About Last Night
-
- April
- 25
When the manager says last night’s loss reminded him of some of the games when they collapsed down the stretch, you know it was bad.
I am aware of the need for patience and understand pennants aren’t decided in April. However, bad habits and attitudes can be forged early and the Mets aren’t playing well.
-Aaron Heilman is a serious issue and they won’t win anything until he’s fixed.
-Carlos Delgado is also a problem, but the option is to hope for the best.
-Oliver Perez reminded us again of his unreliability. Get used to it.
-Situational and clutch hitting is erratic.
-We’re not seeing Jose Reyes at the top of his game.
-Jorge Sosa is getting hit hard.
This entry was posted
on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 8:34 am by John Delcos.
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What I've seen so far this season is the same crap of baseball the Mets played in the second half of last season, nothing has changed. I'll be the first to say I never like Willie Randolph as manager, he would not have been my first or second choice. That said, if people are going to want Willie fired than Omar has to be behind Willie out the door.
Cut your losses with Delgado not only is he horrible but he come to stand for the lackluster play that resulted in the collapse, Promote Carp or Abreu, or bring in a guy doesn't need to be a super star just a decent glove and .250 hitter i really wish they'd grab Dan Johnson off waivers the window is almost up….
Pen needs new blood try to pass one of them through waivers and bring up a Kid …Diaz, Muniz, Kunz
Willie should have been held accountable for the Collapse. No one on this team is ever held accountable for anything. This team is totally going through the motions. Reyes’ error, Delgado watching balls go past him because he is too lazy to bend down. Its an attitude. If you have no fear that there will be repercussions for your actions, why bear down and play harder. Its been proven time and again that even if you fail, Willie sticks with you. You don’t get benched, you don’t get called out, you have NOTHING to worry about. Especially if you are a veteran. So why wouldn’t you be complacent.
“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce”…
Welcome to the Farce, gentlemen!
Ok, I am going there.
Sign Barry Bonds.
I know a lot of you don't like the idea of Bonds on this team, but he is still an awesome hitter and would greatly help this lineup. Delgado is killing them. I understand all the baggage Bonds brings, but if we want to win this year, he is our best option. He won't cost us anything but money. Sign him. Give him a 1B mitt. Sent him to St. Lucie to get into shape and get acclimated to 1B, and have him ready to play by mid May.
You know the numbers. You know he can still hit. And you know this lineup would be awesome with him in it:
Reyes SS
Beltran CF
Wright 3B
Bonds 1B
Alou LF
Church RF
Schneider C
Castillo 2B
Pitcher
I know its still early and I have been the first one to point this out. But if the Mets are serious about contending this year, they better be having serious talks about Bonds internally.
Keith,
all I can say is you have hit an all time low. I can't believe you now want bonds, please stop the insanity.
Delgado needs to be sat for a game or two. Willie likes rewarding players. Give Anderson a start at first for a game or two (or three) for hitting the home run last night. As for the bullpen, unless I have forgotten something, the object of the game is to win. Send Sosa down to work on mechanics since he looks like he is fire drill mood right now and is grooving pitches. Bring up Muniz because he we up to start the year and was effective, unless Wise is ready now. When Wise is ready to come up, which I thought was to be soon, then Muniz has to go back down. Heilman, for the time being, should be moved to mop up man, where the damage is already done. The Mets are stuck with Schoeneweis, who really jams up bullpen mobility. Hopefully, Feliciano, who did not stink last night, is getting his bearings back on where the strike zone is. Duaner has to be able to start taking the ball for an inning and not one batter on multiple nights. They will not last the season above 500 if the bullpen has to pitch 3 innings plus most every night.
Come again? You can't believe I would want to add someone who posted an OPS+ of 170 last year? A guy who belted out 28 HR in only 340 at bats? Yeah, why would I want to add him?
