Just a few things:
* Single-A Brooklyn named Wally Backman as manager today. In a release by the team, Backman said: “I am thrilled and grateful to be coming back to the Mets organization. The greatest days of my professional career were spent here in New York, and I have always felt a special connection to the city.”
BACKMAN: Once a Mets' sparkplug.
I like the idea of Backman returning to the organization and getting another chance after he was unceremoniously dumped by Arizona. Backman provides an energy and a link to when the Mets were a great team. Guys like Backman, who relied on guile and grit as players, often make good managers.
To see him grow within the organization would be a positive, and welcomed, change from how things have been done in the past.
* Reportedly, Eric Wedge is candidate for the Mets bench coach job. Sure beats Razor Shines. Yeah, I know there will be rumblings about Jerry Manuel looking over his shoulder. If Manuel is any kind of manager, if this happens he’ll pick Wedge for all the knowledge he can. You can’t have too many brains on the bench. Just look at Joe Girardi’s and Joe Torre’s supporting staffs.
* Yeah, I heard it to. Trade for Brandon Phillips. Not happening. They’d have to unload Luis Castillo’s contract and there would be no takers. Look at it this way, if a team needed a second baseman, why would it trade for Castillo if it had a chance at Phillips?
* Cincinnati signed catcher Ramon Hernandez one-year contract to reduce the Mets’ FA catching options. The Mets would still like to add a veteran presence.
This post was written by John Delcos
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1. Wally Backman – could be terrific, but it’s wait and see for me.
2. Girardi and Torre have made an art form of baseball management – Manuel will need to do a lot of listening to catch up.
The thing I hope about with Wally, is that he will install FUNDAMENTALS into the lower level of the minor leagues so the players that he manages as they come up thru the system will know the simpler things in life….like throwing to the right base, not being picked off….knowing how to catch a pop up…stuff like that.
Steve (2): An EXCELLENT point. Thank you.-JD
steve
that would be nice.
i hope he has put his problems behind him.
i always liked wally.
I have been calling for this for a long time. Wally will not put up with any BS. Remember him calling out Strawberry when he was too sick to play but not too sick to cut a rap record? and Straws response.. I’ll bust that little redneck in the face. Ah, the good old days.
5. Don’t forget Sadecki, you also called for the Mets to sign the Wolf man a year ago. You’d be a hell of a lot better GM than Minaya is!
Thats faint praise, Chiti.