Mets Make (Some) Coaching Changes

[bmfc1]

METS ANNOUNCE 2010 COACHING STAFF CHANGES FLUSHING, N.Y., October 5, 2009 � The New York Mets today announced that Bench Coach Sandy Alomar Sr. and First Base Coach Luis Alicea will not be returning for the 2010 season. Alomar Sr. will be offered another position within the organization. Hitting Coach Howard Johnson, Pitching Coach Dan Warthen and Bullpen Coach Randy Niemann will return to Manager Jerry Manuel�s staff in the same positions next year. Third Base Coach Razor Shines and Catching Instructor Sandy Alomar Jr. will be part of the Major League staff in 2010 in yet to be determined roles.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Firing Senior and keeping Junior. Dramatic.

I imagine if you polled the fans they'd want the exact opposite changes, as the guys apparently retained are the ones whose roles are most explicit and therefore seemingly most tied (or tie-able) to the disappointing results.

[metirish]

Ho Hum , that's all.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Well, it opens the Bench Coach position for the the manager of the 2010 SHaMs.

[MFS62]

I imagine if you polled the fans they'd want the exact opposite changes,[/quote:1q1y2m0v]

I'd amagine that if you polled the fans who call sports talk radio stations, they'd want mass executions.

Later

[metirish]

Well, it opens the Bench Coach position for the the manager of the 2010 SHaMs.[/quote:3rassh45]

Guess who is making himself available?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Joelmon?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Bench Coach Sandy Alomar Sr.

Not too surprised. You know, if you had asked me yesterday, I wouldn't have even been able to tell you who the Mets bench coach was. He's been fairly low profile, hasn't he? I don't remember, was he Jerry's pick or Omar's? (I seem to think he was Omar's.)

First Base Coach Luis Alicea

Perhaps the biggest ho-hum of all. Looks like he's the only one who's completely unemployed right now.

Hitting Coach Howard Johnson

I figured he'd be back. No surprise there.

Pitching Coach Dan Warthen

I'm a little surprised that he was retained. Actually, if we had done a pre-announcement poll, my guess would have been that everyone would have been let go except HoJo.

Bullpen Coach Randy Niemann

Whatever.

Third Base Coach Razor Shines and Catching Instructor Sandy Alomar Jr. will be part of the Major League staff in 2010 in yet to be determined roles.

I guess one of the two will be the first base coach. Is it possible that Razor will be the bench coach, with Sandy Jr. going to first base? Or perhaps the other way around? Here's my prediction: Sandy Jr. to third base, Razor to first base, and a new hire for the dual role of bench coaching and breathing down Jerry's neck.

[Guest themetfairy]

Guess who is making himself available?

Gary Carter, I would guess.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Bench Coach Sandy Alomar Sr.

Not too surprised. You know, if you had asked me yesterday, I wouldn't have even been able to tell you who the Mets bench coach was. He's been fairly low profile, hasn't he? I don't remember, was he Jerry's pick or Omar's? (I seem to think he was Omar's.)

[RealityChuck]

It doesn't make a lot of sense to fire your batting coach when your team leads the league in batting average and, even with the low number of walks (which may have been a function of players trying too hard*), was sixth in OBA. More homers? Sure, but when your two top HR threats are out most of the season, that's hardly the fault of the batting coach (the team actually ranked fairly high in triples and doubles).

There's more of a case with Warthen, but three of his starters were out for most of the season. Having Maine, Santana, and Perez (who, most people forget, was starting to pitch pretty well when he was injured the last time) would have made the team competitive. The main failure was Pelfrey, but there was some surprisingly good pitching from Misch, Figueraro, and Nieve. The other question is who would do better (and is available)?

*Baseball is played by human beings, BTW.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I predict: Razor to first base; Sandy Sr. to some figurehead position, Joey Cora to bench coach, where he can position himself to be the next mgr and watch his brother play entirely too much.

[MFS62]

I would guess that "Catching instructor" Sandy Alomar Jr. will have one job - (To paraphrase Yogi Berra) to learn Josh Thole his experience.

Later

[bmfc1]

Tweet from Heyman:

SI_JonHeyman #mets planning to bring back feisty '86 hero wally backman in minor-league coaching role. they could use a little spunk.

Good!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Maybe Wally and Tim Teufel can platoon as Mets manager next year.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

I predict: Razor to first base; [/quote:emisngia]

I can appreciate the Metsian logic behind this move; "There, he will have a different perspective."

[Guest Edgy DC]

If Wally can teach somebody how to have a .400 on-base percentage, he's welcome.

If they're looking for someone less embarrassingly volatile than Tony Bernazard, good luck. He got fired from the South Georgia Peanuts for threatening to beat up their neophyte radio broadcaster during a broadcast.

[bmfc1]

Maybe Wally and Tim Teufel can platoon as Mets manager next year.[/quote:3pja7mae]

Bullet of Cool!

[ashie62]

Per CBS Sportsline..Florida Marlins are evaluating manager Gonzalez and talking to Bobby V about a job in the organization..Good Lord.

Tim Redding is the Schaefer Pitcher of the month so I guess Warten gets a free pass.

If Wally Backman is in a 12 step program for booze make him the friggin manager..

Then again, a drunken Backman is Bernazard

[ashie62]

ESPN is the "source" on Valentine talks. Fish President samson denies it.

The shit has started

[HahnSolo]

How bad must Luis Alicea have been at his job to get canned while these other guys kept theirs?

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Or alternatively, they are firing inexpensive coaches to provide the appearance they are proactive, willing to make changes, yada, yada, yada.

But let's be honest; you can literally train a monkey to be a 1st base coach.

[metirish]

Ultimately I really only care who the head coach is , pitching coach next I suppose.....

[Benjamin Grimm]

But let's be honest; you can literally train a monkey to be a 1st base coach.[/quote:3bxmfa51]

Well, yeah. But I assume that a first-base coach will be given other non-game responsibilities, like working with infielders, or outfielders, or hitting fungoes, or something. Maybe Alicea sucked at that.

Who knows? But as you say, it matters little.

[Guest attgig]

how about bringing in Ricky as a baserunning coach? not sure if he'd be capable as a 3rd base coach, but you never know.

[metirish]

Rickey did good work with Reyes when he was an instructor in 06/07 , I seem to remember it being positive ....not sure what happened when he got promoted to first base coach..wasn't back for 2008

[Ceetar]

John Franco has been working with the team. He was there last spring. I wonder how he'd do as Pitching Coach.

[MFS62]

There has been lots of duscussions here about Razor's decisions, mostly negative.
The more I think about keeping him at "another position" the more I think that's like having a cyst, then not removing it, but transplanting it to another part of the body.

Later

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Ricky Henderson would be great theatre as the third base coach. I can envision his postgame interview the first time he sends a runner that is thrown out at the plate.

Press - "Do you think it was a mistake to test Church's arm by sending Francoeur home in the fourth inning?"

Henderson - "Ricky doesn't make mistakes. Ricky would have scored standing up on that play."

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Henderson - "Ricky doesn't make mistakes. Ricky would have scored standing up on that play."