Jerry Manuel is a terrible manager. Any Mets fan knows this and it frustrates me to no end. It makes games painful to watch. There are so many reasons why, but in the first inning in today's game against the Phillies, he shows it right away - after a Luis Castillo double to lead off the game, of course, Manuel has second place hitter Alex Cora bunt to play for one run in the FIRST INNING against the NL-runs-per-game leader PHILLIES with TIM REDDING on the mound. It's frankly, unjustifiable.



I can't wait 'til he's gone, though my gut tells me even if the Mets fail this year, he's got at least one more full year before there's even a chance of him being fired. There will come a day, sooner or later, when it will be unacceptable to completely ignore stats, and do things like Manuel does on an everyday basis, and snicker at people who are open-minded and are open to stats, as if, as a baseball insider, going with your gut is your birthright. I'm confident it will happen one day, I'm just not sure when, but I can't wait.