Mets Front Office Ends Willie Randolph's Misery; Replaces Him with Bench Coach Jerry Manuel

After an entire month of the New York media and fans speculating when, not if, Mets manager Willie Randolph would be fired, Mets General Manager Omar Minaya finally fired Randolph with 2 years and a little more than $3 million still left on his contract. Bench coach and former White Sox manager Jerry Manuel will be taking over as manager of the team.

The move comes at a peculiar time as the Mets fired Randolph a few hours after the team beat the Angels. The Mets had seemed to start to pull it together finally, winning 3 out of their last 4 games. Pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto were also fired in the house cleaning that Omar Minaya made last night.

So the question that baseball fans want to know is if the Mets will really get any better with a new manager. The simple answer is no. Jerry Manuel did win the AL Manager of the year while managing the White Sox from 1998-2003 but he was terminated after the White Sox team underperformed.

The mind boggling factor here is that Jerry Manuel is almost exactly like Willie Randolph. Both had initial success before their teams underperformed and both have a low key demeanor and never yell or shout. If the personality of the team as laid back isn't going to change, then what exactly is going to change? The answer: not much.

This Mets team has a lot of talent and some may say that Randolph did deserve to get fired. While I certainly agree that the Mets have underperformed the entire year, the Mets have been hit hard by injuries. Their best hitter has been Ryan Church was has been injured for the past month with a concussion. Wright and Reyes have been in a slump most of the year, Wagner recently blew 3 saves, and Delgado has been simply awful.

Having Jerry Manuel take over as manager won't be able to solve any of those mentioned problems. The pitching hasn't been very good and Rick Peterson was considered to be one of the best pitching coaches in the league. If he can't get Oliver Perez and John Maine to pitch well, then I doubt it if the new Mets pitching coach from the minor leagues can do any better. Pedro Martinez recently came off the DL so that should help.

Can the Mets win their division? Yes.. The Phillies have been doing very well led by their best player this year, Chase Utely. The Phillies are't as talented as the Mets and if Pedro Martinez can pitch well, then the Mets will have a good duo with ace Johan Santana. Reyes and Wright will get it together eventually and the Mets can still overcome the 6 games to catch the Phillies for the division lead. The Braves are just about done with the news that Smoltz is done for the year with shoulder surgery. The Phillies are a good team but I don't believe they are quite legit a team yet. If the Mets can play a little better the rest of the year and win 88 games, they can probably win the division.

More information: http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080617&content_id=2945363&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym