29
2010
Wally Backman Expected to Be Named B-Mets Manager
An article by 
According to Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com, sources have told him that Wally Backman, who was a finalist for the Mets managers job, is expected to be named the manager of the Binghamton Mets.
After Terry Collins was named manager, Wally Backman told The Bergen Record that he was “disappointed and devastated” that he wasn’t named manager.
With this move, former Met Tim Teufel is now expected to be named manager of the Buffalo Bisons, according to Rubin.
I think its great that Wally Backman decided to stay with the Mets organization. The Mets need someone with Wally’s experience and personality.
Hopefully he helps make the B-Mets a winning baseball team next season and after that, who knows…
About the Author: Brandon Butler
Brandon is currently a MMO Minor League Staff Writer. He is also the co-host of the Mets Madness Podcast on Talkshoe Radio. Brandon lives in Hornell, NY.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 26 | 17 | .605 | - |
| Nationals | 25 | 17 | .595 | 0.5 |
| Marlins | 23 | 19 | .548 | 2.5 |
| Mets | 22 | 20 | .524 | 3.5 |
| Phillies | 21 | 22 | .488 | 5.0 |
Last updated: 05/22/2012
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Great News!
Saw this coming a mile away. Bet next year he’ll manage in Buffalo.
and 2013 on Roosevelt Ave hopefully breaking in some mature and well prepared players with him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cuuq62v5Agc
Great link.
This is really good news, for awhile I thought maybe Wally might bolt. Very good to hear.
Bolt?
What gave you that impression? It’s not like any teams were reportedly courting him and the FO already said they expected Backman back just unsure where weeks ago.
The closest thing I could think of regarding Backman bolting was I believe him saying after the interview process he would weigh his options or something to that effect I believe.
But truthfully the idea that Backman was leaving seemed unlikely. The Mets not bringing him back was more likely than anything else and even saying that was a stretch.
You all know those lists that go around this time of year – that enumerate the Best Mets of All Time etc.? Well, Backman didn’t make any of them including the Best 50 since 1962. What does that tell you?
was ron gardenhire on the list ?
yeah, everyone is falling over themselves to hire guys with more DUIs than championships
Wow…
It’s easy to make jokes when your failings are not part of the equation.
it sure is …
Francis – I’m glad you brought this up, although you omitted the Domestic Violence charges he has as well.
Check out the New York Times article, written by Jack Curry, published November 6, 2004.
“The Past Cost Backman His Job, Only Four Days After Receiving It”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/sports/baseball/06backman.html?sq=Wally Backman
I think his past has been well documented in the past few months and it clearly cost him his job with Arizona.
The focus now is does Backman deserve an opportunity again to try and manage. The answer according to the Mets is yes.
If anyone cares to read a article about those incidents I recommend reading this article. It won’t change your mind but it may offer some details that you may or may not be aware of.
sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1110674/1/index.htm
i think he deserves a chance also, i was just explaining why i think he’s not a hot item with non-Met front offices around the league.
I agree with you there Francis.
are you the guy who called brad emaus ‘mickey emaus’ ? that’s the funniest thing i’ve heard all year.
I hope the Mets stock Wally’s club with some good, competitive players. He then should do very well.
It will bode very well for the Mets future if he has a good year with Bingo. that means that some of the interesting players at the A levels managed to take the next step up to produce in AA. And IMO the jump from rookie/A ball to AA is the key one, as that separates the pretenders (tools guys with flaws) from the actual ML prospects.
Once a guy proves he can produce at AA, it can be a quick trip to the majors.
and hopefully at least a few of them are pitchers!
Back when everyone was crying to make Backman the manager I said the best course of action for Wally was to work his way up the Minors, managing at each level and grooming the players he will be coaching should he get the manager’s job in 3 years.
I presumed that whoever was named manager would not last that long due to us rebuilding and not competeing and everyoen would be calling for a head to roll by the end of the second year.
Well I feel a bit vindicated now. People are already unhappy with the team before a game has even been played. And if you folks are right then we won’t be competing next year (one strike against Collins, his fault or not) and in 2012 we may not even have Beltran and Reyes to compete with. So how good could 2012 actually be?
Does anyone think that in two years if they do not even get in the race that some head won’t roll? Which head is most likely to be sacrificed to please the masses? Sandy’s?
Nope it will be Collins! And if you follow the Wally promotion trail to it’s conclusion he will coach AA this year, AAA next year and thats when the manager situation will be on tenuous grounds again. Who better to take over than the Manager who has developed players at all three levels of the Minors?
It is quite clear to me that Sandy is going to take the long term patient approach to fixing this team. If it manages to succeed before then thats great but he is not playing this for a quick turnaround.
Just as you would groom a player to take over for a player who isn’t cutting it you should be grooming managers in the same way.
And I see this Backman situation as an example of that here.
But if he whines and complains the way he did when he did not get the job he could torpedo that plan pretty quick. WHich was always the main problem with making Backman a manager. It’s not his ability or his baseball sense that gets him in trouble. It is the lack of an editing function between his brain and his mouth!
Very Very true Metsie. Collins is there to take the heat, deal with K-Rod’s option and get the club house back to focusing on winning and playing like a team. Lay the ground work so to speak.
If Wally was the manager K-Rod would be causing all kinds of problems because of his option, the team would fracture, no one would have Wally’s back, the Press would be asking the same pressure inducing questions everyday like in June of 2008 and Wally would snap. And be done for good.
