WEDNESDAY’S WEEKLY WILLIE WATCH

I am by no means one of those reactionary, crazy, clean house at the drop of a hat type of guy, and I am not saying the Mets need to fire Willie Randolph if they lose the next two games to the Phillies, but I just feel like I’m watching the same bad movie, night in and night out, and Willie’s lack of change is something that needs to be monitored.

Again, I fully understand that at any point in the season a team can lose 4 out of 6, and if you are 45-30 it doesn’t feel so bad, but what I don’t like is that we are seeing the same things that doomed us in September last year, and nothing is being done (at least from what the fans can see) to change it.

Willie Randolph has preached calm, and I’m all for the one day at a time, don’t panic approach, but I tend to think, after not panicking last year, and seeing the team collapse, that that approach isn’t working.

On the other hand, if Willie switches his message and goes crazy, shows some fire and starts to treat every game like game 7 of the World Series, and they still lose, well then what?

The bullpen has not been very good no matter when or who Willie brings in, but I also wonder if they are not being put in a position to succeed. I feel Willie keeps using the same guys in the same roles with the same (awful) results. I don’t know what the right roles for some of these guys are, but I know that by doing the same thing over and over again, and just expecting Heilman and Schoeneweis to suddenly do well is NOT WORKING. Something needs to be done with these guys other than letting them face the same situations day in and day out that they are failing at.

Where is Jose Reyes? I can’t blame Willie for this guy’s disappearance act, but a lot of the blemishes of the bull pen sure would go away if they came in games with a 7-2 lead rather than a 3-2 lead.

The starting pitching is good, but with that said, Willie can’t have a quick hook (Oliver Perez came out of the game after 5 2/3 ip and 92 pitches while he still hadn’t given up a run). I tend to trust a tired Ollie a lot more than this “well rested” bullpen.

I know Willie is a regular reader of this blog. So it is officially going to be WEDNESDAY’S WEEKLY WILLIE WATCH. Every Wednesday we’ll reassess Willie and the state of this team and discuss whether or not Willie’s time is up. Unless this team just stops winning altogether, I’m all for giving Willie 40 games to see where we are before he season gets to far away from us, and I have no desire to fire Willie yet, but let Willie know, the watch has begun. Currently I am giving Willie a score of 65 out of 100. Once that score falls below 50, it’s time for a change.

WILLIE’S CURRENT SCORE = 65