N.Y. Mets: Is Terry Collins' Two Year Extention A Four Month Probation?

From the desk of:   HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

NEW YORK METS: Terry Collins Remains At Helm Of The S.S. Wilpon.  Will Wally Backman Remain Quietly At Las Vegas Serving As The Team's Lifeboat?

The Mets finally extended Terry Collins for another two seasons.  That just tells me Sandy Alderson is rewarding his field manager with a fair shot at leading a markedly improved roster.  I guess that's only fair considering the GM spent three years trading away Terry's top performers, while injuries decimated the rest.  However, should things go awry next season, Sandy Alderson kept himself in a position to make a quick switch if the need arrives earlier than later.  At Terry's age, a longer deal was unlikely anyway.

Is he the right guy for the job?  Well, Terry Collins is not a bad fit or necessarily wrong for the club.  Prior to taking the helm in Flushing, Terry Collins roved throughout the Mets minor leagues.  So, if there is anyone familiar with many of the organization's rising prospects, it would be him.  To date, no one is aware of any enemies Terry might have created while employed by the Mets, unlike several well known episodes which occurred in his prior places of employment.  Instead, in a sense, these are indeed a collective of Terry Kids.

He handles himself well in front of a microphone and stays in charge of the media, unlike his two previous predecessors who were always too busy being defensive trying to fend them off.

On the field, if you're okay with opposing pitchers continually throwing at David Wright with no threat of retaliation, a team lacking basic fundamental bunting skills, his occasional odd in-game strategies, bullpen misuse, and a generally vanilla atmosphere, then he is definitely the right guy.

Now I'm curious as all hell to see if Wally Backman will stay on to manage the Mets AAA-affiliate for a third straight season.  Extending Terry Collins didn't exactly close any windows of opportunity.

Why would Sandy Alderson employ someone who didn't necessarily fit his criteria?  That's why I feel Wally Backman is still in the mix.  Should the Mets stumble out of the block next season, or struggle throughout the first half, Sandy Alderson would have a readily available in-house option with which to facilitate a switch.  I guess the same can be said of third base coach Tim Teufel.  He wouldn't be my choice though.  I'm in Backman's corner.

I do not feel Terry Collins owns a killer instinct to rival that of Wally Backman's.  Terry Collins no doubt keeps his players accountable, but Wally Backman will make them play with purpose.  And believe me, Wally Backman would have the league thinking twice about continually throwing at the head of David Wright.  Players respect Terry Collins, but I feel players will want to do extraordinary things playing for Wally Backman.  The whole Mets condition and on field dynamic would change under Wally Backman, and that may be exactly what the organization fears.

Terry Collins respects the game and good honest competition.  Hiring Wally Backman means it's us against the world again.  Sometimes the difference between being good and great is the people you have in your corner.



Mike.BTB

N.Y. Mets ~ State of METropolis Report; Part I

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

METropolis; Year 9 A.D. - (After Doubleday)

NEW YORK METS:  At The Roosevelt Avenue Crossroads.

Unless you're watching the Cardinals and the Rangers on TV, Baseball in NYC is finished for the year.  Another season in the Age of Wilponianism is done.  For the Boys of Flushing, and without poking fun, things were pretty much wrapped up by mid-August.  And there's a problem with that - An ever growing problem with that.  Although they were a strike away in 2006, the Mets haven't been to the World Series in over a decade, and haven't won one since 1986; now twenty five plus years ago. 


Once born into the National League, this organization was and remained a NYC sensation.  Several years of support through some awfully bad seasons of baseball paid off when The AMAZINs won a title and then taught us again Ya Gotta Believe in this team a few years later.  Even during the late 70's down-turn, there was still always a little Magic you felt in being a Mets fan.  Then seventeen years after their first World Series title, METropolis was awarded with another thanks to a real raucous bunch of very lovable and skilled, yet wild Metropolitans.  And fourteen years after that in the year 2000, the New York Mets made their fourth and last trip back to the World Series.


