Bill Madden: Willie was 'Jobbed'

'No offense to Joe Girardi, who did a truly commendable job in guiding the $14 million "Baby Marlins" to the brink of the playoffs this season, but if you ask me, Willie Randolph got jobbed yesterday in the Baseball Writers Association NL Manager of the Year voting.

'I'm not alone on this. Mets GM Omar Minaya was amazed and two decorated veteran managers here at the GM meetings, Lou Piniella and Jim Fregosi, were likewise stunned.

'"I don't want to take anything away from Joe Girardi who did a fine job," said Minaya, "but I have a hard time justifying Manager of the Year for a team that didn't finish over .500 when my guy won 97 games. You had to look at our team and take into account the whole body of work by Willie, even though it started last year. This team plays like Willie played. They adopted his whole personality."

'A manager who has manned the dugout in both New York and the Sunshine State agreed.

'"You gotta be kiddin'!" said Piniella. "I thought Willie did an outstanding job this year. The Mets played hard all year and his starting rotation was in flux. Taking nothing away from Joe, who also did a real nice job down there in Miami, but if I had a vote, I'd have Willie first and Joe second."

'"How do you have a guy be manager of the year with a losing record?" said the equally flabbergasted Fregosi.

'How indeed? It had never happened in the history of the voting. But as Girardi - who was nevertheless fired at the end of the season after butting heads with team owner Jeffrey Loria and GM Larry Beinfest - noted in a conference call yesterday, his 78-84 Marlins were almost universally picked at the beginning of the season to do a lot more losing than that. And absolutely no one could have envisioned them contending for a playoff spot almost down to the final week of the season.

'"I'm not surprised," Girardi said of the vote. "I know an awful lot of people had us picked to lose 110-115 games, and for us to come as close to making it into the postseason as we did...I think people who watch the game every day appreciated what we accomplished."

'But the same could certainly be said for Randolph and the Mets. You had to see them every day to appreciate how they got to their NL-high 97 wins, especially after losing Pedro Martinez for the last two months and cobbling together a rotation with castoffs John Maine, Oliver Perez and Orlando Hernandez.' (NYDailyNews)