Who will manage the Mets? (split from Terry Hot Seat)

[Frayed Knot]

Brad Ausmus joins the list of managerial maybes as the Tigers decline to pick up his option for next year.

I wish I could say I have an opinion of Mr. Ausmus as a skipper but I really don't.
Detroit had a good team when he got there and he won a division his first year (2014) but the team has been aging and slipping ever since and lately they've been actively bailing.

He's a bit Girardi-like in his background:
Similarly aged [Ausmus is 48, Girardi 52] and the products of a good education [Dartmouth and Northwestern] who carved out lengthy careers [18 seasons vs 15] as light hitting catchers
[669 w/80 HRs vs 666 w/36] due at least in part to their defense and brains.

[Benjamin Grimm]

This article in the New York Post says that in addition to Bob Geren and Chip Hale, the Mets are considering Kevin Long, Robin Ventura, Alex Cora, and Moose Stubing.

Odds are high Mets next Terry Collins will be a familiar face

I may have to refamiliarize myself with Alex Cora's face.

[bmfc1]

http://nypost.com/2017/09/26/odds-are-high-mets-next-terry-collins-will-be-a-familiar-face/
Cora. Ventura. Long.

[Frayed Knot]

Joe McEwing's name gets a mention this morning courtesy of "an industry source". Such news is of course accompanied by the standard misleading info concerning him and Randy Johnson.
'Super Joe' has spent the last six years as a coach for the ChiSox including this most recent one as the bench coach.


I'm a bit disturbed by the fact that every mentioned candidate so far has NYM ties, as if that's a requirement going forward and anyone without such credentials is being ignored.
Hard to say from here if that's really the case or merely that the more familiar names are the more obvious candidates and therefore the ones being thrown out there in the early stages of a job search
that isn't even officially on yet. I'd prefer to think that the Sandy era -- assuming that's still a thing -- has closed the book on being so strictly provincial.

[Guest 41Forever]

My favorite Super Joe story:

While Doug Mientkiewicz was fielding calls of concern, David Wright was receiving ridicule from friends who watched him get ejected Monday night after sliding out of the baseline to break up a double play. Joe McEwing, the former Mets infielder, phoned Wright and said, "What were you doing, trying to take out Andruw Jones?" referring to the Atlanta center fielder, who plays a couple of hundred feet behind the baseline.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't mind if the next manager has Mets ties, but you're right, it shouldn't be a requirement and hopefully it's not.

Fun fact: If the next manager turns out not to be a former Mets player, it will be the first time since Casey Stengel-Wes Westrum-Salty Parker that the Mets will have had three consecutive managers who hadn't previously played for them.

[bmfc1]

Heyman has 12 candidates https://www.fanragsports.com/heyman-12-potential-candidates-to-be-next-mets-manager/

[Benjamin Grimm]

It's NOT going to be David Wright.

A lot of Mets names on that list. Todd Zeile is interesting. He appeared a bunch of times on Mets Hot Stove this past winter and he does seem to be pretty smart.

[Frayed Knot]

11 of the 12 have NYM connections -- only Brad Ausmus doesn't -- plus one more (Manny Acta) from among eight he lists as "field" candidates.

[metirish]

12. David Wright. Mets icon, would make a great manager one day – if he’s interested. He is serious about his playing comeback, however.


A great manager one day, based on what?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Probably because he talks to the press.

[metirish]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Probably because he talks to the press.

Yes, my thoughts exactly, nice guy , good quotes , media guys love him

[batmagadanleadoff]

metirish wrote: 12. David Wright. Mets icon, would make a great manager one day – if he’s interested. He is serious about his playing comeback, however. A great manager one day, based on what?

You beat me to it. Yeah! Based on what?

[HahnSolo]

That was a pretty lousy, lazy article from Heyman.

Zeile is the only name I hadn't heard elsewhere.

What was with the multiple NY Post mentions in the Ventura entry? Is there some kind of zing at Mike Puma that I'm missing?

