The Jerry Manuel Era Begins
I think Omar Minaya took a bold step.
Omar was right. The management cloud over the organization was getting ridiculous. It was hanging over the players, dominating the media, and was a daily distraction. Today Minaya took steps to remove that distraction.
To his peril.
Now that the manager has been removed the daily distraction of Williewatch is gone. The story is going to shift now. Take your pick of the following:
- The line-up for the Mets tonight featured the following batting averages .292 (.246), .269, .275, .270, .238, .192, .238, .250, .230. Zero players on the Mets are currently carrying a .300 average.
- They are carrying three catchers. Their second catcher is currently hitting .282. He is not DHing.
- Carlos Beltran is making $18.5 million dollars and is batting .270
- Carlos Delgado is making $20 million dollars with a line of .242/.321/.407
- Their terrible bullpen is the same bullpen that blew a 7 game lead last year
- Their bench consists of a host of Quadruple-A players, none of whom are very good.
- Their best bench player is a back-up catcher who they can’t use.
- Their back-up catcher is arguably much better than their starting catcher and has a jaw that could kill a mammoth.
- Carlos Delgado strikes out twice in a game and refuses to run out a ground ball.
- The defense, at times, is embarrassingly sloppy.
- Jose Reyes threw a hissy fit and showed up his manager on the field.
- David Wright’s body language indicates that he might murder a room service guy for bringing him two packets of ketchup instead of three.
The players, to a fault today, repeated the story that the manager issue was a distraction. Now there’s no distraction. Now the focus is on them and how they are failing. So one of two things happen now:
1) They start playing up to the potential that the fans and the media think they have.
2) They find a new excuse to answer why they suck.
They lost tonight. That’s fine — it was a jetlag game. But the New York media will quickly find a new storyline if this doesn’t solve the problem… and this probably isn’t going to solve the problem.
When answering the question about the lack of clubhouse leaders, Manuel said something to the effect of “they need to see me lead before I can ask them to lead.”
They better learn quickly.
jet lag loss ? is that a new excuse? i havent heard of that one.
I’m not sure where I’ve heard that originally. Someone (probably McCarver) said that players are usually most affected by jet leg when they go coast to coast without an off day on the 2nd game. Usually the jet lag doesn’t catch up with them until the second day.
I have no idea if that plays out in historic win/loss records but it made enough sense that I decided it was true.
i saw Tim McCarver and i totally now buy into it.