25
2012
Regrets… I Have A Few…
An article by 
How many times have we seen this already this season… I’m talking about Terry Collins lamenting about what he could have done to prevent another bone-jarring moment in a Mets loss.
He has compiled enough material to complete his own personal volume of a Book of Lamentations.
Last night, was another typical Mets loss you can hang on the skipper of the Mets. Mike Vaccaro of the NY Post explains:
After his team had grinded and bloodied its way back from deficits of 4-0 and 5-1 all the way back to 5-5, Collins tried to squeeze an extra inning out of Miguel Batista. Robinson Cano was leading off the eighth. Two nights earlier, Cano had dented the Whitestone Bridge with a rocket blast off Batista. One night earlier, asked why he hadn’t used Byrdak to pitch to Raul Ibanez (who would tie the game with his own blast), he essentially said Byrdak’s job against the Yankees was to pitch to Cano.
Here came Cano. Tie game. Buzzing ballpark.
No Byrdak. All around Citi Field, the buzz was replaced by something else: by the sound of Mets fans among the sold-out crowd of 42,364 engaging in a community-wide first-guess, nobody waiting for hindsight to provide 20-20 clarity.
Seconds later, Cano struck again and as his blast soared into the night we felt the ice coarsing though our veins as we saw the inevitable worst-case scenario unfold before our unsurprised eyes.
“I should have brought Byrdak in,” Collins said after the game.
Too late for that, Terry.
The Mets lost 6-5 and their hard-fought five-run comeback went to waste.
“Should have brought him in,” he said a second time.
Yes, you should have.
You said that’s what Byrdak’s job would be during the Subway Series – to pitch to Cano. It was a good plan, but you blew it and it cost us the game. What were you saving him for? Another one of those moments that would never come?
Collins has done a fine job instilling confidence in this team and having them all believing in themselves. But when it comes to in-game strategy, Collins is his own worst enemy and he’s the first to admit it.
The problem is that he doesn’t seem to learn anything when he gets burned like this and he continues to make the same bad judgement calls again and again. I don’t mind having a manager who doesn’t do everything by the book and goes with his hunch occasionally, but you can’t keep betting against the odds and losing your pants like he has.
And what’s with his love affair with Miguel Batista?
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 28 | .600 | - |
| Nationals | 34 | 35 | .493 | 7.5 |
| Phillies | 34 | 37 | .479 | 8.5 |
| Mets | 25 | 40 | .385 | 14.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 47 | .319 | 19.5 |
Last updated: 06/18/2013
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Especially after saying Byrdak’s job against the Yankees was to pitch to Cano and knowing Cano already took Batista deep once and still he doesn’t go to him makes it even worse.
Should’ve, Could’ve and Would’ve… Captain’s hindsight 3 loyal’s friends….. SMH..
The man is not that good of a coach, i think by now we know that, he is a good motivator, does a good job with the young players etc, but we all know, or should know by now he’s not a good in game manager.. But again, with the crap he’s got in the bullpen i don’t blame him… Even byrdak is not automatic. Plus, Cano can hit ANYBODY, thing is, you gotta die with the best matchup out there, and last night, it was byrdak vs cano but instead he tried to “squeeze” an extra inning… Bang!! a blast to CF.
According to TC his reasoning for not bringing in Byrdak in that situation is he did the double switch, was trying to get 2 innings out of Batista and felt with his sinker he should keep the ball in the park. Didn’t want to burn through 3 BP arms in one inning, especially with a man short and no defined closer. He also readily admitted he should have went with Byrdak, which you pointed out.
I’m not making excuses, just pointing out what he said. That’s the BP he had to work with, which is not all his fault. But using Batista in any situation that isn’t mop up, low leverage is playing with fire. We’ve all seen it. And this wasn’t the first time he got burnt with that kind of decision. as we all saw Friday night.
Not the first time something like this happened. Chuck Dressen called on Ralph Branca to again pitch to Bobby Thompson after Bobby homered off of him in game one of the 1951 playoffs.
Like Bobby, maybe Girardi had someone stealing the signs and Robby knew what pitches to expect?
Just trying to help get you off the hook, Terry.
A really good column, Joe.
First, however, to answer your question: the Sunday NY Times had an interesting article on the Batista-Collins connection/history. Those who have read it, may have a bit more insight into why he leaned on Batista there.
Honestly, I am also a goat b/c I agreed and even applauded T.C.’s decision after the 1-2-3 seventh, thinking to myself (stupidly) that lightning would strike twice. It was a big gamble and we lost badly.
As the ESPN commentators mentioned, Batista made a good pitch selection, as that partic. pitch that Cano ripped to dead center was tailing away from him. Regrettably (sigh!), it didn’t tail enough, or tail away from Cano fast enough.