If there was a pattern to their four World Series appearances, they all came after grass-roots efforts in minor league development.  After fooling around with old NYC baseball heroes and aging vets, Joe McDonald finally got the organization serious about development in c.1966.  He then initiated the second wholesale rebuilding that Frank Cashen continued.  The third was instigated by Joe McIlvaine.  The remnants of his efforts were parlayed into a WS appearance in 2000 during the Valentine/Phillips regime.  Those methods were vastly different from the tactics employed by Omar Minaya which got the Mets to within a strike of another WS appearance.  However, five complete seasons later, that season stands out as an aberration.


For the 1969 team there was a follow up 1973 season.  For the 1986 Champs, there was a follow-up 1988 season.  At least with the 2000 N.L. Champs, there was a lead-in 1999 season.  The 2006 team had no such follow-up nor lead-in.  That season stands by itself as an island because it was patch-worked together.  With the club's minor league production at a stand still, that was a team for the moment that caught lightning in a bottle.


In today's times, the Media insists a NYC team can not risk a full blown rebuilding.  And while I find that notion wholly absurd and idiotic for such learned persons to say, "Rebuilding" has however become a dirty word best not mentioning around these parts.


That's too bad, because sometime in the early to mid 1990's and before that last trip to the World Series, the Mets lost the town they owned over the cross-town Yankees.  And since the partnership between Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon deteriorated, the organization has quite literally been a "How To" owner's manual for dysfunction.


Hopefully Sandy Alderson is here to change that.  But thirty plus years after the sale of the New York Mets eventually led to putting this organization within the sole hands of Wilpon and Son, it's high time someone declare an official Fourth Rebuilding of METropolis.  The condition exists already so there's no fooling anybody.  So please, the treatise with the Fans need merely be signed in order to move on.  After all, there's been much done to alienate them already.


It's not a stretch to say the Saul B. Katz Dilemma is now a full blown crisis.  Therefore the next logical question is where does the Saul B. Katz Dilemma go from here?



I.  OWNERSHIP


Money issues still rule the day.  If the Madoff resolution turns out horribly for the Wilpons, or even if things end more positively for them as may be the case, either way it's going to cost them money; lots of money - enough money to initiate a major salary retraction for next season and beyond.  They've also claimed to have lost around $70 million this past season in Citi Field related revenue.  And the forecast is for more losses next season.  Attendance has steadily gone down since the opening of Citi Field.  And while no coincidence, there's been an equally rapid decline in on-field performance and the standings.


So how would you characterize an owner, that once, in a slightly lesser capacity part owned Thee Team in town, but as sole owner is now besieged by a financial scandal and staring ruin in the face; is laden in stadium debt; is fielding a poorly performing team; has a rapidly growing apathetic fan base who were partly disenfranchised by exorbitant ticket prices and what I call Coliseum-Style Segregation; and yet plays in the third largest city in the world, the largest city in America, and the nation's number one market?


Get back to me on that.


After a long line of Frank Cashen and Steve Phillips protegees, the Wilpons finally went off campus to hire their current General Manager.  He's the first executive hire from outside the organization since Frank Cashen himself.  Sandy Alderson is the seventh GM over the thirty years since Fred Wilpon (and Nelson Doubleday) purchased the team prior to the 1980 season. 


The 2011 season completes nine years of sole ownership under Fred Wilpon and Family since buying out-going partner Nelson Doubleday's share of the Mets.  And with Mr. Doubleday, I believe went this organization's better upper-level Baseball acumen. 



The record speaks for itself.  From the beginning trouble abounded.  Then GM Steve Phillips was embroiled in a front office situation involving unbecoming conduct.  Once the Bobby Valentine/Steve Phillips feud was finally resolved as both were fired, Fred Wilpon found himself with the highest payroll in the N.L. and a last place club.


Fred promoted Phillips' understudy; Jim Duquette.  Duquette was given the proverbial cease and desist orders from the top.  Wilpon cut off expenditures.  Before Wilpon ever fired Duquette, Fred begged Omar Minaya to come back to the organization.  And for a short time at the tail end of 2004, this organization maintained a two headed GM monster.  It turned out to be a very amateurish way to fire Duquette.


By now, we understand the Omar years a little better.  But with no more understudies.  After thirty-years of executives being put in place for Wilpon's usage, there were none.  The Commissioner of Baseball was needed to suggest Sandy Alderson as a candidate.  So Jeff Wilpon conducted an interview process ruse before announcing Alderson's hire.




