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4/28/14

Craig Mitchell -- Terry Collins, The "Ward Cleaver" of Baseball.

What is the Mets problem? Or is it problems. Look, no team is perfect. Met fans are storming the castle with
pitchforks and torches. Even when they win the comments on various webpages are downright depressingly negative.  There is an overall hate and resentment of The Wilpons. Their financial crisis has crippled the development of the New York Mets. Well, that’s the cry.  The Wilpons, or “The Coupons” as they are called by many may have caused damage between them and their fans that is irreparable.  The only solution is for them to sell. Well, honestly, that doesn't help the 2014 Mets. The Wilpons aren't about to sell right now or in the foreseeable future. In the now, the “right” now, we have a team that can be competitive.

It’s not far-fetched. The Met pitching is strong. The Mets starting pitching has distinguished itself so far this season and that’s with Matt Harvey on the sidelines recovering and Zach Wheeler not hitting on all cylinders yet. The bullpen is a work in progress. But to be honest, it’s not the disaster that it appeared to be in the first 3 games. Sure, we need another lefty and we need a closer. But, one step at a time. No one expected Bobby Parnell to go down with Tommy John surgery. Kyle Farnsworth is a stop gap. The Mets must find a solution from within or trade for a closer. To be continued.
But, for the Mets to finally start winning over fans and start winning consistently. They need Terry Collins to stop acting an overprotective Ward Cleaver.  When I heard Collins reasoning for batting Daniel Murphy clean up the first game that he moved a struggling Curtis Granderson to the two hole, I literally screamed at the television. The Mets just traded away a former 1st round draft pick and named Lucas Duda the starting first baseman. He is the heir apparent. He is the slugger, the power source, the job is his.  But Collins didn’t want to move him into the clean-up spot because it might be too much for him to process? Are you F*&King kidding me? This is what Duda should have been waiting for. Duda should be salivating to bat clean up and lead this team to the playoffs.

Is that the atmosphere Collins is creating? Duda is hiding behind Daddy because it’s too scary to put all the pressure and responsibility of batting 4th on his shoulders? That is about the saddest thing I've ever heard. Say what you want about the Wilpons and their financial woes. This is sadder and a much bigger problem.  

I keep thinking what would other managers do in a situation like this? Gil Hodges wouldn't have babied Duda, Duda would have been batting 4th from the instant he was named the starter. The same is true with Davey Johnson. Johnson bred a team in the 80’s that was cocky, confident and self-policing. If someone made a bad play, the team didn’t get down. If the team had a tough loss, they came back stronger and tried even harder the next day. If someone dogged it or was lazy, Gary Carter and Keith Hernandez got in their face. Johnson created a winning atmosphere. Terry Collins has me confused. Sometimes I think he’d rather be liked than manage a winner. 

Now all of this comes from extrapolation. I haven’t been in Collins locker room. Nor have I talked to him. But I read the papers, websites and I see what he says. Just once I’d like to see Collins lose his cool and throw some bats and batting helmets on the field. I’d like to see him get red in the face and get into a players face when he doesn't hustle.

I absolutely LOVED what Matt Williams did with Bryce Harper. It was exactly the right thing to do. The
message was “You’re in the Major Leagues. You put in 100% effort every on every play, every at bat. Every time NO EXCEPTIONS. I don’t care if you are the hottest young player to come along. It’s my way or the bench” Pulling him out of a game because he loafed on a comebacker is exactly what I’m talking about.  That creates an atmosphere where attitude and hustle and teamwork are the formula for winning. Holding a player back because you feel that because he just won the starting first base job on a major league baseball team in 2014 and batting cleaning might be too much for his fragile psyche is the formula for losing.  Instead of saying that to the press, Terry should have sat down looked Duda in the eye and said “It’s all yours. Go out there and earn it”

Ike Davis might be the real winner after all. He’s in Pittsburgh playing for Clint Hurdle. You don’t get more old school than Hurdle. I can’t even imagine Hurdle saying “Well, Ike has had a hard month; I will ease him into a bigger role….” First game in Pittsburgh, Ike batted Clean-up.  He went 2 for 4. Two days later, 2 more hits and a grand slam.  A baseball locker room is no place for a thin skin or someone laden with self-doubt. Clint Hurdle’s guidance more importantly his influence might just make Ike Davis the all-star we all thought he could be.  Good for Ike. 