The problem with the mets is the same problem they had in the second half of last season. Delgado is done which leaves a big hole. The starters can't seem to pitch pass the 5th innings therefore Willie is forced to go to the bullpen which is being over used. If you noticed the two guys Willie has used the most have been Sosa and Heilman. It appears those two are burnt out already. The most disturbing thing that is still there is Reyes. Reyes is still playing like he did in the second half of last year. Reyes's head is so far up his butt he can't find it. Maybe there is something there between reyes and Willie. I heard that willie doesn't like reyes and maybe it goes both ways. Omar is not going to pay Bonds to come to the mets to play first base, it ain't happening.
One more thing. Bring up an extra arm or someone to play first if they are going to DL Schneider. Clark was already sent down to bring up a second catcher. And where is Castro in his rehab? Anyone watching the Dunkin' Donuts to make sure that he doesn't surface at 260LB's?? There is a lot of Met payroll being used to compensate players for not playing. Almost sounds like some govenment jobs!
tomg, I don't expect the organization to have the guts to pull the trigger. They won't even go over slot in the draft. No way they break the collusion that is keeping Bonds out of MLB.
You can't keep the nucleus of last year's collapse intact, and then hope for better results this year.
And—what do you know?—they're playing just like they did last year.
The easiest move at this point would be a managerial one.
Stillsane, I like this idea. DL Schneider and bring up Abreu to push Delgado for playing time.
I don't think 1b is something that can be picked up in a few months..
I don't think anyone disagrees with bonds hitting ability but the Mets will never hear the end of that one if it would happen.
I think any Mets fan wants players like Heilman and Delgado to succeed but enough is enough. It is becoming clear that this team will not play for Willie. The fact that he seems afraid to sit Delgado speaks volumes. A change needs to be made now. I hate to see a listless, uninspired team go up against some of the teams in the west. The human side of me hates to see anyone lose their job but the team will never get past the collapse without a major shake-up and the easiest place to begin is with the manager.
I'm glad you brought up the draft thing. When I heard that the mets won't go over slot in the draft but the Yankees do, to say the least I wasn't a happy camper.
I also don't think that getting a new manager is all of a sudden going to get Heilman and delgado doing what they need to do …and the whole crew going in full force.
Willie getting fired right now would be silly in early-mid swing.
Yes, it is early in the season to change managers but this season unfortunately seems to be a continuation of last season. It is hard for me to not see things that way. Ok…ok, how about memorial Day?
Willie is going stick around till at least the remainder of this season.
I a fair confident Omar is going to maybe mirco manage and bring some new talent. After the Johan deal I would not put it past him.
That Fire Willie Petition gained 25 signatures over night.
If your interested it's:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?willsux
The only teams in the majors doing anything are Arizona and Chicago. Everyone else is in the same boat as the METS. It is only APRIL! That is not to say there are not problems. There are no other options on this team for 1B. Cannot worry about his ego. Drop him down in the lineup to 7th once Alou comes back. Back up catcher is a problem. Hopefully Castro will stay relatively healthy when he returns. Castillo is fine in the two hole, he is the least of the problems. Hielman looked great in spring training but he did this last year too, giving up the big HR. He has to move to a less important role and then live and die with Feliciano and Sanchez. Sosa is useless, there must be a better spare part in NO to take his place. Trade, release, or demote him based on his contract. Reyes and the rest of the "regulars" (Wright, Beltran in particular) need to be more consistent. All that being said, METS will contend all year long. Need to break out this weekend vs BRAVES.
LETS GO METS!
Delcos makes a very good point about bad habits and attitudes. Unfortunately bad habits get corrected in Spring Training and almost none of the regulars played in spring training. The minor leaguers got the time the big leaguers should have had and lo and behold they are playing over their head now. As for attitude. It sucks on the part of too many of these guys and you ain't changing their attitude. Maybe that's why the outsiders are all doing very well. They don't have the loser choke attitude that the 2007 guys have.
