New Skipper Candidate Scorecard

[Guest Edgy DC]

Here's Clint and a foxy lady posing in front of his van:

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Hurdle's name seems to come up a lot in the last day, but I think part of that is sports writers being pack animals and copying each other.

I do not understand the Mazzilli mentions. Wasn't his tenure in Baltimore both brief and bad?

[Guest Edgy DC]

It's sometimes harder and sometimes easier, but it's always possilbe to divorce a manager's performance from the record of his team.

But with Lee, if you're of a mind to, you may find it easier. His teams outperformed those of both his immediate predecessor and his immediate successor.

[Guest Edgy DC]

This is what Mazz was driving back in the day.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Here's Clint and a foxy lady posing in front of his van:

If you gave me ten thousand guesses, I never would have said that was Clint Hurdle.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Hey, you want to take a walk through over a decade of uninspired .429 ball with me? Come on! Sure you do! Here's the Orioles since the turn of the century.

Year	Manager	Winning %
2000	Hargrove	.457
2001	Hargrove	.391
2002	Hargrove	.414
2003	Hargrove	.438
2004	=#408000]Mazzilli	.481
2005	Total	.457
2005a	=#408000]Mazzilli	.477
2005b	=#8000FF]Perlozzo	.419
2006	=#8000FF]Perlozzo	.432
2007	Total	.426
2007a	=#8000FF]Perlozzo	.420
2007b	=#BF0000]Trembley	.430
2008	=#BF0000]Trembley	.422
2009	=#BF0000]Trembley	.395
2010	Total	.407
2010a	=#BF0000]Trembley	.278
2010b	=#FF00FF]Samuel	.333
2010c	=#FFBF00]Showalter	.596

Mazzilli hardly comes out of that smelling like a rose (Showalter sure does), but he certainly has a defense if you want to try and convict him.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Here's Clint and a foxy lady posing in front of his van: If you gave me ten thousand guesses, I never would have said that was Clint Hurdle.

You'd have been right 10,000 times, because I was just goofin'.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Madden today excused Maz for having to operate in "impossible conditions" in Baltimore.

I'd be concerned mainly because the Mets already fired Mazz once, even though I thought he was OK for having to work with that snot-nosed co-host. Also, my O-lovin friend summed up his career thusly:

The Birds have had their share of crummy managers (and crummy teams) over the past 13 years, but Mazzilli was the only one that I can remember who lost the support of the team. The front office supposedly hired him because he talked a good game, but rumor had it that he did zilch in the way of game preparation and wasn�t much of a communicator.

Gibbons in the meantime was also an 80s Met. Like Hurdle, he's a veteran of managing Mets' minor leaguers, and like Maz, a manager in the AL East. He's a no-nonsense guy who as BJ's skipper had feuds (some with fists!) at different times with Ted Lilly, Frank Thomas, Dave Bush and Shea Hillenbrand. His ticket to the top was having been JP Riccardi's roomie in the minors apparently. He got the good-pitching, poor-hitting Jays to 87 wins and 2nd place once in 3 full seasons as the Jays skipper. He's now the Royals' Bench Coach.

His best UMDB Memory:

Steve P. September 18, 2001 John will be the next manager here in N.Y. As soon as Bobby V.'s contract expires, which won't be a day too soon, he will be shown the door while John enters to take our club back to the top. He is a no nonsense person who has the unique ability to gain the trust and respect of his players, which causes them to "play for him". He has won championships in Kinsport & St. Lucie, been to the playoffs with Binghamton (tied the franchise record for wins in '98) and with Norfolk. He knows the game and understands that it's the player's game and that he is there to guide them, not control them. He doesn't believe in a lot of the current BS that surrounds the game and can cut through the crap to get to what's really important. He will be our next manager and will give us what Torre gives the Yankees.

[metirish]

Good work bucket -

Steve P. = Steve Phillips?

[G-Fafif]

Steve Springer told Faith and Fear in Flushing in 2007, �If you don't get along with Gibby, trust me you're the idiot. He's the best. He's gold.�

[Guest Edgy DC]

He will be our next manager and will give us what Torre gives the Yankees.

Fistfuls of steroids.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Gibbons is interesting.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That post came in the midst of the five-game win streak (and 8 of 9) immediately following the Al Quaeda attack. Two days later, Mike Piazza would hit the homer that saved mankind.

[Guest Edgy DC]

No fewer than four 80s Mets catchers getting buzzz in recent times as potential Mets manager --- Carter, Gibbons, Hurdle, Stearns.

I say hold out for Mackey Sasser or nothing.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Andy Martino wrote: John Gibbons will not interview 4 Mets job, Phillies bench coach Pete Mackanin could become a candidate, according to sources. Story up soon

[G-Fafif]

That post came in the midst of the five-game win streak (and 8 of 9) immediately following the Al Quaeda attack. Two days later, Mike Piazza would hit the homer that saved mankind.

