Sandy loves power and plate discipline and isn’t that fussed over infield corner D. I’d hate to see Ike go but I think it could be an option Sandy is keeping open.

and terry doesn’t get to decide. Sandy makes the final decisions as to who makes the team.

If Mejia and Gee both impress it’s a tougher call. If Mejia blows people away and there’s a spot open and he’s grown some over the winter, and he’s more mature then yes..I bring him up AGAIN.

There’s a lot of factors involved that’s why when I say you bring up the best 25 that give u chance to win games is not all about best stats. Of course not. But for some guys, yes there performance will decide if they come north or not but obviously not like guys like Ike, Wright, Bay, Reyes, Pelfrey, Santana (if he was healthy)..even Dickey – if he has a bad spring he most likely still comes up – it all depends on what they show you beyond the numbers.

There is your explanation!

Give him another year, let his forearms and wrists develop so he can get some snap with the bat, and then we’ll see.

At another position, the faster, stronger, perhaps quicker, Carlos Gomez is now on his third team. He would have been a Mets keeper if he hit better. In four seasons, Carlos has raised his average from about .230 to .245. Wow!!! Magic can happen, but not often.

Shhhh, don’t tell my boss.

He’ll want some.

i’m guessing that harris and hairston have the advantage over duda there, but i really don’t know.

either way, since beltran is gone next year, i would at least think about duda in RF instead of left. bay isn’t moving. sonce duda started in right and was moved to left, i can assume his arm is weak, but again i do not know.

Pins and needles. Needles and pins. A happy man is a man that grins.

It was once common sense that the Earth is flat.
It was once common sense that traveling at over 30mph would cause a person to explode.
It was once common sense that black guys couldn’t play baseball.

Use fact based conclusions. You’ll find yourself in a much better place.

Sorry for that rant. People throwing around “common sense” is just a pet peeve of mine.

Is that why you used so many to comment? /jk

Simple! Off Season motivation!

If you hear someone else might take the job you wanted you will start now to get into better shape and win your place back! Show the Manager he was wrong!

This is the time where the players should be working out and getting into season shape so they are NOT out of shape when they get to StLucie! Nothing could motivate a player more than telling him he is not the starter now so he can stew on it and motivate himself to get what he thinks he deserves!

Why name Pelfrey the starter and not Dickey? Because Pelfrey was the best pitcher on the team last year in the Win column and earned that right! He is the homegrown pitcher and a member of the CORE (if there is one here) that will be treated, developed, and cottled until such time as he is no longer a member of this team! He is considered an INVESTMENT not just any old guy on the roster! How many years have we spent trying to make this guy an ACE of our staff yet never a glint to show he would be until last year? By saying he is the opening day starter we are basically saying Schools Out Pelf! Time to be all you can be! Some guys will rise to that occassion. not sure Pelf is one of them but you have to have this moment at some point to know for sure! With a potential house cleaning in our future it makes sense to go all in on Pelfrey and if he fails to deliver you might get something back by trading him before the stock goes too low when you start that firesale!

Manuel might have made Dickey the opening day starter because he felt Dickey thew batters off timing for the guys that followed him. Do you agree with a guy you all claim to be an idiot? Dickey is going to be better with Pelfrey throwing before him. We only have three guys we are sure will even BE starters. Pelfrey Dickey Neise is a pretty good starting point. Semi Hard thrower, Guy who throws trashcans, Guy who throws Harder than Pelf, followed by one of two guys who are coming off surgery(none throw hard) and Dillon Gee (who is a rookie and is average in speed and stuff). That is a great rotation as far as screwing with batter timing! You want your hardest thrower to pitch AFTER Dickey but a reasonably hard thrower with stuff before him!
So from a purely baseball strategic view it makes sense that Pelfrey starts opening day unless Santana gets a pill from McCoy of start trek that grows a new shoulder by Opening day!

Telling Tejada he is going to start in the Minors is a good thing. It lets him know he had better start hitting right out of the gate in ST or thats where he is going! There will be an open competition at 2nd regardless as Castillo, Tejada and likely Murphy will all try to win the job. And tejada has even further reason to go back to the Minors and play SS on a daily basis!

Jose Reyes is in his walk year and very likely to be traded mid season for prospects. Who plays SS if he leaves? It’s Tejada! So this is a smart move that is predicated on the fact that if he WINS the 2B job in ST then he is hitting and if he hits then there might be no reason to have a deadline firesale and no need to replace Reyes because we are a winning team!

Why would Thole be named the starter? Well lets face facts here folks Paulino at this point in time is nothing more than a Platoon player! A fine backup for Thole. Paulino would have to make a very big showing to get the start. I would say he just got his kick in the ass and that competition might inspire Thole to take the next step! He is similar to Pelfrey in that he is home grown. He was moved to catcher to try to make the investment pay off (Dodgers di the same thing with Piazza).

There are two ways Collins could be and he would get complaints no matter what he did!
He could not answer any questions and you would all cry what the secret is OR
He could give honest answers based on what he currently knows and get bitched out for making decisions before the Fans did cause they all have the LUXURY of waiting until spring training has already started!

Well it’s his job to play the hand as he sees it and until the cards change stick to his plan. As of now all the cards say Thole will Start, someone other than Tejada will be playing second, Pelfrey will be our best pitcher followed or surpassed by a repeating performance by Dickey,
And RF and CF are pretty much going to be based on who chases fly balls better, Beltran or Pagan!

Words are cheap! They don’t mean crap! He can say whatever he wants now his final roster will be determined by who Sandy wants to see play. His Lineup will be based off who played the best out of that group at each position.

Pretty much what Manuel had to do last year and what every other manager goes through on a yearly basis unless they are the GM as well!

If you were asked the same questions Collins was asked and decided to answer you would have given the same exact answers given what you know about the players we have!

So I see no reason why to second guess a TV Interview!
Just wait to see the results on the field and leave him alone to do what he thinks is best. If his best isn’t good enough Backman will have another year or two of experience under his belt to be ready to take over!

It’s from those Elect Wally posters that I think most of this WTF moments and criticism of Collins is coming from!

Let him Manage and if he fails, You might get what you wanted!