II.  FRONT OFFICE:


What GM Sandy Alderson is not, is wishy-washy.   There is no paralysis by analysis with him.   He's brutally honest, quite methodical in his approach, and doesn't let situations linger.  


Five members of Omar's old guard were effectively purged this past season.   John Maine was allowed to hail a cab and leave.   Decisions to release Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo came decisively early in the season.   Likewise, another early season situation at second base was not allowed to fester.   And ultimately, a solution presented itself in the form of Justin Turner. 


Sandy played his hand in the Carlos Beltran transaction as best he could and landed a top-quality pitching prospect in return from the Giants.   In the Francisco Rodriguez deal, I don't think the Mets nor KRod's agent ever even considered the 2012 option in his contract as being negotiable.   I think that aspect of KRod's settlement with Milwaukee was born strictly because the Brewers are small market and forced to be creative, and in this case bold enough, to suggest such an opt-out.   The bottom line however, was KRod's potential balloon salary for 2012 was strictly out of the question in Fred's operating budget and Sandy managed two minor league bodies in return. 


This General Manager is still driving Omar's ride however.   We don't know what will become of Jose Reyes.   But Omar's other inheritance; David Wright; still has a year on his deal.  And the latest rumor is the Mets are now openly shopping David.   The other contractual hold-overs such as Johan Santana, Jason Bay, and Angel Pagan remain.   Dillon Gee; Mike Pelfrey: Jon Niese; Bobby Parnell; Ike Davis; Lucas Duda; Ruben Tejada; Josh Thole; etc.. and most if not all minor leaguers from Binghampton to Buffalo are all Omar's. 


Sandy Alderson's greatest accomplishment thus far has been getting the Wilpons to budge from MLB's suggested slotting system.  The signing of Brandon Nimmo and others after the most recent June Amateur Draft was a welcome departure from the club's prior practice of not over-paying bonuses to prospects, and instead concentrating on Latin free-agents not subjected to the draft, and in effect being less costly. 


Sandy Alderson's front office imports, Paul DePodesta and J.P. Ricciardi, are in charge of such matters now.  And the fan base appears satisfied the operations have been put in very capable hands.  I for one would concur.  It's becoming very clear to this Met Fan, the organization is making a welcome return to being a developmental based organization again. 


In the years between the promotions of Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Scott Kazmir, and the current crop of prospects who've been promoted over the last two seasons, the Mets' minor league system became a barren waste land.  What had been a very fertile system for forty years, continually producing prospects since 1966, was nothing but a dust bowl by the 2005 season.  It took several years after Omar Minaya's appointment for his scouting and development to produce the current Met youngsters pressed into action these last two seasons. 


While this young likable group is fine for the moment, DePodesta and Riciarrdi are about to take scouting and development into the much needed "grass-roots" levels of which this organization removed itself long ago after the days of Joe McIlvaine and Gen-K, and which were started way back with Joe McDonald in the 60's.  However, there will be a few year's wait before we see tangible results from DePodesta's and Riciarrdi's handy work. 


The team's payroll is projected to be around $100 to $115 million dollars next season.  The likelihood of major roster enhancements through free agency is zero.  And that's a shame as this is one of the more deeper crops of potential free agents of the last few years.  With this GM however, that seems to be a moot point.  In my words, he finds it ludicrous the Mets will have half of next year's projected payroll wrapped up in just a few players.  But if you're an older Met Fan, you know the Mets do not have a positive history with regards to free-agency.  What we always did well was develop through the minor league system and make smart timely trades.  It appears as if Sandy Alderson is bringing back that philosophy to Flushing. 


Then there is the matter of our own Type-A free agent; Jose Reyes.  Over the course of the 2011 season, he did much to change the GM's perceptions of him as a team leader and as being someone capable of carrying the club over stretches at a time.  The eventual 2011 National League batting champ was undoubtedly having the best season of his career right up until his arch nemesis; pulled hamstring; re-entered his daily life again.  And now truth be told, Jose Reyes can never be looked at the same way again.  It is becoming more evident by the season, he plays on permanently compromised legs.  All eyes of Met Fans are on Sandy Alderson to see which direction he will take this team and if it will be with or without Jose Reyes playing shortstop. 


