Even Nicer Victory Tonight Guys

What's up Met fans, Willie here. An even nicer victory tonight as we shutout the Atlanta Braves 1-0 behind some solid pitching by Glavine, Heilman and Wagner, clutch hitting by Lo Duca, and excellent management by me.

The big news besides the victory is of course the return of Carlos Beltran to the lineup. The temperature wasn't quite as warm as Carlos wanted, but when I took the local paper and showed him the "feels like" temperature section, he was satisfied that it was warm enough. He had a really good game, going 1-3 with a walk, but after the game, I pulled Endy aside and told him, "Don't worry, you'll be back in this lineup soon. After all, we do play Pittsburgh on Wednesday and Thursday, and I know C-Bel has a childhood fear of pirates."

Hawkeyed viewers might also have noticed that in the 9th inning, I told Jose Valentin to get ready to pinch-hit then changed my mind and went with Julio Franco. I did this not because I've lost any sort of faith in Valentin, but rather the opposite, I have too much faith in him. I knew that if I sent Jose up with a runner on, the most likely outcome would have been a 500-foot two-run homerun to deep centerfield, giving us a 3-0 lead. But would this test Wagner's intestinal fortitude? No, not in the slightest. Wagner needs to get us some 1-0 pressure saves so I can know whether to trust him or not later on, so I called Valentin back and sent up Franco, who I was reasonably confident would not be able to replicate anything near Valentin's potential production. And of course, a double play ensued.

Alright Met fans, I'd better get some shut-eye, we've got an afternoon game tomorrow with Trachsel going against Kyle Davies, the guy who threw a complete game against us in his last outing. It's revenge time!

Nice Victory

Hello Met Fans, Willie Here. Nice victory last night. I was very happy with our execution, our dedication, and our general motivation. I don't know what it was, but our guys really seemed like they wanted to win last night!

A few issues still arose throughout the game though:

In the second inning, we found ourselves having 2nd and 3rd with no outs and Endy Chavez at the plate and with Pedro behind him. Jerry Manuel (bench coach) came to me and said, "Willie, hit and run or bunt?" I responded, "Time to think big, Jerry." So I went to the top step of the dugout and gave third base coach Manny Acta the sign to tell Chavez that I was calling the homerun. Yes, true it was risky, but the hit and run and bunt simply could not give me the offense I needed. So I told Chavez to hit a homerun. Unfortunately, the sign was lost in tranlation between English and Spanish. Manny, Endy and I are going to have so have a sitdown before tonight's game.

Also, I don't know if you guys have noticed, but I've decided to institute the "fist pound" as the official team "thing to do". It is really great for motivating players because the fist pound can be for celebration as well as for pain; it can go from celebratory maneuver to closed fist punch in the forehead in no time. It keeps the players guessing and makes them want to win, especially because no one wants to be punched in the forehead.

Okay Met fans, I want to discuss a serious situation. As we all know, our Triple A pitcher Yusaku Iriki was suspended for 50 games for using steroids. I think this brings to light a really serious issue in baseball: sucky players using steroids. So far, every player caught has been terrible. What kind of steroids are they using? Clearly not the good stuff. I think we as lovers of baseball need to convene a committee to examine whether we should allow garbage players like Iriki to use steroids to be able to play on the same level as tremendosly talented players like Victor Zambrano and Jose Valentin. But I think this is an issue better explored in depth in my forthcoming book, Willie on Willie.

Okay guys, I'm off to get some continental breakfast. See you tonight Met fans!

Atlanta Time

What's up Met fans, Willie here again. We're here for a big series against the Atlanta Braves. A lot of people keep saying that the Atlanta Braves are the team to beat since they've won 14 division titles in a row and that every year someone picks against them, they end up having to eat crow. Well after I checked into my hotel, I thought I would walk around Atlanta and talk to actual Brave fans about their team. I found that these fans aren't nearly as Brave as they're cracked up to be. If you chase them with a baseball bat, they tend to run and cry.

On to baseball matters, Peterson has prevailed on me to skip Victor Zambrano and go with Pedro on Friday, Glavine on Saturday and Trachsel on Sunday. I guess this is okay, but we'll have to see. A bunch of the guys on our team are in slumps, like Jose Reyes, David Wright and Cliff Floyd. They may need days off. I know what you're thinking: I could play Jose Valentin at all three positions, perhaps even simultaneously. I think I'm going to put that idea to the side for now though, and instead send him to the bullpen. After Wagner's meltdown on Wednesday, we need a closer who exudes an aura of strength, and I think Jose and his moustache are perfect.

