Fox Sports senior baseball writer Ken Rosenthal talks about pressure on Willie Randolph. He says that management wants Randolph to show more leadership and correct clubhouse problems before they become combustible situations. Rosenthal also addresses the Ken Griffey, Jr. and Matt Holliday possible trade scenarios.
Johan Santana went 7.2 innings for a much needed Mets win today. Willie Randolph might have needed this win more than anyone else to retain his job. As usual, Santana gave up some long balls to Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, and Bobby Abreu. But he powered through to keep the Mets in the game. That’s been his MO this season.
On offense, David Wright and Carlos Beltran had three hits each. Jose Reyes and Wright homered off Kyle Farnsworth in the three run seventh inning that blew the game open for the Mets.
Billy Wagner came in for Santana in the bottom of the eighth to get an unusual four out save. Wagner has said that he doesn’t like to pitch more than one inning but after the last week, the Mets needed to lock down this win.
The New York Mets have had a myriad of problems this season: lack of timely hitting, 40% of starting rotation on the disabled list, bullpen implosions, management gaffes, and intra-team acrimony.
Of all of these problems, and others, what do you think is the Mets biggest problem right now? See the new poll on the right side of the page.
ESPN usually keeps their best content from their premier baseball writers as a paid service. Occasionally, they’ll offer up something for free like today’s column from Buster Olney.
Olney talks about how Willie Randolph is in the cross-hairs right now and is managing every day to keep his job. But he also goes on to say that there’s no clear alternative right now.
Read the full story here.
Fox Sports senior baseball writer Ken Rosenthal discusses the National League headlines this week. Included in the discussion are: Eric Gagne, Jim Edmonds, and Willie Randolph’s job security.
New York Mets (20-19) at New York Yankees (20-22) 1:05pm
Johan Santana (4-2) vs. Andy Pettite (3-4)
What to watch: Supposedly the Mets cleared the air in the clubhouse. We’ll see if that lasts. The fans and blogs are calling for Willie Randolph to be fired but Omar Minaya gave him a vote of confidence before the rainout yesterday. Oh… by the way two of the biggest names in pitching over the last ten years are on the mound in this game.
Update Saturday May 17, 2008 8:00am: The Mets and Yankees won’t play a double header this weekend. They’ll make up the game in June is the information that I’m getting from Mets.com.
The Mets-Yankees game scheduled for tonight has been postponed. A makeup date hasn’t been set yet.
The Mets Report 