The Reyes situation also has the owner in a bind.  Let us not forget the mildly disparaging comments Fred Wilpon made about his shortstop during an April interview which came to our attention much later in the season.  Then ponder, no Jose Reyes probably translates into even less fans showing up at Citi Field next season.  That's why rebuilding is such a dirty word around here I guess.  The question remains, will the Owners exert pressure on their GM to sign Reyes?  I believe the answer is no.  I'm confident this call with be 100% Sandy's.  The growing rumor is the Mets will let him walk away.





III.  MANAGER:


As a field manager and strategists, I had no problems with Terry Collins.  The Mets don't finish as well as they did without Terry Collins imploring them day in and day out to keep at it like he did.  While the Mets end of season record says one thing, the way the players responded to Terry said another.  Tenacious Terry was rewarded somewhat by his players by being very resilient. 


What I liked most about Coach Collins was how matter of factly he told the Media, you won't do to me, what you did to those other saps before me.  He served them notice back in June. - Don't try and make him look stupid.  Willie Randolph was wound too tight and Jerry Manuel kept the Media in stitches with jokes.  But when either former managers were pressed during Media interrogations and put on the hot seat for answers, what you usually got was Ralph Cramden trying to answer the $64,000 Question.


Terry doesn't pull any punches.  And the Media took his advice at face value.  They were much more benign with Terry than they ever were with Willie, and on and off with Manuel. 


After the effort he put in last season, the first year Met manager overwhelmingly earned a longer stay in Flushing.  And his familiarity with the Mets' young players probably had a lot to do with that.  Far from being the ogre of years past in Houston and Anaheim, Terry was very supportive of his players and they of him.  It was the media if they weren't careful that would earn his wrath.  And that's perfectly fine with me.





IV.  COACHES:



Upheaval has come to the coaching staff.  Gone are third base coach Chip Hale; first base coach Mookie Wilson; bench coach Ken Oberkfell; and bullpen coach Jon Debus.


Chip Hale has already found employment.  There's talk Mookie is headed to Binghampton.  And while Jon Debus is a non-issue for me, the fact Ken Oberkfell is gone from the organization is welcome news.  It's my opinion he's been part of the brick wall our prospects have been hitting midway through our system.  For a decade plus, too many otherwise good looking prospects stalled and faded in AA - Binghampton and Oberkfell was part of a constant in the system throughout that time. 


Tim Teufel replaces Mookie Wilson as the 1986 representative.  But I feel Sandy will be equally unimpressed with Teufel's style just as he found Mookie's.  I watched each man manage a season for the Brooklyn Cyclones.  And neither did anything worth mentioning to distinguish oneself from the other.


Former MLB pitcher, Rickey Bones gets a promotion and is now the bullpen coach.  Sandy Alderson described the switch as wanting more of a pitching presence from that roll, as Jon Debus brought a catcher's perspective. 


By far, the most intriguing hire is new bench coach, Bob Geren.  When I was a kid, he played on the Yankees.  So I don't like him already.  If Terry Collins was once considered to be the steel wool of managers, well Bob Geren definitely qualifies as a cheese grater.  Geren wasn't exactly a smoothie with his players which makes this appointment odd.  He has managerial experience which is a good quality to have as bench coach.  But he's accused of having the interpersonal and communicative skills of Rowdy Roddy Piper with a microphone in one hand and a bottle of Johnnie Walker in the other.  To say I am displeased with this hire is an under-statement.


Dan Warthen has been deemed a keeper as Pitching Coach by Sandy Alderson.  I wasn't a Warthen fan at first, but he has handled certain pitchers this season in a manner I appreciated very much.  I was quite surprised and pleased with A) - his tough love stances taken with Jon Niese and Dillon Gee, and B) - his re-introduction of the curveball to the Mets staff.  R.A. Dickey, and hopefully Johan Santana next season, do not need much coaching.  Those two merely need a watchful eye.  And I am not about to put Mike Pelfrey on Warthen unless he can perform lobotomies also.