How many blogs do you go to to post the same Fire Willie petition Roger? I was on metsblog and there it was word for word, not even a comma out of place. The point of no return on Met fan insanity was reached by you with this petition.
Copy and paste my friend. Copy and Paste.
What is really ironic is the best players so far this season for the Mets are Santana, Church, Schneider and Sanchez. If you noticed, these players were not on the team last year.
But enough of how much I hate Willie.. Lets talk minor leagues!
In his previous two starts (before his start last night), Jon Niese had thrown a combined 8.1 IP. Niese has been victimized by his defense, as he'd given up 7 unearned runs in those two starts while giving up just 1 ER. Bad defense + a 70 pitch limit = short outings.
Luckily for Niese last night, his defense played DEFENSE. Niese threw 6 scoreless innings, allowing just 5 hits, while striking out 5, as the Binghamton Mets shutout the Portland Sea Dogs 2-to-0.
In 5 starts this season Jon Niese is 2-1 with a .71 ERA. Niese has allowed just 19 hits through 25 innings while striking out 22 batters. Hitters are hitting just .198 against him.
I've told you guys about the hot starts of Nick Evans, Daniel Murphy, and Mike Carp, but the most important piece of that team, and the Mets future (from that team), Fernando Martinez is starting to heat up.
After starting the season in just a horrible slump, Fernando Martinez has slowly started to raise his average. Martinez is currently on an 8 game hit streak, in which he's batting .361 during those 8 games. He has now raised his average for the season up-to .272.
My concern with Fernando is how many times he's striking out in the early going, and his inability to hit lefties.
* In 92 AB this season Martinez has struck out 22 times.
* In 36 AB against lefties, Martinez is hitting just .194 with 10 strikeouts
Roger,
It's easy for you to want Willie fired but who are you going to replace him with and if you do fire Willie than the rest of the coaching staff has to go with him. Who is going to replace Willie and his coaching staff?
I think Niese can take Perez's spot next year on the big club. Neise couldn't do any worse than Perez. The mets can save a ton of money and go elsewhere.
That's weird about Martinez struggling against lefties because in spring training I saw him get hits off of lefties and looked good against lefties.
I wonder if say Willie gets fired, will Carlos Delgado and Luis Castillo suddenly find the fountain of youth, will all the mental errors go away because the manager will instantly get these players to play sound ball, will Peterson have more success in getting Maine and Perez to pitch more efficiently, will Peterson suddenly fix Heilmann/Sosa/ Schoneweis? Which of these things will happen the day Willie is theoretically fired.
Its not like when the Marlins fired Torborg and you had kids out of control that just needed to be reigned in a little. This is a team of guys who are all very set in whatever ways they are uniquely set in, and change isn't coming to them by giving them a new boss.
saying jorge sosa is getting hit hard does not do a justice
"That's weird about Martinez struggling against lefties because in spring training I saw him get hits off of lefties and looked good against lefties."
Yeah, I remember saying to myself "how can Martinez look so comfortable against lefties and yet Church can't hit them for his life (lol)"
things change.
Let's hope playing the Braves makes them go back to playing like they did against the Phils.
Otherwise I have to admit they look like 2007 and Sloppy can laugh his head off.
scoopcoop,
I would be more surprised if the mets took 2 out of 3 from the Braves than the other way around. It wouldn't even surprise me if the Braves sweep the mets. With the starters not able to last pass 5 innings and Sosa and Heilman fried already and with Reyes still looking for his head that is to far up his a@@ I don't see anything good coming out of this weekend.
This team is going to get waxed by the Braves this weekend…
If these guys were hurt by the booing last homestand they hav another thing coming…
No, I ain't laughing my head off. Just not shocked like so many others scoopcoop.
Also glad I don't have any road trips planned this year. I do like new parks so I might go to Washington in the Summer to one of the games to see the place. It looked very contrived on TV…..at least to me.
On the glass is half full, I had them at 12-10 at this point (1 win in Atl-I'm calling the rain out the game they would have won).
