitch very well at home, and has not looked anything remarkable lately. Then I heard that the Angels record against lefty starters is something like 12-3 this season, and with Perez' propensity to walk batters even in his GOOD starts, the Angels are a team with speed that will create problems for Perez.

This may end up being a battle of which pitcher sucks less. Considering the Angels scored 6 runs each in the first two games, the Mets pitching staff is going to have to come through Wednesday night, or the team will continue to slide, no matter who the manager is.

Omar Minaya Press conference notes:

- Omar Minaya said that he hadn't made the final decision to drop the axe (my words, not his) until Monday night and took full responsibility for the decision, emphasizing Willie was his hire, and this made it all the more difficult to fire him. He continued to underscore that this was his decision, seemingly distancing the Wilpons from this entirely.

- He could not have made the decision on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, because he hadn't made the final decision until sleeping on it Sunday night.

- The decision was made because the team is underperforming and has been since last season.

- During the meeting on Sunday night between Omar and Willie at Shea Stadium, Omar told him he was going to come to a decision sometime during the road trip whether to retain him for the year, or fire him. He came to that final decision Monday morning after sleeping on it, and decided to meet the team in Anaheim to deliver the news personally.

- Omar took full responsibility for the leaks that came out prior to the weekend detailing the plan of who would be fired, who would get promoted, etc. Minaya felt that those stories were also causing more distractions in the clubhouse and had created an unfair environment for all.

- Omar explained that he never wanted to say "Willie is going to be our manager for the rest of the year" because if the Mets had lost 15 in a row, then what? (you can still fire him, dummy.)

- Jerry Manuel will definitively be the manager for the rest of the 2008 season. Omar said that Jerry Manuel was the best person available to take over the team. Omar also reviewed Jerry's history as a manager with the White Sox, and winning Manager of the Year in 2000.

- Omar fired pitching coach Rick Peterson and 1st-base coach Tom Nieto because he didn't want Willie to take 100% of the fall. Other people he felt, were accountable for the team's poor performance. There was a need to change more than just the manager.

- Logistics prevented Omar Minaya from getting to Anaheim prior to the team getting to the ballpark. Omar felt it would be extremely disrespectful to Willie if he had been fired in uniform. He felt it was much more respectful to do it face-to-face in private, outside the confines of a baseball stadium. This is why he wasn't fired prior to the game.

- A reporter asked Omar about the reaction from the media and fans that this was handled very poorly and how people continue to view what happened through their own glasses, as opposed to the facts. One example is the constant references to 3am East Coast time, as opposed to 11pm Pacific Time when the firing actually took place. Omar said people have been making their assessments of the situation without having all the facts (which is exactly what I have been saying). Once the facts are out there, then you can decide to believe what you want.

- At the end of 2007, Omar Minaya was given the choice by the Wilpons whether to fire him or not. He chose not to and was supported in his decision by the Wilpons. Omar said this has always been his call and he has autonomy from the Wilpons, per their agreement in 2004, to make all baseball decisions without ownership interference.

- Is this change enough to turn the team around? He doesn't know, but he does not regret the decision to keep Willie Randolph at the end of last season, as he could not make that call based on the last 3 weeks of the team's performance in 2007.

- Omar said after the 4-game sweep at San Diego, that was one of several times he thought about firing Willie. The September collapse last season was another time he thought about it.

- Omar believes that everyone on the team has been working hard, but for whatever reason, things weren't working. One stat that Omar noted was the team's inability to come from behind to win games.

- I couldn't hear the reporter's question too well, but Omar's response seemed to indicate that it was in reference to Minaya hugging Manny Acta at Shea Stadium in full view when the Nationals came to play the Mets. He noted that people always perceive the things they want to perceive, or read into things that aren't there. Omar is a hugger, and Manny is a friend, so he hugs his friend, the end.

- The racial remarks that Willie made a month ago to Ian O'Connor, even though he apologized for them, had increased the tension regarding the situation.

- Willie Randolph did not know that Omar Minaya was coming out to Anaheim. Omar did not want Willie to hear the news from any 3rd-party source. "Standard procedure" was followed in letting him go at 11pm at night.

- In response to those who say it should have been done in New York, that wasn't possible since the final decision had not been made.

Jerry Manuel then answered questions from the media:

- Willie Randolph and he have become very good friends during their time together in New York. He spoke with Willie on Tuesday morning.

- The team is underperforming, so the first thing that needs to happen is to freshen up the everyday players. But that's difficult to do when you have an urgency to win. The ability to rest Beltran yesterday and have him DH instead of play OF was helpful, and Manuel plans to do the same with David Wright tonight. He will DH but not play the field.

- How much did the 2007 collapse impact the team this year? Manuel says it weighed on him all winter and they all felt the urgency to get off to a good start this year. They will carry the weight of that collapse until they get on track this year.

