Now that the Willie Randolph Approval Rating on MetsBlog has dipped below 50%, it has been removed from the front of the site. It had been appearing along with the "Fan Confidence in the Overall Direction of Team" rating, but since the latest poll, where Willie received a positive vote of 41%, it has been removed.Is it possible that MetsBlog, which is owned by SNY, which is partially owned by the Mets, was ordered to make the poll less prominent? It is no secret that with such things opinions are quite fluid, and if opinion switches one way it can keep going that way. No need to encourage others.
In other Willie News, he remarked after Pelfrey's awesome performance last night:
Obviously, Pelfrey was outstanding. The kid threw the heck out of the ball tonight. He used everything he had…total game for him. That’s the way we want him to be…He’s growing, he’s maturing, and that’s the main thing for him. He gets better as he goes out there…Pelfrey is just learning how to pitch at this level. I mean, he’s gone through some growing pains, and he still needs to be more consistent with his location, but you can see he’s coming. He’s a kid with a good chance to be a quality major-league pitcher.It's funny. Even in praising Pelfrey, Randolph loads his speech down with qualifiers and little jabs: He's growing, he's maturing... he's just learning how to pitch... growing pains... he still needs to be more consistent... he [has] a good chance. Seriously. That is not necessary. He needs to be more consistent? Even the best and most experienced pitchers have bad games. You're upset because Pelfrey threw a gem last night but doesn't throw a gem every time out? Sure he's learning, but there's also something called random fluctuation you should familiarize yourself with. Pelfrey has Chien-Ming Wang upside. He could be a really good pitcher, it's true. But Randolph's comments are just pointless. Whatever, I'm just nitpicking here. Cerrone continues his account:
Pelfrey was introduced to reporters while Randolph was wrapping up his comments and still sitting at the table, so Randolph smiled and said jokingly, “Oh he’s over there, and I was saying good things about it him, (sigh), never mind, never mind all that.”Wait, so that was his example of "saying good things"? Using diminutive terms, calling him a "kid," saying that he needs to be more consistent? I guess, if that's the best he can do.
Good news on the Randolph front: yesterday Ryan Church hit second. Though he's a better option than Pagan and a much better option than Castillo, I don't expect this to last. Maybe it had to do with the left-hand pitcher, though why the left-handed Church gives more balance to the lineup than the switch-hitting Castillo, who hits better from the right side, I do not know.
Speaking of Castillo, who is disappointing everyone all of a sudden: I would like to remind everyone that I disagreed with the original trade, with the caveat that letting him go as a free agent would make it better, and I strongly opposed the signing before it even happened, calling a 4-year, $28 million deal for the old, mono-skilled Castillo my "worst case scenario." So when people write (and they will write) that nobody foresaw such a rapid decline, ignore them. Such a turn of events is sorry indeed, but far from unpredictable.
15 comments:
What happened to the first person plural you were using? Now that it's gone, I miss it.
Yea, me too. I just sound like an angry crank now.
Nice work with the "B!T rulez".
I can't believe Willie actually made the switch to have Church batting second. He kept it up tonight, dear lord let it last.
John: Rickey strongly advises a switch to the third person voice.
Rickey, what do I call myself, then? John? Blastings?
Thanks, David. I hope it lasts too.
Wasn't it $25 million for Castillo, not 28 million? Let's not make it worse than it is....
I said this in another post, but given that Castillo's knee problems were not exactly hard to predict, you think they would have found a way to keep Ruben Gotay around.
Peter, it was $24 million. $28 million over four years was my "worst-case scenario" prediction before they actually signed him.
Funny you call Castillo mono-skilled, John. It was Willie who called Gotay a one trick pony.
I don't know if you could see it on SNY tonight (I was at Shea) but when Castillo is up the leftfielder was basically playing a deep softball shortstop and Lastings was playing 2/3 of the way in towards second base shaded wayyyy left. It's a joke. Teams don't even respect him anymore - they know he can't get the ball out of the infield. 4 years/24 mil - thanks Omar!
Interesting comparison between Pelfrey and Wang. They both feature a fastball-heavy sinker combo, but Wang has found success pitching to contact with abnormally low striekout totals. Do you think Pelfrey can learn to do the same?
On the Nats broadcast, the announcers mentioned the outfield was playing Castillo, "like a left-handed hitting pitcher." Nice.
since we're talking about last night's game, can i mention how awesome milledge's first-to-third on the 6-3 was. pretty stupid play, probably, but since reyes and delgado both made perfect throws and they still didn't get him, i'll give him the benefit of the doubt. oh yeah, also, because it's such a blast watching him play.
jerry - it was stupid how shallow they were. If he hit a flyball to about 20 feet in front of the warning track he could run around the bases twice.
e - it was a stupid play wasn't it? especially because there was one out in the inning and he was adavancing to third when there was going to be 2 outs. He's a pretty safe bet to score from 2nd on a base hit and going to third seemed like an unnecessary risk that he took only to further stick it to the Mets. Nobody out it's a heads up play, one out - not so much.
kind of stupid, yes, but not terrible. the break-even point on that play is 90-95%. long odds, but as i said, he did beat two perfect throws, so i'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in believing that he knew it was risky but realized that he had a really good shot at making it.
i do think it's both unfair and wrong to assume that he did it just to stick it to the mets, though. that's just another one of those assumptions about what a douchebag milledge is that's really not true. he did almost the exact same thing a few days ago against another team (don't remember who), breaking from third on an infielder's throw to first. he was thrown out at the plate on that one, but he looked safe on the replays. anyway, questionable play, yes - childish, vindictive play to show up the mets, no.
Didn't say childish, but I'll stand behind the fact that because it was against the Mets in Shea had more than a little something to do with taking the risk.
It has nothing to do with me thinking the rap mogul is a douche either. He was treated like shit while he was here and basically traded for 75 cents on the dollar. It's only human to want to vindicate that type of treatment when you come back.
Post a Comment