Throw Out the Manuel: Why the Mets Need a New Manager

Does being good with the media get a manager a pass? It sure seems that way for Mets manager Jerry Manuel.

Despite presiding over the most disappointing, horrible, gut-wrenching, adjective-inducing Met season in ages, so far only one New York sports columnist – Newsday’s Ken Davidoff – has called for Manuel’s dismissal.

“This isn’t a fun column to write,” Davidoff acknowledges, “because we media folk are mostly human, and Jerry Manuel comes off as an eminently likable man.”

But the writer still thinks that it’s time for a new face in Flushing. Here are Davidoff’s three main points:

* The 18-41 record in the last 59 games: “That can’t be attributed solely to a talent disadvantage,” Davidoff writes. “That screams, ‘White flag.’”

* The X’s and O’s: Manuel only uses statistics “in passing when making in-game choices,” the Newsday columnist notes. “Unless your name is Joe Torre, you can’t be getting away with such a laissez-faire approach toward statistical analysis.”

* Manuel’s mouth: Davidoff decries “the apparent lack of an ‘edit’ button in the passage from Manuel’s brain to his mouth,” most notoriously when Manuel  “retroactively questioned [former Met Ryan] Church’s toughness in dealing with his concussions.”

Davidoff”s column is getting some traction in the Mets blogging community, and with good reason. “This is the column the mainstream media has resisted writing,” notes Amazin’ Avenue. Somebody in the New York press box has finally voiced what many of the Mets fans and bloggers feel – that, as New York Baseball Digest describes the injury excuse, “Manuel basically gave them a pass on the season and the players took it.”

I think the media tends to overrate managers who give good quote. What, exactly, has Jerry Manuel done to deserve to keep his job? Make jokes about how gangsta he is?

Yes, Manuel had about three good months last year in getting the Mets to play well. But then end result was still the same as  what Willie Randolph did with the 2007 Mets – both teams blew their playoff chances on the last day of the season. And at least Randolph got his team within a Yadier Molina homer of  an inning of the 2006 World Series.

The thing is that Randolph lost control of the team some time in 2007, and should have lost his job after the Mets’ collapse that year.  But instead, the penny-pinching Wilpons brought him back anyway,  since he was still under contract, only to fire him three months into 2008.

You would think the Mets would learn from waiting too long to pull the cord on Randolph, but Fred Wilpon has already said that Manuel – and GM Omar Minaya – would be back in 2010. Talk about penny-wise and pound-foolish!

Granted, Minaya has done a terrible job constructing this team and needs to lose his job. And injuries certainly did take their toll on this team’s fortunes. But Manuel needs to get the old heave-ho as well if the Mets want to have fans actually come out to their games next year – lowering the ticket prices isn’t enough. So what if he is good with the media, if he’s bad with the team?

Aside from the items listed above, here are two other reasons Manuel needs to lose his job:

* The unaccountably sloppy play by the Mets all season: While second baseman Luis Castillo dropping the ball to lose a Subway Series game against the Yankees may be the signature play of the Mets’ season, that was only one of the many egregious blunders by the team this year.

From Ryan Church failing to touch third base to Mike Pelfrey balking three times to Francisco Rodriguez walking Mariano Rivera with the bases loaded, this isn’t exactly a team with crisp fundamentals working for them. And if having a team not ready to play well isn’t the manager’s fault, then whose fault is it? Mr. Met’s?

* The Eeyoreism infecting this team: Here are two quotes. One is from a current iconic Met. One is from a former Met with a supposed attitude problems. Can you guess which player said each quote?

After making a baserunning blunder – running too slow into home – to cost his team a run: “It’s been tough because we’re playing, as far as the standings go, in pretty meaningless games.”

After hitting well down the stretch, including a walkoff home run to prevent another NL from clinching their division title: “We’re going to continue to play hard. A lot of guys on this team are playing for spots on the team next year. We can’t slack off. We have to continue to play hard. We have to continue to improve.”

The first quote was by David Wright, the team’s de facto captain. The second quote? Lastings Milledge, the former Met player who reportedly was traded from the team for not hustling enough.

How sad is it that even David Wright, the closest thing the Mets have to a team leader, is bored with the game? And that his manager gives him a pass at voicing such opinions, too?

Wright plays in a city where the unemployment rate is over 10%. He makes $46K per game – more than many New Yorkers make in a year. And it’s “tough” for him to pay attention at his job now? Boo bleeding hoo. Why is such an opinion par for the course in Manuel’s Mets?

That’s the type of question reporters ought to be  wondering about Manuel these days, instead of them writing fluff about how the Mets manager “never gets testy with reporters” and has resolved to “place a greater emphasis next spring on base-running fundamentals and throwing strikes.”

Gee, ya think?

Again, whose fault is  it for those lack of fundamentals? Unlike 2008, Manuel’s had this team for the entire season, from spring training on. Maybe if he spent more time emphasizing fundamentals with this team, and less time crafting witty lines for the press, the Mets would have been better off.

Speaking of Manuel’s wisecracks, there’s a quote from Manuel in that same article on his current state of mind:

“Instead of operating like a period that ends the sentence,” said Manuel, explaining his shift in philosophy since the Mets were eliminated on Sept. 13, “I’ve been operating like a comma. My work’s not finished.”

The Wilpons need to operate like an exclamation point and end the Manuel Era already. Or this team will have way too many question marks heading into the 2010 season.

Photo by Keith Allison

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