Putting your assets (nice word Metsie) in the best possible situation for them to flourish is a big part of managing people. Wally gets a chance to do a good job while being evaluated out of the spotlight and help develop players who hopefully will have his back when they come up here together.
Wally already knows what in game decisions he will want to make, what he doesn’t know is which of them he will be able to make based on the composition of the roster he will hopefully be handed in 2013. Helping to groom some of his future players will help him down the road with his decision making process.
If over the next couple of years he acquires a filter between his brain and his mouth he could be the Met Manager for many years to come.
just a side note on K-Rod, My guess is he will be gone before that Option is even close and it will be someone else’s headache. I believe only a miracle run before the trading deadline where we have a good lead in the division will save us from making big trades at the deadline. We will pay some of his Salary this year after the trade but the option will probably not be included in that.
There are a few here who think Sandy is a genius for the whole Moneyball approach. They are half correct they do not see the forest through the trees.
Moneyball didn’t make Sandy a success Sandy made moneyball a success. It was his ability to manage his assets, get good value no matter what he was spending on it and no matter what your budget may be if you manage those assets well they will succeed, win and grow.
Sandy is former Military and the one thing the Military knows is have a good plan and expect to scrap it after the first shot has been fired! You have to be adaptable to the conditions and circumstances of the battle and Moneyball showed that Sandy is capable of quickly changing approach as the situations change.
They tore up his credit card and he still managed to HAVE assets and groom them in a way that helped him get the job done.
What impresses me about Sandy is not his Sabermetric approach. Nor is it the WS he got with a bunch for horsed up roid players. It was his ability to manage his assets and groom them to make the team better.
Moneyball was an invention of circumstances. You don’t need a genius to know that when you have very little money you need to find players through a deeper analysis and scouting to make sure you get good value for your money assets. Actually every GM is supposed to do that no matter what his payroll budget is. Thats the JOB!
Billy Beane was groomed by Sandy, So were DiPo and Ricciardi!
I personally think Sandy could be a Successful CEO at any fortune 500 company if he tried. Because he manages his assets well and that helps the rest of the team (middle managers and players) to have what it needs to get their job done.
Where my concern is at this point is what will happen when he has those assets in place and it comes time to go out and buy that big gun to ensure your place in the Playoffs.
Like I said in another post, once you have the army that can beat the opposition, you need to add some firepower (usually pitching but sometimes a big bat) that puts the nail in the coffin and allows you to dominate everyone.
I have never seen Sandy do this before not even in Oakland. When Jason Werth got A-Rod type money he seemed shocked! Well he is going to have to pay someone in excess of 20 Mil by the time 2012 rolls around and I am just not convinced he will ever do that!
If not then as good as at managing assets he is, he will not put together the overwhelming force you need to Win that big game.
And in this town even if he has a team that wins like the Phillies who has been in the hunt for the last 6 years they would be griping about how he only had one WS win to his name!
Just hope he does know when the proper time to go and spend money is. Cause most good asset managers avoid the risk of those possibly toxic assets like the plague!
The Phils have only been in the hunt for 4 years but that is why they were attractive to Cliff Lee, that’s why they had the money to pay Cliff Lee.
Getting a World Series Championship and then crashing doesn’t let you capitalize on your success. Prospect flow allows you to replenish your roster, pick up the Halliday’s and keep things going.
The Phils maybe in a bit of trouble with the huge contract to Howard and other guys coming up like Rollins, Victorino, Utley and age on the staff but they also have the most highly regarded rookie league players in all of the minors. Maybe not all 6 or 7 make it up here (maybe they do) but certainly some will provide a jump start in about 4 years making the Lee Halliday bridge to them continuing onward rather than resulting in another dry spell.
I personally think they would have been better off if they went after the pitching they have now two years ago. They might have won three in a row if they had.
At least then there would only be a year or two left on those pitching contracts they have now and could shed some of it for when they need to resign that core they competed with for so long but got no glory.
Buying big talent to win is really an artform of timing than anything else.
It is an issue of timing unless you have the fortitude to develop some of your own, like SF did. Rarely if ever does the perfect fit, perfect player come around or be available at the perfect time. Usually what looks perfect on paper is just what would have been perfect 5-8 years ago. That’s why you have a chance to acquire those guys now. Five – eight years ago they weren’t available at almost any price. There is really only one solution to that dilemma.
I think Sandy is way more likely to spread the money and risk around. See where he is come July and buy at a discount, evaluate and then make the decision to purchase or not.
Five 10 million dollar starting pitchers and then make the mid season Cliff Lee move and evaluate that over the next half or one and a half seasons, then decide.
Next year or the year after when another ace appears on the market, same thing.
Start with a solid well conceived roster, a farm that can withstand subtraction and still provide prospects to replace upcoming FA’s and provide depth for injuries and then look to upgrade at every position all the time.
I don’t think Sandy’s going to be afraid or unwilling to pull the trigger on the right guy, He’s just not going to pull the trigger on the wrong guy cause he had no other options. He’ll make due rather than hamstringing himself and us for years to come.
Few GM’s in the history of the game have walked into a situation where they’re were so many injured or unproductive players on the roster making so much money or head cases due so much and all of them in their last year as well as a homegrown player in his walk year. It is very hard to say how he will do anything based on what he does this year. This is a transition year period.