As a team, the New York Mets have fallen woefully short of their expectations this season. At 30-31, the Mets are currently in fourth place in the NL East.
For the most part, manager Willie Randolph has shouldered the brunt of the criticism stemming from the Mets' mediocre play through the first 60 games of this season.
Randolph is not the best manager in baseball. He handles his pitchers poorly and his rapport with his players is mediocre at best.
A few days ago, Randolph dug an even bigger hole for himself by unleashing this gem about race as a factor in the criticism he has received in an interview with a New Jersey newspaper;
"Is it racial?" Randolph asked. "Huh? It smells a little bit. I don't know how to put my finger on it, but I think there's something there. Herman Edwards did pretty well here and he won a couple of playoff [games], and they were pretty hard on Herm. Isiah Thomas didn't do a great job, but they beat up Isiah pretty good. ... I don't know if people are used to a certain figurehead. There's something weird about it."
First off, the comparison to Thomas is a moot point, Isiah destroyed the Knicks with his questionable (and that is a charitable use of the word) player moves and his inability to fire up his team.
Needless to say, race was not a factor in Isiah's firing. In fact, Thomas' well publicized friendship with Knicks owner James Dolan is all that kept him as coach of the Knicks despite a sexual harassment lawsuit and a lack of production from his team. But I digress.
Randolph's shortcomings as a manager are not what have brought about the fall of the New York Mets.
Granted, Randolph is leading a team with a $140 million payroll to fourth place in a somewhat mediocre division (with the obvious exception of the streaking Phillies), but Randolph has no say in where the Wilpons' money is spent.
Mets GM Omar Minaya may have completed his coup de gras last offseason when he landed the best pitcher in baseball, Johan Santana, without parting ways with super prospect Fernando Martinez.
But unfortunately for Minaya, one great move cannot erase a multitude of miscues. At the end of last season, the Mets "shockingly" collapsed over the last few games of the season en route to a second-place finish in the East and a vacation come October.
When it happened, the Mets' demise was as surprising as it was devastating for the fans in Queens. Some place the blame for this failure to close out the season squarely on Randolph's shoulders, which is just plain wrong.
A closer look at the Mets reveals a penchant on the part of Minaya to buy injury-prone veterans who are in the twilight of their illustrious careers.
Among the most notable Minaya signings to go awry are:
- Pedro Martinez, who signed a four-year, $56 million contract and proved himself to be made of glass;
- El Duque Hernandez, who has not been the pitcher the Mets have expected him to be; and of course...
- Luis Castillo, whose four-year, $25 million contract is not becoming of a player who is hitting .258.
Moises Alou has also been injured for most of the season. At least the 41-year-old Alou was not given a long-term contract.
Conspicuously absent from this list is Carlos Beltran, whose seven-year, $119 million contract was so egregious that it puts him in the same breath as legendary busts like Mike Hampton and Barry Zito.
However, Beltran was only 28 at the time of his signing with the Mets, so the move was not quite as indefensible as some of Minaya's other signings. Then again, giving a guy who would turn 29 by the start of a season a seven-year contract for any amount of money is a risky proposition in itself.
Carlos Delgado is also aging and overpaid, but his contract was not of Minaya's design. Delgado came to the Mets in a trade for first baseman Mike Jacobs, who has hit 13 home runs as of this writing, and prospects Yusmeiro Petit and Grant Psomas.
Delgado has a no-trade clause in his contract, which called for him to earn $48 million over three years at the time he was dealt to the Mets.
The Mets' situation is not much better in the rotation, either. With the exceptions of their ace, Johan Santana, the Mets have the injury-riddled Pedro Martinez, John Maine, the horribly inconsistent Mike Pelfrey, and Oliver Perez, who sports a 5.70 ERA.
By the look of it, the Mets have an ace in Santana, two No. 3 starters in Maine and Martinez (if he's healthy) and two borderline No. 5 starters in Pelfrey and Perez/Hernandez.
The problem is not that Omar Minaya is uncommitted to pitching, far from it. After all, he owes Martinez, Perez, and Santana a combined $41.5 million this season. The real problem here is that Minaya has the nasty habit of picking the wrong guy to fill holes in the rotation.
The worst part of the Mets' pitching problems is the fact that the three busts that he signed were not expected to be worth the money that Minaya spent, even at the time of the signings.
Pedro Martinez was suffering a steep decline in productivity when he left Boston, Oliver Perez has been a mediocre player for his entire career, and Orlando Hernandez is nearing the age of 40 and has had widespread injury problems.
The Mets' collapse last season was not a fluke. It was a byproduct of a poorly constructed and aging team wearing out at the worst possible time. Last season's woes were a premonition of things to come, and while the Santana trade was a clear win for the Mets, one pitcher cannot fix the aging of an entire team.
Minaya did little to get younger in the offseason, despite the fact that his team was clearly aging. Willie Randolph deserves criticism for his moronic and inflammatory racial comments, but a manager can't make his team younger.
If you polish a turd, it's still a turd, and that's the bottom line. Unrealistic expectations were placed on a team that seemed to be in decline. Despite the fact that lead-off man Jose Reyes has regressed noticeably as a player, the Mets were not a contender before the Santana trade and they didn't become one after it.