On to the injury report, our main injuries right now are Brian Bannister (hamstring), David Wright (groin), and Carlos Beltran (testicles). Bannister will probably miss a start. I've asked Peterson to see if Victor has any family members we could sign to pitch in Bannister's place. If we can't locate any, we might have to go with Plan B, Jose Valentin. David Wright's groin is doing a lot better, but he did re-injure it a bit when Billy Wagner punched him in that area after Wright apologized for bumping into him in the hotel lobby. I think Wagner's anti-apologism might become a problem. I know Beltran has an appointment with a witch doctor today, so hopefully that hamstring will be 100% soon.

See you tomorrow Met fans!

Good Game Today

What's up guys, Willie here again. I'm on the plane to Atlanta after a good series victory in San Francisco. Some game notes:

1. Brian Bannister's injury is serious. When he first pulled up lame and fell down at home plate, I started laughing because I assumed he was pulling a little joke on Carlos Beltran. So as I was helping him to the clubhouse, I let him go, assuming he could walk by himself. Unfortunately, he fell down and bruised his knee too. The trainer said the hamstring should heal soon but the knee bruises should keep him out longer. I think we have to fire this trainer or at least hire a leg specialist. We've had an awful lot of those injuries, haven't we?

2. A lot of people have asked what I'm going to do about the off-day in terms of pushing starters back. Peterson suggested that we should give Pedro an extra day off and pitch him in the opener on Friday, and keep Glavine and Trachsel on their normal rotations by starting them Saturday and Sunday. But I pointed out that this means we would have to skip Victor Zambrano's start. Peterson didn't respond and he looked kind of dazed by what I said. I think he might have gotten a touch of the San Francisco flu. So I made sure to bump him from this flight and let him take one later by himself. I can't have us all going down to illness. Fortunately, the solution came to me thanks to an air stewardess. She came up to me and asked, "Excuse me, sir. would you like honey roasted peanuts or honey roasted cashews?" And I responded, "Well, can I have both?" And she gave me both. Then it hit me, whoa wait a minute. Friday is Pedro's turn on 5 days. Friday is also Zambrano's turn on 4 days. WHY CAN'T WE HAVE THEM BOTH PITCH IN THAT GAME? They are going to alternate. One will pitch one inning, and then retreat to SS (Jose needs the day off) and so on. And it saves me a pitcher out of the bullpen because if one of them gets in trouble, I can go to the mound and bring in the shortstop for a quick out.

Okay well I'm feeling kind of tired. I'll try to update later. Take it easy Met fans!

Carlos Beltran Update

What's up guys, Willie here again. Here's an update on Carlos Beltran:

He was at 99.6% the other day, but he had a bad dream and he's down to 81.3%.

I just wish we could get some warm weather for Carlos to play in instead of places like San Diego, or as the locals call it, The North Pole of Southern California. I think I'm going to talk to our travel secretary and see if we can move some games from Shea to the Sun. Obviously these would only be day games, or else we'd lose the advantage of the warm conditions on the Sun.

I've also asked the trainer to give Carlos some medicine to keep him awake until then. We don't want any repeats of last night's incident.

Nice Game Guys

What's up Guys, Willie here. Just got back to the hotel after a good game. I made a number of great moves and led us to a solid victory today. But not everything was perfect, let me mention a few low points:

The game did not start off well, and I was sure we were doomed. You guys remember how I was throwing around a number of ideas regarding the lineup? Well I ended up giving Delgado the day off and asked Lo Duca to play 1B. I'm not comfortable with my bench strength if I played Valentin, especially since I need his counsel on the bench, and Franco was taking a nap around game time after a great early-bird dinner, so I instructed Trachsel to lob the ball up softly and run to the plate and catch it himself. I'm also a little suspicious of Lo Duca's ability to call a game (I mean why did he tell Glavine to throw Alou the homerball yesterday? I've spent so much time instructing my catchers to never call the homerball and to stick to curveballs and screwballs, but they never pay attention.) But for some reason Major League Baseball has a rule against lineup cards written on the back of Subway sandwich wrappers and so they just used the lineup card from yesterday and filled in Trachsel for Glavine. Boy, was I upset. But I've learned that a good manager does not let his emotions be visible, so I stopped crying and resumed my normal position on the top step of the dugout, trying to see what the out-of-town scores are. (For my fantasy team of course. I had 3 starters going today.)

