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Randolph for MOTY?


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From Mike Lupica's "Shooting From The Lip"

 

Sorry Joe, Willie's the man

 

Willie Randolph has turned Mets into class of National League and should come away with award for top skipper.

 

 

Joe Torre has done good job managing Yanks through storm of injuries, but it's Willie Randolph who has made most of 2006.

 

There is still some season to go, and if you don't believe that, ask the Yankees. They swept a series from the Red Sox and once more were declared the winner of everything except the Senate race in Connecticut between Lieberman and Lamont, and then Mike Mussina was on the disabled list and the team was out on the West Coast losing games to the Mariners and Angels. If the Yankees have to keep playing, so do the Mets, and things can happen.

But in the season that has been played so far, the one in which the Mets have run away from everybody, from the Braves and the rest of the teams in their division and from the rest of the National League, the season in which only the Tigers have a better record, Willie Randolph is Manager of the Year.

 

Jim Leyland, of course, showing everybody that he is still a great baseball man, is Manager of the Year for his league. Willie is Manager of the Year in his. It is not Joe Girardi, despite his fine work with all those kids in Florida.

 

Randolph is Manager of the Year in his league, and in his city. The fact that others are discussed ahead of him just shows that it is still easier for him to win baseball games, in a career of winning games, than it is for him to get the proper respect.

 

This is nothing against Joe Torre, who always does a swell job. But every single time Torre's Yankees are asked to overcome anything - and they have been asked to overcome a lot this season - there is a rush to say that this is the best job Torre has ever done in his life. We heard it last year, and we heard it the year before that. Even though the Yankees haven't won the World Series since 2000 despite around $1.2 billion spent on ballplayers, the story on Torre is that he just keeps getting better and better.

 

Of course Torre is still a wonderful handler of men, and a class act.

 

He also starts off most games with a batting order that has five guys at the top whose salary for this season comes out to about $93.4 million. He has had Randy Johnson all year and Mussina until now.

 

Chien-Ming Wang has been the best and most consistent of all of them.

 

The top four Yankee starters have made a combined 104 starts, which is outrageous good fortune.

 

And when the Yankees need help at the trade deadline, they go get Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle and a real good bench guy like Craig Wilson from Pittsburgh.

 

It does not diminish the work Torre has done. Everybody likes and respects the skipper and knows the Yankees will never be the same when he's gone.

 

Randolph is in a weaker league this season, you bet. But his team has also lost two corner outfielders. His team has lost Pedro Martinez for huge chunks of time and Duaner Sanchez, the team's top setup man, and had the rotation change dramatically when Victor Zambrano was lost for the season and maybe for good. Then Brian Bannister was lost. He puts John Maine out there and now Dave Williams and shuffles his bullpen and keeps going, on what could turn out to be one of the best regular seasons in the history of the team.

 

He has done everything a Manager of the Year is supposed to do, done it in a runaway. And Girardi is supposed to be the favorite with a team under .500? Give me a break. It is always different in New York, and with a team expected to do things.

 

Randolph was always forgotten when there was a discussion about the championship Yankees of the late 70s. There was this ridiculous sports-talk notion that he couldn't coach third base every time a runner got thrown out. Then over all the years when he couldn't get a manager's job, we heard that he didn't "interview well." It sounded like some sort of idiot code for an African-American candidate who didn't quite measure up.

 

The Mets finally gave Randolph, out of the Tilden Houses in Brooklyn, a chance. He held them together at the end last season and the Mets finished 83-79. Now you see what he does when he has the horses.

 

Manager of the Year.

 

 

 

:plain

 

 

. . . I thought about putting this in the Locker Room forum, but I wanted to get some serious opinions on it first.

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Randolph can sit on his hands all year and get the same outcome. The name Joe Torre rings a bell when I think of Willie for MOTY.

 

I actually think Torre gets undervalued. The ammount of player turnover he has every year and he still keeps the ship sailing steadily hasn't been appreciated much lately and the way's he handled all the injuries and new faces this year to me gives him the manager of the year.

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Randolph can sit on his hands all year and get the same outcome. The name Joe Torre rings a bell when I think of Willie for MOTY.

 

I actually think Torre gets undervalued. The ammount of player turnover he has every year and he still keeps the ship sailing steadily hasn't been appreciated much lately and the way's he handled all the injuries and new faces this year to me gives him the manager of the year. Good point. There has been some serious turnover there. I will give him some major credit for the job he did handling the situation he was put in this year with all the injuries. Still, the bottom line is he has been the beneficiary (sp?) of an owner who is willing to replenish the cupboard with major talent year in and year out.

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If anything Omar Minaya should win executive of the year and Willie should just enjoy the ride.

 

i agree...but again, how can anyone ignore how beinfest's move, his moves made us competitive for the next 10 years...where the mets are older and fading(year to year, not just now)...the marlins should get serious consideration for many awards this offseason

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:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

 

The only managers you can make a case for over Girardi are Little and Narron. That's it.

 

If Willie wins it, I swear to God...

 

Agreed.

 

It's Girardi's, Little's, or Narron's to lose at this point. The Mets could've managed themselves.

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The author didn't even really supply any strong defense statements. He just talked about Torre the whole time.

 

Thats why the article felt like a complete joke, how is this guy a REAL writer if he can't even support what he is writing. I think someone needs to go back to highschool and learn what supporting detail is all over again. :lol

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Apparently you only read the bolded portions. If you actually read the article:

 

Randolph is in a weaker league this season, you bet. But his team has also lost two corner outfielders. His team has lost Pedro Martinez for huge chunks of time and Duaner Sanchez, the team's top setup man, and had the rotation change dramatically when Victor Zambrano was lost for the season and maybe for good. Then Brian Bannister was lost. He puts John Maine out there and now Dave Williams and shuffles his bullpen and keeps going, on what could turn out to be one of the best regular seasons in the history of the team.

 

Furthermore, these are not nothing players the Marlins are winning with -- they are top notch prospects for the most part that many expected to do well. IMO, Girardi wins it if the marlins win the wild card, but let's not undermind what Randolph is doing. The Mets have have plenty of talented teams in the past, but they played like sh*t thanks to poor management and a bad clubhouse ('92 and '01-last season). The fact he was able to get these stars to bond so well and play like a team shouldn't be overlooked.

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If Reds make the playoffs, it's Narron.

If Fish make the playoffs, it's Girardi.

If both, it's Girardi.

 

If niether, it's Randolph.

 

 

 

Agreed.

 

As far as Grady goes.....I like the guy, respect the hell out of em but he's not gonna win MOTY.

 

 

Because if Marlins and Reds miss the playoffs its gonna be a New York Met love fest.

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