WHEN DOES WILLIE GO???

GUYS,

Not trying to steal your thunder; but, like there is a who, there is a when. 

The game-ending double play is followed by a chorus of boos, and that's 2 days in a row of booing.  In the 3-team race separated by 1 game, there is zero talk of firing Charlu, and only very light talk of firing Bobby.

However, in Queens, the question appears to be:  will Willie be the manager on Monday?

I hear fire Willie, and hear a bunch of names.

When would you push the EJECT button?

I vote if we lose the Subway series... If the yanks take two of three or sweep us we'll be under .500 and I think that's a legitimate reason to fire him.  A team with our payroll and the stars we have should not be dangling at .500 right now.  Somebody needs to take the fall.

Example: Why not work on the bullpen?

i said at the end of the year...if we dont make the playoffs.  we are struggling now but we have a lot of injuries and our bullpen has been awful, that may be willies fault but im not sure how this team would react to changing managers mid season.

idk, i just keep hoping theyll catch fire but they cant seem to get hot, maybe the struggling yanks will get us started.

Dr Cribbit,

Willie is the manager and is one of the first people in line to be fired when the team starts to tank.  He is a nice guy, but lets face it, he managed us to what exactly?  The biggest collapse in history and so far a .500 ballclub that was expected to contend for the WS.  Our bullpen is a problem but what can we do about it?  We have almost nothing in the minors to trade with and some injured and ageing veterans (who are all being paid a lot).  We need someone who can get out of these players what they are capable of (let alone above their abilities like some teams...Florida, Minnesota, SF, St Louis)

TAL,

Why do you care when does Willie go. Your a Phillies fan. Why dont you make a thread saying (Will Bret Myers win another game this year)

 Loosing 3 out of 4 to the Nats at home is unacceptable, not for this team, not how we lost those games. We were out hussled and out mannaged by a far inferior team. This all has to fall on the manager. We need an in your face manager who wont stand for mental errors and lazyness. My choice is to bring back Bobby V, he might not make many friends but he will get every player on this teams attention and he is the best in game manager I have ever seen.

 Lets go Mets.

Um, Bobby hit this one on the head--it's a Phillies fan trying to bait Mets fans...I like how there is no "maybe some other yearr after the Mets in the WS this year" option up there...

Either way though, people are overreacting.   It's early, and although the team has been picked to be a WS contender pre-season, when you look at the personnel they're a strong candidate but hardly a team that was going to run away with the division.  The pitching staff is exactly what we thought they'd be...and if you thought Pedro would play the whole year, you're insane.  Santana has been very solid, Maine has pitched well, and OP has been up-and-down just as we expected. 

Still it all falls on the bullpen.  I'm amazed that Schoenweis, who I would've gladly chauffered out of town last year, is pitching well...but as soon as he is, Heilman looks lost, Sosa is gone, and Sanchez STILL isn't healthy.  That's not Willie's fault...except for Santana (and sometimes Maine) these aren't guys that can go 8 innings.  He's managed the bullpen fairly well, but what would you do in his shoes?  Just pitch the starters until their arms fall off?

Wise being back helps, but you can't put Schoenweis out there every day (definitely...we shouldn't push it or allow him to face too many righties), followed by Smith and Sanchez.  You need other bullpen options.  So as manager what would you do?

It's not enough to just say he "has to go"...it's fair I think to ask people how they would handle the bullpen differently, or who else they would start.  I don't buy the thing where they need a crazy rah-rah manager.  Would Lou Pinella really fit this team?  I don't see it...and plenty of quiet managers get the job done.  So I would have two questions:

1)  How would you do things differently (and not just "don't use Heilman" because there's nothing else in the bullpen and personnel moves are partially out of his control (mostly actually).

2)  Who then?  Stop with Mazzilli, he's unproven except for losing with an untalented Baltimore team.

First, I don't think Willie is the problem.  The season is barely a quarter over.  If, however, the team underperforms for the whole year, I say bring back The Kid!  He's been a successful manager in the minors and, obviously, a successful player. 

I loved Maz when he was a player, and was thrilled that he got to come back for the '86 series, but he learned under Torre, just like Willie did.  I don't see that there would be much of a difference with Maz at the helm.