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Schedule has been brutal to Mets

Ken Davidoff

June 15, 2008

Too bad it doesn't rain like this out West. The Mets have been to the left side of the country so often recently, they're probably surprised when they wake up, look out their windows and don't see mountains.

They could've used more unscheduled days off like last night's, in their oddly scheduled tour of baseball purgatory. Alas, you rarely experience this sort of storm when you visit California or Colorado, or Arizona (which has a dome, anyway).

Which brings us to the greater point of the Mets' future, and their future schedule.

Whether Willie Randolph stays on the job for the long term or Jerry Manuel replaces him - the word yesterday was that Randolph would be boarding the plane to Anaheim after today's doubleheader against Texas, although Willie is still anything but safe - the Mets should see a clearing following this week's series at the Angels and Rockies.

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Once they return home a week from tonight - assuming no rainouts in Anaheim or Denver - they'll have 88 games remaining, and only 10 of those will be outside of the Eastern time zone. All 10 of those will be in the Central time zone, an easy, one-hour adjustment.

Can that make a difference?

No guarantees, certainly; the Mets played their worst series of the year when they dropped four games in Atlanta May 20-22.

But when you consider that the Mets are the oldest team in baseball, and that veteran teams - in this age of banned amphetamines - figure to suffer the most from the tough trips, it can't hurt.

Randolph brought up the team's schedule prior to the Mets' game against the Rangers getting called off. It didn't sound like the manager was making excuses; no, Randolph is well into his acceptance phase. It came out like more of a thinking-out-loud thing.

"[It's been] a grueling schedule, really," Randolph said. "Back to the West Coast again. I thought initially it would be a good thing, get it out of the way. And then, when everyone was having jet lag in August, this would be good.

" . . . I don't think it matters. I don't think it matters if it's early in the season, when you're supposed to be fresh, or later in the season, when you're supposed to be tired. I think it's just a tough, tough haul, when you've got to change time zones . . . Your body, it just doesn't acclimate.

"We've got to get through it. It's our last week of doing it. When we get back, hopefully we'll start to get fresh, rejuvenate a little bit."

Will Willie be around for that hoped rebirth? The more his status lingers, the more it seems like Omar Minaya is just gun shy. Remember, Minaya has never had to fire a manager in his seven years as a general manager.

His lieutenants and his superiors are ready to send Randolph home, to see if Manuel and Rick Peterson's targeted replacement, Dan Warthen, can provide any sort of impact. Yet Omar keeps waiting to see whether Randolph can pull the team out of the funk that has lasted for more than a year.

Every win, such as Friday's relaxing 7-1 triumph over the Rangers, seems to provide new life, but not enough confidence to commit to Randolph for any defined period of time.

The Mets' schedule has been striking. By the time they complete this upcoming road trip, 22 of the Mets' 74 games will have been played in Denver or west of there. This space rarely criticizes the schedule-makers - between the unbalanced schedule and interleague play, Bud Selig puts a lot of balls in the air - but that is an absurd percentage.

It excuses nothing; teams have to play their schedules. Yet you'd have to think that the Mets would play better with more rest, just as you'd assume of any club.

Look at the schedule, and look at the fact that the Mets' starting rotation seems to be righting itself, and there are reasons to think that the Mets can actually turn this season around.

But then again, there's a reason Willie's in such great trouble in the first place. That's because his Mets have underachieved, no matter how encouraging their future has seemed, for too long.