Niese and Gee have clearly been Warthen's projects.  And there are a few farm hands who will be trickling up the ladder soon whom Dan Warthen will be asked to mentor. At some point, I fully expect the Mets to explore options with designs of ridding themselves of Johan Santana.  The point is the starting staff may soon be filled predominantly by Met products which places the onus on Dan Warthen to teach these kids well.  Sooner than later, he may be charged with a very inexperienced staff.  If Niese and Gee can be used as a gauge, then maybe, in the absence of Dave Duncan falling into our laps, Dan Warthen might be a good man and fine choice moving forward. 


Wally Backman continues to be over looked by the big club.  He may accept the job to be Buffalo's manager.  That matter is still pending.  An appointment as coach on the big club would have recreated a Willie Randolph/Jerry Manuel type feel in the dugout.  As Terry was just extended, if Wally is to be manager of the Mets one day, he'll have to take the Buffalo job and continue to play good soldier.  I'm not sure, but I don't think Sandy Alderson appreciates bats flying out of the dugout.


Lastly, I've always been a proponent of bringing John Stearns back as a coach within the organization.


A/O 10-26-11 -  PART TWO -  V.  STARTING PITCHING;  VI.  BULLPEN 




Coming -   VII.  POSITION PLAYERS





Mike.BTB

BKN CYCLONES ~ Frank Viola Named Pitching Coach for 2011

Brooklyn Cyclones; -

The Brooklyn Cyclones have announced their coaching staff for the upcoming 2011 season.

Rich Donnelly has been named the new manager of the Coney Island Nine.  He has over 25 years experience being a Major League Coach.  In the 1980's he managed in the Texas Rangers farm system and coached on the big club as well.  The majority of his body of his work was spent coaching for Jim Leyland in Pittsburgh, Florida and Colorado.  He was a coach for the 1997 Champion Florida Marlins.  He also coached with Milwaukee and Los Angeles.

FRANKIE VIOLA; former 20 game winner for the Mets, Cy Young Winner, and Long Island native, will serve as the team's new Pitching Coach.  He'll be charged with teaching our Brooklyn hurlers how to make sweet music on the mound by the seashore.

The new Hitting Coaching for the Surf Avenue Sluggers will be Bobby Malek.  This 29 year old played 28 games for the Cyclones in 2002.  The Mets selected him in the 4th round in the 2002 Draft.  He comes back where it all started for him to teach the next generation of Lil Bums.

Frank Viola joins, Howard Johnson, Bobby Ojeda, Mookie Wilson, Tim Teufel and Wally Backman as former Mets who came back to coach in Brooklyn.




Mike.BTB

NYM ~ Pondering a Manager for the Mets, Dude.

Only now that we've hired Sandy Alderson would I even consider bringing Bobby Valentine back.  Without Sandy Alderson I wouldn't even have entertained the thought.  It's the old "Been there; Done that" syndrome. 

I have to laugh somewhat about the clamouring for Valentine's return.  In 2003 Mets' fans were calling for his head on a pike.  Fans were lining up their cars on Roosevelt Avenue willing to take Bobby to the airport.  Mets fans (me included) complained Bobby got too....Too everything!  Basically Met fans tired of his act and ego.  The downward spiral we found ourselves in 2003 only threw lighter fluid on the flames. 

Today we finally find ourselves on the other side of that long dark tunnel; coincidentally it's the era I've been calling Met Year 8 A.D. (After Doubleday).  What started when the Mets fired Steve Phillips and  Doubleday leaving ended when the Wilpons hired Alderson.  Why would we want to revisit those years?  Bobby hasn't changed.  C'mon....He must have said or done something to tick-off the Marlins most recently.  And why haven't the Brewers locked him up yet (although they seem real close, but they seem to be moving very carefully)?  What makes Mets fans think this time around would be any different?  It's Ponderous.  Do we want our own version of "Billy" hirings minus the Angry Water?

But I will take the time out to answer that myself. 

Bobby Valentine is an excellent manager and strategist.  There are few better; Period.  He has the perfect personality and attitude, not to mention intelligence to engage in the harangue that is the give and take with NY media.  Don't you think I know all this?  Of course he'd be a good manager here.  Having Sandy Alderson would serve as the perfect buffer between him and the Wilpons.  Wasn't that always the problem bringing him back; the Wilpons?  The two parties do not like each other.  We know this.

