Battle of the Manuels

If the Mets somehow come roaring back this season to make the NL East race interesting, who wins the division may come down to an epic battle of the Manuels.

VS.

It should be CRAZY.

Aside from that, let's run through a few more points regarding today's news.

As mentioned, the Mets managed to screw up a move that should have been seen as a real potential rejuvenator for this team. Now everyone's talking about how little class the Mets and Omar Minaya have, and where most fans have wanted to see Willie go, we all really just feel bad for the guy at this point. In true Mets fashion, we've managed to generate negative vibes from what should have been a positive move. Nice.

So instead of being happy when I heard the news, I just sort of shrugged, and thought first about how our organization really can't seem to do much of anything right. How in god's name do you get your fans to react negatively to a move they all pretty much were calling and chanting in the seats for?

Only the Mets...and you do it by lacking the fortitude to make the move when it would have been bold and ballsy. Instead you cave into the pressure of your city's media, and then send subtle hints in your press conference that you shouldn't be blamed for the way it was done because in the end it was really the media who drove you to do it in the first place. “You guys do your job very well,” said a sarcastic-sounding Minaya to his media gathering (Thanks to metsblog for the quote). Was he hinting at the aforementioned pressure?

Second point, and for this we'll go counter-intuitive for a second. I might submit that maybe this whole debacle is a net-plus, because with the just about universal consensus that the Mets screwed this up, now the pressure is off the new manager and coaching staff, with more attention focused on how badly we screwed up. Yeah? Wishful thinking I guess, but maybe the negative attention on Omar lets Jerry Manuel relax a little bit for his first few games.

My third point is also one I made earlier this morning, and that's that this team has some other issues. It's got some talent, no doubt, but unless Jerry Manuel can wave a magic wand and get Carlos Delgado to hit and Moises Alou to somehow lose 10 years, there are still some issues on this team. I've been beating the Delgado and Alou thing to death, but they're the most glaring ones. In his press conference, Omar made the rare move of taking personal responsibility, noting that he bears some blame for the team he put on the field. Time to get to work, Minaya. The issues with Alou and Delgado may be a little harder to resolve, but the Mets could start getting their roster in gear by not carrying three catchers and promoting another guy from triple-A (Pascucci or Aguila) to fill out the bench and step in occasionally at, you guessed it, first base and left field.

So the Mets have a few more kinks to work out, but the other at least is that with the end of this whole saga, (Omar said unequivocally that Manuel is the manager for the rest of the year) everyone can chill out and focus on baseball again. Now that Willie's gone, Omar can think about how little sense it makes for a major league team to carry three catchers.

And while many fans are unsatisfied with the promotion of Jerry Manuel, I really don't think any of us know that much about the guy. Bench coaches rarely speak to the media; I don't even think I'd ever heard Manuel's voice before I watched some clips from the presser. He's got a smooth voice that Matt Cerrone over at metsblog compared to a radio DJs - I'd say it sounds more like a cross between Barry White and an old black preacher. His post game pressers will be fun to listen to, soothing if nothing else.

But that's neither here nor there. I'm encouraged because although he's not the fiery guy that many of us might have wanted, he's probably the best choice for an in-season replacement. He's here, he knows the team, and he probably is a little bit more outwardly fiery than Willie. He, not Willie, took on the umps forcefully after that blown call on the Delgado home run/foul ball against the Yankees. And regardless of his motivational techniques, he's new and he's bound to have some new ideas. For all the fuss about Willie's demeanor, we forget that a new manager also brings with him a few plans for how to shake up the lineup and the bullpen and get his own winning mix out there.

So don't sleep on Jerry Manuel. There's really not a whole lot to lose at this point - we either turn it around this year, or Manuel's probably gone and we get a new manager next season with a few new players as well.

In the meantime, with the drama over, hopefully we can all remember how much we love our Mets instead of how much we don't like our manager. Send some positive vibes; with Santana on the mound tonight the Mets have a chance to win a second straight series. A new day has dawned and we can all move forward.

Let's go Mets. Now let us go forth and be fruitful.


Images courtesy cnnsi.com, jamd.com