Unfortunately for manager Willie Randolph, however, he seems to be in line to go to the guillotine for a crime that he did not commit, while the real culprit, Omar Minaya, emerges from the wreckage largely unscathed.
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4 months ago
The Wilpons are not that shallow. They like Randolph and Minaya a lot but would not be afraid to part with either to improve their overall lot. My take is that they both stay or they both go. The reason....they do not want to fire Willie and have tenuous situation with a GM on the spot. They are a package deal, I think
from 4 months ago
I agree, I just think that Randolph is being over-demonized while Minaya isn't taking much in the way of criticism. If the Mets continue to lose, both guys will lose their jobs soon, probably Randolph first but Minaya's days are numbered unless he makes a big move.
4 months ago
The major mistakes the Mets are making are on the field, not off the field. I watched their 10 inning loss to the Padres today. I have never seen a team in a tied game in the 10th inning look as disinterested as the Mets did. Jose Reyes was nowhere near having his head in the game. They looked like a bunch of lost little kids. From what I've seen of them so far, this is a team with no direction. How do you keep a RP in the game after 3 walks in a tie game? What happens? He hits the next pitcher. Oliver Perez' pitching goes something like this; first 5 innings, he gives up 2-3 hits, maybe a run or 2. 6 innings and on, he loses control, walks a few batters, hits a few batters. Boom, he's given up 5 or 6 runs. Pelfrey was a disaster last year in the rotation, absolutely no reason he should be starting now. The main thing that killed them last year was their bullpen, and it looks even worse this year. The only starters that have been reliable for them so far are Santana and Maine. All the others might get them to the 6th inning on a good day. I was hoping they'd get Livan Hernandez in the off season. His best years might be behind him but he'll still eat up some innings for you. I agree with you on some of the things about Minaya, he's made some bad moves. But Randolph has got to light a fire under this team. If I was Randolph, I would have been ashamed when an assistant coach got thrown out of the game for arguing the "no homer" call on Delgado at Yankee Stadium. Randolph should have been in the umps face, not the assistant. They need a fire before it's too late.
from 4 months ago
I agree with your point. I am by no means exonerating Randolph, I just think that Minaya is getting off too easy you know? Randolph has fallen short of expectations and so has Minaya, and they both need to go before the team's infrastructure collapses. I said that Randolph handles pitchers poorly and your example with Perez illustrates that well. Thanks for commenting.
4 months ago
carlos beltran has averaged 30 homeruns and 100 rbi since he has been a met, even with his down year in 05. He has played gold glove defense and at times he is the best player on the team. He's streaky, but he plays hurt. Hes a great player, I'm glad hes a met.
You really cant compare him to 2 lefty pitchers who have truly been legendary busts. Beltran has been anything but. He almost won mvp 2 years a go! remember that! if he didnt sit out all of september to get ready for the playoffs he probably would of won it.
Stop hatin on him.
from 4 months ago
good point, but the length of the contract given to him was moronic given his age, and he has 5 homers so far this season. If this kind of mediocre play continues, he'll be like Zito and Hampton, maybe not now but things are not looking up for Beltran. Signing him was not the mistake, as it was with Hampton and Zito, but assuming he'd produce for 7, or even 4 years was a bad move by Minaya. Beltran is a very good player having a down year but there is not a chance that you can tell me with a straight face that he deserved that monster contract for the production he has given. he has not been nearly the bust that Zito or Hampton were yet but his contract is comparable to their contracts. Thanks for reading.
from 4 months ago
Also, to reemphasize, I said that the contract was egregious enough to put him in the same breath as Hamilton and Zito, Beltran himself is nowhere near as bad as those flameouts. But if Beltran continues his mediocre play, he will be pretty close.
4 months ago
To me, you have to get rid of Willie Randolph, for a couple of reasons.
1) Once you play the race card, everyone immediately assumes that you're not getting fired because the ownership is worried it'll look racist. Which in turn makes you a lame-duck. It was also a completely moronic thing to say, which says to me that he doesn't have the judgment to lead a baseball team.
2) He's made his mistakes, but Omar Minaya has given Randolph a team that's loaded with talent. It's good enough to be among the better teams in baseball.
3) He should have been fired after their monumental collapse last season anyway.
-Sean
from 4 months ago
I'm not saying that Randolph is blameless here, he's screwed up plenty of times this season and last season. But the way that he has taken all of the blame for the Mets' struggles this year is unfair. As John said in an earlier comment, Minaya and Randolph are a package deal, because both of them caused the severe disappointment in Queens this year. Randolph needs to go after the season, and Minaya should be given one final year to reload the farm system or to go for broke again, but the lack of criticism of Minaya in the media is disturbing to me. Thanks for the read.
-Max
4 months ago
Very well writen i liked it alot and i agree with everything you said in here
from 4 months ago
Thanks for the compliment Mike and thanks for reading.
4 months ago
Willie should have never been fired. This article sums this up perfectly.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/826727/jerry_manuel_to_replace_willie_randolph.html?cat=14
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