Being a positive guy who desperately wants to like the team he roots for I’m hoping there’s some hidden benefit at work amid the recent managerial misadventures of Jerry Manuel. But they cannot be worth the the price in bad baseball we’ve witnessed this week.
For the second time in as many series against the Marlins, Jerry overmanuevered the Mets into losing two of three winnable games. He pulled his starters too early, inserted relievers unnecessarily and/or curiously, and this afternoon, publically flipped off Ramon Castro and called it a pinch-hitting decision.
None of it worked, and the team, once again, seems to be taking on the passive and frightened style of its manager.
I admire Jerry and came into the year convinced he possessed a good understanding of what troubled this team and how to fix it but it seems he’s determined to demonstrate that the hard way. I can’t imagine Castro sees much more time with the Mets, and wonder what it might take to get Ken Takahashi to show that No. 36 he got the other day. Yeah, David Wright could make it all go away with a few well-timed hits but he’s struggled before too. Onto Philly.
Submitted by metsilverman.com (not verified) on Thu, 04/30/2009 – 7:59pm.
What did they do with the Jerry from last year or your brilliant article on him in the 2009 Mets Annual? http://www.maplestreetpress.com/book.cfm?book_id=43
I was at the game and with two outs in the ninth inning, bases loaded, I thought he was calling a timeout to freeze the relief pitcher. Worked about as well as it does in the NFL. I can understand pinch-hitting–and even outright cutting Castro–not having the guy who’ll take his place in the dugout ready to hit is ridiculous. Imagine if Willie had done that? And having Putz up three days in a row shows a little stress on the arm.
Philly shouldn’t even worry about this team. If the Mets were the Marlins–with an astronimical payroll–they’d be the best team in the game. As they are, they’re just the most disappointing.