Comments on: Jerry Manuel vows to make the Mets work on fundamentals

By: Carroll B. Merriman

Carroll B. Merriman — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:43:15 +0000

Love the blog, i found you via google and will be bookmarking you right now. oh you can usally catch me over at bontrade forum

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:10:23 +0000

I agree. Enough is enough. I bailed on a golden opportunity to rag on the Escobar disaster a few posts up. And you're right about last year. It deprived all the other fans in the NL East of a great opportunity to watch them choke and fold in the last two or three weeks yet again. If they'd stayed healthy, they probably could have set an alltime record for consecutive gotterdammerungen by blowing a nine game lead with seven games left to play.

By: Chillax

Chillax — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:35:27 +0000

I completely agree with OneSweetWorld. This Mets bashing has gotten way out of hand. There is a very distinct reason why the Mets preformed the way they did last year……INJURIES. They have been contenders in the past few year before that. The fact of the matter is, all the media and bloggers are doing is fueling a team to achieve and throw the banter back in their face. If I were Jerry Manuel, I would have a table of the nasty articles written about the Mets in the clubhouse, so that the team can use it to get motivated. Everyone knows that you never tell a professional athlete that they can’t do something because they will push that much harder.

By: OneSweetWorld

OneSweetWorld — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:31:17 +0000

Umm the guy 2 spots ahead was right, Manuel SAID THE SAME EXACT THING LAST YEAR when they started Spring Training. I cant wait for Omar to be fired and Bobby V to come back and coach this team next year…

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:07:37 +0000

I agree, it’s time to look at the upside of the Mutts.
.
Uh – what is that? Well, they lowered the outfield wall. And….?
.
For the way Jerry Manuel helped screw over one of the classiest guys in the game so his little clique of quitters, egotists and screwups could rally around him and show him that the implosion of ’08 was no fluke, that they really were a bunch of overpaid whiners and quitters, he’s getting exactly the ticket to an ugly immortality that he asked for. But, as Salman Rushdie famously wrote, life is very long. The Feelies found redemption, and the Beanbags found redemption. With a major overhaul and some new management, the Mutts can find it to. It’s time for them to stop trading on 1986 and get their act straightened out.

By: Larry in Long Beach

Larry in Long Beach — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:05:58 +0000

“But part of me likes to think of Jerry Manuel trying to play the angles in advance of what could be an ugly summer in Queens.”
Craig, seriously, enough with bashing the Mets. It’s not funny anymore. The team was contender in ’07 and ’08, before a disastrous (though injury marred) ’09. We get it. They stunk. They disappointed. They have a high payroll. They had all sorts of dysfunction and organizational messes. But do we need to have 3 posts a week pointing out nonsense just so you can kick them around some more? I’m no apologist, and I’m certainly willing to acknowledge the shortcomings of Manuel and Minaya, though I think they haven’t bombed nearly to the extent you portray week in and week out. Though to be honest, the IRA in the 70′s didn’t bomb the way you portray Met management to have done.
I accept the entire article here as one of those usual spring pieces and I even get a kick out of the very question of Manuel being cagey or just blowing smoke. But the fact that you just could not resist that final sentence, and that you have included 20 or 30 others like it in articles over the last few weeks, is really getting very, very tiresome.
The Mets have their issues, but you are so far past the usual degree of making a point, I half expect you to be selling t0shirts reading “AREN’T THE METS BAD? RIGHT? THEY’RE BAD. SEE? BAD.”

By: Mark Barkow

Mark Barkow — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:38:30 +0000

Go check Manuel’s comments last spring. I remember him saying the same thing! What happened?

By: HansonChop

HansonChop — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:18:37 +0000

“But part of me likes to think of Jerry Manuel trying to play the angles in advance of what could be an ugly summer in Queens.”
Just don’t come crying when Jurrjens and Hanson come down with shoulder injuries. Karma’s a bitch like that.

By: Omega in Colorado

Omega in Colorado — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:56:50 +0000

@john pileggi
the same thing happened here with my Rockos. Clint Hurdle busted his guys butts on fundamentals for a few years, lost their ear in the dug out, drastically improved the Rockos fielding and was shown the door for all his hard work.
I guess that is just the life of a skipper.
That being said, I am officially adopting the Mets as my underdog team this year, I will root my heart out for them every chance I get, unless of course they are playing my Rockos or my first true baseball love, the Cubbies.

By: john pileggi

john pileggi — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:36:30 +0000

Managers who are “teaching the fundamentals” usually are not around to reap the be benefit. Think Dallas Green and Bobby Valentine. The guy doing the “re-teach” is not going to be popular, even if he is effective. The next guy is the recipient of the benefits. Jerry is a good guy and I hope he gets to stay long enough to see some fruition of all this stuff.

By: Xpensive Wino

Xpensive Wino — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:35:02 +0000

Now’s as good a time as any to start the “who’s going to be the first manager fired this year” conversation……

By: Palehose67

Palehose67 — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:24:31 +0000

I’m trying to think of the top ten sping training lines every year:
10. [Manager] said, “This spring we will be stressing fundamentals!”
9. [Local sports reporter]: “[Player name] showed up to camp in the best shape of his life. He easily has lost 15 pounds.”
8. “[Young pitching prospect] will given a real shot to compete for the fifth spot in the rotation.”
7….

By: YANKEES1996

YANKEES1996 — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:50:50 +0000

Craig,the answer to your query, I will vote for “clever”, but it will not save his job!

By: Charles Gates

Charles Gates — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:26:29 +0000

Most of these stories also say something about how each and every player will practice bunting so they will come through in the clutch. Because, yes, Carlos Beltran bunting in high leverage situations is exactly what the Metts need.

By: BC

BC — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:25:32 +0000

“The major leagues is a bit late to be teaching anyone fundamental baseball.”
You said it, Amen!
Reyes is super-skilled but he makes dumb plays in the field and on the bases.
Manuel will be gone by the end of June.
Hopefully this time Minaya gets the ax too – and at 4am so he knows what it feels like.