The promise was a simple one I made in Spring Training because of the major conflict I was having about my rooting status for this team. You see I spent the entire 2009 season bashing the manager of this God forsaken club Jerry Manuel because, although he might be a great guy and a wonderful manager to play for, I really doubt that, but I'm not in the clubhouse, I really believe he may be, along with Art Howe, one of the worst managers not only in Mets history but in all baseball for all time.
I spent article after article after article clearly pointing out his mis use of the pitchers, his in ability to make a starting lineup where players would find themselves playing everyday to, and most important, his in game decisions that cost the Mets no fewer than 10 games last year and subsequently at least that many or more this year.
My promise however has not stopped me from watching every single game they've played this year from the first pitch until the last one but also attending road games in San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Phoenix, Colorado, and Philadelphia. I will not let anyone tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to the Mets.
Manuel must share the blame of this teams failure to be consistent and win on a regular basis. Omar Minaya, hopefully in his last year as the General Manage,r has once again shown that he reacts to situations rather than take the initiative and make decisions regarding players prior to the disasters that happen constantly to this team.
I'm not going to rehash what should have been done after the fact because that has already been beaten to death by other more qualified writers than myself. I'd like to address what to do from this point of the season with less than 30 games left to play.
Time has run out on both Manuel and Minaya. Why bother to let them finish the season? Do they deserve to? I think not. If Ricci is or is not the new Mets GM for next year give him the interim title right now. It's not that he could do anything in the final 3 weeks of the season anyway but it would give him a head start on the winter meetings and the hot stove arena which he will be thrust into. If he's not the man for the job, well it's no big deal as a title means nothing if you're not able to accomplish anything anyway.
Jerry, bye bye as well. Lets bring Bachman or anybody else to be the interim manager as well. My reasoning for this is we have brought the main club our top players from AA and AAA for this final run to nowhere and personally I'd rather have anybody else for their induction into the big leagues than Jerry Manuel.
In addition to those two firings, (finally) I would shut down, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Johann Santana immediately. Reyes and Santana are easy ones. They are still hurt to some degree and despite their competitiveness they are susceptible for re injury more than any other players on the team. As for Beltran I'm not as concerned for him to re injure himself as I am to see what some of the new guys can show during the final weeks of the season. Besides, Beltran must be made accountable for waiting so long to have the surgery on his leg thus keeping him out for the first half of the season. He is a lame duck center fielder for the Mets next year unless he decides he will need to play his ass off in his final contract year. Having the next three weeks off should give him something to think about for the winter.
Maybe somebody should make the decision on Bobby Parnell one way or the other. He's either your full time closer or he's not. Make up your mind already. For me, if I have a guy who hits triple figures on the radar gun, I want him as my closer. That why Bard will be the closer in Boston next year and Papelbaum will be pitching somewhere else.
A number of things are for certain. Attendance is way down and you can't blame that only on the economy. We could have got Halliday and we chose the wrong guy. Enough money could have kept for us Billy Wagner who would have been our 8th inning answer and the replacement when Francisco went bazonkers on his girl friends father. Castillo should have just plain released and Jenrry Mejia should have spent the entire year learning how to start in AAA, but I promised not to dwell on the past.
Do I feel 2011 could be a turning point year? Well maybe a little. I see 2012 being the year we will actually be back in the hunt. Next year our new manager and GM will have to be on the same page and the ownership who has spent money foolishly needs to lock up their key players and show confidence in their personnel and try to sell the team so we can stop hearing about the money Madoff cost them. How about Mark Cuban? Now he would be a breath of fresh air and we would have a championship flag flying above Citi Field.
Vegas Rich is officially back!
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