Results tagged ‘ Jerry Manuel ’
Run Rookie Run
It’s hard to complain about this one, but then again, Jerry Manuel is the manager of the Mets. The short-handed Metropolitans completed the sweep of the Nationals on Wednesday night, but not without another head-scratcher from their manager.
The Mets’ prized prospect Fernando Martinez stood at home plate and watched as his sixth-inning pop-up sent Nationals catcher Will Nieves in circles. Here’s an idea Fernando, RUN. Pulling one from Jose Reyes’ playbook, the 20-year old rookie remained motionless as the ball dropped into fair play and Nieves recovered to throw out Martinez.
Knowing that the Mets have had problems like that in the past, why did Manuel allow Martinez to take the field for the top half of the next inning?
The kid needs to learn that his play was unacceptable, under any circumstance, and what better time to teach him than NOW.
The Citi Field Faithful rightfully let Martinez hear it loud and clear. Personally, I haven’t booed so loudly since Art Howe was still in town. The fans realized it, but it wasn’t apparent that the manager did.
Manuel was caught sleeping just like his rookie right fielder.
Manuel Clearly No Church-goer
I heard a limited number of postgame soundbytes on SNY’s SportsNite, but not few enough to go undisturbed.
Manager Jerry Manuel’s remarks on the losing effort were curios to say the least, but they said one thing with certainty – Manuel does not like Ryan Church.
It seems quite clear that Manuel has it out for Ryan Church with the manager’s postgame remarks just confirming the suspicions swirling around talk radio since March.
After a 3-2 loss, which was sloppy to say the least, the Mets manager continually harped on the fact Church was called out on an appeal play for missing third base on what would-have been the go-ahead run in the 11th inning Monday night.
Yes, Church’s base-running blunder is a bit mind-boggling and contributed to the Mets 3-2 loss. The only thing odder than the Church’s misstep was Manuel’s postgame reaction.
The Mets manager said, “The guy missed third base. I can’t explain why or how, the guy missed third base. It’s just hard to miss third base. I know there’s guys that miss first because they are looking up at the ball, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a guy miss third base in a situation like that.”
Is the manager really attributing this loss to Church and calling his rightfielder a bonehead in so many words? Clearly Jerry can’t be this clueless.
Remember it wasn’t Ryan Church that decided to fly to Colorado after suffering a concussion last season. It wasn’t Ryan Church who asked to be benched when he started the season on an offensive tear. It wasn’t Church who suggested the Mets fly Carlos Delgado to the West Coast only to return home three days later for a stint on the DL.
The real bonehead is the Mets brass, Manuel and Minaya included.
Dissecting the Weekend Series
Had Jerry Manuel been Metsmerized?
What other explanation would there be for allowing a starter pitch deep into the seventh inning? How else could one explain a 3-0 start to the season’s toughest nine-game road stretch.
Jerry had to be reading this blog, using it to develop new strategies for using his starting staff and bullpen.
He sent John Maine out for the seventh inning despite being 107 pitches deep into the series opener in San Francisco. It was still the right move even when Bobby Parnell finally stubbed his toe. The promising Parnell surrendered two runs, no more thanks to a nice defensive play from David Wright, and the teams were tied 4-4 headed into the ninth.
The Mets hung around against Tim Lincecum Friday night and hung so close that they stormed back from down 6-3 when David Wright crushed a bases-clearing, three-run double in the seventh inning.
It was Manuel’s bullpen management, surprisingly, that allowed the Mets to remain within striking distance after Livan Hernandez surrendered five over five.
Manuel allowed a different reliever to own each inning thereafter. With each pitcher performing adequately, the manager refrained from removing any of them mid-frame (we’ve seen that before; last Monday night against Atlanta?).
The Mets manager handled Johan Santana superbly and the offense did its part to carry the ace to a 9-6 victory. Manuel let Santana pitch through trouble in the seventh and the lefty left in favor of a pinch hitter in the eight with the Mets clinging to a 9-6 lead.
Manuel managed well and it showed. Three Mets victories to start what many were billing a killer trip.
Sunday? Well, that’s a different story.
Manuel Makes Same Mistake
After his awful decision to lift Santana backfired last night, the Mets manager is at it again. Manuel yanked starter Mike Pelfrey following seven extremely solid innings and 96 pitches.
As a result of Manuel’s managerial ingenius, Atlanta bumped its lead to 3-0.
