Scapegate

Ok, so the headline is a little strong. Willie Randolph’s firing was something everyone could see, but the timing…hour, day, month…was all wrong. I’m never one for firing a manager midseason, since I can’t remember the last time it actually turned the team into a win machine. And some teams have gone late into seasons and suddenly just started winning every game in sight (2007 Colorado Rockies, 2005 Oakland A’s). Personally, if the Mets were to fire Willie it should have been after last season, or if during this season at least a week or two ago before interleague play resumed to give the interim guy some time to fiddle around with less meaningful games (let’s face it, interleague games affect you much less than games against intraleague teams).
Cleaning House? The firing of first base coach Tom Nieto instead of doing something about the woeful offense is a mystery to me. Almost everyone who isn’t Ryan Church or Moises Alou (who are both injured) are underperforming in some manner at the plate. Rick Peterson I do not completely agree with the firing of (I began this sentence with what should be the end of it. Screw you, grammar). His one big oopsie is convincing Mets Heads that he could turn Victor Zambrano into something better than Scott Kazmir. Hahahahahahaaaa. On the other hand he molded John Maine into a pretty good mid-rotation starter and got Oliver Perez to perform somewhere between his one good season with the Pirates and the subsequent one and a half awful ones.