Yes, it sure is a decision and moment one wants to take back.
Depth or not, what Collins has to realize about Batista, and this is from experience, is that if you’re lucky enough to get a scoreless frame from Batista, consider yourself lucky. If you bring him back for another inning, you’ll pay dearly. Another thing, I wish Collins could’ve had one of his pitchers throw a nice fastball high and in to Swisher, just to take that stupid grin off his face.
Ok lets play it out….
He brings in Byrd, He gets Cano out and it’s tied…
Who does he bring in to face hin in the 10th inning since we did not seem to score a run in the next two innings either?
The problem isn’t the decision it is the CHOICES!
The MENU so to speak!
Unfortunatly all terry has a choice of comes from Column F as in FAILURE!
We should not have been a pitcher short in the pen, Ramirez is not the guy they should have brought up considering all the LHBs the yankees kill you with!
Byrdak should not be the only lefthander in the pen!
Stop making excuses for bad construct by blaming the General contractor for being forced to use substandard parts management bought for him to use!
You’re right about that Metsie, with our bullpen any other pitching change would have just delayed the inevitable – but at the time TC did have some options, even if none of them were delictable.
That’s what one gets when handed a menu from McDonald’s rather than the Acela Club.
Yes he had options…ALL of them bad!
Even against Byrdak, Cano has a .286 BA 2 Hits 1D and 2Ks
Only .013 points lower than his average BA So what really was Byrdak going to do to stop cano?
Not much!
And not for more than one AB!
As Hogwild said we can’t give up 5 runs or expect to beat a team who leads the league in HRs tied after the 8th!
And while Byrdak may have kept the game tied in the 8th you still would have had Rauch come up later to give up the HR anyway!
Maybe if Ike wasn’t sick we might have had a shot!
In the end the solution isn’t to make different decisions on who to put in there the solution is to give him better choices to make the decision with!
Easy move to second guess. But really, the Mets are going to lose probably 90% of the games they play when the starter surrenders 5 runs. We love the Mets for their never say die attitude and 2 out hitting. But…
They could use a power bat and relief pitching in the worst way.
Metsie, I like your menu analogy. What do you choose to eat when every option = food poisoning! You stay with the appetizer that has yet to cause you heartburn TODAY. haha
The real bullpen answer is to audition minor league guys, scrap heap dudes like Old Man Moyer, or somehow pulling off a trade.
me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCApuPQStoM
Among the myriad issues plaguing the 2012 NY Met, here’s what I don’t get:
- How is it that we’ve allowed our team to be so laden with lefty hitter & so vulnerable to lefty pitchers, when we simultaneously do not have enough lefty pitchers in our bullpen to address other team’s lefty hitters?
Seriously, it’s a structural defect at the major league level that anyone with any experience at formulating a roster should know to avoid, and has probably cost us somewhere between 3-5 games.
Nice that they brought up Hampson, but does it take an injury to our closer and another game-changing blast by a lefty batter to add a 2nd lefty that was needed the first week of the season?
Good points.I’ll go for the simple answer.Our GM is inept and should be on a golf course!!
How is it that we’ve allowed our team to be so laden with lefty hitter & so vulnerable to lefty pitchers, when we simultaneously do not have enough lefty pitchers in our bullpen to address other team’s lefty hitters?
You won the best comment of the day award. If there was such an award I’d certainly give it to you.
And I BLAME ALDERSON for this, NOT COLLINS.
Better question to ask is knowing what we have (and have had as late as January)
Why was the focus on finding a left handed batter to come off the bench and play outfield?
Remember when we were mentioned as suitors for Ankiel?
At the time our starting lineup was:
LHB
Duda
Davis
Murphy
Thole
RHB
Wright
Tejada
Bay
Torres being the switch (light) hitting leadoff man.
They saw that lineup and concluded they needed a LH Bat to come off the bench not a RH bat to hit for guys like Bay and Torres?
And I BLAME ALDERSON for this, NOT COLLINS”
I am glad people are starting to see this guy as the fraud he is…. He’s imo the worst GM i’ve seen run this franchise…
I guess you’re not old enough to remember the likes of Joe McDonald,George Weiss or Bob Scheffing. Far, FAR worse than Alderson. If you think for one second he’s even worse than Harazin, you’re insane.
Hi Hitman,
George Weiss deserves a pass since the national league gave him and his Houston counterpart not much a choice of players to select in 1962 (although Houston had more success going for youth that season and did win 26 games more than we did). But Weiss also hired the people that built the minor league system which got us the likes of Seaver, Koozman, Harrelson, Jones, Gentry, Ryan (until Sheffing traded him), etc. that gave us the 1969 miracle and a pitching staff that was the envy of the majors for many a season to follow.
