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May 8, 2008
The Managerial Pendulum Shift: Time to go Willie
I’d like to oversimplify and say there are a few types of managers: • Player’s managers • Disciplinarian • Strategy/Stathead • Ceremonial • “Guts” guys • Rock Star Managers can be a combination of a few of these traits. Obviously a “guts” guy is not a stathead, a disciplinarian can’t be a “player’s manager.” What I have noticed is that for a variety of reasons, team swing from one extreme to another, sometimes meeting in the middle, or getting a ceremonial guy. The ceremonial guy is that player who has been with the organization forever and it’s “His turn.” Had Mattingly been hired as the Yankee’s manager, this would be a good example. Now let’s look at the Mets managers since our last World Series win. Davey Johnson was obviously a player’s manager and split in an odd way between being a stats/strategy guy and going from the gut. This is actually a pretty ideal situation for a veteran team because the player’s manager is there to deflect blame and pressure, and with the right amount of communication can justify his actions with a combination of “because you’re 0 for 16 against him” or “I just felt like it.” Following him was Bud Harrelson, who was a nice man in a bad situation. He couldn’t handle the media, etc and you could write him off as “ceremonial” since he was a team icon for so long. Jeff Torborg was of the “Rock Star” mold - a guy who they “had to get” because he was going to come in and show us how it’s done. Well, his 5th place finish and .371 win percentage to start the next season brough us Dallas Green - the disciplinarian - perfect for a young team. Show these kids how it’s done! Of course, in the matter of trivial details like, you know, wins, Green didn’t produce so out he went as a core nucleus of talent had started for forment. That brought us Bobby Valentine. Not a disciplinarian or a player’s guy per se, he was probably in a category all to his own in terms of player relations. “Passive Aggressive” would probably be the best fit, since he seemed to think of his baseball knowledge so highly that no one should have questioned him. Even though he was questioned constantly. But as far as strategic managers, seeing him bewilder opposing managers with his double switches, platoons, lefty righty matchups, etc. was a joy despite is contentuous relationship with his players. Looking back at the 2000 World Series, you would have to argue that this team was no where near as talented as the teams we have fielded in the past three seasons, yet the results sure were there. Look at how we came back in 1999 against Atlanta, fighting down to the last pitch! Where were THOSE Mets in the 2006 playoffs? Where were they last September? Sure, Valentine was guilty of his own late September collapses. But overall he was waaaaaaay over on one side of the fence when it came to strategy. I almost forgot about Art Howe. He was, I hate to say it, another “rock star.” It seems that between pendulum swings you need one in there. The guy who is going to change everything. Except no one told us what his nickname was in Oakland. Clueless Art Howe. The muppet that Billy Beane used to play his Moneyball strategy. Overmatched in New York, he was quickly deposed of in favor of the current swing of the pendulum. Willy Randolph is a player’s manager in the Joe Torre mold. Stoic, passive, at this point to a fault. You can look at him and not know if the Mets just won the division or just lost 15 in a row and gave up 1000 runs. His responses to the media are mostly cliches. And he seems to carry thi attitude that he’s still with the Yankees, although no one has bothered to tell him his team is not as talented. But are they? The pendulum has swung to the opposite of Bobby Valentine. Valentine could double switch and lefty righty match up and platoon 6 outfielders and dizzy the opposing manager into out thinking themselves. He had 3,000 different defenses against the bunt. The wheel play. The reverse wheel play. The fake wheel, fake reverse wheel, fake back to wheel and then guard the lines play. He’d small ball other teams to death. He loved squeeze bunts. He loved pinch hitting. He wasn’t afraid to burn his backup catcher. He wasn’t afraid to try to win NOW in the 9th rather than wait until the 14th. But his players hated him. Willie Randolph is baffled by the double switch. He doesn’t know how to use his bullpen. He will never pinch hit for Delgado against a LOOGY. He will never baffle an opposing manager. He doesn’t have any cute proprietary ideas. He uses the least number of lineups of any current manager. You could pretty much write a computer program for how he managers, spit out a lineup every day and ask the computer, based on the game situation what to do. BUT - I believe that the player WERE playing better for Willie in the beginning of his managing career than they are now. I think, like in every relationship, we begin to tune people out. Or take liberties. And with that erosion brings us to this conclusion: It’s time to swing the pendulum back. We need someone who can actually put his players in the best position to win. And we need to do it sooner than later. Willie is stubborn. He won’t change. But in a lot of ways it is too late to change. Think about your relationship with your parents or your spouse. You come home late for dinner every night. At first your parents might throw a fit. Show you who’s boss. Eventually, they get tired of all the yelling and drama. What’s a few minutes? You’re all grown up. You’re doing well. Maybe you don’t clean the bathroom at home and your spouse nags you about it. Eventually you may get your way because the path of least resistence is to just clean and shut up. The same thing goes for player and managers. Willie had the no music in the clubhouse rule. He came with a lot of rules? Where are they now? Slowly erodedd away, along with his respect. Willie has no passion. He’s not a “get in an umpires face” and get thrown out of a game kind of guy. He’s low key. And so are the Mets when they are on the field. And that’s the reason we are a .500 team since last June. I really enjoyed these past few years with Willie as manager, just like I enjoyed my time with some ex-girlfriends who will not be named. :) 7 Responses to “The Managerial Pendulum Shift: Time to go Willie”Leave a ReplyYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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Great analogy Marc though I’m not yet sold on the conclusion. But your point is right on - there’s an awful lot of complicated human interaction that we never see.
