What it tells me also is the Mets are going to get younger and there is a big premium going to be placed on home grown talent. Sandy Alderson on day one said the farm system he has inherited is in the middle of the pack and for a team like the Mets with its resources, that’s unacceptable. That’s what should be the focus of Mets fans, not who will be the manager for the next two seasons. Cliff Lee at 32 years of age with back trouble? Let the Highlanders over pay in years and money for him. Jayson Werth? Let the Tigers spend all that awful pizza money on him. If the Mets eat the Perez/Castillo dough then the off season is a success and you know now there is no way in hell either of those two slugs are coming back. - link
Dan Warthen will remain Mets pitching coach, according to SI.com. Warthen, as well as third base coach Chip Hale, had endorsements from ownership to remain on the staff of the new managerial hire. - espn
It’s not just Collins’ selection that’s so disappointing; it’s the entire process that hinted of a gummed-up hierarchy. Alderson interviewed too many candidates, took too long (not counting time to mourn his father) and otherwise required too much input to have ultimately settled for a journeyman like Collins. - North Jersey
Intensity will be welcome in the Mets country club clubhouse, but when dealing with multi-millionaire established veterans it’s got to be carefully utilized. The one glaring difference between Wally Backman and Collins is that to a player, Collins experience is bad - he failed. Backman hasn’t. And even more important, Backman has a championship ring. It’s a powerful selling point to underachieving players. When I covered the NBA one of the most powerful tools Pat Riley had as a coach was being able to flash his rings and tell players - “I’m a champion. If we fail to be champions now, whose fault is it - mine or yours?” Backman’s prodding of players could be accompanied by an insistence that this is the way to a championship. Collins pushing can be dismissed by players who eye his short-term deal and turbulent history as indicators that they will outlast him. - North Jersey
C - Yankees, Mets • (1946-1965) - Age: 85 … Hall of Fame: 1972 - One of baseball's endearing characters, Berra's fame will always be as a dugout philosopher. But lost in the congenial malapropisms are the numbers that make him, to borrow a phrase, the most popular catcher nobody knows. The St. Louis native (he grew up on The Hill) was the constant in the second Yankees Dynasty, winning 10 World Series and 14 American League pennants from 1947 to '63. He was an 18-time All-Star, three-time MVP, and for seven consecutive seasons he finished in the top five in MVP voting. In short, the height of his career was a mouthful. While Johnny Bench has been elevated at catcher, the Cincinnati backstop had fewer RBIs, fewer hits, far fewer rings, a lower career OPS, only 31 more homers and Berra played catcher before the Gold Glove Award. If there was a Yogism for Yogi, Mel Ott said it: "He seemed to do everything wrong, yet everything came out right. He stopped everything behind the plate and hit everything in front of it." - stltoday
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