Willie Could Be Out By Monday

According to an article in today's Daily News, if the Mets don't turn it around this weekend in Colorado, the Wilpons, not Omar Minaya, will drop the ax on Willie Randolph.

And to that, I say, amen. Put us out of our misery, please. Something needs to change.

Pitching, Pitching, Pitching

If you don’t have good pitching, you’re not going to win many ball games. You can analyze a game to death; who missed a bunt, who failed to get the runner over, who didn’t cover the bag, but if you can’t throw strikes and get anybody out, it’s a tough hurdle to climb. For the better part of two months now, our pitching has been downright embarrassing. We’ve actually let up 48 runs in 5 games to the weakest hitting offense in the National League, losing 4 of those games – in crucial games no less. It’s just inexcusable. And even more unacceptable is the recent performance of our 300 Game winner.

Last night night, Tom Glavine was horrible. He was terrible in his previous start as well. This is not good. If Mike Pelfrey has a bad outing, you can live with that. But when Tom Glavine, the guy who is supposed to anchor this rotation, goes out and lays an egg during this time of year, you’re in trouble. And that’s exactly where the Mets find themselves after doing all they can to give up their hold on first place.

And what can you say about the bull pen? They have to be the worst in baseball. When you have someone come in to pitch their first major league of an important game, that means your team is pitiful. After Carlos Muniz pitched a scoreless inning, I was trying to figure out if there was a way we could put him on the post season roster (If we’re fortunate enough to make it). And I was serious. Why not? Sure, we don’t what we have in him, but we certainly know what we have in Mota, Schoenweis and the rest of the Blow Pen. I couldn’t even blame Randolph for putting him in that spot. Look what he has to choose from.

Fortunately, the Braves thumped the Phillies and we still, miraculously, have a 2 game lead, which is quite extraordinary really when you consider how disgusting this team has played. And tonight, we have a kid who is making is first major league start. Buckle up...

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.

Someone Please Designate Scott Schoeneweis for Assignment

Q. What do tongue depressors, cold pasta and Scott Schoeneweis have in common?

A. They all make me gag.

Do you just cringe during a close game when you hear Gary Cohen say that Willie Randolph is going to the bullpen to bring in Scott Schoeneweis? Does he not see what everyone else sees?

Look at his stats this year:
IP = 27.2
Hits = 30
K = 13
BB = 20
ERA = 5.86

This is a guy with a career ERA of over 5. I know we're desperate for bullpen help and we don't have a long reliever, but right now anybody is better than Schoeneweis. Where's Chad Bradford and Darren Oliver when you need them?