Willie's World?
(Note: Cheddar Ben returns from the disabled list immediately following this piece from Sip.)
With the exception of a September swoon that came when the NL East was already good and locked up, last year the Mets did not go in any real funks. It seemed like any time they lost a couple of games in a row they would turn it around and run off 5 of 6 or something handsome like that.
These past ten days have the been definition of "a funk." We've lost 7 of 8 and 9 of 12 games.
There is one person that I want to call out: Willie Randolph.
I believe we are entering the classic stage of overconfidence. Think back to 2006. The Mets were almost boringly consistent. Every night it was:
Reyes
Lo Duca
Beltran
Delgado
Wright
Floyd
Nady (RIP)/Green
Valentin
Pitcher
Me and AFOMG would make fun of Willie for being boring. Every day it was the same stale lineup. Funny thing though; the Mets never went stale.
It seems like every day I tune in a Mets game I'm seeing Willie Randolph trying to show off the Bobby V in him.
Shawn Green hitting 2 one night, 6 another.
David Wright and Delgado playing roulette between the 4 and 5 spots.
It seems like outside of Reyes and Beltran at 1 and 3 we are seeing a different lineup every night. And I think this is a big mistake.
When Bobby V used to tinker with his lineup he was throwing out Mike Piazza, Eddy Alfonzo and then a bunch of guys like Timo Perez (RIP), Benny Agbayani (RIP) or Melvin Mora (RIP).
These guys were at the time a collection of stiffs. Bobby needed to be creative. Bobby's shuffling became the identity of the Mets offense -- along with Piazza of course -- and this formula was relatively succesful.
Remember, Robin Ventura and Todd Zeile were are 5-6 in 2000. They sure were likable dudes, but I think they combined to hit about .230.
Willie has been doing to the Mets in '07 what Joe Torre tried to do in '06. He is trying to be too fine a manager.
The Mets in '07, like the Yankees of '06, have the most talented lineup in their respective league. When you are the best, there is no reason to be cute.
The best players need to undo their kinks on their own. Every Met in the lineup has proven that he can be succesful. He does not need to be danced around the lineup to "wake him up."
I don't know why Willie has changed this year. Last year he could not have gone more by the book if he tried.
Is it ego? Maybe.
I think it may be that he has too much time on his hands now that he has stopped eating so many fresh toasted subway subs.
Joe Torre used to be as a stiff as a board in the 90's. The Yankees were the best team and the Yankees won.
Torre threw out the same lineup every day:
Knoblach
Jeter
O'Neill
Williams
Tino
Posada
with a few other randoms floating at the bottom.
Combine that with the most dominant righty-lefty bullpen combo (Nelson/Stanton) and the best closer (Rivera) and I could have managed the Yankees from my high school Chemistry class.
But Joe Torre is a genius, of course.
Another funny thing happened over time. Torre was branded a god and the Yankees stopped winning championships. Torre started hitting the best player of our generation 8th (A-Rod) and benched two of the ten most dangerous hitters of our generation in consecutive playoff games (Giambi, Sheffield).
Torre over-managed.
It's like when a band has a hit song and then ruins it in a concert by trying to play some weird version just because they think they can.
OR
When a blogger who writes about baseball tells you stories about his own poker adventures just because he can. What kind of douchebag does that?
I think the manager in baseball is the most overrated coach in sports. His job as a strategist is overrated.
Anyone can know to bring in a lefty to face a lefty. But most people don't understand the intricacies of blitz schemes or how to draw up the perfect basketball play based on how a team is defending you.
In baseball, the manager's job is to massage egos. When you have the egos of the best players, just let them play.
When the manager tries to become bigger than the team, that is when the team is at its weakest. Look at what is going down at Wrigley as we speak.
Am I nuts here?
VCD,
Sip
(Pics courtesy of Allposters.com, USToday.com)
With the exception of a September swoon that came when the NL East was already good and locked up, last year the Mets did not go in any real funks. It seemed like any time they lost a couple of games in a row they would turn it around and run off 5 of 6 or something handsome like that.
These past ten days have the been definition of "a funk." We've lost 7 of 8 and 9 of 12 games.
There is one person that I want to call out: Willie Randolph.
