Smart money says Willie's history tomorrow. I'd put it at 75%. This team is still clearly playing with no energy, scared of their own shadow. Blowing a 7-game lead with 17 games left last season was a monumental, inexcusable collapse. The manager is at least partly responsible, and if you don't make wholesale changes to the team in the offseason (which of course they did not), then you have no choice but to replace the manager. Scapegoating or not, the fact is the team's psyche was crushed and you either must replace the players or the head; otherwise, the team will never bounce back mentally.
I remain convinced this team needs a real in-your-face, military-style leader. At a minimum they need that this season to break them out of last-season funk, and beyond that they may need it as long as Beltran / Delgado / Alou / are the vets, since none of them are vocal enough to really be a team leader.
2 comments:
Willie's Dead Man Walking. The only question is who do we get to replace him?
I totally agree--we need a bad-ass who will have full support of management to bench whoever he wants, whenever he wants. Maybe then we'll see Jose focus a bit instead of being the disaster he has been for the last calendar year.
I keep hearing people scream that we need to make a few trades, specifically for a LF and 1B. We're pretty low on chips right now so who do we target and what do we offer?
Looks like Willie's not going anywhere, so unfortunately we're stuck with him.
I agree about Jose, someone needs to sit him down and tell him he is on the fast track to having a completely wasted, irrelevant career. An avg of .280 and a sub-.350 OBP for a lead-off hitter is useless. He clearly does not understand taking advantage of the pitch count: swings on 2-2 and 1-2 should be different than 2-0 and 3-1.
I agree trades would be nice, but as you say we have no chips so it's basically a moot point unless we can find a free agent. Best bet would be to try to lure Teixeira from Braves after this season. This will give them options with Carp..
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