Reese Kaplan -- On Pitching, Collins Vs. Callaway

Kevin Kernan of the NY Post ran back-to-back pieces about the state of Mets pitching and the approach taken towards success in that realm.   The first was a one-on-one with Terry Collins who sounded a bit defensive towards the criticism often levied at him for mishandling pitchers.  The second was a one-on-one with Mickey Callaway and his plans for working with the starters and relievers.

Collins was pretty candid about his tenure with the Mets.  He admitted feeling regret for how he handled Matt Harvey in the 2015 World Series, but became incensed when addressing the huge number of health problems facing his pitchers.  He called it a fallacy that he was to blame for any of it and said if his coaches said that someone needed a day off then he would have given them the day off. 

While it’s good to hear someone having confidence to stand or fall on their own decisions, it seems to me as if he’s throwing his coaches under the bus to declare it was on them to let him know when pitchers were not at full capacity.  I’m sorry, but if you’re the manager and you’ve hired the coaches, then the buck stops with you. 

To hear Collins tell it, the Mets just got an incredible spate of bad luck.  He then said that no one is to blame, which is kind of walking back the veiled criticism of the coaches.  Apparently the Mets felt someone was to blame since the coaches (save for Glenn Sherlock) were all canned, as was the medical staff.  So was Terry on point or out of touch?

He also felt that the biggest challenge to Mickey Callaway was going to be how to get guys to give him the full workload as starting pitchers after having been severely limited in the number of innings the previous year. 

On the subject of managing again, Collins said, “I would, but I don’t think with the new era of stuff that would happen. I will do whatever I can to make sure Mickey has better players and the organization is better.  I will miss it. I’m a competitive guy.’’

Mickey Callaway has been in charge of pitching before but not the entire picture.  Pitching was supposed to be the strength of this organization, so it made sense to hire a pitching-first manager to try to get the arms back to where they are supposed to be.  Towards that end Callaway is working with new pitching coach Dave Eiland on pitchers’ pre-workout conditioning to get them to change their mindset before they arrive at the ballpark. 

Callaway expressed confidence in the quality of the guys who will take the mound to begin each game.  He quipped, “If you look at our starting pitchers there are 25 teams out there that would love to have who we have. So we can make adjustments along the way.”

He continued, “When I look at this staff and think about them, I see the same thing that they had in Cleveland. The one difference has been the health — if we get them healthy and get them in good routines to keep them that way.  Everyone I’ve been around pretty much walks outside, stretches, plays catch, they do their bullpen. Our pitchers in Cleveland had about an hour-and-a-half routine before they even went out and played catch. They were with massage therapists, then they were with trainers, getting all these hands-on things done, then they went to the weight room to see the strength coach for extra stretching, then they went on the bike, then they went outside and stretched. It’s pre-hab. If we can implement those types of things, we have a better chance to stay healthy. It does work. When you present it to these guys, they are going to want to do it.”

Callaway also stressed the importance of building personal relationships with the pitchers in order to find out what he can do to help them succeed.  Given the whispers about Collins’ poor communications skills with his players, this approach could indeed have some merit.  He said that one of Eiland’s big philosophies is accountability which dovetails nicely with giving the pitchers what they say they need to succeed.  The pitchers then need to step up and deliver. 

Of course, the proof is in the pudding, and until the first cry of “Play ball!” happens in April, these pretty words could just be the stuff of nice soundbites.  However, it is refreshing to hear about what appears to be a new approach since the old one certainly had not been working.  Cleveland’s ERA last year was 3.30 and the Mets’ ERA stood at a ghastly 27^th-best 5.14.  ‘Nuff said.