Wille Randolph keeps his job. Do you think this is the right move for the New York mets?

Question

Decision to keep Willie the right move
Ken Davidoff
October 2, 2007

Willie Randolph will visit the principal's office today at Shea Stadium, and he'll be told to never, ever do that again. He'll be warned that if he attempts another stunt like this, he can try getting work with his first organization, the Pirates.

Mets ownership, particularly COO Jeff Wilpon, is livid about the collapse that ended with Sunday's embarrassing loss to the Marlins. It's understandable. But it's heartening to see that the Wilpon family - described yesterday by Omar Minaya as "an ownership group that's a fan" - will look past its rage and give Willie another chance in 2008.

Randolph deserves that opportunity, because, just as Minaya said at his Shea post-mortem, his body of work as a manager merits it. He also should come back because it would be criminal to scapegoat Randolph for what turned into a system-wide malfunction.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/ny-spken025399062oct02,0,5989188.column

Answer 1

Willie shouldn't be fired. He didn't play the games. I don't think he had total control over what was going on because I think a lot of decisions were coming from Omar Minaya. Minaya has made some good and bad moves but I think they should both stay. Bottom line was that the players got too comfortable and thought they were going to cruise into the playoffs. They weren't running out ground balls. The bullpen was horrible. They need to clean house with the pitching staff and give Willie at least the beginning of next year to see if he can get these guys playing hard and playing well.

Answer 2

I respectfully disagree. This meltdown was titanic, monumental, gigantic in every way. For the organization to hide there heads in the sand and do little more than sigh a collective, "Oh Well", would even be more of a disaster than losing the division.

Willie Randolph was an excellent player for the Yankees and I was without a doubt a fan, but that was then and this is now. For the past two weeks Randolph has sounded like a babbling idiot. No guidance, no leadership.........nothing. David Wright showed that he doesn't have what it takes when it counts either.

You can't fire 25 players but Willie has to go. If for nothing else than to show the team that they can all just as easily flip burgers at Mickey-D's than play a kids game for millions of dollars a year.

Answer 3

I want to know why Minaya getting a free pass. He's the one that assembled this team. I'm sorry when you go into the season with two "?" as starters (Maine & Perez), two pitchers over 40 (Glavine & El Duque) and one coming off of major surgery (Pedro) what can you expect.

The bullpen was horrible and Wagner the last 1/ of the season was just plain awful.

Another thing what in the hell is Ricky Henderson doing on this team ? Teaching Reyes and Millidge how to show boat ? Why would you hire a person whose last memory of him being on your team is him playing cards in the club-house while the rest of the team is battling in the play-offs

To me, Ormar is more to blame than Randolph

Answer 4

How can you keep Randolph?? Based on his track record?? He's had the best talent in the NL the past two years with no WS appearance to show for it. 7 games up with 17 to play and you can't find a way to get it done. Randolph mismanaged his bullpen all season long. How many times did he put Mota and Heilman in onlyl to watch them time and again give up leads. Then you lose 9 straight times to Philly and are ahead in most of those games. You put in Wagner for a 2 inning save because the guys you've used all season long (Heilman and Mota) you suddenly have no confidence in. Wagner hadn't had a 2 inning save in 8 years. Look at the year that Delgado had and still you hit him 4th for the first half of the season. This is a sad, sad day for the Mets. They won't win anything next year either.

Answer 5

This is the right move.. I firmly believe that this collapse was not 100% Willie's fault. Minaya is not getting blamed for any of this, yet he is the one that makes all the moves on what players to get. I do not think Minaya should be fired either, but come on, do not put the entire blame on the manager for this.. It was everyone's fault, from the players, to the manager, to the GM, to the coaches.

Answer 6

I wonder what we would see if the order in which the Mets won and lost had been reversed.

What if they started out like the ended and ended like they started. 1 game out of a play off spot, at 88 or 89 wins is not a bad season.

I wonder why the order of those decisions make the difference between a successful season and 'the biggest choke, blah blah blah"

They didn't have Pedro for 4 1/2 month, Beltran and Delgado had really off years. Wright was a monster, Reyes seem to really quiet down after the all-star break.

Most times it's right to look at the journey, other times it's fine just to look at the destination.

Answer 7

He'll come back knowing that if he screws it up, he's gone. He may even be gone mid-year if they're underperforming again. He deserves it, based on his performance over the last three years. Let's face it, he hasn't had a great pitching staff since he got here, but he came within two runs of a World Series one year and two wins of a second division title the next. I'm going to assume Omar will have free rein to get players over the offseason. If Willie doesn't win the division next year, he'll have no more excuses.

Answer 8

i dont understand why people want Randolphs head to roll for this collapse. its not his fault that the team Minaya put together started sucking and blew it

Answer 9

After the biggest collapse in history...yes, actually.

Answer 10

This would be exactly the right move if it occurs, and I believe it will.