Fortunately, Reyes started the game off with a hit. But then it hit the fan, so to speak, when he stole second base. I can't tell you how absolutely furious I was. Now let me preface this by saying Jose is a good kid and he's gonna be a solid player one day, but he cannot just keep ignoring the advice of his managers if he wants to do well. All year I've been telling Jose, "Look, everytime I give you the steal sign, you keep running to second base. Why the hell don't you just cut across the mound and go right to third? It's called a shortcut, Jose." No matter how many times I explain it to him, he won't listen. Maybe if I start fining him, he'll take notice.

I'm also considering firing Jerry Manuel, my trusted bench coach. He just doesn't have all his marbles nowadays. In the top of the 7th inning, with Matsui on 2nd and Trachsel coming up, Jerry asked me if I wanted to pinch hit for Trachsel. At that point, Trach had only throw 73 pitches and I wanted him to keep pitching, especially since we already had a nice little 2-1 lead. So I told Jerry, "I don't care if it's an automatic out, we have a nice lead." But then for some incredibly ludicrous reason, Jerry sent Valentin in to pinch hit! I was flabbergasted. My anger was tempered by the fact that it was Jose Valentin, King of the Pinch Hits, but still. I felt better after Rick Peterson explained that we had other pitchers who could come in to the game even though we pinch hit for Trachsel. I really think this "bullpen" idea is gonna catch on!

Anyway, I'm beat. We have an afternoon game tomorrow, and I'm going to try to figure out how to bump Bannister and let Zambrano have a go at these Giants. Good night all!

Willie Randolph, Television Superstar

Recently, a lot of people have been coming up to me to talk about one of the many amazing commercials starring yours truly. If you've watched a Mets game in the last month, then you've definitely seen an ad that's run nearly every commercial break (along with those two incredibly upbeat cancer commercials). It features scenes from games and a quote by me: "What are you going to do. . . Come here and fool around? Play the game." People tell me, "Willie, that line is brilliant. It gets me so amped to watch Mets games. It's no wonder that people call you the best motivator in sports." While that may be true, I need to clear something up. I was horribly misquoted. When I said that, "Come here and fool around" was meant to be the answer, not part of the question. The question mark is in the wrong spot! The reason I raise this issue is that it misrepresents me as a manager. While it's always a plus to win, the point of the game is to have fun. Just ask Jose Reyes. Why do you think I walked Bonds twice last night? Not to avoid "getting beat" by him like I said to reporters. It's because I thought it would be funny to watch him hobble around the bases. Too bad Alou's titanic home run allowed him to jog slowly across home plate. And Victor Zambrano? He's still in the rotation because Rick Peterson and I have a running bet during home games to see how early the fans will start booing him. I won last week with "during pre-game introductions." If I win two more bets, Rick has agreed to cut his mullet. Gambling sure makes the game a lot more fun.

Instead of preparing for tonight's game, I think I'm gonna launch an investigation into finding out who's responsible for this mixup. Probably a woman. Like my buddy Keith Hernandez once told me, "I won't say women belong in the kitchen. But they don't belong in the television studio." Truer words have never been spoken.

First in the NL East, First in my Fantasy League

Hey Guys, Willie Randolph here again. I took a power nap in my Embassy Suites hotel room and woke up and did my usual morning internet rounds. First I checked the New York Post gossip section to see if I was mentioned. Their new correspondents are clearly losers who don't know where the hot clubs are, because I'm there every night, yet I'm never mentioned. Whatever. Next stop was to my Yahoo Fantasy Baseball League where lo and behold, my team, The Willie Wonkers, are in first place! Hell yeah bitches. I remember the trash talking people gave me at the draft. People said I had no idea what I was doing and that I "had no concept of what a good player was". But my early first place showing has proven them wrong. Let me go through the brilliant maneuvers which has led to my early season successes:

1. I landed the first pick randomly, and I selected the indomitable Moises Alou. People suggested I should have drafted Albert Pujols or Alex Rodriguez or even my very own Pedro Martinez, but I know baseball, and Moises Alou was my #1 pick. So far, he has not disappointed. What was my theory behind the pick? Well, I knew Felipe Alou would bat Barry Bonds ahead of Moises, and I know that some managers would be inclined to walk Barry Bonds to pitch to Moises. Using my power of deduction, I knew this would lead to great RBI opportunities.

