One New York Life

I originally started writing this column after I got back from Opening Day. It was the first baseball game I’ve ever left early. There was no plan in place to go… I didn’t have any interest in overspending for Opening Day tickets like I did last year. Future reference… $120 is too much to spend on any baseball game that isn’t a Game 7. I got up that morning fully intending to spend the day at work. Then, an 11:30 am call came in from The Machine. I don’t remember word-for-word but it was something along the lines of “There’s only 8 left in the 36er and we have an extra ticket. $66. How long does it take you to get here?”

I had a momentary inner struggle until realizing I would hate myself if I turned down a ticket to the final Opening Day at Shea. So after a cursory attempt to make sure no one missed me at work, I hopped on the train.

They lost after jumping out to an early 2-run lead. The bullpen surrendered 3 in the 7th and another 2 in the 8th. I realized I’d rather get the train early and get back than deal with the foot traffic getting to the subway. Somehow, every ticket I get is on the third base side. If you picture Shea as a giant clock where center field is noon, my seats were 11. The exit to get to the subway is at 2. Since the new stadium takes up all of 12, you have to walk all the way around the bottom of the clock to get to the subway. I figured I’d get out when the foot traffic was light.

I started writing this after work. I ended up staying until 9ish to make up the hours. After the last two wins, I’ve softened a bit, but not much. All of the points still stand. And no, I’m not panicking by any stretch… but I don’t think it’s too early to be concerned by things that remain unaddressed.

In all honestly, if the Mets hadn’t landed Johan Santana at the last minute their offseason would have been a joke. Even still, they shored up their starting pitching for the foreseeable future but that has dubious value when you can’t hold a lead in the 7th, 8th, and 9th. In the the much ballyhooed 17-game stretch last season the Mets went 5-12. Of the 12 games they lost, 6 were given up by the bullpen. There are two possible arguments for this; 1) they were tired at the end of a long season. 2) they suck. Since they have picked up this season exactly where they left off (at current count, surrendering four leads and getting the loss in 2 of them) I have to go with suck.

But, I may have said, never fear. We have a major-league ready 2nd baseman. Sure we traded the entirety of the Zephyrs to the Twins for one guy… but at the very least we have a 25-year-old, speedy, major-league ready right-handed bat on the bench that we could trade to someone for a couple of developmental bull-pen arms. Maybe we can get those guys ready by the end of the season, right?

Right?

Oh… or we could place him on waivers and give him to the Braves.

For nothing.

Not even one of those racially-sensitive foam tomahawks?

Really?

The Mets, who have nothing in their bullpen or farm system right now sent one of their only remaining chips to the Braves… outright. And management wonders why fans are questioning their moves? I understand Gotay was out of options, but maybe the team should have thought about the fact they signed a 32-year-old Luis Castillo to a four-year deal after he had BOTH of his knees operated on in the off-season. Don’t get me wrong, I like Castillo. I think $6M/year is perfectly fair for him… but maybe keeping a 25-year-old bench player in reserve for the inevitable injury might not have been a bad idea? Or, at the very least, send me a prospect or two. Don’t just send him to a division rival outright. I don’t know if I can properly express my disbelief at this move.

Then comes the big question. Is it time to get a new manager? I’m a patient guy when it comes to changing managers or coaches. I think I was the last guy in the City of New York to support Tom Coughlin… but I’m starting to wonder a bit if Willie Randolph is cut out to be the skipper. Now, I unerstand there are different arguments as to the affect a manager can have on a game… for me, a manager has four jobs.

1) Make the proper tactical decisions. Know what guys are available on the other team’s bench, know who they can hit, know who they can’t hit, know where they tend to hit the ball, etc.

2) Keep the team focused. Know how to shake them out of losing streaks. Light a fire when you have to. Much like a coach who gets a technical foul called on him on purpose… a manager needs to know what motivates his players and keep them motivated. A good indication to this is your record in must-win games. Down 0-2 in a series to a division rival? Make sure the guys aren’t looking for a plane out of town the next day. Willie’s record in must win games is, at best, dubious.

3) Know what keeps all 25 guys on your roster motivated. Know what egos need to be stroked. Know what guys need to be abused. Know which guys are too sensitive to be abused.

4) Take media bullets so your players don’t have to.

If a manager can’t do all of those things, he’s not that great a manager. Willie has a tendency to make lots of head-scratching tactical decisions. Last year, he screwed up his bench so badly that he had to put in Tom Glavine as a pinch hitter. On opening day, he pulled Oliver Perez after 5.6 IP to hand the ball to Joe Smith to get one out. One would think if you are going to do that, you’d be pulling the trigger to get out someone more fearsome than Pedro Feliz. He doesn’t seem to be that awesome at pulling the team back on course. The only problem with this is that I can’t even follow my own rule. I can’t name a reasonable replacement because they let Manny Acta go to Washington.

Now, to be fair… they beat the Phillies the last two, but the bull-pen tried their level best to blow both games. The Mets are going to have dire, dire issues this season if they can’t straighten the bull-pen out. The worst part: they don’t really have any bargaining chips left to address it.

Related posts:

• The 2008 New York Mets Postmortem – The Infield
• The 2008 New York Mets Postmortem – Intro
• Mets 2008 – Chapter 2: Met Fans Are Retarded – Volume 942
• The Great Apartment Hunt: Chapter Five
• The Great Apartment Hunt: Chapter Three