Terrible Decision by Randolph

What was Willie Randolph thinking last night? He made one of the worst decisions in managerial history (the worst I’ve ever seen) when he decided to use two players in one at bat. Yes, you read that correctly. He literally used up two guys on one play.

In the 7^th inning, when Lo Duca pulled up lame at second base, Randolph put El Duque in to pinch run for him, and with the pitcher due up, he inexplicably chose to bat Marlon Anderson - against a lefty no less – rather than put Ramon Castro up and save Anderson for later in the game. Instead, Anderson hits, and Castro replaced Lo Duca in the top half of the inning. I could not believe what I was watching. A major league manager is making this mistake? The blunder is even worse when you consider that Anderson was the last player available – and they were only in the 7^th inning! Everyone in the building, watching from home, or listening on their radio assumed Castro was coming in. Even Ramon figured as much since he had his helmet on, bat in hand. It was shocking.

"Anderson is a professional pinch-hitter. I'd rather have him in that situation," Randolph said. "If I'd had Castro pinch-hit there, they'd have brought in setup man Jon Rauch." Uh…really?

So what? I’d rather have a scorching hot Castro face Rauch than Anderson facing a lefty. And guess what? I’d still have Anderson to pinch hit later in the game, rather than ending up with Tom Glavine in that spot. In fact, I don’t care if there were two or three guys remaining on the bench, why use two for one? As fas as I am concerned, Castro was the only choice. And after all, the Mets were carrying three catchers for a few weeks specifically to allow Castro to get pinch hit ABs. If this wasn’t one of those opportunities, then I don’t know what was.

It was simply an awful decision in what has become a very questionable season for Randolph, who was runner up for manager of the year last year. I’ve been a big supporter of Randolph's, but even I am starting to see the flaws.