"Preachers Preach"

That's what Jerry Manuel says, in reference to the team meeting he presided over last night before another unfortunate loss, marking another unfortunate chapter in another September swoon, setting off a round of premature obituaries from the ESPN talking heads, conjuring up doomsday images of another year that looks like it might end up being lost, all due to a late-season inability to beat the Washington Nationals.



“We just touched base on where we are, and try to get back in the direction we were headed, remind them of the good baseball we played and the good baseball we’ll need to play," said Manuel. "Preachers preach, and I just wanted to let them know where I am.”

If there's one thing that's currently tempering my feelings of despair at the thought of another September collapse, it's my hope that Jerry Manuel really is a much better Manager than Willie Randolph. Sure, the Mets have done a total 180 under his leadership this season, but there's one point we've all been making since April: the only thing that can settle us Mets fans at this point is a trip to the playoffs, to make up for what was lost a year ago. Until Manuel gets us there, all of the July and August excitement that got us back into the race is meaningless.

If Manuel is indeed a preacher, with the capacity to will his team go out and get it done on the field, now is the time to show it. Throughout the summer his calm but actually effective, assertive-when-it-needs-to-be leadership has paid dividends for the Mets. I can't imagine that Manuel hasn't had a certain amount to do with this team overcoming one unfortunate circumstance after another this year, and now it's time for the Mets to snap out of a second straight solemn September and get it together for 12 more games. Then it's a new season.

The bullpen woes are getting awfully frustrating, sure. But the Mets have blown an unprecedented amount of unblowable games this summer, and they were 3 1/2 up until the start of the weekend. As it stands, the visibly flawed and now Fernando Tatis-less New York Mets are one half game out of first place, locked in the tightest of possible pennant races.

This is what September is made for, and this year the Mets aren't frantically looking in the rearview, unable to prevent their car from going off a cliff. This year they actually know what second place looks and feels like. Remember that last season the Phillies didn't take over first place until there were just two games left. This year, there are 12 for the Mets to mount one last turnaround.

I still believe that this year's Mets team is fundamentally different. Consistency is far less important, seemingly, than resiliency. Remember that 1-5 road trip at the beginning of August? They looked pretty bad then too. But this team seems to have an indomitable capacity to look terrible, and then somehow get it back together. The amount of screw-ups that the '08 team has endured and come back from should inspire them to find something within themselves that allows them to endure and prevail in the face of one more. And it's not as if the Phillies aren't also flawed.

The bottom line is that this could still break either way. But I have faith that the Mets can pull if off; this season there shouldn't be any sense of "boredom" because they think they're too good. They know they need to step it up, now. The sense that they'll have to if they want to win another division title seems much more acute than last year, and they also know that one final charge to the post season will scream "this is a new year!" and shut everyone up once and for all. Then we can all relax and enjoy an October baseball schedule that will include only one New York team, not named the Yankees.

So yes, I believe. Ya Gotta. I can only hope the Mets, this year, will justify that faith.


(Image courtesy cbslocal.com)

Nice bounce-back win

Delgado was 3-4 with 2 jacks and 3 RBIs. What's gotten into this guy? I don't know, but I like it

6-3. And it only took nine. Phew.


(Image courtesy news.yahoo.com)

Not a good game to lose

It's not like you needed me to tell me that. It's pretty much universally recognized that blowing a seven run lead against your division rival in a late August game with first place on the line is not very advisable.

Shades of 2007 - watch out!!!! Tonight's game was the supreme manifestation of every fear that Mets fans have relative to our blossoming rivalry with the Phillies. This was like the game where we had a ten run lead and Philly almost came back and won. Except this time, they, you know, did end up winning. They're the team that doesn't quit, scores lots of runs, finds ways to gradually erase early seven run leads.

