Because You Are Bad At It

Willie Randolph gave his own version of how shocked he was he was let go.  Terrific.  He thought maybe some of his coaches would get fired, but not him.  I guess Willie doesn’t read BTF.

Willie Randolph should have been fired October 1, 2007.  Really, I would have fired him sooner, but the last two weeks of 2007 was the simple culmination of Willie’s constant version of Russian Roulette.  If you make enough poor managerial moves, sooner or later you will shoot yourself in the face.  Randolph routinely ignored simple baseball advantages, operated in stunning ignorance of his players’ skill sets, and loved to use players who were bad, presumably to re-build their confidence.  That’s a minor league manager’s job - at the major league level, you just win.  The Mets won in 2006 in the face of Willie’s poor management.  The 2007 version, with a significantly lessened Carlos Delgado, couldn’t bludgeon their opponents as much, and needed to do fewer dumb things.  Willie just isn’t the man for that.  His previous managerial experience was watching Joe Torre put the Yankees on as much auto-pilot as possible and stay out of the way.  Again, that worked in 2006, but not so in 2007, and 2008 had a continuation of that.

That’s not to say Omar Minaya doesn’t have some culpability.  He’s got to put down the 2003 media guides and pick up some more recent ones.  However, the team as constructed by Omar still won in 2006 and should have won in 2007.  The team the Mets now, if it gets moderately healthy, should be able to win 55 more games.  That should at least approach the playoffs.  He should do things like “sign Barry Bonds” rather than “acquire Trot Nixon”.  But there are worse moves.

How many second basemen does it take to field a Mets team?
Probably the worst thing Willie did was love his position too much.  He thinks second basemen are the cornerstone to a great baseball team.  So he loads the team with them.  Can’t he understand that second basemen can’t hit?  They hit few home runs, and are just one of the weaker hitters on the field.  Sure, you need a back-up middle infielder on the bench.  That’s understandable.  You don’t need three.  You don’t need three catchers.  You need more guys on the bench that can hit, and a couple that can field.  Willie, in 2007, had four second basemen as his bench.  That’s some sort of dirty joke.  Oh, Marlon Anderson and Damion Easley can play anywhere!  Yes, but *why*?  Did all those years of sitting on the Yankee bench beside Luis Sojo get Willie to believe in this type of need?  His 2005 team featured Marlon, Miguel Cairo, Kaz Matsui and Chris Woodward.  He simply cannot help himself.

The Second Baseman Does Not Have to Hit Second
I wish I were kidding.  I know that lineup effects are not huge, but a weak hitter should get fewer at bats, not more atabats.  Some argue that Luis Castillo is a tolerable #2 hitter.  I wouldn’t do it, but for the sake of argument, let’s say he is.  Well, willie falling Bass-ackwards into putting a high-OBP player in the two-hole is just that.  If Castillo couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat, he’d still bat second because he’s the *second* basemen.  And why?  Because second basemen “know how to handle the bat”.  Argh! 

“Chris, can you give me an example?” Sure, in 2005, Kaz Matsui and Miguel Cairo hit second 96 times.  to be fair, Miguel Cairo, who hit second the most, did have a 0.296 OBP, and slugged 0.324.  But not in 2006.  Willie had Paul LoDuca.  Terrific.  the other guys hitting second?  Matsui (until traded) and Chris Woodward.  Again he used LoDuca there in 2007 until about midseason, then turned it over to Jose Valentin (2B), Ruben Gotay (2B) and then Castillo (2B).  Yes, Endy Chavez, a career 0.309 OBP, got 20 starts in the second slot.

Lineups matter as long as you make a reasonable one - Willie doesn’t understand what constitutes reasonable. 

S-S-R-S-L-L-L-L
You know, Willie, if you put four straight LHBs in a row, the opposing manager can take a big advantage of that (something the sims that think lineup order doesn’t matter often misses - at least HAL does).  Hell, that’s a good enough reason to bat Castillo lower in the order - just to break up that awfulness.  No, he doesn’t do it much, but he likes three LHBs in a row.  It’s a simple managerial move that *slightly* increases your chances of winning.  Willie eschewed that advantage and got shot in the face.  Unfortunately it happened after September, 2007.

I won’t bore you with the bullpen management, but it’s similarly craptastic.  Willie needed to cut his teeth in the minors.  Watching isn’t enough to learn what has to be done.  And Rick Peterson is no Leo Mazzone.

Was Willie fired in a poor manner?  Who cares?  He earned a much harsher firing over the last three seasons.  I know he has a great record, but I could win like that with three everyday players who are the top two or three at their position in MLB.  then sprinkle a good Carlos Delgado, and walk to 97 wins.  He was a bad hire, and a late fire.  Will Jerry Manuel be better?  Well, I watched Joe Torre be a trainwreck of a manager in the late 1970s.  He’s revered as a managerial god at this point.  Maybe Manuel can pull off that change.