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10/14/21

Ray Savage - SAVAGE VIEWS – Managing the Mets

 


SAVAGE VIEWS – Managing the Mets

October 14, 2021

During the 60 years that the Mets have been in existence, twenty two have been asked to manage this team, including four interim managers.  Luis Rojas, the latest casualty, follows a long line of managers who did not make it past the second year.  Actually, only nine made it past year two.

Of these twenty two how many earned high grades.  Two were Hall of Fame talents whose best work was for other teams.  Joe Torre spent his apprenticeship at the Mets before he earned his bona fides with the Yankees.  Amazing how talent can bring out the genius in a guy like Torre.

And of course who can forget the unforgettable Casey Stengel.  Unfortunately, he left his managerial talent at Yankee Stadium.

It is undisputable who the top three Met managers were.  While I am biased toward Gil Hodges, I think it’s fair to say that Davey Johnson and Bobby Valentine can also claim the title as best Mets manager.

Only Bud Harrelson, Willie Randolph and Mickey Callaway ended their Mets careers with more wins than losses.  However, few would give them high marks for their managerial acumen.  With the exception of Joe Torre, departed Mets managers did not hook up with other teams following their tenure with the team. 

Now, if I were to come up with a top five list who would deserve the nod?  Terry Collins and Dallas Green perhaps to complement the top three?  My top five list maxes out at three with hopefully good things to come from future hirers.

The three men who had success managing the Mets had similar traits;

1.  Strong leadership skills.  These were men you wanted to go into battle with.  When they were in the dugout there was no doubt about who was in charge.

2.  Great communicators.  This is especially true in today’s climate when you may have players on your team from all over the globe.  Clearly, players need to be on board with your decision making.  Also, solid media relations cannot be underemphasized.   New York remains a tough market and the media can make life hell if not catered to.

3.  Manage to win.  This means a controlled aggressive approach to take advantage of the other team’s shortcomings.  For example, if a pitcher has a poor track record of holding runners, attempt to steal at every opportunity.  Or, lots of time in a first and third situation with less than two outs, the runner on first is often ignored and can walk to second.  Take advantage of that situation.  I’m a firm believer in forcing the other team’s hand.   Take the extra base, utilize speed to steal a base or take an extra base. 

4.  Develop a winning attitude.  This has been a missing ingredient for a number of years.   Winning teams believe in themselves.  It’s the “knock the chip off my shoulder mentality”.  I’d like to see more players like deGrom, Alonso, Nimmo and McNeil on my team.

5.  Trust the pitching staff.  As a rule starting pitchers should be allowed to go deep into games.  Pulling a SP after 74 pitches is insane and puts stress on the bullpen.  An overworked pen produces cataclysmic results.

At this stage I have no idea who the next manager will be.  I’d be ok if they brought back Beltran.  Right now I have no preference.  Experience may be desirable but all experienced managers are on the market because they were dismissed from their prior positions.

Ray

12 comments:

  1. Ray, a brilliant synopsis.

    When I watched the Red Sox a bit against Tampa, their players struck me as tougher than the Mets. We need a tough manager and a tough team. We had that with Davey and the mid 80s Mets. We had that with Gil, too. Conforto was soft in tough hitting situations - I do not want that long-term.

    I also agree on using your starters deeper. Deeper is more feasible if the Mets' hitters score more runs. I'd like to see at least 100 more runs in 2022. Absolute minimum. Hitting made Casey look good in the 1950s. And Torre 40 years later. Teams that hit a lot more generally win a lot more.

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  2. I like the article until I read anything remotely positive about Dallas Green and Terry Collins, both career losers. They could probably use the kick-in-the-pants attitude of Green in someone. What they could get from Collins would be cluelessness. No thanks. They have plenty of that already.

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    1. My point was there was no # four or five among the other 19 former managers.

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  3. Mack, is that tongue-in-cheek, or real, about Almora, in your opinion?

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  4. To Me It Is Either...

    1. Boche 2. McEwing

    I don't want some weirdo or deadbeat brain managing here. It doesn't work. Reese. Cluelessness? Bingo to you. I guess self importance doesn't always win games.

