IMO that SUN article was spot on.

NY Cuban, you say on MetsBlog that Willie “led” this team to the collapse… It isn’t true… What led to this team’s collapse was the horrendous offseason before by the Great Omar Minaya…. Instead of signing someone like Carlos Lee or Alfonso Soriano, he decides to sign Piss-On-My-Hands-Lou who can’t even walk without breaking something… He decided to keep The Stone Guardian in RF, even though he can’t hit for power or against lefties, and is an abominable fielder… As for the pitching… He elects not to resign one of our best relievers because it cost too much, and instead signs a terrible reliever for even more money… He also decides to sign a steroid using loser to a 2 YEAR DEAL… Mr. Minaya then decides not do upgrade our rotation at all, and sticks Willie witb a 40 year old nibbler, “The Wild Thing”, a guy who was a throw in to the Benson deal, a man whose age could only be found in the Bermuda Triangle, and an assortment of crap stuck to the wall..And most importantly; Minaya decided to clean out all our depth, for nothing in return…

Then at the deadline, instead of getting a reliever we desperately needed, he gets a 2B we didn’t need, and he gets NO pitching help..

Combine that with the freefall of Delgado, Reyes not showing up in the 2nd half, and the way the pitching was set up, and you have a team that completely overacheived….

Finally, if Willie has to go, then he has to go, but Omar Minaya better be riding his coattails…

You will either think he nailed on the head or he is out in left field.

Please let me know what you think.

It sounds like Scheinder will be back which probably means Molina is sent down which means Alou will be activated.

So that leads to a quandry for Willie.

Does Castillo who as been hitting bat 2nd? And does that mean Church bats 6th which means Delgado bats 7th? Or does he not want to embarass the vet and puts Delgado 6th and Church 7th which means you bat the guy who has been your most consistent performer-Church-7th.

I am assuming Alou bats 5th (which he should b/c Beltran needs him behind him-not seeing enough good pitches).

Maybe this team is not so good. What would the pitching staff look like now if Santana didnt fall into our lap? pretty scary. You cant fire the whole team though, and somebodys going to have to pay, or else the booing will just get worse.

I said it yesterday…Willie trusts his guys, but do they trust him? After the Collapse, I think its a resounding no.

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy then as farce.” Welcome to the farce, gentlemen!

What are his options? Right now you do not punish Ollie for one bad game. You can criticize but not punish. You might replace someone for lack of production or lack of focus, the problem is there is no one to step up.

The backups are Easley and Anderson. Either could play 1B but would the team allow that for a 16 million $ man? If Castillo is deemed damaged goods, ditto for a guy with a new 4 year contract. You don’t want to do that to Jose because overall I think he has played good D although his plate approach sucks and obvious mental errors should be disciplined so you could take him out that game if you choose to .. if you think his ego can handle it.

Bottom line Willies hands are tied. The problem areas have few options. You do not replace a player without a reasonable expectation from the new guy.

As for Willie/Gil references – yes they are both quiet leaders, but Gil was a LEADER and had the respect of everyone. From day one, Willie has played favorites with the vets and never gained an ounce of their respect. And he treats the youngsters like doo-doo, like questioning their credibility (Figgy, Pagan) and yanking Reyes. I would have had no problem with him benching Jose for “lack of hustle” IF HE WAS CONSISTENT with the punishment for everyone. For example, I remember a time that Delgado didn’t run out a ball he thought was foul, was called out b/c it was fair and they threw him out at first…and Willie defended him to no end. Do you think Willie would walk to the outfield to yank one of his players like Gil did to Cleon Jones? Never.

On the other hand, I do remember Willie getting fired up. He got tossed out of two games in 2006 in one week – there was one game where Duaner Sanchez got tossed and he was all up in the ump’s faces. This is the Willie I like. He can’t be even-keeled all the time. He’s got to show some fire. Wasn’t there an incident a week or so ago against the Nats I believe that a runner on third caught a ball in play and he didn’t question it? This shows to me he has no clue. Furthermore, it also shows that Jerry Manuel has no clue. I think Manny Acta had more pull in that clubhouse than either Randolph or Manuel will ever have. Like someone else said, look at the 2000 Mets when Bobby V was forced with – we’ll fire you unless you agree to cut your staff. It was an ultimatum but it changed the dynamic of that team. I think the Mets need to do the same, promote Oberkfell, bring Gary Carter to the coaching staff, I say they can keep Nieto he’s the only one I like but in the spirit of cleaning house, let him go too – bring up Teufel, etc. If there’s one thing the Mets aren’t short on is experience personnel to right this ship. We need some guys who can kick butt here and now.