Mets fans have been conditioned to panic. This game sucked, but to characterize it and everything the result supposedly stands for so simply and viscerally would betray many of the facts in this situation. Like how we're (still) 9-5 against the Phils this season. Or how our success since Jerry Manuel took over can widely attributable to the fact that despite their own issues, the Mets themselves have made a habit of responding positively to setbacks - not quitting has been pretty central to this season's turnaround.

Or like how the Phillies have at least as much of a propensity to screw it up in the big spot as we do. Had they not stumbled over the summer, the Phils should have put us away earlier in the season when we couldn't buy back-to-back wins with Willie at the helm.

Get over it already. The Phillies have a bunch of good hitters, so they score a lot of runs. Sometimes, they don't score those runs until they're already down by 7. It happens

That said, it's still impossible to overlook the fact that you just can't blow a 7-run lead on your division rival, in a pennant race, in a game to determine sole possession of first place. Despite all the renewal, it sure feels like the Mets have had a lot of these games this summer. Just think of where we'd be had we held a few more of these leads.

It might be nice to win at least one of our final seven games against Philadelphia this season. Looks like it might once again be pretty important for the Mets to tap into some more of that newfound resiliency. What a long strange trip its been.

The Grateful Dead would be proud

(Image courtesy michpics.wordpress.com)

10 of 11...somehow

Do you hear that? It's the sound of a rejuvenated Shea crowd, cheering loudly and confident in a tight game that the Mets will find a way to pull it out. That crowd - and the Mets' ability to both excite and win improbably - has always been a hallmark of the Amazins' success, when they've been successful. That's what made it all the more painful to watch the team sleepwalk through a year and a half under from early '07 through the middle of this past June.





Of course, the crowd was never much help. It seemed that over the same period the only time anyone got out of their seats at Shea, or clapped their hands, or said, well, anything, was when the scoreboard or loudspeaker indicated that any of those things were appropriate.

Everyone used the term "malaise" to describe what the Mets seemed mired in through the first couple months of '08, appropriately. The entire aura around the team seemed very lethargic, from their ineffectual manager to the aforementioned crowd. No one was having any fun. People went to games to boo. It was like watching an old married couple that can't really stand each other anymore. Kind of sad.

Not everyone seems to notice these things, and maybe I'm just overreacting, but watching the end of the Braves game the other night, you could tell the fans were really into it. The players feed off that energy; every Met in the dugout was on the top step with their cap turned inside out, and when Omar Infante dropped Carlos Delgado's soft liner to left to score the winning run, the whole stadium went nuts and the Mets all celebrated like they were 12 years old and Jerry Manuel was going to take them out for ice cream after the game. When Delgado put the Mets ahead to ignite a five-run eighth on Tuesday night, it was the same deal.

There's a fundamental difference between a crowd that's on its feet because they're supposed to be, and a crowd that's on its feet because everyone in the stadium is just that stoked. The '07-beginning of '08 crowd would have been cheering for the Mets to pull out that win the other night, but it would have sounded tepid, dispassionate. It's just not the same.

What a difference a few months make. I went to two games within about three weeks of each other, at the end of July and beginning of August, and there seems to be a real positive buzz around Shea these days. It's as if everyone is just glowing at the fact that this season has somehow been rescued from the gates of hell. Carlos Delgado...hitting? Everyone is just so high on success right now.

Often times you appreciate something that much more when it's been taken away. After the Mets raised expectations astronomically in '06, only to fall short and then deliver last year's double downer, we're all just happy that the Mets are playing with passion again. Somehow or another, it's translating into victories, bullpen woes be damned.

Any team is only as strong as its weakest link, and the Mets are no different. How far they end up going this season will correspond directly to the amount they're able to win despite the ongoing issues in the 'pen. One thing that's encouraging, though, about this latest winning stretch, aside from the fact that Mets for once are finally beating up on crappier teams: despite being repeatedly undermined by injuries, a terrible bullpen, and other glaring flaws, they have been relentlessly determined to win. And they have. At a 39-21 clip since Jerry Manuel took over (as of tonight's win), the Mets have been playing like that for the better part of two months now.

