The Mets may have a great future. I don't know, I've heard it all before in the past few seasons. Willie Randolph may one day win ten rings and go into the Hall of Fame.
Objectively speaking, however, Randolph's first half-season with the Mets has been awful.
Lupica's cuddly take on Randolph?:
"He has moved on. He manages his team, his way. Carlos Beltran hasn't hit yet. There have been injuries at second base, injuries at first base. Mike Piazza is in decline. You see what the Mets' bullpen is like. No Steve Trachsel. Somehow his team stays in there. Sometimes it seems Randolph's Mets have a much better sense of who they are than Torre's Yankees."
That's one way to look at it. I'll present another perspective:
The Mets have the highest payroll in the National League. They added Pedro and Beltran (the five-tool, $119 million player who apparently can not run down to first base on pop-ups). Reyes is healthy and has another year of experience. Wright has another year of experience (though he just can't seem to get out of the seventh slot in the lineup). Floyd is having an MVP-caliber season.
With all of those things in their favor, they're still in last place, under .500, and ten games out of first place.
Is Lupica actually bringing up injuries as an excuse? That weak as Womack.
Look around, Lupica. Every team has injuries and most of the injured players are better than Doug Freakin' Mintkayvitch and Kaz Freakin' Matsui. Those puny injuries are the reason the team with the highest payroll in the NL is in last place? That's a knee-slapper.
Jeez, I thought youze writers in New York were tough. You're all treating Randolph with kid gloves.
Are the Mets as disappointing as the Yankees? No. The Yankees are the most disappointing team in baseball.
Torre is the worst manager in '05; Randolph is the second-worst.
But who cares, anyway? The Mets don't compete head-to-head with the Yankees. Keep pushing the Battle of New York all you want, but the fans don't buy it. Every Yankee fan I know is more concerned about the Red Sox, the Orioles, the Twins, the Rangers ... heck, the Blue Jays are as good as the Yankees.
If both teams play .500 for the entire season, the winner of the Battle of New York gets nothing but a booby prize.
Why is Randolph complaining in the first place?
Randolph probably was next in line to be Yankees' manager. I certainly wouldn't criticize Randolph for becoming impatient. It's a free country and Torre looks like he is going to outlast all the Supreme Court Justices. But that's the primary reason that the Yankees didn't make Randolph manager -- somebody else had the job.
It was never an act of disrespect towards Randolph, it was just an act of respect towards Torre.
In the words of a certain grizzled sportswriter, "Here's a headline for you, Randolph: 'Get over it.' "
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