I believe we are entering the classic stage of overconfidence. Think back to 2006. The Mets were almost boringly consistent. Every night it was:Reyes
Lo Duca
Beltran
Delgado
Wright
Floyd
Nady (RIP)/Green
Valentin
Pitcher
Me and AFOMG would make fun of Willie for being boring. Every day it was the same stale lineup. Funny thing though; the Mets never went stale.
It seems like every day I tune in a Mets game I'm seeing Willie Randolph trying to show off the Bobby V in him.
Shawn Green hitting 2 one night, 6 another.
David Wright and Delgado playing roulette between the 4 and 5 spots.
It seems like outside of Reyes and Beltran at 1 and 3 we are seeing a different lineup every night. And I think this is a big mistake.
When Bobby V used to tinker with his lineup he was throwing out Mike Piazza, Eddy Alfonzo and then a bunch of guys like Timo Perez (RIP), Benny Agbayani (RIP) or Melvin Mora (RIP).
These guys were at the time a collection of stiffs. Bobby needed to be creative. Bobby's shuffling became the identity of the Mets offense -- along with Piazza of course -- and this formula was relatively succesful.Remember, Robin Ventura and Todd Zeile were are 5-6 in 2000. They sure were likable dudes, but I think they combined to hit about .230.
Willie has been doing to the Mets in '07 what Joe Torre tried to do in '06. He is trying to be too fine a manager.
The Mets in '07, like the Yankees of '06, have the most talented lineup in their respective league. When you are the best, there is no reason to be cute.
The best players need to undo their kinks on their own. Every Met in the lineup has proven that he can be succesful. He does not need to be danced around the lineup to "wake him up."
I don't know why Willie has changed this year. Last year he could not have gone more by the book if he tried.
Is it ego? Maybe.
I think it may be that he has too much time on his hands now that he has stopped eating so many fresh toasted subway subs.
Joe Torre used to be as a stiff as a board in the 90's. The Yankees were the best team and the Yankees won.
Torre threw out the same lineup every day:Knoblach
Jeter
O'Neill
Williams
Tino
Posada
with a few other randoms floating at the bottom.
Combine that with the most dominant righty-lefty bullpen combo (Nelson/Stanton) and the best closer (Rivera) and I could have managed the Yankees from my high school Chemistry class.
But Joe Torre is a genius, of course.
Another funny thing happened over time. Torre was branded a god and the Yankees stopped winning championships. Torre started hitting the best player of our generation 8th (A-Rod) and benched two of the ten most dangerous hitters of our generation in consecutive playoff games (Giambi, Sheffield).
Torre over-managed.
It's like when a band has a hit song and then ruins it in a concert by trying to play some weird version just because they think they can.
OR
When a blogger who writes about baseball tells you stories about his own poker adventures just because he can. What kind of douchebag does that?
I think the manager in baseball is the most overrated coach in sports. His job as a strategist is overrated.
Anyone can know to bring in a lefty to face a lefty. But most people don't understand the intricacies of blitz schemes or how to draw up the perfect basketball play based on how a team is defending you.
In baseball, the manager's job is to massage egos. When you have the egos of the best players, just let them play.
When the manager tries to become bigger than the team, that is when the team is at its weakest. Look at what is going down at Wrigley as we speak.
Am I nuts here?
VCD,
Sip
(Pics courtesy of Allposters.com, USToday.com)
posted by Sippy Momo at 3:20 PM
2 Comments:
How can Willie throw out the same lineup every day with all the injuries we've had? When Milledge is healthy, he can come up and be a right handed bat we need, but right now this team is just hurting.
nuts? i don't know. i think its a bit crazy to compare the '06 mets and the '98 yankees. if you insist on relating these mets and the 90s yankees, maybe the '96 yanks are a better comparison (if only because they both fall into the category of "not the best team any of us have ever seen"). on those teams torre was anything but stiff. he routinely sat a hall of famer to play charlie hayes. he sat a struggling tino, in his career year, in the playoffs to play a declining cecil fielder. leyritz got the big hit in game 4, girardi got the big hit in game 6. he played hunches and acted on whims throughout the season, and if you watched you know he really did a pretty brilliant job that year. and he was genius enough to let a dynasty be a dynasty. thats enough for me to consider him a legend. maybe you have higher expectations for your manager than a spoiled yankee fan like myself.
7 out of 8 is nothing...give willie a break until he stops making your team better every year.
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