Win or lose, that's a team I can always cheer passionately for. Judging by the recent tone of the Shea crowd, I think most Mets fans agree.


(Image courtesy newsday.com)

Mets bullpen blows it again

I've got to hand it to the Mets for becoming relevant again this season. They've been fun to watch and have taken the season from a pretty deep low point (basically the entire Willie part of the year) to a situation where they're in contention and are likely to at least stay in the mix through September.

It's unlikely the turnaround will turn into a playoff berth, however, if they lose many more games like the one today.

Another rough day for Heilman, and the rest of the 'pen

You just have to win when you hand your bullpen a 5-1 lead. You just have to. Who can we even trust out there to get anyone out? Eddie Kunz?

This Mets team has showed a lot of resiliency since Manuel took over, and they've needed it. Billy Wagner is the most reliable member of the 'pen, and he's got 7 blown saves. Will Billy's forearm get better? I hope so. It makes me uncomfortable to say it, but we need the dippin' Virginian more than anything right now.

As a this year move, getting Huston Street from the A's at the deadline is looking better and better in retrospect. When it comes to building a sustainable franchise, however, it's not really ever a good idea to trade your two top prospects for another team's relief pitcher (even if he is a closer). Nobody wanted to trade Fernando Martinez, (rightfully so I think) so the collective calculus seems pretty much to have been for us to leave it be and see how far the current squad can take us.

Might as well enjoy the ride...


(Image courtesy nydailynews.com)

1-5 road trip

Well, at least we can all temper some of that excitement, right? Relax a little bit, and remember that the last thing this Mets team is going to do is run away with this thing. Curb your enthusiasm.




Breathe in, breathe out.

All it took for the Mets to lose first place and (potentially) four games in the NL East standings was one 1-5 stinker of a road trip. A sweep at the hands of the also-ran Astros, and all of a sudden there's some gum in the gears.

It's not as if the Mets were going to win every single game for the rest of the season. 10 straight had to end at some point. But then the Mets responded in kind with consecutive series wins in big tests at home. We began using adjectives like "resilient" to describe the team, even batting around words like "mettle" and "guts" when talking about our players.

I'm hoping these last six games were an isolated incident, and that it just didn't go well on this road trip. Looking back, you can tell it might not have gone so well when you figure that the Mets in the last week managed to lose individual games started by Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, and Oliver Perez, who had all been brilliant lately. Pelfrey lost for the first time in nine starts. After pitching to a 1.38 ERA in the month of July, Perez had a rough, though not horrible day today (4 ER in 6 IP). The bullpen wasted another strong effort from Johan Santana, who once again seems to have been removed from a game too early (with one out in the 7th, and a 4-1 lead on just 103 pitches). Did I mention that John Maine got hurt?

It's that bullpen that seems like the biggest ongoing cause for concern. Duaner Sanchez's fastball is topping out at 86 MPH. Aaron Heilman has been pitching better, but he's been exposed time and time again and you can't rely too heavily on the guy. Billy Wagner's arm hurts, and when he is in there, he's turning into a slightly more lovable version of Armando Benitez. The other guys are going to have their hiccups, and they picked an unfortunate time to experience them together. Hopefully Eddie Kunz can be an effective reinforcement, because there wasn't a whole lot out there at the deadline for anything other than Omar Minaya's firstborn child.

Look, if one thing has been made clear over and over again this season, it's that these Mets aren't that good. They've proven they can compete for the division, but we also now know that in the post-Willie Randolph era the momentum halting 1-5 road trip is still a part of the team's repertoire. Jerry Manuel has proven himself to be a much better manager; that doesn't mean that the Mets don't have some issues which go beyond the guy leading them.

