Willie's Seat ... and How Hot it Might Be

[seawolf17]

Seeya, Willie. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. And yes, you can take Peterson and Rickey and Jerry Manuel and Sandy Alomar with you.

I don't see any way this staff comes back next year. And I might be done with Minaya too.

[DocTee]

what seawolf said

[Guest Iubitul]

I'm ready for Bobby V II. (but then again. I was when they hired Willie, instead)

[Zvon]

Imo, Minaya stays and the less I see the Wilpon name in print, the better.

Lately Wilpon seems to be talking more and more like Stienbrenner.
Maybe he saw that Bronx Is Burning mini series (excellent, btw) and he thinks thats the way an owner should act.
By gettin in his teams pots and pans.

[Guest Iubitul]

Zvon wrote: Imo, Minaya stays and the less I see the Wilpon name in print, the better.

I definitely agree with this...

[Zvon]

What say we blame this all on Matt Murphy.
I just read he's more than willing to take the blame.
He says when he caught the Bond's ball on Aug 7th the Mets began their decent.

I say we round him up and brand an asterisk onto his cranium.

Who's with me?

[Valadius]

When I throw out the first pitch next year, I'll have some time to let Willie know how I feel about all this. Any suggestions on what I should tell him?

[Zvon]

Valadius wrote: When I throw out the first pitch next year, I'll have some time to let Willie know how I feel about all this. Any suggestions on what I should tell him?

Hit him in the skull with the ball and see if it fire's him up.

Ya know,..todays game could have been easily managed from the clubhouse with a TV.

After that crazy 1st at bat of the game by Ramirez, I would have lept out there and made sure I was tossed.
I would not have left until I was thrown out of the game and the crowd was on their feet jumping and screaming and every
Met player was united at my dugouts steps and on the field, watching me go off like a roman freakin candle.
I would have made sure I somehow got dirt on the bill of West's cap. I think I can kick dirt that high.

I don't know if Bobby V would have done that so early in the game, but he would have done something similar at some point,
if he saw an excuse to.
I think that was the only excuse we were afforded today.

Willie has to realize,....sometimes a managers uniform has to get dirtied too. He is one of the Mets. He is a part of that team, not above them.

[metirish]

] "I am happy with Willie Randolph," Minaya said just outside Randolph's office after the Mets' 8-1 loss to the Marlins. "When you ask those questions at the end of the year, I owe it to sit down with my ownership and tell them what I think. "But I'm telling you that I'm happy with the work that Willie Randolph has done for the past three years ... I always feel like I owe it to my ownership to sit down and talk to them about everybody

Willie...

] Randolph, who guaranteed "we're gonna win this thing" on Friday, said he is not worried about his job status. "No, not at all," he said. "I'm here to win. That's what it's all about for me. I'm not here trying to impress anyone. Money is not an issue for me. I'm here to win and teach these guys how to play winning baseball. When I don't do that, obviously they're going to get rid of me or whatever. I don't have any qualms, any problems, any worries about stuff like that. I grew up in this town. I know how things work." "I'm the manager of the team," he said. "I'm a big boy. I can take that. I take all the full responsibility."

[Frayed Knot]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I don't blame Willie either ... it's not about blame it's about going forward. If he's still in the dugout next spring the stink of this season will be all over him. The players need someone who'll bring a new attitude, who can prevent this thing from carrying over. I don't think Willie can do that. And that's why I want him to go. It's about 2008, not about 2007.

My only problem with that line of reasoning IMO is that you're doing it to send a message to the players who under-achieved and/or had bad attitudes but the message it sends is that someone else will take the fall for them.
And on a more general level, it creates an aura of a front office that (once again) doesn't know what it wants: Howe was their guy ... but was dumped less than half way through the 4-year deal. Then the big change was made by "Mr. Full Autonomy" to Willie, and after a year of solid progress, followed by one of almost total success, followed by one that was good most of the way through ... only to be blown up over a few weeks of failure and less than a year after an extension.