We're very good with priorities. This from The Amazing Mets by Jerry Mitchell:

It was the morning of October 23, 1962. President John F. Kennedy had the night before declared an embargo on Cuba, taking a step which could have meant the beginning of thermonuclear war. There was a sense of crisis all over the United States and all over the world. In the quiet little village of Cooperstown, N.Y., far from the centers of anxiety but feeling the impact nevertheless, Lee Allen, historian of the Baseball Hall of Fame, sat at his desk. He was thinking that if the Russians picked up the challenge it might very well mean the end of life as we know it. Brooding over the future, Lee attacked his mail. He turned over a postcard from New York's Bronx, and read: �Dear Sir: What was the record of the New York Mets this year on Thursdays? I would appreciate a game-by-game total. Thank you.� The preposterous postcard pulled him right out of his depression. He suddenly realized that, to the Met fan anyway, crises were commonplace. Somehow the card made him feel a lot better. �My first impulse was to toss it into the wastebasket,� related Allen. �But it occurred to me that the writer must have had a purpose in asking the question, as unusual a one as I ever received. I checked the records and found that the work of the Mets on Thursdays showed no victories and 15 defeats.� After replying to the fan, Allen forwarded the postcard to the Mets with the observation, �With the world on the verge of ruin, I thought you might be interested in what the Mets' fans are worried about.�

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Walter William "Chip" Hale has six years of managerial experience, all with with the D-baggs org, culminating in a Manager of the Year coronation in 2006 with the PCL's Tucson Sidewinders, who won more games than any minor-league team that year. He is credited with helping shepherd Conor Jackson, Carlos Quentin, Stephen Drew and Chris Young to the bigs.

Hale was a reserve infielder and utility player over parts of 7 years with the Twins and Dodgers. His best skill appears to have been walking. He's a U of Arizona alumnus.

He lives in Tucson and has three teenage kids. His wife is Jewish: She apparently got a some rabbi to send Mets yarmulkes to Ike Davis.

Nobody's posted a memory of him on UMDB yet.

[metirish]

Heyman has four inhouse guys getting interviewed, Backman, Hale, Oberkfell and Melvin.

I'm feeling Melvin more and more

Odds up soon

[Benjamin Grimm]

Stop feeling Melvin! It's kind of creepy, and you may frighten him away.

[G-Fafif]

Martino in the Snooze:

According to multiple league sources, former Mets catcher and Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons will not interview for the job, and is expected to remain bench coach for the Kansas City Royals. Chip Hale and Wally Backman remain likely to interview, and there are indications that Phillies bench coach Pete Mackanin could become a candidate.

I used to conflate Mackanin and Mike Cubbage as they were Ranger prospects together in the offseason following (Mackanin traded to Montreal soon after). They even finished their playing careers on the very same day in 1981.

If MacKanin gets the job, he has eight games to outlast Cubbage.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Edgy DC wrote: I'm not sure, but I think Lunchbucket willed Chip Hale into the picture.

I'm not sure, but I think I willed Terry Collins into the picture.

[Valadius]

I'm going to try and will Ron Gardenhire into the picture.

[G-Fafif]

Jack Curry says Gibbons is in the running.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

G-Fafif wrote: Jack Curry says Gibbons is in the running.

That's two strikes on DJ Fedora Tracksuit. I'd cultivate a new source were I him.

[metirish]

Doesn't sound like Gibby wants it


@BobKlapJohn Gibbons on Mets' managerial vacancy: "They need someone more high-profile than me."

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

metirish wrote: Doesn't sound like Gibby wants it @BobKlapJohn Gibbons on Mets' managerial vacancy: "They need someone more high-profile than me."

I think Gibby may have left the Mets org with a little bitterness. Do I actually recall that, or am I making it up?

[Fman99]

Edgy DC wrote: No fewer than four 80s Mets catchers getting buzzz in recent times as potential Mets manager --- Carter, Gibbons, Hurdle, Stearns. I say hold out for Mackey Sasser or nothing.

I like the idea of Sasser running the helm, and then every time he goes to the mound to change pitchers he ends up walking wildly towards first or third base.

[Gwreck]

Valadius wrote: I'm going to try and will Ron Gardenhire into the picture.

You do understand that he, like Jon Daniels, is currently employed by a very successful club, right?

[Gwreck]

From Adam Rubin's Chat today: (http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/newyork/chat/_/id/35310) where he was asked repeatedly about whether Backman would be the next manager:

If I can say it cryptically, I just think the Mets know things that are not circulated and don't feel comfortable.

As I mentioned, sometimes organizations know things that are not widely circulated.

I do not believe Wally Backman will be the next manager.

I don't want to send everyone into a tizzy, but you hear things that you cannot report, but which point you to a certain conclusion. That's about as best as I can say it now. And I strongly believe Wally Backman will not be the next manager.

[TransMonk]

I'm OK with that.