Jerry Manuel Is A Liar
by Eric Simon on Feb 23, 2009 11:56 AM EST
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PrintOkay, so that was just an attention-grabber. At the very least, manager Jerry Manuel has a history of being disingenuous, as Anthony Rieber illustrates in Newsday.
On June 29, Manuel pulled Carlos Delgado for defense and put in Fernando Tatis. "It's nothing against Carlos," Manuel said. "I think, as a manager, that Tatis is a tremendous first baseman and I don't think it'd be fair to the team if I didn't do that."
He never did it again.
On July 28, Manuel said of Tatis, "He right now is our leftfielder. There is no question about that."
The next day, Tatis started in rightfield, the position he manned almost exclusively for the next month before Ryan Church returned to the lineup.
When he took over for Willie Randolph, Manuel emphasized the need to rest David Wright more often. Wright sat June 24. And in the final three months of the season, he was rested again -- once.
On Sept. 23, Manuel said he was going to stick with the struggling Castillo for the last week of the season. "Luis has been in this situation before," he said. "He's experienced ... I think he could be a very valuable asset."
Castillo didn't start another game.
This was mostly in response to Manuel's "decision" this past weekend that Daniel Murphy would be the starter in left field and that Fernando Tatis would platoon with Ryan Church in right. Hat tip to Rieber for doing the research on this so I didn't have to. I don't think that Manuel is being intentionally deceitful; I think he just floats ideas out there and allows them to masquerade as his true intentions. The reality is that there are still six weeks of spring training to go and there will be plenty of other declarative assertions on Manuel's part that we will have to do our best to parse for veracity.
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Eh, I don't know if that's fair.
I would rather have Murphy starting than Tatis.
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
I love Manuel
I know some were bothered by his “statistical numbers” statement, but everything I’ve seen from him leads me to believe he’s an above-average manager. The players seem to like him, at least more than they liked Willie, which really is important – I firmly believe that happy players play better. And he’s much better with the Media than our last two managers, which is always a positive. I’ll forgive him a few white lies here and there.
Castillo
I see what you’re saying about him being a bit disingenuous, but I thought it took balls to try out Ramon Martinez extremely late in a pennant race, and Martinez paid him back with big hits in the wins on 9/25 and 9/27.
Church-y Update
Apparently Manuel told him today that he’s the rightfielder. That one didn’t take long to become untrue.
I don't think a platoon means he's not the right fielder
I think last year like 70+% of the pitchers we faced were right handers. He could be in a platoon and still get the vast majority of the playing time.
Someone mentioned on metsblog that Manuel said Delgado will bat clean-up
If Castillo is lead off, Reyes is batting 3rd and Delgado 4th, where does that leave Wright and Beltran?
so honey did you pick up my dry cleaning?
no it was ready yet.
but you said you’d pick it up today.
well i’m sorry but the dry cleaners said they’d have it tomorrow so i’ll pick it up then, ok?
yeah, it’s fine. i just wish you weren’t a liar.
HELLO HELLO MR WILPON. WE WANT THE MANSION NOT THE CONDO.
Manuel is a liar
and he talks too much which often leads to lying when you have to try to backtrack on your BS. Why he had to knock the likeable and gritty Church in this fashion is beyond me. You want to platoon him fine, I have no problem with that since he hasn’t hit lefties well except for the brief portion of last year before the injuries. But there is no reason to call the dude out like that. Guy has his season ruined last year by mismanagement from Willie Randolph, Manuel and the front office. Now you call him out? Jerry’s gangsta rountine may endear him to most of the players and even the media but it is wearing thin with me.
Sorry
why is Church gritty? This has nothing to do with your greater point, just askin’.
Hmm
something tells me you guys are reading too much into my comment. I simply mean that I admire how he tried to come back from two head injuries last year and he did play pretty well befor he got hurt and most importantly never complained about how the Mets mistreated him. I am not using “gritty” in the David Eckstein sense that bothers so many people around here. Again I have no problems using him in a platoon. I just don’t think you have to take shots at him.
I know what you're saying
You know how adjectives like “gritty” and “scrappy” are taboo around here.
But I’ll tell you why he’s gritty: he’s white, he has a wholesome Christian name (not like that Pagan fellow), and he plays hard. He wouldn’t have gotten concussed in the first place if he hadn’t dived for that pop fly. Does Milledge make the extra effort to catch that? No. Hence why Church has more value to the team.
"One of the nice things about baseball is that there are no rules you can't break." - Jim Bouton
Words like "gritty" and "scrappy" are taboo when discussing player's value and performance
as in “Eckstein is gritty so despite his suckitude he’s worth $8 million a year”. In this case I think the usage is OK – Church plays hard, he seems like a good guy and I believe he has rightful claim to the starting RF job at this point. Why publicly put him on the hotseat this early into spring training?
Yeah, Manuel’s antics take some scrutiny away from players, but when he says stuff like this the reporters start hounding Church, Murphy about it. I’d rather they keep it behind closed doors.
by James Kannengieser on Feb 23, 2009 4:01 PM EST up reply actions
sigh
Taboo indeed. I regret using them. The ironic thing is I was against the Church trade all along and I still think Lastings will be a better player in the long run. I just happen to have more faith in Church than Jerry does apparently.
He's winging it
And forming good relationships with his players. I like it.
well
how do constant misstatements such as what Eric outlined help his relationships with the players?
You know there's a "reply" link under each comment, right?
This helps keep a clear chain of conversation. It’s hard to follow your comment flow when you post everything at the root instead of as a direct reply to someone else.
yeah I know, sorry
I keep thinking I am so clever in my response that I am sure to have the last word!!! :)
Maybe,
it’s because if players read something in the papers they can just walk into Manuel’s office and be like “Jerry, WTF?” And then Jerry will say “Relax, I need to give the press something. So take my quotes in the paper with a grain of salt. Unless you hear it from me, don’t believe it.”
do you think were going to get to a point this year
where all of jerry’s press conferences consist of him listening to some De La Soul on an iPod, slowly sawying and bobbing his head and saying yeah into the mic? i could see that happening a little after the all star break.
HELLO HELLO MR WILPON. WE WANT THE MANSION NOT THE CONDO.
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