2
2011
Credit The Players For The Comeback, Not Collins’ Rant
An article by 
The easy thing to do would be credit this afternoon’s startling comeback on Terry Collins’ blistering rant last night.
Maybe Collins shamed them somewhat, but it didn’t seem that way from the outset when Mike Pelfrey gave it up early. I think falling behind 7-0 had more to do with sparking the Mets than anything Collins said last night.
When you’re a professional athlete, sometimes it takes being pushed around to catch your attention, and that’s what happened today. Maybe for one day at least, enough was enough.
Pelfrey did nothing yesterday to prove he’s a No. 1 starter, but Carlos Beltran showed his mettle with a three-run homer hit early enough in the game to make a comeback a realistic thought.
After their early hole, the Mets played an aggressive, sound game, something they should be doing all the time. That was the essence of Collins’ message in the first place.
It’s an oversimplification to say Collins going off carried the Mets. If it was that easy, he’d rail all the time. In baseball, where they play 162 games, results are rarely attained by yelling.
I thought it was humorous and a little sad to listen to Terry Collins’ post-game rant last night in the wake of another seventh-inning meltdown. He sounded desperate and out of control, much how his team is playing.
First, he praised the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen for his hustle and hard play and said that’s how his team should be playing, then stopped short and said effort isn’t the issue.
Well, is it or not?
He said his team played hard, but lacked execution. Passion, but poor performance … kind of like his speech.
Maybe the Mets were just due today. Maybe it was playing the Pirates, a team as Willie Harris said, “is not much better than them.’’
The Mets have had games like this before, but weren’t able to build on them. This weekend it’s the Braves coming in and we’ll see if the Mets are able to feed off today or just burp and regress.
About the Author: John Delcos
I am an active member of the BBWAA and have covered Major League Baseball in several capacities for over 20 years, including ten in New York working the Mets' and Yankees' beat. I covered the Baltimore Orioles for eight years and the Cleveland Indians before that. I currently serve as an editor and senior staff writer for Mets Merized Online. Follow me on Twitter @jdelcos.
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Mets become comeback kids thanks in part to a bizarre sequence in the 8th. Read all about the 7-run turnaround: http://tiny.cc/vmd2f
John – You are so wrong.
I agree, Tommy2cat! I was getting irked reading this guy’s blog. No clue at all…
collins will have to rant everyday then, coz jason bay, pagan, thole, pelfrey, willie harris, hairston, the bullpen and dwright in the clutch suck!!!!!!!!!!!
You find an excuse to blame a guy who’s disabled and didn’t even play. Alex, you have a huge bag of tricks. But all of them say the same thing. Instead, join the good times and feel the love.
des,
am i wrong about anything i said?
You’re wrong about a lot of things.
yes
Wait a minute….what is alex68 wrong about? It was dumb on his (Wright) part to play hurt & worsen the extent of his injuries for weeks. He said he was still banged up weeks after the tag on Carlos Lee and then after the Posada episode, he finally gets himself checked out. What happens? DL. At the same time, his performance suffered greatly. Is there even a timetable for him to return? Don’t say “So what? Wright is a warrior. He played every day”. There’s a difference of being a warrior and being irresponsible when it comes to your own safety/health. Wright was on the borderline of both.
I’m not gonna come down on just Wright, because everyone else he mentioned, alex was right on the money. These guys seem to have short attention spans and need a swift kick in the ass verbally. You know it & I know it.
Collins has had to refocus the players a few times so far this year. That’s pretty much what he was brought in here to do. Change the tolerance level for bad play. Most of these players had Jerry manage them the last couple of years and they always took the easy way out. The injury excuse, the waiting on guys to get back, poor play being tolerated because of no other options, Perez taking up a roster spot, Castillo, Bay. Mark my words, Collins will be giving Bay multiple days off come July 15 if he hasn’t shown anything and he’ll be hitting him 7th when Ike and David get back. The last few years have been one’s of meek acceptance of whatever came their way and their looking to slide back into that easy groove. Collins won’t let them. He’s making them grow a backbone. That is job #1 for the new Met Manager and so far Collins has done a great job at that part of it.
Was that a clutch HR by Beltran in the 3rd? Down 7-0 cutting it down by 3 runs with one swing, I say hell yeah! Wouldn’t be remembered if we had lost, just gotten filed under meaningless but I say that got us back in the game and early enough where it was realistic that we could have a chance.
The player can not pick when the opportunity presents itself, nor can the player come through in every clutch situation but to me that HR was a clutch shot. Opportunity to carve off a big hunk of the defecit and Beltran goes and does exactly that. Clutch.
I think some credit goes to both Terry Collins and the players. It’s not a zero-sum game. It’s a win-win effort by the entire Mets organization.
John, totally wrong. A manager’s job is to motivate his players and keep them focused, something that the past two managers failed to do many, many times. Of course Collins can’t yell, scream, rant rave and carry on after every loss, but he saw something a bunch of us saw, a team the rolled over and played dead after something “bad” happened. He called his players out on a got results.
