Friday, August 13, 2010

What's worse for the Mets in K-Rod debacle - bad leadership or no leadership?

The Mets' approach to crisis management appears to be "better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." As newly-fervent SNY watcher Squawker Lisa writes, Jeff Wilpon and Omar Minaya have had very little to say about the Francisco Rodriguez mess.

But Squawker Lisa is not a Met fan. Are there any Met fans who seriously want to hear MORE from Minaya or Wilpon?

Jerry Manuel has had a lot to say, and he has removed all doubt about being a fool. As I wrote yesterday, Manuel would have been happy to use K-Rod in yesterday's noon game, despite his spending the night in a prison cell.

The usually quiet Carlos Beltran offered more criticism than Manuel, saying "No one should act like that."

But Jeff Francoeur, who appeared for awhile to be the team leader the Mets desperately need, removed all doubt about him being a fool when he said of the K-Rod altercation, "Maybe it's a distraction we need."

Here's a distraction the Mets don't need - Francoeur wanting a trade because he isn't playing every day. Francoeur doesn't deserve to play every day, and good luck to him finding a place that will make him a fulltime starter. I think the Mets are better off with Francoeur in the mix, but I'd rather see him gone than starting fulltime - or complaining about it.

Getting back to management, the Mets' tendency to do things half way keeps coming back to haunt them. Minaya has had his autonomy taken away from him, but he remains the GM. Manuel, one would think (and hope) is a dead man walking, but he remains the main voice of the team. Oliver Perez has effectively been deactivated, but he remains on the active roster.

The Mets need a new version of Frank Cashen - a strong, decisive, leader from the outside who knows what he is doing, someone who will restore the Mets to glory - and get Squawker Lisa to stop watching SNY for the latest Mets debacle.

4 comments:

Uncle Mike said...

I think, Jon, at this point, all Met fans want to hear from Omar Minaya is two words: "I quit."

Considering that the Mets are currently being run by the son of the owner, who is letting his GM run the place as he sees fit, and they're wearing blue and orange, and they're awful on the field of play, they're up to their sprained necks in injuries, they need opposing superstars to get sellouts, and now they've got a big name who's not only a thug but actually did attack his coach once as Latrell Sprewell did, I'd say the Mets are just one step away from being the 2000s Knicks.

All they need now is a vastly overpaid, ridiculously underachieving hockey team to share their building -- and I've advocated a Rangers-Islanders New Year's Day game at Citi Field before! (It would make more sense, geographically and with the shape of the stadium, than at Yankee Stadium.)

BklynSoxFan said...

"The Mets need a new version of Frank Cashen - a strong, decisive, leader from the outside who knows what he is doing, someone who will restore the Mets to glory..."

Amen to that, Jon.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Omnipotent.

The Mets need a complete overhaul, starting at the top.

Uncle Mike said...

This is what it took to get Freshy and me to agree on something: This season, the 6th year of Omar Minaya's 5-year plan.

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