Three In a Row

It's no accident that the Mets' three-game winning streak coincides with Willie Randolph changing his managing style in some significant ways. The two most noticeable:

1. He's decided to sit guys when their not effective, regardless of their track record (yes, I'm looking at you Carlos Delgado). Hopefully this new "put your best players on the field" philosophy will last.

2. He's stretching his relief pitchers out a bit by not doing the knee-jerk changes as often. Instead, when a guy starts getting outs--Heilman the other day, Schoeneweiss last night--he leaves him in there. Not only does that make tactical sense, it also affects overall strategy for the better by placing less stress on the bullpen.

Perhaps managing for his professional life has caused Willie to actually change his ways. It's almost a tacit admission that his stubborn ways had come close to costing him his job.

I've never felt that the team's listless play was necessarily a direct reflection of his managing ability, but rather a result of a constant lack of on-field success. That lack of success was in many ways directly attributable to Willie's in-game decisions; his unflagging faith in Delgado, for example, despite manifest evidence that the first sacker's skills have declined precipitously, contributes directly to losses, which in turn harms the team's morale. So does his by-the-numbers use of his pitching staff--basing his use of pitchers almost solely on pitch counts and handedness rather than recent effectiveness, has hurt this team repeatedly over the past two seasons.

I hope this change is a sign of things to come. Three games is a pretty small sample.