The Mets have announced that they are taking their time with
the managerial search.
Maybe it has only
been three weeks but so far it seems like a long process.
Is it due diligence? Are
the Mets taking their time to make sure they are doing it right?
When was the last time they did something right?
Well I think they got a lot right this last June in the Draft
and the signing of non-drafted free agents.
Only time will tell but just from following Brett
Baty, Matt Allen,
Jake
Mangum, Luke
Ritter, Joe
Genord, Andrew
Edwards, and Jake
Ortega who they obtained in the draft and Frank
Valentino, Jared
Biddy and Matt
Mullenbach that they signed as non-drafted free agents, I think they had a
very successful June signing season.
They hired some new coaches to go along with Manager Edgardo
Alfonzo in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn became a
great running team as Endy Chavez joined the team as bench coach and first base
coach. Hitters excelled at hitting
against the shift and at productive outs to move runners over and get them in with
Brooklyn hitting coach Delwyn Young. New
Brooklyn pitching coach, Josue Matos, did a great job helping Garrison
Bryant to have a breakout year and showed the very difficult skill to get
pitchers that were struggling to make in game adjustments to pitch effectively.
And Fonzie stressed fundamentals all year long for Brooklyn
with daily drills in bunting and defense.
Brooklyn only led the league in one category, defense, and the old adage held
true, defense wins championships.
Of course, the Mets had to nullify all that by firing Fonzie
because he was not “Brodie’s guy”.
But, were the fundamentals and the emphasis all from Fonzie? Or was it the first time since Gil Hodges died
and Whitey Herzog left the organization, that the Mets as an organization decided to emphasize,
as Keith would say, “good fundies”.
Because if it was all Fonzie, then shame on you Brodie,
Jeff, and Fred.
Shame on you for seeing good fundamentals put into practice right in front of
your face, seeing it result in Brooklyn’s only sole championship in their
history, and not caring; Not caring
about Mets fan favorite Fonzie, Not caring about the fans, and maybe not caring
about winning.
But baseball and baseball fans can be a forgiving lot.
Start by putting Fonzie in the Mets Hall of Fame. He was the best all around infielder in their
history, period. He needs to be
there.
Second, in this managerial search, get someone that will stress
fundamentals. Remember those great Mets
teams of the 80’s? Remember how the less
talented Cardinal teams would beat them?
They beat them by stressing defense and fundamentals. Had the 80’s Mets teams did a little more of that than, they might have won more than one World Series.
Right now, your best second baseman plays mostly right
field, your right fielder plays mostly center field, a third basemen plays
mostly left field and a 36-year-old who has leg problems plays up the middle at
second. This is a problem.
Finally, please stop the madness. Let the manager be his own man. If he fails, HE fails. Yes, Baseball today is all about
collaboration and working together. Have
pre-game meetings. Work on a strategy
together but let him do his job.
Well, we will see what happens. They say past performance does not predict future
events. Some of the performance from the
Mets organization gives me hope, while others do not. Let’s hope that the good performance from
last year are the preview of things to come.
Ambassador Alfonso better than David Wright? Nah.
ReplyDeleteThey must have some reservation with Fonzie to not just not consider him for the open manager's job, but fire him from the one he was in, which I can't picture having happened if Sandy was still in charge.
Ever player has their WAR rating - so, I guess, do managers. We need to pick the right one. They get paid to hire him. I'll wait until they do to criticize him relentlessly.
Watching the WS, you realize that Brett Baty, Matt Allen and Josh Wolf are three guys who might have WS potential. The others will have to prove they do too - or there is always Baltimore or KC.
Nice article John. I may add that Brodie likes to do things that no sees coming. If I may compare him to Alderson in neither makes the obvious move, but rather wants people to say ‘Where did that come from?’ Why are the Wilpons attracted to ego driven guys?
ReplyDeleteWell, Girardi is off the table. I feel as if we dodged another TC bullet.
ReplyDeleteI think it is vital that it be made public who passed here, Giradi or the Mets.
ReplyDeleteEspecially if it was Girardi.
This will defuse the neg-emotions every time there is a Mets loss next season.