Blame Omar Minaya, not Willie Randolph

[Chubz]

At first I thought that maybe Willie needed to go to right the Met's ship but listening to yesterday's press conference with Omar Minaya had me furious. Im not even a Mets fan! Minaya said, that Willie is our manager but would not go out of his way to say that he will be there for the rest of the year.

What is Willie to do, when Reyes, Wright, Beltran, Delgado etc are all underacheiving. Reyes is making mind boggling errors, Wright is swining for the fences, Beltran and Delgado aren't hitting anything. Not for nothing but I expected more from Santana as well. I know historicly he's a second half pitcher but still.

I know Willie should have never pulled the race card but as Joe Torre just said recently..It's the biggest most pressurized media atmosphere in the world, you lose sleep and some days you show up to the park in a bad mood and then you say somethings that you might not say when your head is right.

I just hope Willie doesn't end up the fall guy here. Omar built this team not Willie. Omar is the guy who gave Castillo a 4 year deal and the guy looks like he can barely walk. When he got that contract offer, im sure he choked on something.

[cruzg24]

Wille will be the fall guy and its a shame that its going to be that way. See, you just don't understand. It's all part of the plan. They're just lulling the opposition into a false sense of security ... lol jk. All I hear on the radio is willie this and willie that and that willie needs to light a fire under these guys. Marty Noble, who is the mets beat writer wrote a very interesting answer to this:

As a lifelong Mets fan I'm finding myself more irritated this year. This offense should not be shut out by a Minor League pitcher and a last-place Nationals team at home. Why is there no "fire" on this team? From the managers to the players, they all seem complacent. I've always given Willie Randolph the benefit of the doubt, but if he's not going to try to fire up the players and drill in the need for fundamentals, then he needs to be replaced. Thoughts?
-- Dave V., Queensbury, N.Y. Managers are in place to manage, not motivate. I know the manager is motivated. I can't say the same for the players, as a group. Their lack of consistent, quality performance may reflect on Randolph and may cost him his job, but it isn't his doing. Any lack of motivation is on the players.
And poor execution of fundamentals is on them, too. A potential double-play ground ball bouncing through the legs of Jose Reyes; Reyes being picked off second base in extra innings; Carlos Beltran not cleanly fielding a base hit and thereby allowing a runner to reach scoring position; Johan Santana crossing up his catcher and throwing a wild pitch to advance a runner to scoring position -- none of those is evidence of managerial malfeasance.
The more I watch the game and the more I see managers discarded, the more convinced I am that few are deserving of their fate. But the oft-repeated phrase -- "You can't fire all the players" -- is true.
And it's not players who are solely responsible. The Mets roster is filled with older players more prone to injury, fatigue and diminished production. The Mets might have to be satisfied with the equivalent of one full season from Moises Alou, Orlando Hernandez and Pedro Martinez combined. The season is 56 days old through Sunday. That's 168 player days for the three, and they have been available for 26 of them. That's not Randolph's doing.
Injuries are part of the game, but it is a bigger part when the roster has age. Relying on any one of the three would have made sense. But to depend on all three -- that is, the No. 2 starter in Martinez, a back of the rotation starter in El Duque and a right-handed run-producer in Alou -- to fill regular roles seemed to me to be foolish, particularly with Carlos Delgado having slowed down.
And the re-signing of Luis Castillo -- regardless of the number of years and the amount of money -- has given Randolph a right side of the infield that is significantly less than a contender needs.
All of that falls on general manager Omar Minaya.
No one could have foreseen what has happened to Reyes in the last three months of playing or Aaron Heilman's collapse. How Randolph is held responsible for either development evades me. Minaya isn't to blame in those scenarios either.
The Mets appear to be in a state of team depression. They respond to positives, but that response is short-lived. Negatives linger. No manager I know has had an effective remedy for that. It's up to the players to get themselves out of it; put away their cellphones and electronic gadgets, talk to each other and not rush to exits when games are over and showers are done.
I saw a phenomenon in Spring Training that I thought bode well for this team. Unlike last year, the Mets were excited, the acquisition of Santana having made the difference. But that sense of excitement is gone, displaced by eyes-to-floor gloom.

Sources:
http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/art...=.jsp&c_id=nym

[samisalo6]

yah Omar Minaya did really nothing in the terms of bats in the offseason. Johan is the best pitcher yes but if u don't have bats to drive in runs can't win.

[cruzg24]

I wish we can get someone like Dunn during the offseason that would be nice.

[jstchilln120]

I think they're both to blame at this point. There's no reason why the middle of their order should be producing so little.

I wonder if the addition of Pedro will help inject some life into the team.