What this road trip has done is turned the Mets' upcoming home stand into another test. It will either get worse, and the Mets will go 2-4 or lose comparably to the Padres and Marlins, or the Mets will again display some of that newfound resilience and regain their footing. One thing's for sure and that's that Chris Carlin wasn't kidding on WFAN last Friday when he called this the "don't screw around portion" of the Mets schedule. The hardest team we play before a quick two-game series in Philly beginning on August 26 is the aforementioned Marlins, who we'll see this weekend.

Another thing's for sure and that's there is more than enough room in October for a flawed Mets team coming out of the NL East. If this remains a close race, anything can and will happen. There are going to be some peaks and valleys in the season, and with the Mets competing against other teams that aren't that good either, this road trip won't look as bad if the Mets can just prevent it from getting out of control. We know that that won't necessarily be easy, but we've also been given reason to believe that it can happen.

In the end, what are the Mets going to do? At this point, anyone's guess is as good as mine.


(Image courtesy nypost.com)

Mets skip trade deadline rager

If you didn't believe the Marlins would still be a threat with just a third of the season to go, you've officially been put on notice.




And that was before the Fish almost landed Manny Ramirez.

The Marlins handed the Mets their first series loss in over a month yesterday; the first for Mike Pelfrey since before Memorial Day. The Mets got out of Miami with a solid win on Tuesday night, but all in all you've got to be a little bit concerned about the Marlins. The team leads the league in come from behind wins for a reason. They fight hard, even if they play sloppy, NBA Jam baseball (see Dan Uggla) in a football stadium.

Not that the Mets didn't play hard in losing 2 of 3. Jerry's still got them playing inspired, tenacious baseball. Ultimately they've got some obvious shortcomings, and they can't be expected to win every game or every series. Mike Pelfrey's going to have a bad start. It happens. Let's just hope the bullpen gets it together and Ryan Church makes it back soon.

It's a new and nice thing for me to feel confidence in the Mets. I actually thought they were going to win last night. While they may not win the division in the end, I still think they will. When it comes to an important game, or responding from a tough loss, I have a newfound faith that the Mets will get it done. As I mentioned in my last post, it's interesting that resiliency has become a sort of hallmark for a team that was disturbingly soft just a little bit earlier in the season.

We could have used some reinforcements at the deadline, but with nothing available for anything less than Jon Niese or Fernando Martinez, sometimes no news is good news.

****

Still, this was one of the more active trading seasons in recent memory. The Mets got to the party and decided to lay off the keg. Wise.

But with Mark Teixiera, Ivan Rodriguez, Ken Griffey, Jr., Manny Ramirez, Xavier Nady, C.C. Sabathia, Rich Harden, and Jason Bay all trading places in the last month, there were definitely some winners and losers this July. Let's examine.

The big winners:

New York Yankees: Much as it pains me to say it, the Yankees owned the trade deadline this year. Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte for Jose Tabata, a maybe prospect, and several scrubs was a bigger steal than the Mets getting Johan Santana by default. Then they got Pudge Rodriguez for Kyle Farnsworth, and saw Manny Ramirez get traded out of the AL East. Add to that the fact that the Rays got no major reinforcements, and the Yankees seem poised to walk away from 2008 having bought out the rest of the league. Once again. It's pretty depressing.

Still, you've got to give Brian Cashman some credit. The Yankees wouldn't have been able to engineer those deals if they weren't able to take on limitless contractual obligations, but still: he got three key parts for peanuts.

Chicago Cubs: Already in good shape, they added Rich Harden. If he can stay healthy, they'll be in as good shape as ever to break their now-100 year curse.

Milwaukee Brewers: Added C.C. Sabathia. The downside? They added C.C. Sabathia. That was a "this year" type of move, and if they can't pass the Cubs or make a playoff run as the wild card, they'd better be able to sign him. As we well know by know, the prospects in those trades often aren't insignificant.

Los Angeles Dodgers: Just one game out of first in a crappy division, now they've got Manny Ramirez. They gave up some talent, but no Clayton Kershaw, and nothing from their big three of Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, and James Loney. And they kept the Marlins from making a deal for Manny. Thanks, Ned Coletti!