Additionally, I never thought Bobby Valentine could co-exist with Omar Minaya, John Ricco or ANYone the Mets could have brought in as General Manager.  Remember among the items of contention between Valentine and Phillips was Valentine's insistence he have a say in personnel matters.  Phillips denied him outright, at every request.  But Phillips regardless of his libido, was a very smart cookie who was very well equipped to handle Bobby Valentine.  Not Omar, or anyone the Mets could have conjured up, would have worked well here with Bobby Valentine's ego.  Valentine is too smart and would have run circles around Omar, and as is Bobby's way, Omar would have grown to feel uncomfortably dominated by Jeff on one side and Bobby on the other.  Valentine would have chewed-up and spit-out John Ricco.  Bobby Valentine would have been hired only to get fired for many reasons three short years later.  Think to yourselves fellow Met fans.  You know this to be true...Under the old system that is.

Alderson changes all that now.  Alderson is/was the only man available today who has the intellect, mental strength and fortitude of character to contend with Bobby Valentine.  Alderson is an excellent check to Valentine's strong will.  And now I would gladly welcome back Bobby Valentine into the conversation.  However, I am still not inclined to lean his way.  And it doesn't look like the money is a match either.

Ken Oberkfell and Bob Melvin are complete yawners.  Of the two, I'd eliminate Melvin from the list altogether.  He's tainted with old regime 'cooties'.  He loomed over Jerry Manuel's head like a dark cloud.  That's bad karma; don't need it.  Kenny Oberfell would be the next to go.  Met fans, I ask you sincerely, do you really envision Oberkfell as the new manager?  I didn't think so.

Why Lee Mazzilli doesn't intrigue me more, I can't answer. He was THE METS once upon a time.  Man!  I thought he was going to play with Seaver, Koos, Millan, Milner and...(why do I do that to myself).  He has coaching experience and many years sitting next to Joe Torre.  He did a remarkable job under horrific circumstances in Baltimore.  However I may feel about Lee Mazzilli, who comes my neighborhood, I think there are better candidates available.  I don't think Mazzilli's resume fits in with what we need right now.

Clint Hurdle and Terry Collins are very average, un-impactful candidates.  There's too much at stake here to hand the controls over to the milkman.  The Angels' players darted Terry Collins with a vote of no confidence when he managed there.  We don't need to touch that.  Clint Hurdle ~ Remember how the Rockies won 1150 games out of their last 25 +/- games of the season to make the 2007 playoffs?  After you remember that, forget Clint Hurdle.

Chip Hale has my attention because the players seem real responsive to him.  When people have that nature and way about them; a personality that attracts, people usually listen attentively to them.  I'd give him an interview.

I'm not saying this is my choice but Tim Teufel would be a logical choice.  Teufel had a lot of our new young players in Brooklyn and Binghampton.  No one knows these players better than he does, in much the same way Davey Johnson managed many of the prospects of the early 80's and was promoted by Frank Cashen to manage them on the Major League level.  Tim Teufel is a logical choice, and you can't disregard what I just said.  He's been putting in his dues with this organization for several years now.  Like I said though, he's not necessarily my choice.  I'd be agreeable to him though.

I'm open to Wally Backman.  I like him for all the reasons you do.  I wouldn't mind seeing him get the job at all.  He'd be a tremendous hit!  He'd get a standing ovation on Opening Day; without a doubt!  The Wilpons like him and the fans like him.  The question is does Sandy Alderson like him?  He might.

Backman recently took the Brooklyn Cyclones to the NYPL Championship Round.  That, and his experience with the Peanuts is all there is though.  Is that enough?  I think there's a (again...) Billy Martin motif about him; maybe even John McGraw'ish attribute Met fans are dying to identify with and apply to Wally Backman.  I do think he has great instinctual baseball intellect.  He knows the game.  He knows what works.  Little stout guys always make great managers!

And now try this name out and see how it sits with you; John Stearns ~ The Dude! - Yes! - The former fiery Met player, catcher, all*star, former Met coach?  He managed last at Harrisburg in the National's system 2 years ago and I think he's currently employed as a scout for the Mariners.  John Stearns...Anyone feeling The Dude?  He's tough minded and he has that 'catcher gene' going for him.  I know John Stearns isn't even on any-body's radar much less Sandy Alderson's.  I'm on an island of one with this pick.  I get that.  But if you're thinking about hiring Lee Mazzilli, John Stearns should be considered also.  I'd hire him ahead of many other names.