Yeah, saving face is, by itself, a lousy reason for staying the course, but in their position I'd want something a little more concrete than just; 'we need a change so we're not reminded of the collapse'. Maybe there is something more behind the scenes (Tony Bernazard apparently thinks so) but otherwise it seems more like change for change sake.

Not that I'm particularly attached to Willie, I just prefer not to make rash decisions on what seems like a short-term problem.

Ah, maybe we just need to put a little more space behind this season.

[Valadius]

Right now, it looks like they'll fire Alomar and Manuel.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

No way Minaya goes. Many of his moves were magical and the team has won every year he's been here.

A collapse is horrible, but, damn, they almost won.

Willie's got two years at $2 million each, so I don't think he goes either.

[Elster88]

Valadius wrote: Right now, it looks like they'll fire Alomar and Manuel.

What do you base this on?

[stevejrogers]

Elster88 wrote: ="Valadius"]Right now, it looks like they'll fire Alomar and Manuel. What do you base this on?

Yeah I know I'm speaking for Val here, but probably the "standard" practice of firing coaches rather than the manager for no reason, other than the sake of firing someone.

[Elster88]

avi

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't think firing the bench and third-base coaches is any more standard than firing the manager, quotes or not.

[nymr83]

whatr did Alomar do wrong? you can at least fire willie and say the collapse ultimately falls on the manager or you can fire Rickey because of the supposed negative influence on Reyes, or you can pick Peterson because the pitching collapsed.... but what can Alomar be blamed for?

[Gwreck]

Nymr83 wrote: but what can Alomar be blamed for?

He did a pretty awful job as a third base coach. See the "out at home" thread. Fireable offense? Hard to say.

[Elster88]

My anecdotal evidence supports a grade of "exemplary" for Sandy as third-base coach.

[Vic Sage]

Phuck Wee Willie phucking Randolph.

[metirish]

I think Frank Robinson would be a good fit for this team, he would certainly hold players accountable for their actions, maybe a bit old though and probably wouldn't fancy replacing a friend.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

We don't need Frank Robinson.

The snooze today made much of what they saw as tepid support from Omar. Basically he appears to have given yet another interview in which he had nothing to say, leaving his words wide open to interpretation.

Meanwhile Jeffy was eating a bowl of cereal and dictating a Steinbrenneresque statement of official "bitter disappointment."

[Benjamin Grimm]

Sounds like Omar's saying he's going to recommend that they keep Willie, but that the Wilpons might overrule him.

If that's true, then I hope they do.

[metirish]

Omar gave a 40 minute press conference and was asked several times if he would guarantee Willie was going to be coach next season and he kept side-stepping it, he did say he has full autonomy but felt he owed it to Wilpon to sit down with him, it was a classic Minaya interview.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

know what i'm sayin

[Valadius]

Scuttlebutt is that Willie's staying:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AnPhFZM4X2dF9J0Fdj1cNNPavrYF?slug=txmetsrandolph&prov=st&type=lgns

[Frayed Knot]

They all had a big pow-wow today followed by a press gathering and anyone who wants Willie gone ... is going to have to wait a while because it's not going to be this winter.

The "vacilating" Omar did - if you want to call it that - sounds like it was him first expressing his choice to have Willie back, and then backtracking a bit when he realized that maybe those things are better left unsaid until you're sure all the big boys are on board with that.

[Valadius]

I'm glad he's staying. I think we can give him another chance considering 2006. We just need some new coaches around him.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Personally, I'm not real big on Ricky as a base coach. I'd give HoJo the first base job and look at getting a new hitting coach. Otherwise, I'm okay with the coaching staff. What the Metsd truly need is some new and better pitchers in 2008.

[Zvon]

I have no problem giving Willie and Omar nice big chunks of the blame.

But not the axe.
Hope they both learned afew things that stick with them.