N.Y. Times: Manuel Plans to Give Mets a Lesson in Selfless Baseball (RR)

Good luck, Met fans! Local jellie labs will be open all winter!

On his first official day as the Mets’ manager, Jerry Manuel proposed molding his team into the Los Angeles Angels. More of an East Coast version, actually.

Come spring training, Manuel said, he planned to do some “serious teaching” with his players, changing their offensive strategy and inculcating the importance of unselfish baseball. He wants them, as well as the organization, to diminish the emphasis on statistics and establish a culture of selflessness that values sharp situational hitting, flawless fundamentals and impervious defense — things that the Angels, perennial contenders, do better than perhaps any team in baseball.

“What has been done in the past is that you get so many statistical people together — they put so many stats on paper — and they say, ‘Well, if you do this and you score this many runs, you do this that many times, you’ll be in the playoffs,’ ” Manuel said Saturday in a conference call after the Mets announced that he had agreed to a two-year contract. “That’s not really how it works. And that’s what we have to get away from.”

...“You don’t see a lot of guys that have statistical numbers play well in these championship series,” Manuel said. “What you see is usually the little second baseman or somebody like that carries off the M.V.P. trophy that nobody expected him to do. That’s because he’s comfortable in playing that form of baseball, so therefore when the stage comes, it’s not a struggle for him.”