Apr
4
2011

The Foundations Of Success – Part One – The Manager

An article by Sean Kenny

Many teams have built their successes on numerous factors. Some teams have prided themselves on strong pitching, others on strong hitting, some on great benches and some on great managers who know how to utilize their players in any situation. Due to the fact the Alderson regime has yet to draft, I cannot speak upon that but once the drafting is done, I will look into that. This will be a four part article on building success, specifically the New York Mets. Although it has only been three games, in those three games you see significant managerial and ideological changes on how to utilize players, when to make moves and knowing how to do just that, manage.

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Terry Collins thus far has shown that in the event of any game, he is first and foremost interested in winning at any cost. Collins has pulled one of his best power-hitting options and strong defender Ike Davis for a pinch-runner to score a run. This decision proved crucial, with a faster runner able to advance and finally score in the Mets first win on Saturday. He then shifted that pinch-runner into playing second base, taking out the defensively-weaker Brad Emaus. He brought in Willie Harris to play left field, who is defensively superior to any of the LF options the Mets had on the bench. He kept in a ground-ball pitcher to continually try and generate ground balls. Collins had the option of allowing his pitcher to hit when they were up by four runs in extra innings, but instead brought in a pinch hitter rather then bringing his closer out for a second inning.

What do some of these minute decisions really mean? Collins has a foresight and a logic in decisions that he makes that at times seem mundane and not of critical importance, but factor into larger decisions. Even yesterday, with the Mets up big against the Marlins, when he saw that the Marlins had no righties up in the bullpen, brought in Scott Hairston, a right-handed pinch hitter to face a lefty. That decision, with the assist of an error allowed another run to score. By taking K-Rod out of Saturdays game, he left himself the option of using K-Rod, who had thrown 27 pitches the night before to pitch on Sunday. In pinch-running Hu for Davis, he improved the defense at one position while putting a far superior runner on base, and sacrificing some defense at first.

Collins win-every-game mentality was even evidenced in the first game, by pinch-hitting for Josh Thole against a lefty. He was not concerned with the next at-bat by a catcher being given to Mike Nickeas, who is not particularly strong offensively. He was worried about the matchup and getting the best possible hitter out to help prolong the inning.

He uses the bullpen wisely, not constantly flip-flopping and throwing guys for the sake of throwing them. Yesterday, in somewhat mop-up duty he allowed Tim Byrdak to get a full inning of work, facing both righties and lefties and allowed Taylor Buchholz a full inning to possibly get out the nervous jitters and work through his early season struggles. He leaves starters in and allows them as much slack as he can, showing faith in them. Although he pulled Jonathon Niese after only 87 pitches, that may have been in the best interest offensively for the Mets.

The success comes from someone who can dictate and control how he utilizes his resources for the sake of the game, and then future games. Even by playing for a win today, Terry Collins seems to be thinking about tommorrow, having used every one of his bench players at least once in this young season. Only more time will tell, but by the Mets winning their first series, which was also on the road is impressive. The Mets took nearly the whole season last year until they won a road series, August 21st against the Pittsburgh Pirates. This team is looking confident, and that is because the manager knows the hand he was dealt, and when he has to go all-in. That, is a good foundation for success.

Check back tommorrow, when the second foundation for success will be analyzed.

About the Author: Sean Kenny

Sean Kenny is a student/writer currently attending school at the City College of New York. For more Mets news, notes and thoughts follow him on twitter @TheSeanKenny

9 Comments + Add Comment

Bayonne Mets Fan April 4, 2011 at 12:15 pm

It’s still way to early but u can already see the impact that Terry Collins has already had on the team not only with his in-game decision making so far but his personality. I’m sure some of you have heard in the past that teams take on the personality of their manager and truer words were never spoken in this case.
While vehemently agains Collins when he was first hired he slowly grew on me and not only that, what am i gonna do? Keep lamenting the fact that my guys weren’t hired? Of course not, you gotta suck it up and get behind the new guy. And Collins, on TV, seems very likable but not only just likable but a guy that won’t let you mistake his kindness for weakness.

All along, even last year, i had said that if i had my druthers I would keep the GM and hire a new manager first because while both had to go i thought that the most important thing this team needed was a change in the way they played the game on the field. I felt that even if the Mets got a new GM and kept the same manager the “product” would still play uninspired and malaise-filled baseball. That’s why i felt the manager change was more important for the Mets And that change has come big time in Terry Collins.
Already you can make the case that the Mets won a game on Saturday that they would not have won under Laughing Jerry. There is no stat to reflect the impact a new Leader can have an a team. Collins is proof of that.

