Is Willie Randolph in Trouble?

At this point I want to officially revoke my acceptance into villa army. They have gone well beyond the rational view of PED's and the "we are smarter, better then you", stuff is old and just plain pitiful

 

Bob Milacki did it back in 1990.

 

Orel Hershiser started on one day's rest back in 1999, after he'd been lit up really bad in his previous outing and lasted less than three innings.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B04E7D71F3DF934A35754C0A96F958260&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Tim Wakefield started on two days' rest for the Sox in 1995, but he doesn't count since he's a knuckleballer.

 

We'll see how goddamn smart they are when their gonads shrink to nothingness.

Best of luck, guys.

 

Well, I stand corrected.

 

To get back to the original topic of the thread, the Mets' problem is not Willie Randolph. It's the bullpen. Repeat -- the bullpen, the bullpen, the bullpen. It's not bad because of mismanagement, although of course there are instances where his use of a particular reliever could be debated. It's just bad. I cringe along with everyone else when when Guillermo Mota comes in the game, but it's not like there's a better alternative out there. Most of Randolph's moves there reflect the absence of a single reliever other than Wagner that he can trust. Give the Mets a reliable 7th and 8th inning guy, and they would have clinched a week ago. You could make the case that Willie must be doing something right for the Mets to be in first place with a last-place caliber 'pen.

Everybody slams the manager, no matter who he is. Braves message boards have been calling Bobby Cox clueless for years, even while Atlanta was winning all those divisions. The truth is that there are no geniuses out there. They're all going to make decisions that can be second-guessed. The best you can hope for is a perfectly decent manager, which is what Willie is.

 

When the Mets nut up and fold, and that's going to happen, Willie will be made into the fall guy.
Truth is the bullpen is shakey. Willie has done a good job. However, someone's going to have to take the blame. Remember, a manager is hired to be fired.

 

I still want to know why it's Randolph's fault and not Minaya's when the GM is the one who did his worst to build a bullpen by trading Brian Bannister for Ambidextrous Butgos and signing Mota and Schoeneweis.
If you want people fired, get rid of both, but I believe the GM is more at fault than the manager.

 

Casty, you're right but you also know how the game is played and Willie is the first line of defense. You've seen them come and go through the years in Flushing. You know the story never changes, just the characters.

 

I just think Mets fans need to calm down. Nobody deserves to get fired. Even if the Mets somehow blow this and miss the postseason, Minaya and Randolph should still be safe because of their overall track record. The Mets have been in first place pretty much uninterrupted for two straight seasons. Never before in their history has that been the case. Can some of their moves be questioned? Sure. Bannister for Burgos looks awful now. But at the time, Bannister was a soft-tossing control guy who looked like a future No. 3 starter at best (and Maine, Pelfrey and Humber all appeared to have better upsides), and Burgos was a power arm with control problems who might be a steal for the bullpen if Rick Petersen could straighten him out. It's worked out horribly, but I don't expect a GM to see the future, just to make deals based on sound reasoning. If you do that, more deals will work out than fail, and that's certainly been the case with Minaya. Even if they screw up this last week, as an organization the Mets are just fine.

 

Hard to calm down when your team is doing a Linda Lovelace, choking on the big one.

 

So it's Randolph's fault Wagner blows the save today? Give me a fucking break. I've watched this team day in and day out and players are not executing, bottom line. And Randolph is working with what he has as far as the bullpen is concerned. The Mets are fortunate to have a player like Wright to bail their asses out when others don't perform.