It's been a bad 24 hours for people involved in running 100 million dollar teams, as the Mets have fired Willie Randolph overnight and the Mariners let GM Bill Bavasi go yesterday afternoon.
I get the decision to fire Randolph, though how much it will accomplish I do not know. Randolph had a 302-253 record with the club. The Mets have a payroll of $138 million dollars, and are 34-35. Over the last 162 games, dating back to last season, the Mets are 82-80. Randolph also didn't help his cause when he complained about, however rightly or wrongly, a racial bias against him by the team's broadcasters. Still, how much of this is his fault is unclear. It's not his fault that Omar Minaya signed Luis Castillo to a four year, twenty-five million dollar contract to play second base. Its not his fault that Carlos Delgado is quickly becoming a liability at first, that the team didn't have enough starting pitching for when Pedro got injured, etc. Someone's head had to roll though.
Randolph is replaced by bench Coach Jerry Manuel. Manuel had a 500 - 471 record in six seasons with the White Sox.
Meanwhile the timing of the Bavasi firing is puzzling. This is Bavasi's 5th season with the Mariners, and in his previous four the team has been outscored by 19, 36, 52, and 125 runs. The year before he arrive the team outscored its opponents by 158 runs. Only a fluke year last year saved Bavasi's job, and in turn caused him to trade a promising young outfielder, a top flight reliever and a couple of other prospects for Erik Bedard. Few of Bavasi's free agent signings have worked out (Jarrod Washburn, Richie Sexson, Carlos Silva and Adrian Beltre come to mind) and the Mariners have had a payroll well over $100 million dollars the last few years - its currently $117 million. The team is basically a bunch of swing happy guys who don't walk or play defense - they are the anti-Blue Jays of sorts. The puzzling part is that Bavasi was good enough to be the GM two weeks ago when the amateur draft occurred, in which the Mariners first pick was a college reliever expected to make it to the bigs quickly. I bet thats a decision the Mariners would like to have back - I don't know how a reliever is going to help them not lose 100 games - they are currently on pace to finish 56 and 106.
Anyway, who's the next coach/GM to be fired? I'd guess that Clint Hurdle, Bruce Bochy and John Gibbons have to be facing the most pressure at the moment.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=2008061709172866