Manny's going to the beach...not the one in Florida, thankfully

Los Angeles Angels: ...of Anaheim. They were already the best team in baseball, and they added Mark Teixiera. They'll probably resign him. LAA of A has really flown under the radar this decade. They've been good just about every year, won a title, and they've got a good chance this year to win another.

The losers:

Boston Red Sox: Get Jason Bay for Manny Ramirez AND two prospects. If that doesn't sound fair, it's because it's not. The Sox basically paid to get rid of Manny. It's understandable that they wanted him out of town, but I have to question the approach here.

Jason Bay is no Manny Ramirez. Without Manny, and with the Yankees' reinforcements, the Sox basically have the third-best chance at this point to win the AL East. They still could squeak into the playoffs and make some noise, particularly with their pitching, but all in all the outlook for the Sox isn't so good right now.

If you're going to give yourself less of a chance because you want your disgruntled superstar out of town that badly, you might as well at least trade him for prospects in a forward-looking move. Instead, the Red Sox gave up two more of their own prospects and overpaid - dramatically - for Jason Bay. They're going to regret that.

Pittsburgh Pirates: Made out pretty well in the Bay-Ramirez deal, netting two prospects apiece from the Sox and Dodgers, but still got a pretty weak return when you consider the fact that they just traded two of their starting outfielders and one of the better lefty relievers in the game. There's a reason they haven't had a winning season since the early 90s.

Some other trade deadline notes...

The Reds and White Sox also made a pretty big deal involving Junior Griffey, but I don't really know as much about the players being exchanged there. That deal gives the ChiSox a pretty good chance to hold onto the AL Central, while the Reds make a deal they had to make and get a couple of young guys to aid in their rebuilding effort. Both winners.

Watch out for the Indians in the next couple of years. This year is a real disappointment for Cleveland, but they sold high on another superstar (Sabathia), just like they sold high when their luck ran out in the early 2000s. They've got a strong young nucleus, and stand to have some money now to bring in some lower-profile reinforcements. I say they're poised to make another comeback sometime soon.

****

With exactly a third of the 2008 regular season to play, the Mets head to Ten-run Field in Houston tomorrow night for Pedro's return (how many times have we said those words in his short Met career). With 54 games left, the Mets currently sit 1 game from first place, with the Marlins knocking on the door just 1 more game back in third. The Braves are 9 out, just traded Teixiera, and are unlikely to make any noise, but you can never be too complacent with the team from Atlanta, especially as a Mets fan. It's going to be a wild ride. Stay tuned.


(Images courtesy nydailynews.com, photobucket.com)

Unconventional Wisdom

The winning streak ended last Saturday. The Mets lost a devastating game to Philadelphia last Tuesday night. Ryan Church is still on the DL, and yet the Mets have still won 14 of 17 and continue to play exceptionally well.

A previous post in this space might have enumerated the Mets' myriad deficiencies, starting with Mike Pelfrey's lack of guile, Oliver Perez's lack of focus, Johan Santana's lack of aceness, the Mets' lack of two starting outfielders, and the downward arc of Carlos Delgado's career. It wasn't looking too good for the Mets this season, regardless of who was managing our team.

I was largely in alignment with the mainstream, but the Mets' recent surge has made many people look foolish, myself included. Pelfrey is 7-0 in his last nine starts. Johan and Perez just fired gems against the Phillies. Carlos Delgado has four home runs in his last nine games while hitting at a nearly .400 clip in month of July. And the Mets have won 14 of 17 without those two starting outfielders. Sometimes, you'd rather be wrong.

I was at Shea on Tuesday night, for my first game in 2008. I have tickets to the August 8 tilt against the Marlins, but I figured I'd try to go support the team for at least one of the games in the all-important Phillies set and get an extra game in before the big ballpark is ushered out and going to Mets games becomes a triple digit affair in the money department.