Terry Collins seems to be more of a baby sitter, than a manager.  We all know that the roster decisions and player moves aren't entirely up to Collins. Maybe even less than we think. But it has been apparent to me that Terry Collins is not the man to take the Mets to the next level. He’s not. The two year extension he got in October confused the hell out of me. I couldn't figure out what Collins had shown Sandy Alderson and the Wilpons that made him worth that. Except maybe he did fight them on any decisions? Perhaps was a yes man? Please note, that’s all personal extrapolation once again.

I propose that if the Met are serious about taking the talent they have and maximizing it. They need someone
to lead the way. They need a fighter. They need someone who played on teams that had that philosophy.  All due respect to Terry Collins, I just don’t think that’s him. Matt Williams is in Washington  so he’s out. Keith is in the booth. The Kid is playing upstairs and Davey Johnson is retired.  But…I say…look to the bright lights of Vegas.  There is a manager who most of the younger players on this roster have played for and won for.  Of course I’m talking about Wally Backman. Polarizing yes, for sure. But Backman has the fire and the fight and the experience to take this team to the next level. Call it a hunch. Many people ask “IF Backman is so good, then how come his name hasn't come up for other managing jobs?”  I’m no G.M. but I’m not sure it hasn’t. Who knows who’s contacted him. He almost had the Diamondbacks job some years ago, but a DUI incident marred that.  That incident is in the past now, and hey if Tony LaRussa can get a DUI and win a World Series, I’d say Wally is worth a gamble.  But one thing I do know. He wants the Met job. I feel he’s right for it. The only problem is, the Mets would have to suffer a total collapse to move in that direction anytime soon. I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Collins is under contract through the 2015 season. I don’t have much hope that Backman will still be available after 2014. Someone will grab him and that would be a shame, because if Backman were the manager today, Duda would be batting clean-up and loving it. 

6 comments:

  1. Wow. Mets fans never cease to amaze me. In your opening graph, you try to distance yourself from the haters be hatin' crowd and then you spend the rest of the piece hatin'. You say "we have a team that can be competitive" and then you say, in essence, "emphasis on the can be".

    I just don't understand why any Mets fan would have anything to complain about right now. We're 3 games over .500 and sitting pretty in second place. If the season ended today, we'd be the #1 Wild Card team. Is it going to last to season's end? Heck, I don't know. Do you? But, for the time being, it sure would be nice to read some articles that aren't centered on so-and-so sucks. Wilpons suck. Sandy sucks. Terry Collins sucks. Ruben Tejada sucks. Colon sucks. EY sucks. CY sucks. The bullpen sucks. Etc. Etc. I'm tired of it.

    The Mets are winning right now. Can't we just enjoy that? Who knows, maybe Terry Collins is a better manager than you think. Maybe Duda just isn't a clean-up hitter. It could happen. Maybe the element the Mets lack to be a championship team is a fanbase that actually roots for the team instead of looking for the cloud behind every silver lining.

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  2. Terry Collins had a reputation for being fiery and explosive. I'd settle for intense. What we have is a Milquetoast unable to motivate anyone and managing his pitching staff as if every game is the 7th game of the World Series. He gives up on rookies too soon and stays with veterans too long. After his first option year was available and they re-upped him, I was apoplectic. By this year's "Oh, well he never really had the horses to win" mantra, I was just numb to it all. It was a fait accompli -- losers begat losers.

    By contrast, today the Cardinals farmed out rookie Kolten Wong because he was not performing. His numbers were not good -- .225 and just 5 RBIs. Do you want to know what our shortstop is delivering? .197 and 4 RBIs! Yet we feel that is acceptable.

    Eric Young, Jr. is on a 9/42 clip since Lagares got hurt. Yep, he's your leadoff man, alright. His OBP for the past week is .250.

    I'll cut Granderson some slack because he has a track record and they won't sit him due to the Bay clause that states salary paid is more important in determining a starting role than results. I'll even give Chris Young a pass for he started with an injury and then developed an illness. David Wright is the face of the franchise (and MLB), so he's going nowhere.