- What was Manuel's job as bench coach? To spill his heart and guts to Willie as to what he would do in certain situations. Jerry Manuel said Willie wanted to put the collapse behind them, but Jerry felt it was important to remind the team of it at times in order to motivate them.

- Does Jerry Manuel have a better relationship with some of the players than Willie did? Jerry says that's one of the advantages of being a coach because you have a slightly different relationship with the players than the manager does. Now that he has moved into the manager's role, he feels those player-coach relationships will help him with the team.

- Sandy Alomar Sr. will now be the team's bench coach. Ken Oberkfell will be the 1st-base coach, Luis Aguayo will be 3rd-base coach, and Dan Warthen will be the pitching coach. Manuel says he expects all of them to want to manage at this level and is looking forward to them being with the club.

- Jerry Manuel had spoken with Willie Randolph about the ongoing drama regarding his job over the course of the season, saying he was one of the very few who could truly understand what Willie was going through, as Manuel experienced it in Chicago.

- Jerry believes that the team is capable of playing much better and wouldn't have taken the job if he felt otherwise.

- Jerry explained that every manager says the same thing about "hit and run" and do this and that more when they come into a new job. He feels it's more important to teach the players when the times are right to do certain things as opposed to running for the sake of running.

- Jerry said that there's a fine line between creating an environment where players can have career years, and having career years on a team that can win championships. Often they can go hand-in-hand.

- Jerry joked that since Omar won't fire anyone while they're in uniform, he'll be staying in his at the end of the season no matter what happens.

- Jerry believes the team does have leaders, and some may not have stepped into those roles yet. But first, Jerry is going to do that, and then it will trickle down to certain players who should be in those leadership positions.

- Jerry wants bullpen roles to be more clearly identified and will work with Dan Warthen on that.

- It sounded like someone asked about pitch count, and Jerry thinks that while baseball as a whole has gotten too obsessed with pitch counts, it's going to take some time to change the mindsets of people in order to slowly move away from it. At the same time, he wants to be careful and not have his pitchers get injured/fatigued. He would prefer to remove a starter once the game is over, but realizes that's not going to happen very often.

- Jerry Manuel says that lineup changes will be occurring over time. Sometimes your cleanup hitter won't be your cleanup hitter.

- David Wright has joked to Jerry that now we have a "gangsta" running the team.

Thus ends the press conference.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2008/06/16/2008-06-16_mets_fire_willie_randolph.html

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20080617&content_id=2945352&vkey=pr_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym

The Willie Watch finally comes to an end as Randolph, along with pitching coach Rick Peterson and 1st base coach Tom Nieto were fired after the Mets 9-6 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

I'm just glad it's over with. I think it was far better that they did it on the road, instead of in front of 8,000 reporters in NY. Willie can now enjoy a little vacation time, maybe go to Disneyland, breathe easier.

If this had been done to him while in NY, he wouldn't have been able to go anywhere in the tri-state area and enjoy himself. The man is on a paid vacation for the next year and a half. What better way to begin it than in sunny Southern California?

I don't KNOW this for sure, but my best guess is that Omar Minaya told him how this would go down in the meeting on Sunday night. This decision had already been made, and I'd like to believe they tried to have it go down as "humanely" as possible privately, despite growing dissatisfaction with Mets management for how they've handled this publicly.

Considering the names involved in the plan have been leaked for a while now, and the "unnamed sources" turned out to be 100% correct, this was a plan that HAD to have been put into motion over the weekend, if not earlier.

In many ways, because of the way the situation was handled over the last couple of days, Willie Randolph kinda became a sympathetic babyface figure with management taking the heat for letting him twist in the wind, whether he actually was or not.

It was interesting hearing the Angels broadcasters on both TV and radio weigh in on the Willie Randolph controversy (this was pre-firing) and how he was getting a bad rap, wasn't a bad manager by any stretch of the imagination, and was being treated unfairly by the fans at Shea along with the "what have you done for me lately" attitude of the NY media.

As for Rick Peterson, the world's most overrated pitching guru who in my opinion, was the PRIMARY culprit, though there were many, of the 2007 collapse. It was time for "the jacket" to sell his line of bullshit elsewhere. Maybe he can still help fix Victor Zambrano's mechanics. Or perhaps, BE his mechanic.

It was June 2003, the Mets were managed by Art Howe. Mike Piazza was on the DL. The outfield was "anchored" by white elephant Jeromy Burnitz. Scott Schoeneweis pitched, but not for New York. The Mets weren't very good.

But the Angels were the defending World Series champions. At this point in time, the Angels were a .500 ballclub. A couple of games over, some under, but generally coming back to even until the 2nd half of the season where they lost more often.

