Willie Fired?!?!?!?

Needless to say I am very upset right now. Not only because I know how good a guy Willie Randolph was but also because it was in the middle of a road trip. He got fired last night, and even though Omar knows he's wrong, and will most certainly lose his job next it kills me to know he's left this Mets organization in shambles for who knows how long. What would have happened if we would have kept Brian Bannister? Who is Ambiorix Burgos? Bannister made 3 starts went 2-1 then pulled a hamstring only to get traded for a guy with a live arm but bad mechanics.

Bannister was one of bright spots on an underacheiving Kansas City team. Burgos had Tommy John, another reason why Rick Peterson also lost his job, because of his handling of the picthers even though Burgos injury had nothing to do with him there were plenty of things Peterson was faulted for. He said he could "fix" Victor Zambrano(no relation to Carlos) in 10 minutes ,and the Mets traded prospect Scott Kazmir to the Rays for him. A year and change later Zambrano is out of baseball and Kazmir is racking up K's as the Rays ace. He also didn't realize what he had in Heath Bell. Bell and Peterson didn't have a good relationship, and Bell was rarely used. Minaya (of course) traded him to San Diego for two players that had cups of coffee in the majors, and Bell is ready to close games in San Diego.

This firing makes me upset becuase it was after a win, again on the road, and because the majority of the Mets who are Latino have no alliance to a black guy from Brooklyn and some are secretly doing the salsa. One source close to some Met players told me backup Mets catcher Ramon Castro said "F--k Willie I get my money that's it f--k Willie". Coincidentally Castro also got a hefty contract from his boy Omar, who is also faulted for making an incredibly stupid trade when with the Expos. But this is today's stupid, so I need not go on a tangent.

It is easy to say Willie had "no fire" he wasn't a cheerleader like a Bobby Cox or outspoken like a Ozzie Guillen. He was a lot of things, a bad manger he was not. He had two World Series rings with the Yankees, and had 18 years of playoff expierience with the Pirates,Yankees and Oakland. He even played his last year with the Mets in 92'. After his playing career he was an Assistant G.M. with the Yankees in 93' and was a 3rd base coach with the Yankees for 11 years. A number of teams turned Willie down when he was seeking a position as head coach, and Torre wasn't going anywhere. Eventually the Mets gave Willie a look, partially because they thought they could control him according to their plan. They wanted to win, and they didn't want someone outspoken like Bobby Valentine especially after no postseason since 2000. They instead got a man who had his own plan and wanted to manage his team according to his way and not rely on the front office to
puppet his moves. That's why they didn't hire Jim Leyland who was available before excepting the Tigers coaching job. They wanted someone like Willie. Unfortunately for them it wasn't the Willie they thought they were getting.

Willie did a good job as Mets coach and led them to within a game of the World Series in 06', and even survived the historic Met collapse last year. In 2006 the Mets were featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and boasted that they were a melting pot of races, and cultures. That diversity is non-existent now especially when 85% of the Mets players and bench coaches are hispanic. From Willies perspective I would think it would be terribly difficult to manage a team that speaks spanish over you. Minaya has seperated the clubhouse and made it so that the star hispanic players are in their comfort zone.

Minaya will be long gone to see how the Johan deal pans out whether he's the best pitcher in baseball or not we still have him for the next 5 years! Omar Minaya signed Luis Castillo to a 4 year contract extension. The man played 50 games!. He got traded at the deadline and was a great addition hitting behind Reyes but he' had reoccuring knee injuries is lazy in the field , and does knee bends after every pitch. Some of his lazy work ethic has rubbed off on Reyes who has 12 errors before the All-Star break. Castillo has no incentive to play hard at all. Minaya held down his "boys" by handing that deal to Luis when he knows his market value was a lot smaller if the Metropolitans would have let him become a free agent. I also read an article on ESPN.com that the price paid for Castillo would have been better used to aquire Orlando Hudson who is a free-agent in the offseason and would have taken less money to come to N.Y.

Not only would the potential addition of Hudson been great for the clubhouse because he's a great leader but it would have been fiscally responsible, which Omar is not. To fill the void at second base this year they could have kept Ruben Gotay and had some sort of platoon at second.

There are a lot more issues going on with the Mets and this front office that Omar is making worse by making moves that suits him instead of the interest of the team. I'm not going to say he's a bad G.M. He's just made poor decisions like all of us have without the reponsiblity of a franchise. He will be gone next and we can sit back and look at his tenure as G.M.. The resigining of Guirellmo Mota after getting caught taking steroids(still eating contract) the plethora of bad trades and now the firing of Randolph who the Mets now have to buy out(owed 2 million).

You would have to think that even if the Mets aren't going to make the playoffs that Jerry Manuel will be the Mets next coach. He has been a bench coach with the Mets since 06' and was Manager of the year in 2000 when he led the White Sox to a 95-67 record. Even if Omar is gone Manuel will be leading "Los Mets" next year, I just wish Willie would have gotten the benefit of the doubt. When he pulled the "race card" it didn't help him either but now he can manage some place that wants him. With all the "fire Willie" chants at Shea every Met fan that woke up and heard this is shocked because it so sudden. Now the man's out of a job, does that light your fire?