...but at least he's saying the right words. I've been complaining for a long time that the Mets are a miserable batting team, with no sense of game rhythm, and no sense of in-at-bat adjustments. They also typically seem to give up with 2 outs in an inning, effectively wasting 9 outs (or 1/3rd) of every game. Contrast that with Mariners who have scored a ton of their runs against us this series with 2 outs. Whether Manuel gets through to these players is unknown, but at least he's laid the issue right out there.
"Our approach trying to get the players to understand there is a flow and rhythm to the game and to try to get their best at-bat when it is somewhat critical to the outcome of the game," Manuel said before last night's rout. "There's going to be a lot of talking about changing the flow and rhythm with two-out RBI hits.
"We have a lot of work to do on our offense, period."
"We have to understand what pitchers are doing to get us out in different situations," Manuel said. "I'm talking about the context of what brings winning baseball."
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"We just have a lot of work to do offensively, period," Manuel said. "It's just going to take some time for us to start clicking where we understand not only our game as an individual, but our teammates' game as an individual, or what somebody is trying to do to our teammate and what does that do to us and how does that play within the context of winning baseball [games]."
Another bullet point on Manuel's to-do list: Get the Mets to stop swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone. On too many occasions, Manuel said he has seen his hitters turn "mediocre pitching into good pitching" by making would-be balls into outs.
Unfortunately D. Wright had this to say:
"It definitely doesn't need a lot of work," Wright said about the offense. "Maybe a few adjustments. Really, it just needs us to get hot.
I hate to second guess wright, but does he honestly think the Mets team offense doesn't need a lot of work? They are #9 in NL in runs and #11 in BA. That's ATROCIOUS. That's not "one hot streak" away from improving. That's a blow-it-up-and-retool situation.
Well...
not necessarily. Using your logic, the Jets that were 10-1 in '85 are a top 5 all time offense and went on to win the Super Bowl.
Except, of course, they weren't. And they didn't.
It's not Wright's job to figure out the answer for the team. He just has to figure out the answer for him. And I'd hope that Wright would have his teammates' backs, and stay positive about their potential.
The alternative--this squad chews and these guys can't play--isn't so great for clubhouse chemistry.
The role of the manager and GM are somewhat different.
I hear ya, but, the fact is this team is just not a minor tweak away from consistent, top-notch play. Manuel is right: their entire batting mentality and approach is way off, and I think a lot of the players really need to re-learn how to approach an at bat. I'll say Wright is probably near the bottom of the list for that on this team, but certainly the rest of the team needs a major education on batting. This team for two years was supposed to be an offensive juggernaut, whereas it's only been a bad punchline so far, finishing middle of the NL or worse in R and BA.
I appreciate Wright staying positive, but at the same time at some point you have to be honest with yourself otherwise you can't implement the change that is needed.
I guess resting Wright paid off. Nice bounce back effort w/ the 2 HR's. Jose Jose Jose as well.
The numbers don't lie: a breather was certainly in order.
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