Mets fire Willie Randolph

by JasonB on Jun 17, 2008 9:06 AM EDT

A little over a year ago this guy was a young manager on the rise in charge of a team that looked like it was ready to take the step... 3am last night he was canned.

Just 17 months ago, Willie Randolph received a new multi-million dollar contract, a reward for invigorating a franchise and guiding the Mets to their first division title in 18 years and close to a victory in the World Series.

He has since presided over one of the greatest collapses in baseball history, from which this year’s team has yet to recover.

Nearly three months into another disappointing season, the Mets announced early Tuesday morning that they had fired Randolph, the first African-American to manage in New York, after three and a half years as manager, and replaced him with the bench coach Jerry Manuel.

They also gutted their coaching staff, firing the pitching coach Rick Peterson and the first-base coach Tom Nieto, while promoting three coaches from the minor leagues.

"I’m in shock," said the catcher Ramon Castro, when stopped in his hotel lobby. "I don’t know what to say."

So does this shake the team up and spark them to a turnaround or is it the final nail in the coffin?

[Note by JasonB, 06/17/08 12:23 PM EDT ] Update

This article hit piece by Mike Vaccaro of the NY post is an amazing read. I'm not sure I've ever read a beat writer go after a team as viciously as he does here. He holds nothing back on the Mets management. Wow.

What a crowd these bums are, all of them, from the Wilpons at the top to Omar Minaya down below, all of them who conspired to botch this firing worse than any firing has ever been botched. Ever. You wouldn't trust these guys to run a 7-Eleven, let alone a National League baseball team. What a joke. What a cowardly, dastardly joke.

A midnight massacre.

A 3 a.m. thrashing.

Disgraceful. Utterly, completely, disgraceful.

0 recs | Comment 8 comments

Read Related

Story-email Email | Print |

Comments

Little difference

I thnk it’ll make little difference in their performace one way or the other. Perhaps instead of focusing on their manager, they should look at the old, broken-down, useless thing they call a roster. The only position player I’d take on any team of mine is David Wright. Everyone else is a broken shadown of their formerselves. Nice pitching staff too… Maybe Billy Wagner should come down and try to close some games at the local Little League… Perhaps he won’t be overmatched….

by foos05 on Jun 17, 2008 11:44 AM EDT 0 recs

They have some excellent players. Players such as Wright, Reyes, Beltran, Santana, and Maine. However, their roster this year reminds me a bit of the Phillies of old. Where there was an amazing core group surrounded by sub par talent or old, injury-prone talent.

by Neduol Caz on Jun 17, 2008 12:21 PM EDT 0 recs

But why? Do they not have the money we all thought they did? Did they blow their budget on Beltran/Santana/Delgado/Wagner?

Bleeding Green Nation - Philadelphia Eagles Blog

by JasonB on Jun 17, 2008 12:27 PM EDT up 0 recs

I agree. They resemble the 2003-2005 era Phillies both in the extreme imbalance on the roster and the sense that the whole equals less than the sum of the parts.

Billy Wagner is obviously at fault. (I’m about 50 percent serious. Obviously he’s a great performer, but I think he might be a bad clubhouse presence as I believe he was with the Phils.)

by dajafi on Jun 17, 2008 12:37 PM EDT up 0 recs

thats not a good thing

They may get a real coach no and start winning. Bring back Willie.

Dallas Sucks

by yophillybro on Jun 17, 2008 1:18 PM EDT 0 recs

Fortunately with Jerry Manuel as the interim manager, there’s no danger of that.

by wildcatlh on Jun 17, 2008 1:20 PM EDT up 0 recs

Until Omar gets fired a mets resurgence doesn’t worry me, as long as he’s still running the show, the mets will stinks

by jemagee on Jun 17, 2008 2:12 PM EDT 0 recs

Firing Randolph probably won’t make Alou, Pedro, Delgado and El Duque any healthier, and definitely not any younger. It won’t improve their bench, which is two levels down from Suck. It isn’t like to furnish Oliver Perez with consistency or turn around Aaron Heilman.

They’ve got the talent to make a run and a stretch where they go 17-8 or something is fairly likely, but this just doesn’t look like a 90-plus win team to me right now. And they don’t have the prospects or (I think) payroll flexibility to make improvement through trades very likely.

by dajafi on Jun 17, 2008 3:19 PM EDT 0 recs