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.
Image via Wikipedia
I don’t think that I need to re-hash the reasons that Willie Randolph may be fired. I’ve posted several times about that here. After the losing home stand against the Reds and Nationals, I think that it’s a foregone conclusion that the Mets front office will fire Randolph soon. I thought that they would wait until the end of May to evaluate him. But now I’m convinced that a change needs to be made. Continue reading “Replacements For Willie Randolph”
Image via Wikipedia
The New York Mets should continue the recent trend in baseball by locking up their young talent with long term contracts. The Mets have already done that with Jose Reyes and David Wright. So this practice wouldn’t be out of character for the team. Other teams have started getting in on this as well. Last month the Rays signed Evan Longoria to a six year deal.
John Maine deserves a long term deal now. The benefit is avoiding a contentious arbitration hearing where the team is forced into a antagonistic role of pointing out the players faults. The Mets have done a great job of avoiding that until this season when Oliver Perez beat the Mets in arbitration to earn $6.5 million this season. Continue reading “Mets Should Pay John Maine Now”
WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog just discussed several roster moves for the Mets today:
The purchase of Fernando Tatis’ contract is a bit of a surprise. Luis Castillo must be hurt enough so that the Mets feel like they need some infield insurance. Tatis can provide that if Castillo is out for a week or more.
Claudio Vargas will pitch Wednesday against the Nationals. Who knows what we’ll get from him? He was released by the Brewers for a reason, so don’t expect miracles from him. We should be thrilled to get five innings out of him. He was on the street a month ago.
The Nelson Figueroa dream comes to an end for now. He was a great story but just couldn’t get major league hitters out consistently. He was fantastic the first time through the order and may have been more suited for a relief role.
I’m ecstatic that Omar Minaya designated Sosa. This is best for the team despite the fact that they may have to eat $1.5 million of his salary if he doesn’t accept a minor league assignment. Joe Smith earned the right to stay on the team. I would’ve been livid if Minaya kept Sosa instead of Smith. It would have displayed a lack of concern for winning now. Not to mention the fact that it may have adversely affected Willie Randolph’s ability to keep his job. Good job Omar!
Image via Wikipedia
San Diego Padres front office assistant Paul DePodesta is the latest entrant into the blogsphere. DePodesta is the 35 year old, Harvard grad, former GM of the Dodgers. He only lasted about a year and a half as the GM in LA though. He was the one that traded Paul LoDuca to the Marlins at the deadline in 2004.
His blog is called It Might Be Dangerous. It’s always interesting to get a first person view into baseball operations. Check it out.
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
The Mets Report 