Some more pics of the old renovated Yankee Stadium are on wcbs880.com
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Mailbag: Is Jerry Manuel Eliminating The Mets From Contention
OK, I have shaken off “Castillo” and am ready to move on. Just one game Chins up boys.
The other day Vegas Rich stirred things up with his suggestion that Jerry Manuel is going to cost the Mets the playoffs which generated tons of mail which we’ll get to in a second.
Did you catch yesterday afternoon’s flurry. Fox Sports printed a piece yesterday that says Jerry throws his people under a bus. Sheffield and Wright quickly defended him.
I don’t know whats true, but I do know that when someone in the mainstream prints something, where there is smoke there’s fire. Maybe Sheff and Wright don’t agree, but someone put that notion out there. There’s always something to these stories. If the story is A-Rod, a giraffe and a box of donuts – maybe the donuts weren’t there but I bet you there was a giraffe. The blogosphere might make crap up, but Fox Sports isn’t. It’s worth watching, especially with the Bobby Valentine PR machine gearing up. We finish second just fine without you Bob.
Onto the mail…from post “Jerry Manuel: Eliminating The Mets From Contention…“:
Bobby V may have been the best manager in the Mets history. Davey Johnson was outstanding, but he had loads of talent to work with. Bobby V had Timo Perez, Benny Agbayani & Jay Payton as his starting OF when they went to the WS in 2000. That’s awful.
I like Jerry Manual, but I don’t think he’s a great X’s and O’s type of manager. The players seem to really like him, which is very important, but overall he has not done a very good job this season. Last year was a bit of an aberation in the fact that the team could not stand Willie Randolph so when Manual was named manager it was a breath of fresh air.
Bottom line is, they need to get healthy AND make a trade for a power hitter. I have faith that Omar Minaya will eventually make a deal to get a hitter in here, hopefully it’s not too late when he does.
I love the revisionist Valentine love. That team was picked to win the east every year, and he’d often have them 8 back on May 1st. V’s teams were always very underprepared. But we digress…
i know i may be taking alot the ‘fun’ out of an argument like this, but i don’t understand why a manager always gets so much blame when a team drops the ball like the mets did the past two nights.
the fact of the matter is, these are major league players, and if they can’t rise to the occasion and perform when asked to, then they are at fault. simple as that. if ken takahashi can’t get left handers out, why is he pitching in the majors in the first place? if bunts and baserunning are poorly executed, then the players are at fault. it seems that as the salaries rise, our expectations of players become more specialized and less across-the-board. i don’t think guys like Bob Gibson and Rollie Ringers were left- or right-handed specialists. they were pitching specialists, and they didn’t make a fraction of what takahashi makes.
for example, if Jerry decides to put in Murphy to pinch hit, his job is to get on base. if he doesn’t, he failed and it’s his fault, not the manager’s for choosing him over another guy. it’s the players job to perform, just like it’s my job to perform when my boss asks me to do something. if i fail, i’m fired. if i succeed, i keep my job and get asked to do a tougher job next time. that’s life – let’s stop coddling these millionaires. and when we do that, it’ll be a lot more fun rooting for them.
I think the frustration with the manager is less about whether or not Castillo can catch than it is about benching Church every time he has a good game. (This is Shannon writing now, the original piece was by Vegas Rich, one of the writers on the site – and I don’t agree with him on this one, or many things, and that’s why he’s on board. Mets Police is all about polite discussion, even though in the end I’m usually right 🙂 I’d say always but I made that Kazmir mistake that one time.)
I think Vegas Rich is absolutely correct by saying that Manuel’s handling of Church and Murphy has been atrocious. It seems that every time one of these guys start to hit, Manuel puts them on the bench, thus barring them from finding any sort of a groove. Remember the beginning of last year when Church was the best hitter on the team? Some remnant of that play could certainly be captured if he was given the chance to play everyday.
As for F-Mart, this is where I disagree with Vegas Rich. The kid needs to play everyday, but is not yet ready to be a starter for this Mets team, so he needs to be in AAA. Manuel campaigned to keep him up, yet doesn’t know what to do with him (let alone any other players) and, I fear, in turn, he may be hurting his development.
In the end, while the Mets have not had a great run with past managers (Art Howe), that doesn’t mean that we now need to settle for Jerry’s mismanaging that spans across the Bullpen to the Field.
Coop is with me when it comes to Pedro Martinez…
You had me till Pedro. Why on earth do you think or would you think Pedro would solve any ills of the rotation? Pedro screwed this team over more than once with his injuries and not being in the mood to pitch. We’d seen that since 2005. Fool me once…etc etc. That said, Bobby Valentine is the man and should be brought back immediately if not sooner. Only problem is, we have Jerry till…2012? I think? (I’m too lazy to look it up). Wilpons are not wont to pay someone not working for them. They did it with Howe. They did it with Willie and would have had to had he not accepted the Brewers job. Jerry is here for now…
I agree with this guy….and I’m still wondering if Santana’s 41 pitch inning (and quick return to pitch the next inning) isn’t going bite us in the mitts..
On stretching the starters–isn’t that not “overmanaging?” And I believe that this is one thing Manuel has been consistent about–when Pelf’ threw those back-to-back complete games in August, Manuel said that this is something he’s looking to get out of his starters. That it “can be done,” and that they shouldn’t be off the hook or satisfied with a “quality start” that’s only 6 innings long.
Let’s wait and see–we might see more guts and gall out of our starters later on in the season when they go deeper into games, not to mention we’re only halfway through the season. Do we really wanna blow the bullpen out already?
There’s plenty more on the Jerry topic…but gotta run.
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"Castillo" Enters The New York Mets Lexicon
Mets fans…there are some games that I can reference with one word and you’ll know what I mean.