    There are some signs. Travis d'Arnaud is hitting at well over .300 over the past week. Duda is not crumbling (though, as you said, why he's not batting cleanup is a mystery to me). Murphy is Murphy.

    My frustration is that this team tends to do nothing when things go wrong. Then when things go right, it exacerbates their inertia. "Look, we've won 14 games! Things don't need to change." WRONG! You won 14 games almost exclusively on pitching. What happens when the pitching slumps or someone gets hurt? Your offense is the worst in baseball yet your only gesture to improve it is to bring in a guy who was out of baseball for a year and is old enough to be a grandfather.

    I do give a tip of the cap to Sandy Alderson for making a long overdue move at 1B, though signing Jose Abreu -- he of the 10 HRs/31 RBIs, would have been the right one. For his new team Ike Davis is actually hitting worse than he did for the Mets -- .185 vs. .208. Of course, in a pitching rich organization the logical move would have been to bring in a hitter, but he instead brought in a pitcher and a PTBNL who won't see the light of major league day for 3-5 years.

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  3. Yep, Ike is not missed by me - since the much-celebrated broken bat grand slam for Pittsburgh, he is 0 for 16...Met fans remember his 0 for 16s all too well - now they are Pittsburgh's problem.

    He has 9 RBI - WOW....wait, 2 grand slams and just one other RBI in his other 49 official at bats.

    Enough. Duda is my choice. I did hear him in an interview over the weekend and he is frankly too diplomatic - he was asked if he was happy and relieved to get the spot - he should have given his best Sarah Palin (You Betcha!) and instead said Ike was a good friend and any starter has to perform or they'll sit blah, blah, blah - and that worried me a bit. Too much humility, man. But I would not be surprised to see .260, 25, 75 against almost exclusively righties this year for him.

    An Abreu signing would've meant spending $$ - this team's too tightfisted. Let's hope Duda ignites.

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  4. I wouldn't be averse to them trading Duda as well and open up 1B to some combination of Wilmer Flores (where he'd do less damage with the glove), Allan Dykstra and Eric Campbell. I can't foresee any of those folks posting inferior numbers and -- music to the Wilpons' hearts -- they'd all play for minimum wage. Duda's what -- 3 times that number already? There are players whose seeming nonchalance like Carlos Beltran brought them unfair criticism. However, Duda isn't producing at that elite level and his seeming lack of fire (think Kevin McReynolds) is going to be his downfall with the fans.

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  5. Calling a lousy manager lousy, is not hating. If Collins was a good manager he'd have had the team playing at a higher level the past few years. Even with the mediocre talent. And he doesn't know how to manage a bullpen. That's not hating. It's fact.

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  6. @Rick Bloom

    He's a lousy manager IN YOUR OPINION. And your opinion is worth exactly as much as mine. Far less than the opinions of the Wilpons or Sandy Alderson...or the players, for that matter. It's not a "fact" that Collins is a lousy manager just because you say it is. Whether or not a manager is good or bad is entirely subjective and usually tied to the talent level of the team. You could say Bobby Cox was a great manager--the Hall of Fame just did--but would the Braves have dominated with Bobby Cox at the helm if they didn't have Maddux and Glavine and Chipper Jones all those years?

    This team had broken through the basement by the time Alderson arrived. They've been rebuilding from scratch. Casey Stengel is an acknowledged genius manager, but he couldn't escape last place with his Mets (and that's not because he was too old or not trying; the talent simply wasn't there). Collins has had very little to work with. That's kind of what happens when you're rebuilding from scratch. He still only has half a completed puzzle to work with. I can't fault him for the Mets play during his tenure. I don't know if Terry Collins is the guy to take us to "the next level" or not. And neither do you. But right now HE IS the manager. Like Lou Brown in "Major League", I want to see how he handles this situation. Right now, the Mets are above .500--second place last I looked. So it would seem he's at least doing a competent job with his half finished puzzle. Calling him "lousy" certainly does nothing positive for the team.

    So, yeah, at this juncture in time, I call it hating. I tend to think the negative energy being put out by the "fans" is what's holding this team back, not Terry Collins. But I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to say that that's a fact. Just my opinion. Worth the same as yours.

    Root, root, root for the home team. If they don't win, its a shame. That's all.

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