But the 11-10 is not a good looking 11-10.
The Mets WILL win two out of three games against the Braves this weekend. I hope. No guarantees though.
It is a bad 11-10. Too many Losses that are blow outs and too few wins that are blow outs. That is not good sign to survive a long haul….
Why does everybody think the Braves are going to "wax" us this weekend? They're not exactly world beaters at the moment, and I fail to see how they're so much better than us.. If we lose this series, it'll be because of our own mistakes, and not because of how much better the Braves are..
these are my thoughts on a few topics – try as we might, hope as we might, Willie is not going anywhere. I wouldn't put it past Omar & Mgmt to force Willie's hand and pull a Bobby V type ultimatum – agree to get rid of your coaching staff or we get rid of you. We remember that when Bobby V had to get a whole new coaching staff, the Mets went on a tear that lasted pretty much until 2001.
Another thought is that we want to turn it around this weekend – well, sorry, if we didn't turn things around last weekend in Philly, it aint gonna happen against the Larry-full Braves (I thought he was injured and excited that he wouldn't be there to mash the Mets). The difference is this generation's team would sit out because of a broken nail and 70s and 80s baseball players (not just Mets, all teams) would play with broken limbs to get their licks.
Next is Omar micromanaging (someone wrote that up top, it resonated with me—too lazy to see who wrote it though!) – I can see that happening too but the rumor was that last year when he told willie he was gonna let his "guy" Rick Down go, then Willie basically told him, get rid of "your" guy Franco. I don't know how true this is, and frankly I can't see Willie standing up to Omar like that (but who knows, he did say that he was upset that Down was let go) but…that could have caused a rift. Not sure why Omar didn't get rid of Willie when he had the chance. Now he just looks ridiculous
Hey John,
Any word on whether or not we'll be seeing Alou this weekend?
Thanks
Coop—I don't think this is Willie's coaching staff. Instead, just about everyone on the staff is an organizational guy selected by management. So, I can't see firing the coaching staff sending any message to Willie; besides, I think they probably value Peterson more than they do Willie.
I would not be surprised to see Willie replaced by bench coach Jerry Manuel, who has managerial experience, including a Manager of the Year award to his credit, and knows the personnel and the problems with the team dynamic.
The coop from scoopcoop,
you wrote "Not sure why Omar didn't get rid of Willie when he had the chance."
Politics 101-keep somebody (Wiliie) around so that when the $hit hits the fan, you can blame them (Willie) and get rid of them (Wiliie) instead of them (Wilpons) getting rid of you (Onar).
On your last post scoopcoop I do indeed agree. Willie is first and Omar is second. If Willie was already gone Omar would be packing his bags. The Wilpons might like Omar, but a disaster year with all their dough being spent will quicly end the love affair….
This is an important game for Pelfrey. Pitches good and he looks like he can now forget a bad outing. Pitches like he did Sunday and you figure he's reverting back to last year's pattern of continuous degeneration.
any news on brian schneider?
Tiffany you are incorrect about the coaching staff.
Manuel and Alomar were both hired by Willie.
Nieto was agreed on by both Willie and Omar
HoJo was by Omar
Peterson is from the Wilpons
Conti is Pedro's buddy
Actually after looking at this I got A headache.
Clearly not a well designed staff.
Not a well designed staff.
Not a well designed team.
And the sad thing is that unless/until there is a farm system with guys ready to take positions full time and an attitude that will allow them to do so, we will continue to get guys at or on the downside of their careers.
We need to steal Theo Epstein for 5-6 years, so we have a good balance of farm and outsiders and can tell a guy take or leave our offer because we can replace you, unlike us who gave Castillo 4 freakin years because we were afraid of losing his battered and washed up body. Meanwhile Lowell wants 4 years and Sox tell him to shove it and he settles for less and still stays.