You’re kidding me right? So none of the players took the field with Collin’s words still fresh in their heads? You think they came back from a 7-0 deficit without no help from Collin’s tirade telling them to shape up or ship out? Sorry, but I dont buy that for a second.
If they really did have Collins’ rant in their heads, would there have been a 7-0 deficit?
Sure because we all know that Pelfrey is not good under pressure!
And that rant put a lot of pressure on that team in order to avoid “CHANGES”
Pelfrey is all peaks and valleys. Always has been. Yesterday was just one of the valleys.
Pelfrey is mentally unstable. He does NOT have the make-up to be an ACE, or to pitch in big games. The Mets should trade him to a small market team like Kansas City, or Oakland.
Do you know what “mentally unstable” actually means? Has he shown any violent tendencies? Towards himself or others? Yes, he saw a therapist, but so do a lot of people, including successful MLB players.
The chewing thing is actually due to nerve damage from being hit in the face by a line drive in college.
All the reports about his personal life reveal a happy family man and a good guy in the club house.
The reality is he is a streaky pitcher who is above average.
Well I only half agree…Collins rant did have a positive affect on the team, but it also put pressure on Pelfrey being the next starter to pitch after it and we all know what happens to Pelfrey when he is under intense pressure…He gets crushed more often than not!
The problems on this team are not ability related. We know David Wright can hit, We know Jason Bay can hit and we know Pelfrey can pitch lights out when his head is screwed on straight!
The problem is a Mental issue, an issue of thinking proccess and focus!
David Wright has the fences in his head. They got into his head in 2009!
Jason Bay has the same issue, When Bay got here all the talk was about how the fences hurt David’s HR numbers. Including his conversations with Wright.
As a result both spent most of their time swinging harder for those “fences in thier head” instead of focusing on hitting the ball hard. Wright eventually got his HR numbers but at the expense of BA and incresed Ks. Bay got hurt before he could do the same.
Pelfrey has all the stuff to be an Ace. His consistency issues are all Mental as well. Give him a good early lead and he can loom like a Cy Young Pitcher, make him pitch more than 3 or 4 innings from behind or with a mere 1 run lead and that explosive bad inning will rear it’s ugly head.
The truly horrible games we have seen have also been due to lack of focus (which is a thinking proccess!) Most errors are made because the player was either out of position, not situationally aware or had such a lack of confidence in their own ability that they would rush a play that did not need to be rushed resulting in a error. Even the aggressive base running mistakes mainly stem from the idea (Thought), I need to get one more base because we haven’t been scoring. We forgive those a little quicker but in the end they hurt us almost as much as a botched grounder does!
If we look at this team and look for needs there aren’t really that many if Money and contracts were not involved. Bletran is playing well, Pagan now has re found his FOCUS, Bay should be hitting but isn’t for the reasons I stated above, Davis is hurt but he’s fine, Murphy and Turner have both showed they can be MLB players with adequate Bat and glove. Reyes is having the best season of his life and Wright has broken his back by over stressing it, trying to be barry Bonds without using Roids. Thole as well had issue of focus, He was so focused on his hitting that it cost him focus on his fielding and then everything turned to crap. He seems to be coming around and out of that a bit. Paulino has not had such issues yet but he really just got here so Time will tell. Both have been adequate and enough if all the other pieces performed to their ability to win games.
So other than Pitching what this team REALLY needs is a Psychiatrist! Hypnotize Wright,and Bay and implant the thought that the Fences are only 250 feet away. Thier problems will be solved.
Put Pelfrey under and tell him he has won 4 Cy Young awards. He might actually win one if he had the confidence in himself and just pitched worry free.
Terry has added enthusiasm and aggressivness that we did not have before. He has gotten into their hearts and should be applauded for it but now he has to get into their heads!
He changed the attitude but not the mindset of his main battery of stars. Reyes and Beltran didn’t need that because they have a contract to keep them focused. Wright, Bay and Pelfrey do not have that going for them yet.
When this team loses it is usually due to playing tight which is a manifestation of bad thinking and bad focus.
If the focus were changed the stats would follow!
So no Rants like terry’s are not really helping long term. It may have had an impact yesterday in both the comeback and in Pelfrey feeling over pressured and giving up the goose. This team lacks the confidence and saying changes are going to be made will only make that situation worse.
This team needs to stop trying to be someone they are not capable of being and stay within themselves which should be enough to win a lot of games. In order to get them to do that they need to be confident that what they are is enough to help the team win games.
No need to hit a HR when a double will do. No need to fool a batter when a fastball up and in will do.
When you try to do what you are not capable of doing you will fail to do what you ARE capable of! If you stay within yourself you will do what you are capable of AND at times do things you didn’t know you can do!
The problem on this team is not skill and talent.
All of their problems are issues of the head and as soon as terry and company realize this the quicker the problem will be solved…Without a single change to the roster!
I think Collins’ rant, if followed up by clear headed and decisive action, will help over the long run.
But yesterday, it didn’t mean much. There was that little detail of a 7-0 deficit in the first place. It’s not like there was a bad call in a close game and they dug in and fought it out. They fell behind early because they played crappy against a lousy team and then blew up against said lousy team.