The Mets didn't have as good of a record at 29-35, but they had just taken 2 of 3 from the Rangers in Arlington, and would win the series against Anaheim by taking 2 of 3 from the Angels as well.

In the Sunday rubber game (Father's Day) of that series, Steve Trachsel pitched a CG 1-hitter (thanks David Eckstein) for New York, and some rookie call-up named Jose Reyes hit a grandslam off of Jarrod Washburn that just cleared the leftfield fence for his first career HR. Jeromy Burnitz also hit 2 HRs that day, and the Mets won 8-0.

Jump ahead 5 years later, and the Mets are fighting to get back to .500, fighting to win on the road, and perhaps fighting for Willie Randolph's job. The Angels sit atop the AL West, with only the Oakland A's to really worry about in their division. The Seattle Mariners are the worst team in the league, and the Texas Rangers don't have the potent pitching to go along with their potent hitting.

However, the Angels lost 2 of 3 to the Braves over the weekend, and they're not hitting the way they were earlier in the season. Vladimir Guerrero is having a respectable season (.268, 10 HR, 35 RBIs) if his name was Jeromy Burnitz. But for a hitter that hit over .300 from 1997-2007, pounding 35 HRs per season on average, Vladdy isn't Vladdy. But luckily for manager Mike Scioscia, his team has great depth and quite possibly the best starting rotation in the majors (Lackey, Weaver, Santana, Saunders, Garland). John Lackey was on the DL from the start of the season until late May, and the team won many games without him because Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders were unstoppable.

Speaking of unstoppable, closer Frankie Rodriguez is 28 for 29 in Saves this season.

Monday's pitching matchup pits Jered Weaver (6-6, 4.45 ERA) vs Mike Pelfrey (2-6, 4.24 ERA), who are more similar this season than one might think. After all, both are listed as 6'7".
Both had poor starts to the season, both have been stellar as of late. Weaver won 4 of his last 5 starts. Pelfrey can't buy a win, but has pitched very well in his last 3 starts. Neither have ever pitched against the opposition.

Tuesday's pitching matchup is a dream for baseball fans. A battle of aces in Johan Santana (7-4, 2.85 ERA) vs John Lackey (3-1, 1.83 ERA). Conventional wisdom says this will be a low-scoring game.

Wednesday pits Oliver Perez (5-4. 4.98 ERA) vs Jon Garland (6-4, 4.13 ERA). After an abysmal start against San Francisco on June 2, Perez has pitched quite well in his last 2 starts (Padres, Rangers), giving up 1 ER in each. Garland is definitely the weakest pitcher in the Angels rotation, as righty bats are hitting almost .300 against him this season, and he pitches much better on the road than he does at home (2.93 road ERA, 5.11 home ERA). If the great Ollie shows up, the Mets should be able to win this one.

The Texas Rangers are the ultimate in polar opposites, making for a .500 record of 34-34.

They are the best hitting team in MLB (Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Milton Bradley).
And they also have the worst pitching in MLB. (Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla (default ace), Scott Feldman, Kason Gabbard).

They even have a manager in Ron Washington who weathered an early headhunting this season as many were calling for his firing.

The good news is that the Mets starting pitching has been ranged anywhere from adequate (Maine, Pedro) to good (Perez) to fantastic (Pelfrey, Santana) over the past 9 games.

The bad news is the Mets' bullpen. A 4.14 bullpen ERA is 13th in the NL. In losing six of their last seven, the relievers have a 7.43 ERA, and Wagner is 0-1 with a 23.14 ERA in his last three appearances.

The Mets are 4-7 in June going into the series against the Rangers, and they're in desperate need of series wins. After winning series against Florida, Los Angeles and San Francisco, going 7-3 over those games, the team then lost 6 out of 7 games, losing 4 straight to San Diego and dropping 2 out of 3 to Arizona.

The pitching matchups definitely favor the Mets, even with the shaky bullpen that has reared its head over the past week. The problem is offense. The Mets bats are wildly inconsistent and sputter to score runs and there's no rhyme nor reason as to when/why their bats will heat up or cool down. Texas doesn't have that problem.

It goes without saying that the Mets must win this series before they go back on the road to face an extremely tough AL West-leading Angels, and another 3 against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver. The same very weak NL West basement-dwelling team that took 2 of 3 from New York over Memorial Day Weekend.

The season isn't over yet, but the clock is ticking for the turnaround.

As mentioned in the last entry, we stayed down in San Diego for the weekend to see the Mets play the Padres on Saturday night and Sunday day at PETCO park for the final 2 games of the 4-game series.

I decided to stay at the Manchester Grand Hyatt for a night, which is also where the New York Mets team stays when in San Diego. It's about a 15-minute walk to PETCO park, and I was told (whether true or not, who knows) that David Wright had walked to the ballpark himself without any entourage on Saturday.