Here's my take on the issues:
1.) Inter-league waaay too many games, waay too many venues
2.) Pitch count and not letting a winning pitch finish the game or pitch out of a bad spot early in the season.
3.) Being afraid/too respectful to bench a veteran.
I wouldnt blame willie all too much. its his style right or wrong. In the end its the players, yes he will be blamed because he's the manager. But ya know before the manager is fired .. a worker or to gets cut first. Met's need to do some soul searching and listen to the coaches.
Thats my 3 cents.. I knew delgado was no good all last year and I caught hell. Now everyone's eyes are open. So i at least dont have that anymore.. ;-)
John: I'd love to know about the team's psyche and feeling regarding the fans and tthe booing… I heard Peter Gammons on ESPN Radio yesterday saying that the Mets players have been extremely affected by it…
Tom: i am affected by it too. I have never booed the Mets. I hate that… :-Z
Of all the issues JD mentioned in this post, Reyes is the most disturbing. Jorge Sosa stinks, but he always has, so that should not come as a shock. Delgado is simply past his prime, and is probably finished, but at 36, with a balky hip, that shouldn't be such a surprise, either. Perez has never been anything but erratic, so again, why would you expect him to be consistently focused all of a sudden. Heilman's struggles are definitely a surprise, but I truly believe he will overcome them.
As for Jose Reyes, it is just really sad. I don't know what has happened to him, but he went from the verge of absolute dominance to mediocrity. Someone needs to shake him and make him realize the player he should be. Again, Reyes is the most disturbing trend b/c it is least susceptible to rational explanation.
"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."
sloppy, don't you think Lowell stayed in Boston because they won the world series? also, while I"ll give Theo props for putting together a good team, you fail to mention he also signed JD Drew and Julio Lugo to ridiculously bad contracts, and while he got Becket, its not like it was a steal, he gave up one of the best young players in baseball for him and a guy who's pitched a no-hitter since then. I give him props, but I don't think he's as fool proof as you make him out to be. Also, Lowell knows he had a big season because of the green monster, thats no secret.
Scott—last year after they fired Down, Omar wanted Rickey to be hitting coach. Willie wanted HoJo. Willie won on that one, and I'm glad he did. I'm pretty sure of this. I think it was Heyman who reported this.
And I'm also pretty sure that Manuel was selected by Omar. This was reported in a Newsday story. Omar has exercised considerable influence over the makeup of Willie's coaching staff.
Unless Reyes wakes up and the Mets starting pitchers pitch in to the seventh, the Mets will be the team we all saw at the end of last season.
How was HoJo originally made 1st base coach. Was that Omar or Willie ?
You could be right on Manuel but they look way to comfortable in the dugout for me to believe he was not hired without Willie's ok.
I am sure we agree that Manny Acta was not hired by Willie.
tomg,
You pretty much said it, friendo. The pitchers in our bullpen, and really in any bullpen, always look their best when they stay there. Willie doesn't have a choice but to throw these guys in there when Perez pulls the crap he did last night. That is inexcusable from Ollie, he has to be better than that, and on average, he hasn't been. You can slam Willie, and Heilman, and Delgado, etc., but this team needs length out of its starters and it really hasn't gotten it w/ the exception of Santana, who has been a rare bright spot.
All of this talk about the staff is pure speculation. None of us know anything about how the coaching staff was constructed.
Good article on a potential replacement for Jorge Sosa at www.metsmonkeys.blogspot.com
Let me know your thoughts.
Heilman needs to practice throwing change-ups until he can throw them at the knees every time. Whether he needs to throw 100, 500, 1000, 10000 or 100000, that's what he needs to do. Because he can't get it there consistently. Its a HR waiting to happen. If you took him in the bullpen and said throw me 10 change-ups at the knees I guarantee 5 would be waist high or higher. He doesn't have good enough control of the change-up and that's the big problem. It has to be low. It must. But he can't bounce it up there or they'll never swing at it.