[Ceetar]

HahnSolo wrote: That was a pretty lousy, lazy article from Heyman. Zeile is the only name I hadn't heard elsewhere. What was with the multiple NY Post mentions in the Ventura entry? Is there some kind of zing at Mike Puma that I'm missing?

I assumed as much because it was Heyman, and late September, talking about something that hasn't even happened yet.

Did Ventura have a beef with the post when he was here maybe? who knows.

[Edgy MD]

In truth, the "based on what?" hammer applies to all managers. There's nothing like an accepted objective standard for how to judge them, let alone how to judge which players are qualified to be future managers.

[Benjamin Grimm]

So how did Ventura do as a White Sox manager anyway?

[Edgy MD]

Well, answering that would require a widely accepted objective standard.

His team improved by six games in his first season and then regressed by 22 games. They steadily improved incrementally over the next three seasons, but never reached .500 again.

To his credit, I guess, his tenure ended with his resignation, initiated by him, rather than his firing. On the other hand, they regressed starkly again this year in their first season without him, so maybe he needs to wear a "quitter" label.

His last year was marred by two kinda-ugly-but-kinda-colorful clubhouse incidents, one in which Chris Sale cut up the throwback jersey that he didn't want to wear for a start, and bitched that Ventura wouldn't back him, and another in which VP Ken Williams banned DH Adam Laroche's son from the clubhouse during spring training. I concluded that these probably precipitated his departure. PLAYER REVOLT is a tough thing for a manager to have on his LinkedIn page.

[Ceetar]

I kinda like Ventura but it's just a gut/nostalgia thing.

[Guest 41Forever]

Heck, Sale didn't just cut up his jersey. I think he cut up EVERYONE's jersey, which led eventually to his own departure.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I feel like the White Sox are always trying some crazy idea for a manager. Sometimes it works and other times not. I can't imagine RV even gets a phone call. And Zeile? I wouldn't guess he'd have the slightest interest.

I feel like the Wilpon-Mets will never go with a rookie skipper ever again unless there's some extenuating circumstances like the minority hiring hit they carried out for Selig, so that's another strike against Zeile, along with Super Joe. And David Wright.

I get a good bench-coach vibe from Geren but I think he's a little un-New York.

[Frayed Knot]

The ChiSox also tried that deal during Ventura's watch where they signed a bunch of FAs (2015) in an attempt to jump from zero to sixty in one season. OF Melky Cabrera, DH Adam LaRoche,
SP Jeff Samardizja, and RP David Robertson were all imported at the same time as they hoped to combine them with the hot start of Cuban 1B Jose Abreu the previous year.

Problem is, not only does that strategy typically fail -- and this one did as did the SDP who tried the same thing -- but it tends to become an even bigger drag as you get into years two & three at which
point you're forced to break things down and start over again, something the ChiSox really just completed this summer and it'll probably be at least 2019 (if then) before they start to see the benefits.
No manager who winds up in charge of failed experiments like that wind up looking very good.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Crazy idea that certainly won't happen: Hire Alex Cora as a rookie manager and let Terry Collins be his bench coach.

[G-Fafif]

bmfc1 wrote: Heyman has 12 candidates https://www.fanragsports.com/heyman-12-potential-candidates-to-be-next-mets-manager/

Heyman and those who write these types of columns have 800 words to fill.

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I get a good bench-coach vibe from Geren but I think he's a little un-New York.

I imagine having been a backup catcher for the Yankees is as good a résumé enhancer for a managerial aspirant as any. Geren, Joe Girardi, Jerry Narron, Joel Skinner ...

Know what else seems to be a predictor of a future in managing? A playing career that includes a detour to Japan.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Edgy MD wrote: I imagine having been a backup catcher for the Yankees is as good a résumé enhancer for managerial aspirant as any. Geren, Joe Girardi, Jerry Narron, Joel Skinner ...

Ralph Houk too, right?

[Edgy MD]

Sure, but he's not in the job market at the current time.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Oh, they're not considering dead guys? Klapsich didn't mention that.

[ashie62]

DELETE

Edited September 29, 2017 by Guest

[Guest d'Kong76]

Is that Penny?