Do you want to fire your hitting coach? Go for it. However, it’s hard to imagine the Mets handling the Rick Down firing any more clumsily. How the Mets did this was akin to the Yankees sacking their conditioning coach. GM Omar Minaya wanted to do something, and damn if he didn’t.
He did so without having Down’s replacement in mind. It’s between Howard Johnson and Rickey Henderson. I’m betting HoJo, because quite frankly, can anybody envision Henderson breaking down film for three hours? Not me.
The fallout is the revelation Minaya and manager Willie Randolph aren’t always on the same page. Minaya ran past Randolph what he wanted to do, and the manager wasn’t thrilled. Randolph brought over Down, and among other things, today called him “my brother.’’
When asked his thoughts, Randolph said: “I’m an organizational man.’’
When asked how he responded to Minaya, Randolph said: “If you want to make that decision, you’re the GM, you make the decision.’’
Both David Wright and Shawn Green said it was a political move to get the player’s attention. “As players, we didn’t do the job,’’ Wright said.
9 Comments
No, the Yankee move would be shaking up the team by trading the entire AAA team for a washed-up power hitter or an over-rated starting-pitcher.
The Yankee move would be the manager “sticking by his guys” no matter what until the whole thing went down the crapper.
Down’s whole mentality was “swing hard, swing early” and that was killing this team.
Rickey may’ve had the best eye for a pitch in the last thirty years. I say give the guy a shot.
Henderson’s hitting style is an infinitely better fit for a team of young/youngish speedsters.
Which is what the Mets are becoming and hopefully by the start of the next season, will be.
Bottom line: Omar’s the boss. Willie works for Omar. Omar’s in charge of on-field personnel, Willie’s not. Managers and GMs don’t always agree on decisions – goes with the manager’s job. Rick Down is out. Life goes on.
Well put Gill, I agree and I couldn’t care less about Down being fired. When teams don’t hit, hitting coaches get fired, get over it. On the other hand however, is it wise for Minaya to fire an ineffective coach and replace him with a guy who has never coached? Not to mention a guy who has a reputation for not being a team player? Plus, if want your manager to be effective it may not be the best idea to shake up his staff over his objections. Oh, and by the way, it probably isn’t wise to not even have a replacement ready when you fire a guy. I don’t know, but it certainly seems like Minaya is just doing stuff so he can say he did stuff. Oh, and on a side note, if I was Gary Carter I would be just a little pissed right now. Sorry Gary no job for you here.
I’m sure Omar didn’t make this move not know what his next move is. He knows who his next hitting coach is. He just hasn’t announced it yet.
John, if Down were anything special, then why did we never hear any of the hitters praise him, or even mention how they’d be working with him on things? They’re saying all of the PC things now, but they never really gave him any votes of confidence for three years. I know the guy is laid back and doesn’t like interviews, but neither did Art Howe, and his act wore thin pretty fast…
The Mets sticks need a new approach, and Down never showed anyone that he was able to help hitters make any adjustments. David Wright was one of the best two strike hitters in Baseball until this year, but now he’s done whenever the pitcher gets ahead of him. Down may not be the cause of that, but he never fixed it either. Half a season of this is too large a sample size to ignore…
If you heard Keith Hernandez tonight, he talked about how a hitting coach is much more of a mental strategist than a guy who works with mechanics (a la the pitching coach). Keith had a great story about how Larry Dierker, a pitcher, provided him with insight as to how to approach his ABs.
The other thing is that, on his way out, Down trashed Ricky Ledee. And that’s just unforgivable.
yeah i cant believe he bashed ricky..i swear i yelled at my computer wed rather have ricky as a hitting coach than you when i saw that
It seems like Hojo might move into the hitting coach role though. Perhaps Rickey will slot into the first base coach position.
The clumsiness all results from not having named the new hitting coach—and I read that as a result of some tension between Randolph and Minaya over the firing. (If the season goes well from here then I expect the tension will melt away.) My guess is that HoJo is the hitting coach when the dust settles but that can’t be sorted out until after Henderson and Randolph get a chance to talk about it.
Somehow I just don’t see Henderson and Randolph operating “on the same page” very well—but that might be a good thing. It’s not that I see a big discrepancy in baseball philosophy because I don’t know enough to even guess; it is that I see a huge discrepancy in their personalities and ways of communicating. It will be fun to watch things unfold…