Home MLB'Weekly' Hit Ground Ball ‘Weekly’ Hit Ground Ball 2008 – Week Twelve

‘Weekly’ Hit Ground Ball 2008 – Week Twelve

by Matt Smith

A change is as good as a win?

It’s not been a good week to be a Major League manager. The Mets, Mariners and Blue Jays have all been wielding the axe, leaving the remaining twenty-seven managers looking over their shoulders and wondering ‘who’s next’?

That we have waited until seventy-odd games have been played before the first GM ‘relieved a manager of his duties’ (a wonderful phrase) is actually a show of remarkable restraint in modern sports. Getting through the first month without one casualty was something of an achievement in itself, so the standard claims of ‘GM panic’ don’t apply this time around. All three managers were clearly skating on thin ice.

Some thought Willie Randolph might not make it through the winter after the Mets’ catastrophic collapse down the stretch last season. Although he did enter the 2008 season with his job intact, Randolph was a dead man walking with the Mets’ hierarchy doing little to dampen the ever-rampant New York media speculation about his future. The way Mets’ GM Omar Minaya chose to sack Randolph was also strange to say the least and has drawn fierce criticism. The decision was made after New York beat the L.A. Angels 9-6 in the first of a six-game road trip and came after a six-game homestand during which the Mets went 3-3. Why Minaya couldn’t have made the call before Willie and his crew had flown over to L.A. is a mystery, despite his attempts to explain himself at a press conference later in the week.

The whole affair has been somewhat reminiscent of the way Tottenham Hotspur undermined their former manager Martin Jol by meddling behind his back. In both cases, the Front Office/Board of Directors came out of it with very little credit, although the Spurs example shows that if the next manager can bring some success, all is soon forgotten. Another similarity between the Mets and Spurs is that the managers were ultimately victims of the heady expectations placed on their teams. The other two managers sacked in MLB this week also fall into this category.

After their 88-74 record in 2007, the Mariners made some moves over the off-season to try and push their way ahead of the Angels in the AL West. Being 17.5 games behind L.A. nearly halfway through the season, and with the worst record in the Majors, fell a long way short of what was expected of John McLaren’s charges and he paid the price for it. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays have invested considerable funds over the last couple of seasons with the intention of competing with the Red Sox and the Yankees. A 35-39 record wasn’t disastrous in the general scheme of things, but in the AL East it was only worth a place in the cellar and a 10.5 game deficit to the division-leading Red Sox. John Gibbons received his marching orders as a result, being replaced by former World Series winning Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston.

While the buck may stop with the manager in both sports, unlike in football the results on the field cannot solely be placed at his door. The manager has to get the most out of the personnel available to him, but it is the general manager’s job to assemble the roster. This was recognised in Seattle as Bill Bavasi was sacked from his position as GM prior to McLaren making way. It was Bavasi who decided to trade the M’s best prospect, Adam Jones, along with four other players for Erik Bedard as the supposed last piece of the jigsaw. Now one of interim GM Lee Pelekoudas’ main tasks is to find an acceptable deal to ship Bedard to another team and effectively start the team building process again.

In Toronto, GM J.P. Ricciardi is claiming that he knows his team is better than its record suggests, but his decisions are being placed under the microscope. Ricciardi has made several questionable moves this season (signing Shannon Stewart and releasing Frank Thomas, to name but two) and his bizarre criticism of Reds slugger Adam Dunn makes you wonder whether he is now feeling the pressure. Don’t be surprised if he makes way as well in the coming months.

Which leaves us with Omar Minaya. Having presided over the dog-end days of the mess in Montreal, the Mets’ GM has been given substantial funds to pursue free agents and to build a World Series winner in New York. The team’s failure to live up to expectations and his handling of Randolph’s departure has put the bullseye well and truly on his back. A second-half surge and a run to the Fall Classic will surely take the pressure off. Missing out on October baseball for the second straight year will just as surely see Minaya clearing his desk. Like Randolph, McLaren, Gibbons and Bavasi, Minaya knows that all he needs to do is win.

If it only it were that simple.

Week 12 wrap-up
The managerial change in Toronto hasn’t had an immediate effect as the Blue Jays are mired in a seven game losing streak and remain 10.5 games behind the first placed Red Sox (46-31) in the AL East. The Rays swept the Cubs during the week and have pulled to within just half a game of Boston, while the Yankees have dropped two to the Reds following a seven game win streak. The Twins have won five in a row and are now 2.5 games behind the White Sox (41-33) in the Central. The Angels have a 4.5 game lead over the A’s in the West; the Mariners go 2 and 4 on the week to drop to a Major League worst 24-44 record.

In the National League East, the Phillies (42-34) have lost their last four allowing the Marlins to close the gap again to just a single game. After the aforementioned sweep by the Rays, the Cubs (47-28) have rebounded by taking the first two games against their cross-town rivals. This keeps their 3.5 game lead intact despite the second placed Cardinals winning their last two against the Red Sox. The D-Backs (39-36) had a losing week in the West, but the Dodgers still sit 4.5 games behind them.

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