Joey Cora?  Forget Milwaukee.  Picture it Met Fans ~ The Little Yankee Killer (think '95); Flushing's Little General leading his troops?  Think of the possibilities ~ Close your eyes and imagine it for a moment.  I guarantee you he's feisty and has a tremendous Baseball acumen.  In the earliest days of his coaching career, Ozzie Guillen, who is a very close friend of his, got his hands on him and made him go to Venezuela to start managing there.  He came back with some experience and managed the Mets' Kingsport Team.  Joey has been with Ozzie Guillen ever since serving first as his third base coach and currently as his bench coach.  As a player he was an all*star selection and has playoff experience with the Chicago White Sox and the Seattle Mariners.  As a coach he earned a World Series ring with the ChiSox in 2005.  If you're looking for the "Little Guy with a Big Bite" angle, this is your guy.  He is smaller than Wally Backman but not as stout.  They are both feisty.

My two honorable mentions are Larry Bowa and Tony Pena.  Simply, I think they are two good, Baseball lifers.  There's something to be said for those kinda guys.  Heck, Jack McKeon won a championship didn't he?

Who knows what's going on with Lou Piniella and Joe Torre said he's out of the picture (don't believe it).  But I don't want them either.

Don Wakamatsu?  I'm lukewarm at best.

Does anyone think Dave Righetti is ready to take a manager's job? ~ Roger Craig anyone?

The fact that John Gibbons acted preemptively with regards to the Mets' available managerial position speaks loud and clear to me.  He told us to beat it....And now I want him more.  He's such a bitch!

You'd have to examine all the third base coaches and bench coaches around MLB to keep yourself from dealing in retreads.  None need apply.  The Mets have embarked on a whole new dynamic in their history.  Let's continue forward.  The old thinking is done.

Right?


Mike.BTB

..on Joe Torre, Mets and the Managerial Scene

The following is a comment I made to a post today regarding Joe Torre on The Prince of NY's Sunday Lightning post. 

I agree, Torre will be managing next year. I don't think there's any doubt the McCourts and the unpredictable future of the Dodgers made Torre want to bail-out. He's been complaining all year actually, for anyone who wanted to listen. It wouldn't be like Torre would be going back to work for the Buschs' again so in a way Torre and a St. Lou reunion could be a clean slate for them both. I'm just not so sure St. Lou is ready to jettison LaRussa yet, unless he himself wants out. St. Lou, if they're anything, they're stable. And stable franchises excel at negotiating through squabbles, differences, times of drama and straining opinions. Stable clubs understand human nature and understand everyone doesn't agree all the time in long term relationships. That's my only case for LaRussa staying put.

Torre back to the Mets? He would have been perfect for the 2006 team. I feel this Met team with the direction they should be going in, is not the right place for Torre to be. I'd be silly to criticize Torre but I do not feel The Mets and Torre are a match today

I am at odds with the name Tim Teufel, but he's probably the right guy for the job. He's not my first choice but I have to be honest with the situation and think he's probably the right choice.

Where does Torre land? Chicago Cubs seem logical as you pointed out. How do you feel about Nolan Ryan seeing a chance to upgrade, bouncing Washington for Torre? Marlins? Are they really out of the question? It wouldn't surprise me at all.

Joe Torre seems to be topic of the day since he declared he would not return next year as manager of the Dodgers.  In his place the Dodgers have already appointed Don Mattingly as Joe's successor.

Mattingly, quickly, is just not ready.  With zero managerial experience to speak of, is this a prudent move by the Dodgers Front Office?  Even here in NY when there was speculation Donnie Baseball could take over for Torre and again when there were two clear managerial candidates heading into 2008, the fans sided with Joe Girardi and never warmed up to the idea of Mattingly as manager regardless.

Quietly, the Cubs lurk in the shadows possessing a distinct possibility they could have a choice between Joe Girardi and or Joe Torre being their next manager.

Where ever Joe Torre winds up or whatever he decides to do, I wish him well.  Just don't come to Flushing. 

Hey!  He's from Brooklyn!  He can take it.


Mike.BTB