Among other things, here’s what Willie Randolph had to say after last night’s game: “We’ll ride this wave. We’ll get through it. No panic, gloom-and-doom, sky-is-falling, all that stuff.’’
How’s that sound to you? Is it about time for Willie to rip into his team? Or is that even necessary?
15 Comments
he’s a mellow guy. outside. who knows maybe he has ripped them. He’s not one to let that out i dont think. I would like to think that, he has done it in the privacy of the clubhouse, keeping it in the family and telling them to wake the EFF UP!
:-)
but what he tells you guys will always be different. did he ever get that subway sandwich from Torre?
;-]
Yes he needs to stop being a little **** take off his skirt and his training bra and tell these guys to pick up their game because they are looking like a bunch of dusche bags out there and he’s tired of seeing them mope around like a bunch of girls with their period.
lil john,
tell us how you really feel.
Willie will never do anything inspirational, he’ll let things keep going on because he’s a little girl.. How much better this team would of been if they signed Leyland instead of Willie.. Guarenteed this team would of never went on a losing streak like this one
i dont think thats true. Willie brought a lot to the table. I think some of his hands re tied because of the players minaya wants and coddles. Omar’s choices have been sound but I think they have also been biased, and now that bias is proving to be a setback. they are all having a siesta.
:-O
I love when people pretend to know what goes on behind closed doors. I think that the players seem to genuinely feel that been a positive force on this team and that’s all that matters. Willie may be level-headed with the media but I dont think he has a “whatever” attitude with his team. But I do think one of his greatest assets has been his ability to keep the team even during good AND bad times. Never get too high on yourselves when you are up and never get too down on yourselves when you are struggling. It has been effective for this team so far – just look at 2006. They struggled mightily in September and then picked it up to win the last few games and take that into the postseason. When they were winning every game he never let the team take the division for granted. I really dont think he needs to do anything differently right now. Then again, if they continue to lose like this against not-so-good teams, I may have a different feeling come all-star break.
how can you compare September to now?
they struggled getting swept by the pirates.. So what? then they struggled after Clinching? the pressure was off you cannot compare that struggle with the mighty slump they’re in now
Well I wasn’t actually comparing the two slumps. I was giving an example of the way Willie manages and how it has been successful in the past. Obviously, there is no analogous situation to this slump because in Willie’s era, they have not had a slump like this. But that is irrelevant.
Btw, Leyland’s team was up 10 games in August last year and lost the division. Sometimes even teams with good managers go through slumps.
ok guys time for me to put some perspective back into this:
with all things being equal we are doing great.
how many 10+ year slumps did our team have? way too many.
for a change we are having 2 great seasons. ALl in all i cant take that away, yes we got our hopes a little up so now this bump seems like a mountain and the media doesnt help because when the mets do good you hear very little only when they are doing bad.
Lets see where we are at the end of the year. :-)
yeah we can play armchair manager and be all pissed off. but remember we are still kinda in first place ;-]
the OTHER team is way in second. :-D
ha Steve, what do you mean “kinda” in 1st? :)
that’s pretty much the point I was trying to get across…and it’s pretty funny actually when you think about how high expectations get after 1 good season isnt it? Sometimes I have to remind myself how bad things were. The other day the 2000 WS game 1 was on TV and I watched the GW hit by Jose Vizcaino – it made me feel so much better about 2007 – can you believe THOSE PLAYERS made it to the WS that year? That team doesn’t compare to this one.
night and day. we did have a few good players. when they werent sold off by Phillips. ;-]
Willie is a mellow guy and it seems that like any other club a cohesive group takes on the personality of the leader/s. So the team kinda goes with the flow never getting too up or down which over the long haul is a good thing. However I think they tend to fall into a malays during the ebbs of the season which is a result of their collective personality and makes their droughts last longer. Last Sept when trying to clinch, is a perfect example and now this month. For Willie to go off I think it would appear fake and scripted, But I do believe this team is missing a fire cracker type personality to go off in these situation and give the team of sense of urgency. What I think happens is they all finally stop saying we’ll get them next time because their disgusted with themselves and collectively they come out at once. Reyes chucked his helmet the other day, Wright looked pissed last night this is a slower process but it works as long as it doesnt take too long.
One thing that I remember about Randolph last year is how he stressed the importance of a ‘loose’ attitude. He would say something like ‘We just gotta go out there and play loose’ or something like that. Maybe he believes that players perform better when they are ‘loose’. The only problem with that is that is that people don’t choose how to feel. You don’t say, “I’m better when I’m in confident state so I’ll be in a confident state when I play”. The situation and what it means to you determines how you feel. If the Mets are trying to play ‘loose’ right now it is only going to make things worse because no sane person would be ‘loose’ in this situation. To to try to force that attitude on themselves will only create a weird conflicted state that will not help the way they play.
Willie has been in baseball longer than some of these kids have been alive and I think they realize that whatever he tells them, worked for him. He’s earned a lot of respect in his relatively short tenure as manager, and now is when that respect pays off.
My take on this is what Steve already said.
Willie’s public face and private is different. Willie is not gonna rip his players publicly. He will talk to them individually or collectively.
After a big win you can tell he is happy. After a bad loss you can tell he is not pleased. However in front of a reporter he says what he always does. It is one game yada yada yada.
And no I don’t want Lou Pinella here. He is a jerk. You don’t win by having a manager you are afraid of. You may have a heightened sense of urgency but you are also more prone to mistakes. It is better to have a manager that you respect and want to pull for.
Everything else is the mix of the club. You do need someone on the club to get after it and push the team. The message from a peer is different from the message from the boss.
Dave