From: doctor8@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu (Jason Abner Miller)
Subject: Re: Blue Jays-Gillick
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Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 21:12:00 GMT

In article <881@blue.cis.pitt.edu>, genetic+@pitt.edu (Dr. Dave) writes...
>Thus spake niepornt@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Marc Nieporent):
>>
>>Actually, while I agree with the sentiment, I think you chose a bad
>>example.  I think the Mets are the perfect example of a team which a
>>good manager *could* help win.
> 
>Really?  I think the Mets have too many holes.  Now the *Orioles*, on the
>other hand, are just one real manager away from contention.

	When Jeff Torborg arrived from Chicago late one night in 1991, 
the popular sentiment was that the Mets were going to run away with
the whole thing.  Gooden, Cone, Fernandez, Saberhagen in the starting
staff, John Franco in the pen, Bobby Bonilla and Eddie Murray added to
the lineup, with Bill Pecota and Willie Randolph to provide some sort
of up-the-middle stability.
	And, as he did with the White Sox, it was hoped that Torborg
would come along, take a struggling team, and win with them.  Maybe 
Harazin just thought that Torborg was a good manager, after what he did
with the Sox; but the Mets were in such disarray after '91 that they
needed a leader.  Torborg couldn't provide this.
	All Torborg did was get frustrated with players early in
the season, juggle them around, and moan to WFAN about how he couldn't
get the team to win.  His intentions were sincere, but the man has
no managerial instincts whatsoever.  Anthony Young went from the starter
of the future to the closer of the future, and in the long run, succeeded at
neither; HoJo's head was severely messed up, as Torborg would decide
what to do with him at 3 PM of game day, during his daily interview on
WFAN, and HoJo wouldn't find out what was going on until he drove in to
work; the media rode Bonilla mercilessly.
	What the Mets needed, more than just a Torborg type who once
won 90 games with a good team, was a leader, someone to stabilize the
team.  Instead, a promising nucleus (if maybe a bit old at some positions),
fell nearly to last place, and all those injuries didn't help.
	The Mets need direction.  Trading Cone and letting Magadan walk,
and geting nearly nothing in return, did not help.  I think putting a guy
like Cito in charge of the Mets would hurt as badly as putting Torborg
in charge did; could Cito make all the Mets perform as one?
	I would've liked to see Don Baylor managing the Mets; he has
a reputation as a natural leader of men, whether that's a mediot's myth
or not, and the Mets certainly need direction right now.  Torborg is
not the manager Harazin thought he was; the Mets need a manager with
patience and faith, and a manager who won't mess with players' heads.
	Incidentally, I don't fault the decision to move HoJo to center,
and I don't think it was the reason for his flopping so heavily on his
face.  But Torborg didn't handle the move well, shuttling him around
everywhere in the lineup and the outfield, and this might have caused
the decline.

	Guaranteed, the Mets *do* have holes in 1993:
1B:  Murray - numbers sink a little more each year
2B:  Kent - unproven
SS:  T.Fernandez - rumour has it he's headed sharply down
3B:  HoJo - a big question mark
LF:  Coleman (yuck!)
CF:  Thompson (yuck!)
RF:  Bobby Bo - I think he'll bounce back, but not too strongly
 C:  Hundley (yuck!)
SP:  Fernandez, Gooden, Saberdude, Schourek, *gasp* Frank "I Suck Mightily"
     Tanana
RP:  Franco (closer - YUCK!); Young

	This is not a great team, but not a last-place team.  The big
problem is that of talent - the young players simply just don't have it,
and Kent will be under such a big microscope that I wouldn't be shocked
if he couldn't hit .210; Hundley has to learn how to hit; Frank Tanana
just blows boulders.
	Torborg and Buddy can't win with this team.  Someone who can handle 
players might, though.  But there is no stability in the Mets' organization,
beginning with Harazin up there as GM, and I'm not excited about 1993.

>-- 
>       David Tate        |"Out of the dugout endlessly swinging,
> dtate@unix.cis.pitt.edu | Out of the manager's throat, the sound fundamentals,
> Prof. of Story Problems | Out of the six-month season..."            
> Member ORSA, TIMS, SABR | 	Walt "Lefty" Whitman

						Jason Miller
						"some doctor guy"
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball