Willie Is Just All Right

Willie's an easy target--he makes the occasional first-year manager mistake and he's at the helm of a team that's brushed up against "on-track" status though they can't seem to stay there--but he's done a good job this year. He has the Mets playing meaningful games in September despite the fact that they've only had two hitters consistently produce this year (Wright and Floyd), they've gotten nothing--absolutely nothing--out of either first or second base all year (I keep wondering what life would be like with Carlos Delgado at first) and the bullpen is, at best, inconsistent. Should he have dumped Ishii earlier? Sure. Moved Piazza down in the line up and moved up Wright? Sure. But, like Steve said, Willie's changed the climate in the Mets clubhouse. I think the real payoff will come in 2006.