    The above two, Bruce and Joe, do both have the necessary skills to win as the manager in New York. Plus, they have decent personalities to actually "relate well" to their players. Not always the norm here. You play hard for them, and a player can enjoy in so doing with them at the helm. Both to me are very good choices for here.

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  5. The Mets (as do most MLB teams) always seem to look first to the current free agent list for additions of new players for the next season. Sometimes, just like other MLB teams, they sort of buy into a more veteran starter who has had a pretty record already in the past but is now toothy. More often it does not work, the acquired veteran is like on semi-retirement and coasting. Injuries factor in here as well. For some teams their player personnel additions don't go beyond this type of approach. They are lazy.

    The Mets have once and awhile gone after other teams better MiLB pitchers, i.e. Noah Syndergaard 2010 Toronto Blue Jays i.e. Personally, I prefer this approach over getting some old cast off pitcher with an injury list in their back pocket and the start of dementia.

    Some parent clubs have a rotation of really good MiLB starters, whom all played at their AAA together. Of those MLB teams with this more recently, some were actually 2021 "jump up" teams this season as a result. The key here might be to scout those teams with like 3-4 really good AAA starters, and then see if a trade can be worked out for someone here like maybe a Ronnie Mauricio who looks like he is going to be very good. Ronnie Mauricio is currently buried alive behind the Lindor trade move, while 2022 3B looks like it could be all Mark Vientos, who looks outstanding.

    The advantage here for these NYM would be that it might be possible to obtain that one more really good top-end starter needed here badly, and then bring him north with the NYM parent club at ST conclusion. While for the team making this trade with the Mets, they get an excellent multi-positional player with some HR pop in Ronnie Mauricio.

    It's a win/win for both clubs.

    On the free agent starter list this off season, I am a little bit leery actually. Robbie Ray has had elbow issues 4/01/2021. While Kevin Gausman had hip concerns this year, and hip concerns in all sports are not good.

    To me, it is FA Carlos Rodon or nobody off the 2022 MLB Free Agent List for starting pitching. Both Ray and Gausman are very good, but a larger sized risk.

    Interestingly enough here, Steven Matz is a free agent and he is coming off both his best career year ever and Covid19. But his record in 2022 was I think sensational with the Blue Jays was 14-7. However, he has had both elbow and shoulder issues with the NYM in his time here. His current one year contract with the Blue Jays' was for $5.2 million I believe.

    Yes, Matzy is a gamble back here, which guy will he be the Mets one or the Blue Jays one. Not sure.

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  6. TB

    They way I see the playoff rounds are that normally teams who make it that far have fairly comparable good hitting, while the team that advances has slightly better pitching. It is hard to determine which one is more important to success in the playoff rounds. But a stellar start by a pitcher later on in the multi-game playoff series does usually advance his team to the next round.

    Mets had the hitting in 2021, but for whatever reason it went to sleep. True, this absolutely needs to be looked into carefully by the NYM management team. It could have been the Covid19 effect, injuries not bad enough to take players out of games, or sadly too good hitters giving up once Jake deGrom went down. This last one is just not professional and if true in 2021, then those players need to go to the Blue Jays.

    In reality, it's both solid pitching and very timely hitting that wins playoff rounds. The Mets have improvements to make to both of these areas if they truly want to ever again make it to the Dance.

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  7. Nice article Ray. I particularly liked your comment, "Amazing how talent can bring out the genius in a guy like Torre". That's true of many folks. It takes a combination of a smart manager, a great environment surrounding the team, and good players. I think the Mets already have the latter.

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  8. Anonymous, I agree, but the hitless wonders were like pressing down constantly on a weakened piece of wall paneling. After a while, it collapses. If the hitters had given us a middle-of-NL team scoring performance, there would have been less constant pressure on the pitching, and the Mets win the division.

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  9. I say we keep Noah and Stro because I don't want to give up draft picks and lets just see how this all shakes out. This year was kinda like George before he did the opposite because if just about everything we did was wrong do the opposite. Look regardless of who is the next POBO he'll need time to figure all this out for sure and again so much is riding next year on Jakes right arm we all need to just make it thru next season and who knows good things might happen (fingers crossed)

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