Is the Willie/club relationship so dysfunctional that it can’t be saved? Glad I don’t have to decide. Really nice piece.
Willie isnt a stathead most definitely.
And I thought the players liked playing for him and he was good with them tho recent comments made by him have to make you wonder.
I dont feel like the team has “given up” on him tho. I just think that in some regards we have a real old team and that hurts us. It doesnt explain Reyes slumping big time in the 2nd half but it explains delgado not hitting and guys like alou, martinez and hernandez getting injured often. Beltran isnt really old presay, but he gets nicked up as well from time to time. I just think we depend on alot of guys that are on the downswing of their careers OR cant stay on the field. And im not sure any manager can turn that around.
Now we do have young players. I think for the most part Willie has gotten the most out of them. Maine had one of his best years last year……..Perez had a rebirth and Wright continued to be just awesome.
This isnt to say that I like Willie (I dont) or that I think he should be managing (I not sure if he should) im just saying im not sure it will be a whole lot different with a new manager.
CP - thanks for the positive comment. I think the time is now only because I think it’s better to get rid of him early than when it’s too late. I always laugh at ultimatums from GMs like “If they don’t win the next series, he’s gone!” It’s always too late at that point. How many times did Steinbrenner almost fire Torre? Ultimately the net result was that Torre’s time was over as a Yankee and the Yankees and him sort of mutually parted ways. But would the Yankees have been better off to fire him two years ago? I think so. I think that team stopped listening to and respecting him long before. I really don’t see how someone could have gotten a worse result.
The reason I will agree with CP is that I really have no idea who they would make his replacement? HoJo? I have a feeling he’d add some spark, but I don’t know about his game calling. I actually think Bobby V would be good with this team since most of the personalities he clashed with in the past don’t exist on this team, except maybe Heilman who I could see being a Pulsipher redux.
John - good points. I don’t think the team has given up on him - yet. But I would like to avoid that possibility because I really think it would be too late at that point. I will admit to your points that a lot of the blame on the construction of the team lies with Minaya, but at the same time to his defense, other than a couple of bad trades, most of the players he got were really some of the best solutions at the time. That they’re not panning out now when likely most of us were in favor of them at the time isn’t fair. But expecting more effort and strategy from the manager is. I think the reality is that the Mets as an organization really thought they would win the World Series either in 2006 or 2007 and that they would be paying the price in 2008 and 2009 with some bad contracts. They probably figured if they won, fans would forgive a few down years as they cycled out the players on the downsides of their careers and brought up fresh talent. When we failed in 2007 so horribly, I think the team panicked into giving up the farm for Santana (even at a cheap price). I’m not against the trade at all, mind you, but if we had won the World Series in 2007 I think it’s a lot less likely that deal gets made, and a lot more likely the players we traded might be manning key positions in 2009.
Perez and Maine I credit more to Rick Peterson than Willie. And Wright would be awesome even with a totaly psycho as manager. It’s the more sensitive players like Delgado, Reyes and Beltran who seem to wilt under his influence.
I also don’t flaw the hitting so much as I think Willie really does not have good communication with his bullpen - thinking back to Billy Wagner meltdowns that Billy seems to blame on mishandling and miscommunication about his role. And when you can’t even have a defined role for your closer, what about the other guys? There’s a few hundred feet from the dugout to the bullpen and a lot can get lost in translation there.
I’m guessing the short-list to replace Willie would include current Zephyr’s skipper Ken Oberkfell. Saw him pilot Bingy a few games a few years ago, not enough to draw any conclusions, but he was a key part of Whitey Herzog’s old Cardinals clubs and I always thought Whitey was a terrific manager.
There were two post-game quotes I heard Willie say last night that made me cringe. One, in regards to leaving Vargas in “I was really pulling for him to get the win there because he deserved it.” - No Willie. This is a team sport! I don’t care if you bring in Armando Benitez and he gets a win. We just want to win. (Of course, if Vargas was on my fantasy baseball team I would feel differently but he’s not. Yet…) The other was about Heilman “He just needs to battle and work through it.” UH — no Willie! Not on our dime. Let him work it out in the minors. IN the bullpen. In 10-0 games (which, if you put Sosa in before him is certainly realistic.) Not in close games. With Heilman struggling as he has been he should have a plan B and C warming up out there in case he falters. A walk, a hit…take him out! What would Bobby V do there? He’d have used 7 pitchers in that inning if he had to. I have never seen a more lazy manager than Willie. Ridiculous!!
And you know, I hate to say “I told you so” but I called it over a month ago and certainly if they did it then, off like a bandaid would be a much better solution than the “tug tug tug” they’ve done for 6 weeks. How embarassing is it to be a Mets fan? Maybe Rick Peterson can go grab a beer with Victor Zambrano.
Well, I don’t really think there would have been much difference between May and June. I think if he gave up on Willie in May then he should have gotten rid of him at the end of last year. Omar improved the team quite a bit in the off season and gave Willie the cover of Santana at the beginning of the year. Willie COULD have saved his job this year and showed what he had. The fact that he hasn’t been able to may not be entirely his fault, but it had come to pass.
I think this could have happened 2 weeks ago instead of today without a problem, but not in the first week of May for me.