Manuel, Reyes Make Mess of Santana Start
The scene was all too familiar at Citi Field Monday night.
No, not the lack of offensive support for ace Johan Santana.
I’m talking about Jerry Manuel’s mismanagement of the bullpen and our favorite shortstop’s lack of focus.
Jerry, what is the sense of even sending Santana out for the seventh inning if you’re going to lift him following a one-out single?
Santana needed six pitches to get Derek Lowe on a foul out to first before Kelly Johnson smoked a liner to centerfield. But even with one out and one on, he still is the best pitcher in baseball.
Why would a manager not want the game in the hands of baseball’s top hurler even when he is 107 pitches deep into the outing?
Does Manuel really think Pedro Feliciano provides a tougher matchup for opposing batters than Santana?
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s look at what happened before Feliciano put the finishing touches on this one.
Manuel pulled Santana in favor of hard-throwing righty Bobby Parnell. The young gun has to excite Mets fans just for the sheer fact he’s not Aaron Heilman if nothing else.
But as Parnell showed again, he is a promising young talent and maybe the Mets most-effective reliever thus far this season other than K-Rod. Throwing darts, Parnell yielded a broken bat single and induced a can of corn to centerfield for the inning’s second out.
Apparently that wasn’t good enough for Manuel. Instead of sticking with the effective arm, Manuel absolutely needed to bring in a southpaw to face the left-handed Brian McCann.
First off, since when does McCann warrant Barry Bonds treatment, and, secondly, why are managers moronically infatuated with lefty-lefty matchups? Not to mention, I saw Raul Ibanez and Chase Utley, both batting left-handed, go deep off the Mets “lefty specialist” on back-to-back days earlier this season.
So, in came Feliciano as Manuel played the matchup game. Believe it or not, the southpaw did his job for the moment by getting a busted-bat grounder that should have ended the inning and left the score tied at one apiece.
Not if Jose Reyes has anything to do with it. Doing his best to match the loopiness and lack of focus Oliver Perez has mastered in recent months, Reyes booted the ball and opened the flood gates.
The end result was a four-run seventh inning for the Braves, a Mets’ loss, and a whole lot of unanswered head-scratchers.
If the southpaw Santana had remained in for the entire seventh inning, then Manuel would not have had to call upon Feliciano to play the lefty-lefty game when McCann came up.
Manuel made for more bewilderment when he played the situational game for McCann, but then left Feliciano in to face the right-handed Matt Diaz who promptly delivered a piss rod to left field for the go-ahead hit.
The Mets were bound to lose again sooner or later, so it’s not the snapped streak that hurts. It’s the fact that this one was given away.
Jerry, mentally, and Jose, literally, dropped the ball on this one.
Outfield Delivery: No Need to Panic After all
Beltran, Church, Reed. Hits by each of the three allowed the Mets to tie it in the ninth inning against the Marlins Friday night only to see the Fish sneak by in the frame’s bottom half.
Beltran was the only one of the three who was considered a guaranteed contributor heading into the season. Church’s health (lingering concussion effects) and a lack of a heavy endorsement from manager Jerry Manuel were the target of questions. Reed, on the other hand, is new to the club, essentially trading places with former Amazin’ Endy Chavez.
Beltran and Murphy went a combined 6-for-10 at the plate. Church, who has answered the bell with a fast start, followed two of Beltran’s hits with a pair of his own.
Reed tied the game and even Gary Sheffield got into the mix with a walk.
The Mets corners are becoming less of question as is the outfield’s outlook as a whole.
The Maine Question
John Maine did his job and then some.
One of the Mets’ biggest questions coming into the season after surgery cut his 2008 short, the righty deserves high marks for his season debut. Sure it was only five innings, but Maine walked just one, struck out five, and ultimately gave the Mets a chance to win the ball game. Not bad for a guy with a suspect shoulder.
Had manager Jerry Manuel not felt the need for a pinch hitter with the Mets threatening in the top of the sixth, Maine could have tossed another frame with his pitch count standing at 83, 54 of which were strikes.
A stark contrast to the $36 Million Man who pitched last night. As Ollie showed last night, the Mets rotation remains its biggest question mark. Mike Pelfrey still needs to prove he can consistently win at the MLB level and Livan Hernandez is aging. That makes Maine’s status even more important to the Mets’ main question.
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