Manuel a .500 manager at best

"Manuel is 190–198 in 2.5 seasons managing the Mets, who have looked totally disinterested during the last two months of this season. He was mostly a .500 manager with the White Sox too, short of one fantastic season. In his heart and mind, I truly believe Manuel expected this team to evolve and grow from [...]

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Why Francoeur had to go

"This possibility assumes Francoeur creates any kind of standard against which to measure other players. Since his impressive April, Francoeur has a .605 OPS. Rey Ordonez had 3 seasons as a Met in which he hit better than that. Lucas Duda, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Chris Carter, Jason Pridie, Val Pascucci, and a few choice corpses were [...]

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Oliver Perez sighting!

"I thought the velocity was a little better," manager Jerry Manuel said after the Mets' 9-3 loss. "Surprisingly, the command was better for a guy that hasn't pitched in 28 days. I'll be anxious to see how he feels [Tuesday]. Under those conditions, I thought he did well. Manuel on the 28-pitch outing of Perez [...]

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Truth on sacrifice flies

"As an aside, sacrifice flies don't count as a turn at bat and therefore don't negatively affect a hitter's batting average, but they're almost always just regular fly outs with the singular and fortunate (from the batter's perspective) distinction that a runner happened to be on third base (or second!) at the time. Occasionally a [...]

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Manuel assigns blame

That's a huge percentage, because they sit in the middle of the order," Manuel said. "It puts pressure on the complementary pieces in the order. When you don't get that production there, and then the complementary pieces aren't living up to the expectations you have for them, it makes it tough. But you can get [...]

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Manuel on innings limit for Niese

We touch on that kind of stuff all the time, but we haven't really sat down and put anything in ink," Manuel said. "I think a lot depends on if we see a diminished product, if we see fatigue. Then I think we'll probably visit it with some sincerity. Jerry Manuel summing up his views [...]

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