The atmosphere was electric. The Mets and Phils, tied for first place. Santana pitching. A full house on hand. Insults and peanuts, thrown in the direction of every Phillies fan in attendance over the age of 18 (you've got to draw the line somewhere).

Two home runs (one by Delgado) and eight strong Santana innings later, and the Mets have a 5-2 lead going into the ninth. Billy Wagner is unavailable, and Jerry says Santana's done, so it's up to Duaner Sanchez to close the door.

All of a sudden, Sanchez and three other relievers can't get a Phillie out. One six-run ninth later and Phillies win, 8-6. A boisterous ride home on the 7 train, ruined.

This was devastating. The worst loss of the season. A nine inning microcosm of last September. You don't lose that type of game and go on to win a division, I said on the ride home.

But what happened next? Two games and two Mets victories later, and we vault into first for the first time since early April...9-4 for the season, so far, against the Phillies. One game after that, and we're up by two after another Phillies loss, and another sensational performance by Pelfrey.

What we're seeing from the Mets right now is some serious resiliency, the hallmark of any good team. It was only this morning that I was able to fully process the fact that this winning stretch has required the Mets to really bear down on a few occasions. That loss on Tuesday night? No big deal. A blown lead that first night in Cincy last week? We'll put up a four-run ninth. The second game of this remarkable turnaround was the one in Philly where Tatis put us over the top in the 12th after Jayson Werth temporarily ruined Billy Wagner's (and my) afternoon.

It's interesting that Jerry Manuel has gotten the Mets to internalize everything that Willie Randolph ever talked about but could never actually get his team to put into practice. The Mets are fighting, and battling, and finding ways to win games. Manuel's "guys" are playing with the kind of inspiration and loyalty to their manager that Willie could never quite inspire. After Tuesday night, he would have given the media some positive nugget to chew on about battling back in the next two games of the series, but the Mets likely would have found a way to roll over again. That's assuming that if Willie was still around, this last Phillies series would have even been important at all.

And it's somewhat unfair for me to still be ripping on Willie Randolph. It's possible that the Mets' recent success has less to do with Jerry Manuel, per se, and more to do with a team responding to any new face, or the right guys being hot at the right time. Still, it's hard to argue that Jerry has pushed the right buttons. The cerebral Manuel's calm sense of urgency, with a twist, certainly appears to be trickling down throughout this entire Mets team.

Can they keep it up? Everyone on the Mets is stepping it up right now, from Delgado and Pelfrey to Robinson Cancel and Argenis Reyes. Reyes and Wright have rounded into form and are poised to put up numbers as good as anything we've seen from those two. Santana is a second half pitcher, and you have to like what you saw in a big game last Tuesday, even if he didn't end up getting a much-deserved win.

There is a lot of season left, and we don't know if Delgado can continue his pace, or if Pelfrey will keep being dominant, if Ryan Church will come back, if the bullpen will hold, if Carlos Beltran will finally get it going consistently. But I do remember how I felt about the Mets from around this time last year until about a month ago, and I like this a lot more. Regardless of what happens between now and when the leaves change, the Mets have turned their season around, and it's finally fun to watch again.


(Image courtesy nydailynews.com)

Nine wins

Does there have to be an all-star break?

(Image courtesy www.newsday.com)

Assessing Jerry Manuel

If the Mets fail to make the playoffs this season, it won't be because of their manager. That bears repeating, because for most Mets fans that would have been an entirely different statement just a few short weeks ago.



With tonight's win, the Mets have improved to just 13-10 since Jerry Manuel took over the team. On paper, that doesn't look that much better than the .500 ball they've been playing for close to 14 months now. In the Mets' recent 12 game stretch of three consecutive important four-game series, they began by splitting the first two (4-4) and only finished 7-5 because they took three of four in Philadelphia. Last night's win in Philly and the game tonight against San Francisco are all that currently separates the Mets from .500.