I was very skeptical of the way this Mets team would respond to Collins’ style and I was wrong as they’ve embraced him wholeheartedly and so have I.
So far so good with Collins and now the next things for me to watch is the progress of Carlos Beltran, how Jason Bay looks in his return, this Mets bullpen which looks kinda scary and then Chris Young.
- Chris April 4, 2011 at 2:07 pm
  
  don’t worry Bayonne, this won’t be the only thing you were wrong about.
- JerryG15 April 5, 2011 at 7:37 am
  
  Great post and it does takes a good guy to admit their initial thought may have been wrong.
  
  I am not sure what you mean by “and then Chris Young”………….I think he’ll be one of the surprises this summer, but time will only tell.
t agee April 4, 2011 at 12:59 pm

One thing I took notice of is how everyone had played by the first series. Very important to the chemistry of a team to have everyone getting on the field in some capacity. Even just Nickeas with a couple of innings or Beato getting his first taste or Murphy getting a couple of AB’s. It’s very important not to have guys who don’t feel like a part of the team at the end of the bench. Their lack of enthusiasm infiltrates the clubhouse and the lack of other options leads to starters taking their roles for granted.

Harris and Hairston both seem determined to play well, push for more time and keep everyone on their toes. If Nickeas (or Paulino) Murphy, Hu can gain their teammates confidence by chipping in when called upon it will only lead to a team that is MORE than just the sum of it’s parts. That would be a welcome change.

I was glad to see Collins make a concerted effort to get everyone involved and I believe it will pay dividends down the road.
- t agee April 4, 2011 at 1:37 pm
  
  One other thing I saw that I really liked was down 5-0, being no hit in the 7th, Willie Harris singles to center, reads the play right in front of him and takes the extra base. Not by the book but as a player, you don’t carry the book with you on the field. That doesn’t mean that your reckless or disrespectful of the book. It just means that you give yourself every chance.
  
  That double came about by preperation (Coughlan is learning CF), busting it out of the box and reading the play in front of him correctly. It conveyed a message that we weren’t happy to just break up the no hitter and that we still felt like we were in it.
  
  To get that from a veteran off the bench (regardless if he was starting for the day) was a breath of fresh air and a good tone to set for the season.
Adriano April 4, 2011 at 9:58 pm

Let’s relax here on TC. Most of those moves were no brainers for any good manager. If anything his pulling Niese and Dickey early, unfortunately remind me of things Willie and Manuel would do. If he’s going to go by pitch counts all season long with the starters and pull them early, then our pen is going to suffer for the 9th straight year? Bobby V we love you man!
- t agee April 4, 2011 at 10:23 pm
  
  I’d have ‘em on a pitch count their first couple of starts. Why not? Pens rested, a few scheduled days off, maybe even a rainout. Fact is the pen is rested, guys need work out there too. Collins needs to get a look at these guys as they sort themselves out. There’s really nothing to be gained until May by letting them go 100-125+ and plenty to lose.
  
  Seasons a marathon.
- Bayonne Mets Fan April 4, 2011 at 10:24 pm
  
  i personally he didn’t do anything wrong with Niese and I’m a guy who loathes pitch counts. He even let Niese bat in the 7th inning. As for Dickey i was like eh…it’s not so unusual for guys to come out of guys early in the early part of the season. I saw it as no different than the old days.
  
  As for his managing we’ve been exposed to awful managing for so long, especially with Laughing Jerry that a manager who simply does the logical things seems smart to us!
Alan April 5, 2011 at 10:15 am

There is no doubt that Terry Collins is managing this team to win games as opposed to the more defensive ways of not losing by his predecessors. All the decisions he has made look good right now but mostly due to execution of the players. You can make all the right moves but if the players don’t perform then the moves look bad and open to the second guessing which is what these sites and bloggers do best.

We have gotten off to a good start but it has been just 3 games. If our starting pitching holds up we will be a pretty good team,,,,

LET’S GO METS

NL East Standings

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB
Braves	23	18	.561	-
Nationals	23	19	.548	0.5
Phillies	20	22	.476	3.5
Mets	16	23	.410	6.0
Marlins	11	31	.262	12.5

Last updated: 05/18/2013

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