Reese's Pieces - Manager of the Year (But Not Every Game)

While you can’t help but wax poetic on the energy, enthusiasm and emotion Terry Collins brings to the Mets, you also have to consider some of his ponderous decision making that has at times cost the team games.  The most recent clear example was the Monday night Phillies game in which the Mets trailed by a single run going into the 9^th inning.  Granted, he’d used a number of his relievers already in that game – Ramon Ramirez, Bobby Parnell and Jon Rauch.  It was a crucial time in the game and he still had in his pen Tim Byrdak, Jack Egbert, Frank Francisco and Manny Acosta.  

While I could perhaps understand the theory that you don’t want to put an untested rookie type like Egbert into a must-win type of situation with the game on the line, consider the alternatives.  You could have gone with your closer who has been on something of a roll lately, since without a lead he wasn’t likely to pitch anyway.  You could have gone to the nightly dose of Byrdak.  However, the one man in the Mets bullpen who, under no circumstances, should have been entrusted with a lead was the batting practice hurler Manny Acosta.

So what did the genius Terry Collins do?  Of course, he went for proven mediocrity over untested potential.  We all knew what would happen.  We didn’t know who would have the most fun with Acosta’s pitching but it turned out to be former Met Ty Wigginton whose shot mercifully (and finally) ended Acosta’s Mets career.

If this incident was isolated then I wouldn’t have much of a beef with Collins, but it’s a pattern I’ve seen since his tenure began.  Has he played some rookies?  Sure – but usually only when his hand was forced (such as Andres Torres doing his Wally Pipp impression after the first game of the season).  However, the Nieuwenhuis circumstance notwithstanding, why did he insist on playing slugger Ronny Cedeño over Jordanny Valdespin?  What was the purpose of even having Valdespin on the roster on a few separate occasions when he was given a sum total of 20 ABs in 15 games in the majors.  What does that mean – he started twice?  It’s hard to get into any kind of hitting groove when you’re getting splinters in your butt.  On the flip side, he had no issue with putting Vinny Rottino right into action.

This same enigmatic decision making took place in the off season when contracts were tendered to both Mike Pelfrey and Andres Torres (not to mention the $1.2 million squandered on Ronny Cedeño).  Between the three of them the team with no money spent nearly $9.6 million for what?  Pelfrey is a career 4.36 ERA pitcher.  Torres is a career .241 hitter.  Cedeño slugs a robust .245.  Again the team embraced proven mediocrity instead of looking at potential for something more.  Would it have hurt to give the defensive replacement role to career minor leaguers like Quintanilla or Wimberly?  Would it have hurt to have rolled the dice on Nieuwenhuis to start the season in CF?  Does anyone think Hefner (or even Schwinden) given a full season’s worth of time in the rotation would be significantly worse than Pelfrey? 

Hindsight is always 20-20, but would you rather have had Roy Oswalt and his $8 million salary in the rotation in addition to a couple of minimum wage guys like Quintanilla and Nieuwenhuis AND SAVED $600K over what they chose to do instead?  No one knows whether or not the front office explored possibilities beyond giving Pelfrey a significant raise based on his 2011 season that resulted in a 4.74 ERA. 

Obviously Nieuwenhuis has far exceeded expectations.  No one expects Quintanilla to have three hits per night either.  There is even room for optimism considering the Mets are currently winning with nothing from Davis, Duda, Thole, Tejada, Bay and (this week anyway) Wright and Murphy, too.  Santana and Dickey are demonstrating they are as good as anyone’s 1-2 punch in the league.  Niese has been maddeningly inconsistent with his 4.55 ERA and Dillon Gee had better not sign any long term leases with the way Wheeler has been pitching and the return to health of both Young and Mejia.  It’s a fun team to watch, and perhaps they’ll even (as Jim Bouton put it in Ball Four) finish a few games ahead of their manager.