2. For my next pick, people expected me to go with Pedro Martinez. Incredibly, he was still available as my turn came around, but I knew that I had more pressing needs on my team. Namely, center field. Fortunately, as the manager of the New York Mets, I am in the enviable position of having one of the major league's best center fielders on my team. With my next pick, I drafted him before anyone else could. And that's how I became the first person to ever draft Endy Chavez in any form of anything. People said to me, "Willie, how many at bats is he going to get?", and "Willie, Chavez looks like he's ten years old and he is definitely severely malnourished." Well, somehow I knew that Endy would be getting a lot of quality at bats. Watch for tomorrow's lineup, there might be a new man in the cleanup slot...

3. After those two phenomenal draft picks, I let the computer do auto drafting while I went to to the bathroom. The chimichangas that Victor made for me the other night when he came by to discuss pitching and life over some wine really went through me. By the time I was done, it was time for the last pick. Of course, I knew exactly who I would take. Someone who would enable me to have versatility at 1B, at 3B and in the OF positions: yes, the mustachioed wonder, Jose Valentin! At first I drafted John Valentin by accident and I was really worried that someone would take Jose off the free agent wire before I could make the switch, but for some reason no one took Jose and I was able to grab him. Needless to say, some people are regretting that particular snub. But I'm certainly not one of them!

I'll try to update later and give you guys a sneak peek at my lineup. I ran my Reyes playing SS and 3B idea by Rick Down and he seemed to like it. But I'll admit I'm not sure exactly which one Rick Down is. He is the guy who brought my room service this morning isn't he?

A Real Treat!

Yes, this is me, the Willie Randolph, the manager of your New York Metropolitans. I know I should be sleeping but I'm just too pumped. I made a lot of good decisions in today's game and I'm super excited to be in such a good rhythm of managing right now. (I know we lost the game but the way I see it, I manage the game, make decisions, etc., and the players play. If we lost based on bad play, it's their fault. Um, did I tell Glavine to give up a 3-run HR to Alou? No, I did not.)

I feel really confident about tomorrow's game. With a few really clutch managerial moves out of me, I'm sure we can pull the game out. I had a long chat with Rick Peterson after the game, and I threw out the idea of skipping Trachsel tomorrow and letting Zambrano pitch again. He had a bad outing the other day, but he only pitched 4 innings so he's good to go. The guy's got a rubber arm, and once he gets into a good rhythm, we're going to see that ERA come under 6 and we are going to win a few of his starts. I am confident in that.

As far as the lineup goes, I think probably the only change will be Delgado getting a day off and Valentin starting at 1B. I know that taking Valentin off the bench really weakens my pinch hit options but he's been on a tear lately, and we need to get a spark going in this offense. I sent Valentin up to pinch hit in a 6-2 game where we already thought we were going to lose, and the crafty veteran that he is, what does he do? He gets on base. And he does it with a swinging three-quarters bunt, the very same play we practiced for three weeks in Spring Training. He even helps by acting as another coach, surveying everything on the field and giving me feedback. For example, after his clutch single in the eighth inning, I gave Manny Acta the sign to hit and run, but Valentin decided against it. I asked him why when he came back to the dugout and he told me that he was tired after legging out that bunt. Now that is class. He tells me the truth and lays the cards on the table. That's when I realized that this man is going to be the face of this franchise for years to come.

A lot of you are wondering what is up with Carlos Beltran. His hamstring is 99.6% according to the computer program Rick Peterson's kid wrote. (He really is a computer whiz. He was playing a video game this morning, and Rick told me that Bonds hit 2 HRs off of him, and that his son said to him "Dad, I wish I had pitched around Bonds!". That's when I realized, Rick, Jr., you are on to something. And I knew I would walk Bonds no matter what the situation. As you can see, if I had better players, we would have succeeded with my strategy. Let me reiterate, I told Glavine to walk Bonds, I didn't tell him to give a 3-run HR to Alou nor did I tell Heilman to give up a 2-run single.) Beltran will be back when he is 100%, don't worry guys!

Anyway, I digress. Tomorrow is another day. And hopefully, we will pull out a victory with Zambrano on the mound, Valentin at first and Chavez in CF.

P.S. I'm considering giving Wright a day off. I don't want to weaken my bench so I may just ask Reyes to play more in the hole and go with 8 guys in the lineup.