I'm not an autograph hound nor a groupie, and I don't bother pro athletes, or even Hollywood celebrities, and lord knows I've worked with many through the years. But I thought it would be fun to, on the off chance, hang out with millionaires in a hotel bar as well as other Met fans. And well, we didn't really "hang out" with them, but did see a lot of the team after the 2-1 loss on Saturday night at the hotel.

If you're looking for crazy gossip or wild tales of 1986 Mets-like partying, you will be disappointed.

Here's how it went down:

The 10-inning game ended at about 10:15pm. Got back to the hotel around 10:35pm, and hung out in the hotel bar area for a while.

Some other Met fans were there as well, trying to get autographs and pictures. One guy was in town from NY for a conference, and was very eager to get autographed baseballs for his daughter back on Long Island. Speaking of Long Island, his accent made me want to plug my ears with shot glasses.

There were a few other fans milling about, but not a lot by any stretch.

Moises Alou was the first person we saw, just meandering about the hotel lobby before the team bus came by. He apparently told some other fan, who later told me, that he'd be back playing on Tuesday against Arizona. We'll see...

Then we saw Keith Hernandez and some other SNY folk who I'm not really familiar with since I don't get SNY in L.A. I imagine Gary Cohen was one of them.

I then saw Brian Schneider with his parents. I also saw Oliver Perez walking through the lobby with cellphone attached to ear. I told him, "Good pitching tonight!" and he thanked me but kept walking.

Then the team bus came in at around 11:15pm-ish? It was a lot of the team including Jose Reyes, Luis Castillo, Raul Casanova, Ramon Castro, Endy Chavez, Damion Easley, Carlos Beltran, etc. I imagine there were others but we either didn't see them, or simply didn't recognize them.

I think every player who got off the bus went into the elevators up to their rooms. I can't say with certainty they didn't go out later, but we didn't see them leave, and didn't hear reports from any other people that they were seen again.

I heard later on that David Wright showed up and was apparently one of the few who was willing to sign things for a couple of fans. The other players didn't stop, although to be fair, I didn't see anyone try and stop them either. The aforementioned Long Islander showed me an autographed baseball that was made out to his daughter personally by David. Not something you can sell on Ebay, so his heart was in the right place. Success!

After the players contingent, we then saw Willie Randolph, Jerry Manuel and Sandy Alomar walk through the lobby together. A couple of fans told Willie "We'll get 'em tomorrow!" and of course Willie could only agree. I told him "No friggin sweeps!" and he chuckled.

They also went off to the elevators, presumably up to the rooms, never seen again that night.

At the hotel bar, the following Mets personnel...

• Carlos Delgado was at a table with his parents. Papa Delgado is morbidly obese in his mid 60's. I hope Carlos doesn't follow down the same path. Pedro Feliciano later joined the table and remained after Carlos had left. Feliciano ended up talking to Papa Delgado for a bit, and later spoke with Scott Schoeneweis before calling it a night.
• Brian Schneider was at a table with his parents.
• Hitting Coach Howard Johnson and his wife were sitting at a table with a bunch of people. I'm not positive, but I think Mets media director Jay Horowitz was among them.
  
• Scott Schoeneweis was at a table with his parents. One Met fan was talking to them because she grew up in the same town of Medford, NJ that Scott did. I think she may have talked to his parents more than Scott, but they were all very nice from what I heard.
  
• Oliver Perez was at a table with a bunch of people no one recognized, presumably people he knew from his days of playing with the Padres. I remember glancing at their table at one point and saw a lot of empty beer bottles all around. But hey, he pitched well and deserved a little relaxation time.
• Duaner Sanchez provided the closest thing to "gossip" that night, as he was talking up this very attractive Latina at the bar as he was drinking white wine. We couldn't figure out if she was his girlfriend, or he had just met her. It was funny because just like real life for the rest of us poor people, when talking to a hot broad, you still have to deal with her ugly friends. Poor Duaner. No idea if Dirty did the deed.

All the players had wrapped up their socializing by around 1am, and called it a night since they had to be at the ballpark by 10am the next morning. I've since read that Ramon Castro didn't make it there on time and was benched for sleeping late.

From what we witnessed at the hotel bar, fans were very respectful of the players and didn't bother any of them.

We did not see Billy Wagner, Mike Pelfrey, Joe Smith or Aaron Heilman at any point in the hotel. Actually, if I haven't mentioned their name already, I didn't see them nor hear that anyone else did. Or maybe simply didn't recognize them.

We were told by other fans that they got autographs from Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana prior to them leaving for the ballpark on Saturday.

All in all, it was a nice experience, which would've been a lot nicer had the Mets swept the Padres, and not vice versa.