Mets Make (Some) Coaching Changes

[Valadius]

This is all cosmetic. Razor Shines is totally clueless.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Listen, I've never met a guy from another team who loved his third-base coach. I disagree that Razor Shines is clueless. He's a baseball lifer with respect throughout the league. If he was a bad match for third base coach for the Mets, so be it. If you don't want him on the staff at all, fine. Maybe you're right. But let's not scapegoat him either.

[metirish]

Snooze thinks bench coach is likely for Razor. Following up on what Edgy said , I remember Bobby V saying that third base coach was probably in his opinion the hardest place to coach becasue off all that it involves....split second thinking and all that.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Mets to make decision on coaches
Smith, Hale candidates to fill third-base coach need

By Marty Noble / MLB.com

10/28/09 2:32 PM ET

NEW YORK -- With a number of player personnel moves yet to come, the Mets are nearly finished revamping the staffs with that will work with their players next season. The club expects to appoint a third-base coach shortly, with former Phillies coach Steve Smith and D-backs coach Chip Hale among the candidates. It also is all but in position to announce appointments in its organization that will affect three members of its 1986 World Series championship team.

Tim Teufel is to be promoted to manager of the Double-A Binghamton Mets after managing the St. Lucie Mets, the organization's most advanced Class A affiliate, for 3 1/2 seasons in the past five years. Wally Backman, Teufels's other half as the Mets' second baseman from 1986-1988, is to be hired to manage the St. Lucie affiliate. And Mookie Wilson is to return to the organization after a two-year absence to work in the Minor Leagues.

A person familiar with those changes and possibilities acknowledged them Wednesday while general manager Omar Minaya was in the Dominican Republic for the opening of the club's instructional league season. The final decisions involving the third-base coaching assignment and the Minor League positions and the announcements are likely to follow the end of the World Series.

Smith and Hale were among the men interviewed to succeed Razor Shines, who endured some difficult moments in his only season as the Mets third-base coach. Shines, a close friend of manager Jerry Manuel, is to return to serve as either the bench coach or first-base coach. Manuel said the day after the Mets season had ended that he preferred to bring in a third-base coach from within the organization. But neither Smith nor Hale has a Mets connection, and there is an indication no member of the Mets staff has been considered.

Smith, the Rangers' third-base coach from 1998-2006, served in the same capacity for the Phillies in 2007 and '08 before being replaced this year by former Mets third-base coach and Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo.

Hale has served as the D-Backs third-base coach in the three most recent seasons.

Efforts to contact both candidates Tuesday and Wednesday were unsuccessful. They were said to have been interviewed in Arizona last week when members of the Mets staff were there to monitor the Arizona Fall League and, in particular, Ike Davis, the left-handed-hitting first baseman the Mets now identify as a possible factor in their 2011 season.

[ashie62]

Per SI.com today..Mets lured Sandy Johnson to unretire and work at the top level of management with Ricci forming a triumvirate under Minaya.

Kevin Towers was targeted but Mets don't believe he will leave CA

Sports Illustrated feels Minaya and Manuel will be axed quickly if team starts slowly and the Mets would already have new management in place.

Johnson was offered a "blank check" to come back. All remaining scouts come back at same pay

[Benjamin Grimm]

The Daily News reporting this morning that Bob Melvin may be under consideration to be Mets bench coach in 2010.

[metirish]

Rubin

By Adam Rubin

Chip Hale is expected to be named the Mets� new third base coach after the World Series. Hale, 44, spent the past three seasons in that role with the Diamondbacks after six years in that organization as a minor-league manager.

The other finalist had been former Phillies third base coach Steve Smith.

While the indications have been that the hiring of a third base coach would round out Jerry Manuel�s 2010 staff � with Razor Shines moving from third base to bench coach and Sandy Alomar Jr. going from catching instructor to first base � that may not necessarily be the case. A team insider suggested the Mets may be interested in former Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin as bench coach, although another source said �a bunch of names� are still being considered for a second external hire.

The Mets also approached Rangers player development director Scott Servais about the same role with the Mets to succeed Tony Bernazard, but he elected to stay with Texas, a source told the Daily News.

Hale signed a contract on Tuesday, the Arizona Daily Star in his hometown of Tucson, Ariz., reported. A 17th-round pick of Minnesota in 1987, the former infielder appeared in 333 games with Twins and Dodgers, hitting .277 with seven homers and 78 RBI in 575 at-bats.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Lookin forward to it, Little Buddy!

[HahnSolo]

Who's Sandy Johnson and why is he getting a blank check?

[metirish]

If you google the name you will get a hot looking chick......that's not who's coming here though

this is our Sandy the saviour


http://www.baseballamerica.com/execdb/?show=exec&eid=johnssa01

[HahnSolo]

Wow, he was here 2005-2007 and I don't think I ever heard of him.

[metirish]

Yeah he's what one might call a guru.....in what I have read about him over the eyars he is one of the most respected people in the game.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

BTW, I like that they're searching high and low for an actual Bench Coach (aka: Interim-Manager-in-Waiting), be it Melvin or whomever, and not just punt the bench coach job to Razor Shines.

[ashie62]

If you google the name you will get a hot looking chick......that's not who's coming here though

this is our Sandy the saviour


http://www.baseballamerica.com/execdb/?show=exec&eid=johnssa01[/quote:232renbk]


Special Asst to the GM

Wasn't that the exact job title Costanza had with Steinbrenner??

[bmfc1]

The Daily News reporting this morning that Bob Melvin may be under consideration to be Mets bench coach in 2010.[/quote:s1wkhhjs]

Good deal for Melvin, if it happens, since he already has a place in NY and his daughter lives in NY.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Melvin

And there's some irony if the Mets hire Melvin and Backman in the same year.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Meet Alexi Melvin, daughter of Potential Future Met Interim Manager Bob Melvin

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well! Maybe she can be the bench coach!

[metirish]

She's a bit of alright

[Vic Sage]

a redhead... hotcha magotcha!

[Farmer Ted]

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BOTYwMDE2Mjg4OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjkxNDYyMg@@._V1._CR101,0,398,398_SS100_.jpg

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

She looks too serious. Like the kind of girl who you take to a game, and she'd make you buy a Lemon Chill every time the vendor walked by, then would complain that's it too cold, too hard and the little wooden spoon leaves a bad taste in your mouth.