Bobby Valentine is the star of a new documentary film appearing on ESPN2 at 9:00pm on Tuesday May 13th. It looks like Bobby’s living a rock star life in Japan from the clips of the film. I’ll be watching the Mets-Nationals game instead of the film but I have to admit that I’m interested in seeing it at some point.
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3391984
Mets beat reporter Eddie Coleman joins WFAN’s Joe & Evan. Randolph joins WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog.
Image via Wikipedia
Lately there’s been a lot of chat on sports radio, the blogs, mainstream media, and reader comments here about Willie Randolph’s future with the Mets. Much of the talks has centered around Willie’s tenure coming to an end in the near future. That may be the case but it shouldn’t happen in May.
The Mets should wait and see where the Mets are at the end of May. It’s too early to pull the plug on him now. If the Mets had to make a decision today, my suggestion would be to let him go and move on.
The Mets current performance is well below where they should be if you look at the talent they have. The teams in the National League with worse winning percentages to this point are: Washington, Houston. Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Colorado, San Francisco, San Diego. There are some pretty bad teams in that group. Continue reading “Three More Weeks For Willie Randolph”
Fox Sports senior baseball writer Ken Rosenthal wrote a column today detailing the managers that are closest to being fired. Willie Randolph, John Gibbons, and Ron Washington make the list. They’re the three that are currently in trouble according to Rosenthal.
I agree with Rosenthal that it’s a little too early to make a decision on Randolph. But Willie just isn’t getting these players to reach their potential. It’s not all his fault, but somebody may have to take the fall if the Mets don’t take charge of the National League East soon. Certainly by the All-Star break.
Although the blogs have been on this topic for weeks, the mainstream media is still just getting to this story. We, as Mets fans, are frustrated and angry with this team. The last two seasons have left a lot of pent up emotion that can’t be relieved by a trip to a shrink. We need a trip to the playoffs. That’s the only cure for our angst.
Image details: Picturehouse Presents The Premiere Of “El Cantante” – Arrivals served by picapp.comhttp://pis.picapp.com/IamProd/javascript/imageV2.js?p=1326&i=18415&w=210&h=302&adH=90&adS=3&fv=picviewerv2_1.swf&pv=http://pis.picapp.com/IamProd/FlashSite/en/&u=http://pis.picapp.com/IamProd/ImageServing.aspx&sp=false&n=2
Mike Vaccaro wrote a column on the topic for Fox Sports today and summarizes the current victims of our impatience:
Right now, there are three permanent residents of the wrong side of the wall, which we’ll call the dark side of the swoon: Carlos Delgado is the captain and unchallenged leader, and the farther south of .200 his average dips the more likely he’ll be wearing a “C” on his uniform before long. Aaron Heilman is on that side, mostly because he can’t get out of his own way now. And Willie Randolph is there, too, for long and meritorious service.
Why should we be more tolerant? We’ve got a first class city, a first class payroll, and a first class stadium on the way. We want a franchise that plays like a first place team.
There’s been so much talk about what to do with Carlos Delgado. As I’ve talked about here several times, there aren’t any obvious options right now.
I decided to see if The Mets Report readers think that Carlos Delgado will be on the Mets roster for this whole season. Maybe he’ll be traded or released. Maybe he’ll be at first base all season. We’ll have to see how things play out with Omar Minaya’s patience level.
What do you think? Take the poll on the right side of the page.
The results are in and the poll is now off-line. The poll question was “Will Willie Randolph be fired during the 2008 season?”. I was curious to see which way the wind was blowing with the fans. The readers responded:
What I get from that is that 40% of the respondents think that Willie will or might be fired during this season. That’s a pretty high percentage. It’s actually higher than I thought it would be when I posted that poll.
I’m in the “maybe” group. If the Mets aren’t playing well at the All-Star break I think it’s likely that he’ll be let go considering the way the season ended last year, and the fan backlash that’s continued into this season.
Thanks to all of you that participated.
The Mets Report 