Has Terry Collins been any better than Jerry Manuel?

On Saturday the Mets rallied back from a 7-1 deficit to take a 9-7 lead, only to lose 11-9. It’s the type of loss that would have been crushing just a couple of weeks ago and now it’s just one of the many toss-up games that the Mets could have won. It’s just another loss [...]

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Wilpon has Manuel firing speech ready

"We put very good players in place who didn't play very well. It's best to jump-start and get a manager to motivate these players and get the best out of the veterans and the young players," owner Fred Wilpon said at a news conference. "I believe these guys are as good as we all thought [...]

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Mets' September screw-up

Dillon Gee certainly turned heads with his outing Tuesday and hopefully the Mets will give him regular starts in September. With the playoffs out of reach, the club needs to use the final month of the season to give players a chance to show what they can do. Which is why Bobby Parnell should be [...]

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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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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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Why the Mets came up short

Much has been made recently about how the Mets have not won a game this season when trailing in the ninth inning. But the Mets have never been particularly good in this department. Here are the team wins in this category the last five times the club made the playoffs: 2006 – 3 2000 – [...]

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Blowouts and one-run games

Mercifully, the Mets are done with the Diamondbacks this season after Sunday’s 14-1 shellacking. In six games against the 39-66, cellar-dwelling club from Arizona, New York finished 1-5. In those games, the club was outscored 47-19. The Mets were 1-2 in one-run games, 0-1 in games decided by three runs and 0-2 in games decided [...]

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Mets at the crossroad

So the Mets are back home in their friendly familiar settings. Citi Field will no doubt feel like home sweet home. After a disastrous west coast road trip in which the Mets went 2-9 against the San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Mets are tail-spinning out of control. Maybe being [...]

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Mets bounce back in L.A.

Behind a wonderful performance by Johan Santana, the New York Mets (50-47) bounced back to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-1, in the second game of a four-game series at Chavez Ravine. The Mets improved to an ugly 20-31 on the road and 2-7 on the road trip. The Atlanta Braves lost a 7-6 decision [...]

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Mets botched it with Nieve

The Mets designated Fernando Nieve for assignment. It was the right move to make, as Nieve was not getting the job done as a reliever and the Mets needed someone who actually had a chance to provide some relief when he entered the game. But Nieve is a nice case study in what is wrong [...]

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Judging Jerry Manuel

Back on May 20th, I wrote an article which concluded that the Mets should fire Jerry Manuel. Of course, the Mets have gone 28-17 since that column was published, fueled by replacing John Maine and Oliver Perez in the rotation with R.A. Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi. Barring a collapse of epic proportions, Manuel will be [...]

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