Jerry Manuel is on the firing line too

It’s open season on managers this morning. First Lou Piniella, now Jerry Manuel, whose head the New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro calls for in today’s column:

He is a good and decent man, but increasingly his in-game decisions and demeanor have been maddening, his uber-reliance on small-ball, his puzzling lineup decisions. He was unhappy with that eighth-inning home run that Fernando Nieve surrendered to Coghlan? How much do you suppose his almost daily reliance on Nieve has helped speed along Nieve’s regression from dependable to deplorable?

Omar Minaya will make the trip to Atlanta, which might mean he’s following Brian Cashman’s itinerary from last year, when a surprise visit to Turner Field served as an unlikely turning point in the Yankee season. Or it could be his own blueprint from 2008, when he took an unexpected flight to Anaheim to personally hand Willie Randolph his vest with the fish inside.

For the sake of this season, it would be wise if he arrived with a new manager riding shotgun.

I have less of a problem with this than I do with the calls for Piniella’s ouster. Manuel has been a tactical disaster this year, most notably with the bullpen, which he appears to have already burnt out. Though I’m an agnostic when it comes to batting order optimization, Manuel’s Jose-Reyes-bats-third experiment was a failure as well, and given that Reyes himself was opposed to it to begin with, you have to figure that he isn’t a happy camper right now. Oh, and Manuel pinch hit with Jeff Francoeur yesterday for cryin’ out loud, and that should be a firing offense in and of itself.

But even if this is less problematic than the calls for Lou Piniella’s job, I question whether replacing Jerry Manuel would make a big difference for the Mets’ season. To the extent they’re seen as a disappointment right now, that’s because the eight-game winning streak last month made us think they are something more than we thought they were going to be in the offseason. What we’re seeing right now is the Mets finding their true level, not failing to meet some rational expectation. Replace Manuel with Bobby Valentine or Bob Melvin or Wally Backman and you’re still looking at a 75 win team.

But the bullpen management bothers me a great deal, and as long as you’re going to lose a lot anyway, you may as well lose with someone who isn’t going to fry all your arms before the weather gets warm.