The Mets’ approach to crisis management appears to be “better to keep one’s mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” As newly-fervent SNY watcher Squawker Lisa writes, Jeff Wilpon and Omar Minaya have had very little to say about the Francisco Rodriguez mess.
But Squawker Lisa is not a Met fan. Are there any Met fans who seriously want to hear MORE from Minaya or Wilpon?
Jerry Manuel has had a lot to say, and he has removed all doubt about being a fool. As I wrote yesterday, Manuel would have been happy to use K-Rod in yesterday’s noon game, despite his spending the night in a prison cell.
The usually quiet Carlos Beltran offered more criticism than Manuel, saying “No one should act like that.”
But Jeff Francoeur, who appeared for awhile to be the team leader the Mets desperately need, removed all doubt about him being a fool when he said of the K-Rod altercation, “Maybe it’s a distraction we need.”
Here’s a distraction the Mets don’t need – Francoeur wanting a trade because he isn’t playing every day. Francoeur doesn’t deserve to play every day, and good luck to him finding a place that will make him a fulltime starter. I think the Mets are better off with Francoeur in the mix, but I’d rather see him gone than starting fulltime – or complaining about it.
Getting back to management, the Mets’ tendency to do things half way keeps coming back to haunt them. Minaya has had his autonomy taken away from him, but he remains the GM. Manuel, one would think (and hope) is a dead man walking, but he remains the main voice of the team. Oliver Perez has effectively been deactivated, but he remains on the active roster.
The Mets need a new version of Frank Cashen – a strong, decisive, leader from the outside who knows what he is doing, someone who will restore the Mets to glory – and get Squawker Lisa to stop watching SNY for the latest Mets debacle.
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