If a million people say a foolish thing, It is still a foolish thing.

That was Neyer's quote from the end of his latest chat (which by the way featured a Rob Neyer that was on fire). What do I mean? It means that I don't care how many people tell me I'm nuts in regards to my thoughts on Willie and his tactics. I'm going to call it like I see it. Furthermore, let me repeat that I am not particularly taking issue with Burgos-gate from Monday, but Willie in general. However, there were many good points sparked up by yesterday's discussions on both sides.

oSSyCoCoTaSo:
burger threw a ton of pitches at that point. so i can see why everyone is pissed.

but then again, ive seen pat burrell tear us new assholes too many times. i'd rather give up a 3run shot to him than fucking pat burrell.

pick ur poison if u ask me.

ae:
i'm gonna give willie leeway with letting burgos pitch to howard. howard's been struggling with the bat and pat burrell always finds a way to stick it to the mets.

until that one mistake to howard, burgos was owning him in that ab. burgos is still a "kid" and will learn from this - at least he better learn from this or his career with the mets will be short and bitter. anyway, i'd rather that mistake come now than in september and it's good to see that randolph will trust his people (i.e. smith in the opener).

Danny:
By the way, I didn't realize there were 2 outs to Howard when Willie left Burgos in. I thought there was only one out at the time. Unforgivable decision. You HAVE to walk him there. Leaving Burgos in to face Utley to try and get a strikeout was the right move. But you either have to walk Howard and go after Burrell with Burgos or Joe Smith, or you bring in Feliciano to face Howard. It sucks too because Burgos made a bunch of great pitches but all anyone will remember is the one pitch he hung, and that was a terrible pitch call by LoDuca.

Toasty:
To me, you can hyper-analyze this one all you want. All you need to know is (1) first base was open; (2) the MVP was at the plate; and (3) a tiring, unproven righty prone to giving up the long ball was on the mound in a one-run game.

No further analysis needed.

metsdynasty:
That said, let me clear up more confusions here. First, Willie has a managing style of his own. It's a style of never losing the sight of the goal to settle for a few cheap wins in hyped-up April or subway games. It's a steady and fearless apporach to the game where cockiness, laziness, unprofessionalism and lack of confidence will not be tolerated. It's a style of rather exposing the weaknesses early and working on them than hiding or ignoring them. It's about trusting all the players not just some of them and constantly testing them to see if they have what it takes to succeed.

anonymous weenie:
Amen, Metdynasty. You think after years of horrible managers and horrible teams, we'd all be happy to see the way Willie has brought along Wright, Reyes, Maine, and Perez while getting more out of Chavez, Valentin, and Castro then any other manager has been able to. Maybe, just maybe, he knows what he is doing...

mr. met:
I specifically posted about bacon to avoid such controversy!

the brooklyn bum:

Tired young right handed fastball pitcher + open base + baseball's premier left handed power hitter = intentional walk.

mike:
That said, let Willie-Critic #1 (uhhh, that'd be me) defend him on that one:

1. The Amburglar was dealing.

2. You don't wanna put Howard on and let a pitcher with control problems face a bases juiced situation.

3. Burrell has been on fire & always kills the Mets anyhow. Howard had been cold through 6 games.

4. Schoeneweis is horrible. Fuck him and never let me see his ass on the hill again.

5. Pedro Dos isn't that good against lefties: .231 avg in 2006.

6. Last year Howard hit .279 vs. lefties with 16 HRs in less than 200 ABs.

bookied:
Opening Day is not the time for a baptism-by-fire for your shakiest reliever running on fumes. I think Willie has a thing for hard throwing relief pitchers. Maybe he's hoping the Amburglar can keep him warm while he waits for Mota to return.

Doesn't anyone see what Willie was trying to do? He wanted to challenge Burgos a bit. I hate to tell you this, but at some point this year Burgos is going to have to get a good lefty out in a tight spot. This is game 6 of 162, not Game 6. I know we all wanted a win but, jeez, calm down.

The Met coaches:
"I felt like it was a good outing," Burgos said. "The guy hit a good pitch."

