Rhoden: Don't fire Randolph for Mets' collapse, etc.

The difference, I think, is that the Mets have the economic wherewithal to have a true No. 1 and decided they didn't need one.

 

OK, I think it's safe to say that as far as non-players go, most of the reason why the Mets failed points to the direction of Minaya. Randolph gets some of the blame (I'm tired of that word), but it was Minaya that assembled that sorry group of relievers, didn't seek better bench help and failed to sign a front-line starter. Maine has a chance to be very good. Oliver Perez was fairly good this season, but when he was bad, he was awful and at the absolute worst times, so the Amazin's need a reliable, consistent option. I'm not sold on Humber & Pelfrey just yet.

Except for 3B, the corner positions were atrocious before Moises Alou found the Fountain of Youth this month. Delgado looks done, Green is gone, Milledge is a PITA (pain in the ass) and the jury is still out on Carlos Gomez. Lo Duca is finished, plus I never like catchers who routinely go ape-shit on home plate umps -- the one ump they should be buddy-buddy with. Someone should start printing pictures of Jose Reyes on cartons of milk in the NYC-metro area ASAP.

And here's a little-used point that my boss loves to bring up: if Duaner Sanchez doesn't get the munchies in Miami last year, the Mets may have been World Series champs in '06 and this collapse would have never happened. He stays healthy, Milledge is roaming the outfield in either Houston or Round Rock, TX while good ol' boy Roy Oswalt becomes the stud of the Mets' staff instead of Roberto Hernandez becoming a two-plus month rental last year.

 

On paper, it appeared trhat the Mets were going to be fine coming out of Spring Training. When they got off to the fast start, everyone sid they were the team to beat.But baseball is a 162-game marathon, not a sprint.
If there is someone to blame, it's the organization for over estimating its personnel. Willie isn't the fault.

 

All that needs to be said is Sept. 13: Best record in the NL. Oct. 1: Time to pack up the locker room.

 

All of which - bad pitching, spotty defense, unfulfilled promise, suspect game management - talks around the question. These guys were in the driver's seat for the entirety of the season. Then, when it mattered, fell apart.

So is a failure like this a slow accetion of a thouand small wrongs? Or a sudden ten-day spasm of self-awareness? Did they just get streaky-bad at the wrong time? Or were they destined from spring-training forward to finish as they did?

 

I think it's because they filled the rosin bags with resin, or vice versa.

 

This team was never as good as people thought. When Rollins said the Phillies were the team to beat, I could see his point. The only question was the pitching. The Mets had pitching, but it was old pitching. The Phillies had young pitching. It was just a matter which team could sustain a winning drive the longest.
The Mets are going to retool and so will the Phillies. And don't think without a break here or there, Atlanta couldn't have won the division.

 

Weirdly, from the Fun Facts to Know and Share file, rosin is a specific kind of resin. And while rosin is the preferred coinage, I see lots of citations for resin in stories these days.

You can also go back to 1926, when MLB first allowed the bag on the mound, and find guys like Walter Johnson referring to it as a resin bag. Fun!

 

But Willie is part of that organization. He is the one who makes the lineup, makes the in-game moves, etc. He has to take some of the responsibility for this one, too.
Granted, yes, they were a hot pick early after the good start. But as an organization, you have to believe on Opening Day that you have the tools to contend. What you do with those tools is a direct reflection of your abilities and I think we saw that Willie can take part of the blame for this collapse.

 

They were absolutely as good as everyone thought until the last three weeks of the season.

 

They are who we thought they were.

 

I was waiting for that.