There's a lot about the Mets right now that doesn't look a whole lot different. Billy Wagner can still blow a save against the Phillies, and Aaron Heilman can still lose a game to the Cardinals. Ryan Church is still out with a concussion. Moises Alou should still retire. The Mets still beat the living daylights out of the Yankees in game one of that two stadium doubleheader, only to lose the nightcap to Sidney Ponson.

But while I might a month ago have attributed inconsistent play and any team shortcomings to a failure in managerial leadership, the difference right now is that I've quickly grown re-accustomed to the feeling of confidence in my team's manager, something that's obviously been lacking for quite some time. As most Mets fans, I suspect, will do if the Mets don't go anywhere this season, I'm prepared to chalk any failures up to the fact that this team might just not be that good. If the Mets don't go anywhere this season, it will be because the rest of the offense has had to prop up Carlos Delgado, Luis Castillo, and starting outfield slots in right and left that have been lacking a starting outfielder for significant portions of the season. It will be because Aaron Heilman, 0.64 June ERA and all, will always be unpredictable, and Billy Wagner seems to be far from ironclad when it comes to closing out big games.

These issues weren't Willie Randolph's fault, and they're not Jerry Manuel's fault. So why was Willie blamed for the Mets' collective failures (fairly in my opinion) while Manuel seems to be enjoying our (my, at least) affection and confidence?

There will almost always be a honeymoon period with any new manager, especially when they replace someone who became as deeply unpopular as Willie Randolph. And part of the initial satisfaction with Manuel seems to have come from the fact that he differs from Willie when it comes to a few key things that seem to have annoyed everyone most about Randolph. Still, Jerry Manuel has already endeared himself to Mets fans in a way that I think was always elusive for Willie Randolph.

Manuel is also a calming influence guy, but he's already been ejected three times and he doesn't find arguing with umpires to be pointless. He seems to place more value on conspicuous action, when necessary, to protect players (witness the Carlos Beltran situation with Brian Runge) or team dignity. He believes in setting roles for the bullpen. He talks about the need to play fundamentally sound, but before tonight's game actually got his team together to work on fundamentals, instead of just trusting the players to figure things out for themselves. Manuel seems to be a bit more willing to try new things in order to solve lingering problems. He has the advantage of having done this before (six years in Chicago), but in general he just inspires more confidence as a manager than Willie had been since really the end of last summer.

I just like the way this guy runs the team. At this point, I propose the Mets keep Jerry Manuel, regardless of what happens the rest of the season. Where Willie Randolph led the Mets through intentional dispassion and a Torre-like lack of managerial personality, Jerry Manuel seems to be more of a Met guy, already having established himself as a Gandhi-quoting cerebral type with an edge that comes out when necessary, like during the Beltran vs. Runge situation, the argument last night over the ridiculous Ryan Howard home run call, or the "tongue-in-cheek" comment his first night on the job about knifing Jose Reyes if he acts up again.

Mets fans were leery of Manuel because he came directly from Randolph's right hand. But it's also clear from the early body of Manuel's work and the other coaching changes on the staff that this is a fundamentally different Mets leadership at this point. Manuel may have worked with Willie, but he's his own man with his own ideas, and he's taken the team in his own direction. Mets fans understandably didn't like the idea of another Willie guy taking over for Willie, but the fact remains bench coaches don't play a very assertive role and Mets fans knew hardly anything about Manuel before he was promoted. To a large degree, I think we've all been pleasantly surprised more than anything else.

In replacing Willie, the Mets tapped the easiest resource, an experienced manager out of their own dugout - this seemed less than exciting for those of us who would have preferred a more radical change, and admittedly, Jerry Manuel was not on my short list of favorite candidates to take over the Mets. Regardless of my prior feelings, however, or what happens the rest of this season, I must now admit that the Mets careful, risk-averse solution has for the moment left the Mets with a manager with whose leadership I am at least comfortable, and I think its hard to dispute the fact that the Mets were fortunate to have a guy like Jerry Manuel so readily available.


(Picture courtesy nydailynews.com)