"Willie wants to instill confidence in these guys," Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson said. "Even though the outcome wasn't there, you gave somebody confidence. You trust a guy to get a job done."

"I'm not going to play every game like it's the World Series," Randolph said, which is of course the right approach. Perhaps, down the line, Burgos will reward him for such loyalty. Then again, maybe he won't.

I'd just like to say I wasn't solely using Monday's game as a barometer for what Willie wold in fact do in the playoffs, but it was just a microcosm of what I've seen from him in 2+ years as a manager of this club. Basically I see a disturbing trend and that did get lost in a lot of what I said since I did write about 1,000,000 words between Toasty's site and mine.

Count (aka David):

He said, if I remember correctly, that he had no problem bringing Burgos into a pressure-packed situation, because that is why he is on the team and he needs to know what he is capable of. He doesn't want guys who are scared or guys who don't come up big in big spots on his squad. I can appreciate that. The implication was that the game was important, but so was the season, and he needs to know what these guys can do.

That being said, and I "watched" yesterday's game on my Yahoo game channel only, but pitching to Howard there is a huge gaffe.

Anyways...good stuff and all good points. Now I hope the Mets get back to clean baseball free of controversy as the 1-0 Oliver Perez with a 1.29 ERA and a 0.71 WHIP takes on 0-1 Adam Eaton with a 13.50 ERA and and a 2.36 WHIP. While some people think this is a meaningless April series, I want to bury the Phillies and think that is important. After an off-season of this team talking shit, the Phillies get swept by the Braves and a sweep by the Mets would put them 6.5 games back behind the Mets before mid April. There are already articles about Charlie Manuel being on the hot seat and the Mets should go for the jugular and help send this team into a tailspin.

The interesting thing is how they thought getting rid of Abreu was a boost for this club, but getting rid of guy who can do it all is definitely a negative. Last season's late success was due more so to an insane hot streak by Howard and the Phils more than the lack of Bobby on the team. I think this season is going to show just how much they miss him during the long haul and though it is early, it certainly looks like people overestimated that team.

* * *

Duaner has a successful surgery.

Mets reliever Duaner Sanchez had a hairline fracture in his right shoulder repaired today in an operation done at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. Sanchez must wait 6-8 weeks before he can even start rehabilitation. He could be out for at least four months or even for the entire season.

Pete Becker thinks Reyes might be the most valuable fantasy baseball player.

If you had the first pick in your fantasy baseball draft, odds are, you took Albert Pujols. Great. That was the right call; Albert Pujols is perceived as the most valuable player in fantasy and, as such, should be taken first. But will he remain No. 1?

If I'd had the first pick in my fantasy draft, I'd have taken Pujols, too. Immediately afterwards, I'd have traded him for Jose Reyes plus whatever else my trading partner would feel necessary to compensate me for the perceived value gap. I would do this not because I believe he can't put up Pujolsian numbers again this year, but because I believe Reyes' numbers will prove to be more valuable. In fantasy, that's the only reality that matters.

I'm not as smart as Pete and would have drafted Reyes #1 overall without thinking of the Pujols trade scenario, but it would have been hard to pry Reyes from anyone in an all Mets fan league. Of course this is fantasy baseball, but Reyes is still pretty valuable in real life.

Six homers and seventeen RBIs? After all the ripping on this guy and how much the Yankee fans and everyone has laid into him, I'm guessing a lot of people are quietly rooting for him. Even people that have made fun of him relentlessly (hint...that might include me). Of course him doing well is tied to the Yankees winning, so you can count me in as rooting for him extremely quietly.

Carlos Gomez continues to open up the season on fire and seemingly likes to hit in the PCL and Fernando Martinez opens the season with a 3 for 4 game.

Fernando kept it up with a 2 for 4 game with a homer, two runs scored, and walk in Binghamton's 4-2 victory yesterday.

Phil Humber had a bit of a rough start in Memphis' shellacking of New Orleans. He gave up four hits, four runs, one walk, and one homer in three innings while striking out six. Carlos Gomez went one for three and stole his fifth base of the season.