Buckner.
Pendleton
Scioscia
Pratt
I’d like to welcome “Castillo” to this exclusive club.
I’ll reference two old posts here.
1. The Mets seem to be listening to at least some of our suggestions for New Traditions At Citi Field. It is time for all of us to adhere to suggestion #15, the traditional booing of Luis Castillo.
2. Eventually SNY will take me up on my awesome How I Met The Mets filler show idea. Kids, let me tell you about the time Alex Rodriguez popped up to second….
I gotta go be daddy…haven’t even red the papers or internet yet. I’m sure it’s fun out there.
New Yankee Stadium is a joke, isn’t it?
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Mailbag: Dropshadow, Jerry, Citi Field Food
I had thrown out some questions – thanks for the answers!
Re: “Did The New York Mets Retired Numbers At Shea Have dropshadow?
(DyHrdMET): From my photos from the last days at a living breathing Shea, I see the black drop shadow on the retired numbers. From my photos from the MeiGray Shea Warehouse in January, I did see parts of the retired number 41 without the black
Brian says:
They had the drop shadow in my pictures from Shea from last year. So, I did a little research and found that the drop shadow addition was covered here: http://www.uniwatchblog.com/category/retired-numbers/
Apparently, they added the drop shadow for 2008.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with the drop shadow. At the risk of being ostracized, I’m actually not completely opposed to using a little black in the uniform. I just think that, if it’s used, it should be limited to the drop shadows and maybe the hybrid (not all-black) hat on the road. Meanwhile, please, no more black jerseys–especially at home.
We won’t ostracize you. Hopefully we can keep building a nice community here. I’m all in favor of a healthy debate, and have previously said that if the fan survey shows that Mets fans want black uniforms then I will shut up about that.
Re: “A Plan For Neo-Retro New York Mets Uniforms“:
For the love of God please make sure the uniforms have names on them. I despise the Yankees style of just numbers. The Mets will always be the new as the Yankees are to the old. We should embrace the fact that the Mets are the youngest “New York” baseball team. Even if you borrow from the past; any new uniform needs show it belongs in the 2000s.
Personally, I think uniforms looks crisper without names. The TV will use chiron to tell you who is who, and if you can read a uniform name from the Promenade, then you should probably be hitting .360 at shortstop.
DyHard also helped us out with an outstanding question asking if any seats at Citi Field come with free food.
yes, sort of. Go to GaryKeithAndRon.com (a.k.a. PitchInForAGoodCause.org) to their page for their “Main Event” on Oct 3 (next-to-last game of the year). the price you pay to the group includes a $15 swipe card and a pregame buffet (and a t-shirt). Pitch In For A Good Cause
Finally, Vegas Rich’s post-game rant didn’t sit well with someone. (I allow anonymous posts because it’s annoying to make people sign in, but sign your name so we can give you credit!)
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post “Jerry Manuel: Eliminating The Mets From Contention…“:
Oh please. You think Willie was better? You think Valentine was better? They both were a disaster and an embarrassment to the organization. The fact of the matter is that no manager is ever going to get a 100% approval rating. Is Jerry perfect either, no. Should he have had somebody warming before Redding put two runners on in the 7th? Of course. But at least he doesn’t play roulette with his bullpen like Willie did. At least he doesn’t have a carbon copy lineup every single night regardless of the player’s performance like Willie did. At least he has the respect of his players unlike Willie. Willie was by far the worst manaager I’ve seen in my 20+ years of watching the Mets. That guy made Art Howe look like a master strategist.
And can we get off the ‘confidence’ bandwagon? You’re telling me that if Redding would have left after the 6th with ‘confidence’ that would actually make him pitch better in 5 days from now? Please. You’re the same guy that will be whining about the bullpen in September when we have 4 guys with 80+ appearances and arms like jello wondering why the bullpen can’t get guys out.
Lets look at the real reason that we lost last night. We scored 3 runs off a 46 year old pitcher. The offense needs to hit with runners in scoring position so that the pitching doesn’t have to throw with zero margin for error. I think that the real problem here is lack of depth in the infield, and too many mediocre outfielders. Omar has got to make a move now and not wait until the deadline. By then it will be too late.
Don’t throw in the towel yet. Remember how many injuries we have and in reality we have no business even making close games out of this past series. The Phils were healthy and we were decimated yet we found a way to keep it close each night. It’s a long season, don’t fly off the handle on June 11th.
My two cents: you can nitpick any manager. Sure there’s some strategy you could question – but at the end of the day this team is hanging around with an unbelievable amount of injuries.
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I’m Expecting A Long And Bad Weekend For The New York Mets (Subway Series)
So, as always here on the Mets Police I’m just being honest about the way I feel. As they say in Star Wars…
I have a bad feeling about this.
Why?
I fear Yankee Stadium. The Mets don’t hit home runs and the Yankees do. Santana is a fly ball pitcher, and a pop fly to right could become a three run home run, and we’ll send Martinez, Vadez and Santos up in the top of the 9th.
Furthermore when you lose 3-2 it’s annoying. When you lose 15-14 you feel like your team sucks and you’ll never get anyone out again. This will be a high scoring weekend because of the lemon in the Bronx.
In case you missed it, Accuweather did further studies about New Yankee Stadium and reported:
The right field wall is shorter by an average of 4-5 feet, but as much as 9 feet in certain areas and the wall itself is approximately 2 feet less than at the old stadium. Accordingly, their research indicates that 19% of home runs hit this season, at the stadium, would not have left the old park. This is about 20 out of the 105 that have been hit out of the yard.
Also Mets fans, treat yourself to an inning of John Sterling over the weekend. It’s truly amazing that this guy is the voice of the Yankees.
Batton down the hatches, this might be a long weekend.
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