Peter Hyatt - The Excitement of Youth Tempered By Terry Collins

Regarding Amed German Rosario:

I do not wish to pour cold water on anyone's enthusiasm, but for the sake of truth, I will. 

This kid is very exciting to watch.  He is 21 years old. He is young, strong, personable and so very talented.  


He has all the tools we love to see.  

The contextual reality:  

Terry Collins is playing him reluctantly.  

First, Sandy Alderson was deceptive about this time table for promotion. He did not say his plan was to promote him August 1st.  He hedged and qualified: 

 "That was basically the plan all along." 

He did not say, "this was the plan all along." 

 I know he is here, but I prefer to either hear the truth, or "I don't wish to discuss that" or "I am leaving options open.." and not be lied to.  

His plan was to stick with contracts even over productivity.  Like good soldiers under orders, other brass just assent by silence.  

The truth is that concerns were being raised from Vegas and from within Mets brain trust that Rosario was getting discouraged and that Dom Smith was more than ready.  

Alderson was pushed into a compromise, as if waiting a week for Dom Smith was essential.  

Ridiculous.  

As to the reluctance to play for the future, meaning, "play", rather than just make moves for 2018.  

Ego has been a factor in this losing season, just as lack of leadership has let the inmates run amok.  

Secondly, listen to Terry Collins. 

In the immediate aftermath of the excitement of watching this young kid on the major league field, Collins deliberately told reporters that he will not be playing all the time.  He will get "tired", Collins said because he is "young."  This is Collins' devotion to the veterans in his clubhouse which takes precedence over what is best for the New York Mets.  

Although I continue in uncertainty how much of this is by order from above (Alderson) and how much is his assimilation with older players, the result remains the same.   

The only way for this to change is for Amed to do what Conforto did:  just keep hitting to make it impossible to take him out of the line up.  If Rosario turns into an All Star, we can hear how "surprised" Terry Collins is.  

What nonsense! 

As an aging manager, Collins bond with the veterans is so strong, that it comes at the expense of tomorrow. 

It was frustrating in the month of June to wait for the Mets line up to be produced (perhaps 90% of the time late and after the other teams' posting) to see if our best natural hitter, Michael Conforto, was in the line up or not.  He finally got hot enough to make it impossible to remove him, which led to the "surprise" of Terry Collins when Conforto was elected to the All Star team by his peers.  That is to say, everyone but his manager knew.  

Sorry, but I don't buy it.  This was a signal of Collins' thinking and not management orders from the top.  

Whenever Grandy was put in instead of Conforto, we would have to lose and Grandy not hit in order to get Conforto the at bats he needed to work his way out of the slumping period.  It became discouraging to watch and I do not want to have to check the line up with the same feeling about Rosario.  

Keith Hernandez, not always the "best" employee, kept at the Mets publicly, about this, including some fascinating and intellectual insight into managing batting slumps over the course of 162 games. 

Twitter helped pressure the young All Star into the line up.  

Now Collins needs to tell the fans that Rosario, at age 21, will get "tired."

                                       Did you see the kid?

Did you see the energy even in his body language?

Did you see the love of our game that is in his DNA?

Does he strike you as someone who will willingly want a single moment of time off??

I hate this part:  

In order to see what young players can do, and develop for 2018, we have to lose games. 

 This is the short sightedness of both GM and manager who may not be around next year.  

We are no longer "show casing" for trades.  

We need to be putting younger players out there to see what they can do.  We couldn't get a box of baseballs for the disgruntled Cabrera.  

Dom Smith should be at first base. 

Now. 

If we are ever to learn if he can hit .300 with 40 doubles, Brandon Nimmo should be in the OF. 

Now. 

30 year old free agent to be slugger Jay Bruce should be offered an extension.  He is better defensively than credited, may give us 30 home runs plus each year and is a positive influence on young players.  He might be a perfect match for Dom Smith to locker next to.  

We are very likely to see Yoenis Cespedes continue to be hot, cold, streaky, productive, disinterested, happy, brooding, and with nagging injuries next year. 

 Management must consider this now, even as he says he intends to alter his off season work out.  

Do we learn our lessons about failing to think ahead...again?  

Or do we prepare with contingency planning and balancing putting a competitive team on the field now, while developing young players?

Winning with 36 year old legs for a lost season versus allowing for development for what could be a most promising 2018 season?

                                Which do you prefer?

By the way, anyone hear the sound of groveling to be resigned at 8.5 mill next year to be a utility player after NOT getting any interest from other teams?  Suddenly, there is...love. 

Surprise, surprise. 

We need to be playing for tomorrow.  

We need to be developing players now, not just in September, for 2018.  

We need to redeem the time.