Delgado is sitting tonight. Anderson at 1B. Schneider has a staph infection. How the hell does this crap happen to our players?
Scott—My guess is that HoJo being named first base coach was a mutual decision. But Heyman says that after Down was fired, Omar wanted Rickey to be hitting coach and that Willie talked him out of that and wanted HoJo. Here is the link to that article:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/jon_heyman/07/19/scoop.thursday/index.html
As for Willie's initial staff including Acta and Manuel, I would think he agreed with all the choices whether or not they were initially his. Even Acta. I don't think he dislikes Acta in any way. He just dislikes the way Bernazard and others fraternize with Acta when the Mets play the Nats. I don't blame him.
metsfan: did I say Epstein was perfect. NO I DID NOT… I said he drew the line with an aging player and didn't buckle like the crappy GM we have. He also didn't destroy his farm system to get crappy over the hill players like our crppy GM did. He over paid for two guys. At least they weren't broken down down has beens like our crappy GM constantly picks iup.. Omar whines that the Red sox bid to much for matsuzaka. Well, they didn't give up their farm system for them did he. Our crappy GM gives away kids left and right for over the hill guys weith bad contracts like LoDuca dn Delgado….. And when Epstein got Beckett he didn't get a guy who was over the hill did he… He got a young ace for a young SS…..
And how do you know Lowell stayed because he got a ring there???? The fact is he caved while Minaya caved to a guy with one tenth the talent of Lowell…. Then he gives Anderson 2 years, 2 freakin years to a guy he wouldn't give 2 years two years ago, that's of course after he gave Franco 2 freakin years. You have no basis to compare Minaya to any GM who has ever won a WS ring, much less 2.
Thank you Keith: This reporter made up story A That reporter made up story B. Bottom line is who really give a damn about who picked which coach. They have combined to create a team that doesn't play sound baseball with a GM who gave them guys who are certsainly old enough to know how to play…....
c'mon, without Lo Duca and Delgado in '06, we don't have the '06 season we had. The players we gave up would not be doing much for us, don't tell me Jacobs would have been as good, he sucked in '06, and sure he's gotten better, but he's not a good player. If we had him last year, we would have been complaining just as much about him. You have to give up players to make yourself a good team, that's what Omar did, and we got the '06 season. The Red Sox have obviously done it better, but Omar hasn't been around THAT long. He had to give up draft picks to sign free agents to make this team a contender. Sorry to inform you, but this team is a contender, which it wasn't in '02, '03, and '04.
random… but did anybody hear about "Brian Bruney and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day"
poor guy
http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/brian-bruney-and-the-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-day/
Omar has made some mistakes (Bannister, Bell, Castillo's contract), but he also has some steals, including Santana, which was highway robbery. Sloppy, his performance as GM is not as black and white as you make it out to be. And this is not a team that can always wait for youth like Jacobs and Milledge to find themselves. Omar saw an opening in '06 w/ Delgado and Lo Duca and he went for it. It was the right move then, and Delgado's struggles, which you can bet were predictable even to Omar, does not change that now.
Damn. Sure didn't take long for Pelfrey to start walking people, then giving up a run. I wouldn't care if he started the season 10-0. I've got zero confidence in him.
This team seems flat no fire no killer instinct no swagger. which makes me wonder what's going on in the clubhouse even though it doesn't matter. These players get big bucks to play a hell lot better than they are.
Bring in young blood from AA, they can't be worse than Delgado
and Sosa.
JM and metsfan: Defending Omar belongs on a comic strip blog, not a baseball blog….. Omar is the worst GM in the world but you metsies deserve it I guess. No even you little metsies don't deserve the worst GM in the world. Want to see the ramificatins of Omar, the worst GM in the world, no talent, no farm, no future… come to DC, you'll see what the big metsies are going to look like for years to come…....
As always love and kisses, and even though you are blind to Omar the terrible, I still love you metsfan. don't ever forget that!!!!!!