As I also asked, does Sandy deserve a pass considering he did not pursue the younger and more credible relievers that were available for less money than spent on Francisco and Rauch? Why did the small market Kansas City Royals know that we didn’t?
“Seriously, it’s a structural defect at the major league level that anyone with any experience at formulating a roster should know to avoid, and has probably cost us somewhere between 3-5 games.”
Hi Tommy,
You hit the hammer on the nail.
Unless ownership is so scrapped for capital that it won’t allow spending more on player personnel, the responsibility of the club not obtaining better players to compliment the fine young core it currently has is the result of the front office, And the list of those new acquistions who haven’t worked out is quite extensive indeed.
Except for Byrdak and Young, those who are pitching well were in the organization before our new front office took over. Other than Parnell, our poor bullpen has been the product of the new front office in terms of both, players obtained and players released (i.e, Takahashi and Isringhausen). Except for Young, all of our great starting pitching has not been of that product.
Hairston and Cedeno have been good additions to the bench but we can see that Scott is not an everyday player as his average has dropped 29 points in his past 16 games and he’s hitting .196 during the time he’s played regularly. Same with our center fielder – he should also be on the bench and not a regular.
It does not matter if these are the results of traditional thinking, computer analysis or a combination of both. It also doesn’t matter if the decisions were independent of financial restriction, money ball or something in-between. What matters is that these were the players that were selected. While we are all happy with the way our farm system appears, the Mets are not in the situation of “rebuilding”/
All we asking is for support from the front office and that is something that has been lacking. Perez, Castillo, Krod, Beltran and Reyes are all gone. Are we still that broke that this is all we can do?
Joey D. The Mets just had their 3 best crowds of the season.Old man Wilponzi and Fredo (Jeff Wilponzi) probably don’t even care we lost two out of three.They are too busy counting the gate receipts.Probably wish they could play the Yanks a few more series every year.In the meantime if we miss the wild card by a game or two, these stinking Yankee losses will be the culprit
Why Gary,
You were listening to Mike Francesca as well!
Those I know who are Sandy supporters stress they agree with the idea not to tie up the roster with too many long-term contracts that both commits the team to certain players in terms of both money and position spots.
I agree with that, however, there is a difference with spending money and spending money wisely just as there is a difference with spending money poorly and not spending it at all. There has to be a middle ground.
As many have pointed out, a winning team will be bring out more fans, though I have differences of opinion as to how many that would produce – considering the costs associated with going to a game. But even if the Mets draw an average of just 3,000 more a game, that results (thinking in terms of a fan spending at least $100 in tickets and concessions plus maybe a third of them with parking) in $24 million more in revenue. Lets deduct from that 25% (random figure) to consider the extra unknown operating costs associated with acommodating these extra fans (cost to the club for each concession sold, extra security, visiting team’s share of ticket sales, etc) and that still leaves $18 million more to help the team better fill it’s weaker spots.
Now, I’m not a general manager so will not suggest which players to go after, however, we do know that $18 million could have be used to cover the combined annual salary Philly is paying to Jonathan Palelbon (RHP), , Kansas City for Jonathan Broxton and Jose Mijares (LHP)
BTW – of the approximately 50 free agent relievers (some good, some bad, some in between, of course) only three of them got more than Frank Francisco. Does that mean that Sandy didn’t have other choices less expensive to chose from? I mentioned two already with proven relievers in Kansas City, RHP Broxton (who already has 18 saves and is being paid $2 million less than Francisco (with a career 1.24 WHIP and 3.08 ERA) and LHP specialist Mijares, a relief specialist being paid $925K sporing a 1.09 WHIP, 1.84 ERA and with nine holds and just one blown save in 36 appearances (just over 29 total innings) and a career WHIP of 1.25 and 2.95 ERA Those two combined cost a total $4,925,000.
If we could have purchased relievers of their caliber for a combined $5 million, why did we go after older pitchers Rauch and Francisco if not them, then why not others?
This is what i mean, the mets as a whole when playing the yankees is hug shhhhh. They let them out play them. why i just don’t understand why. They the mets said they do have money, when they came out and said then they should have gotten better players. they the mets forgot that that the mets are in a big market city. not some low down nothing city, but the big apple, for once the wilpons and sandy just shut it and get this team to where it belongs, yes your hat goes off to terry where he’s gotten us this far so far. Why is carlos beltran having the year he is. cus oh yeah he got the money he wanted but we didn’t get the player we should’ve in that deal. I think it sucks that people use us just for money and don’t prove their worth. Like jason bay i don’t feel bad but ya know to me i would have him play in the minors so cry that you got to go. To me the amount of money these players want and just sit down and collect without proving you belong here well screw that. For the rerst of the season put up the numbers of a shut up. The wilpons and sandy need to grow up. The wilpons whave promise to much over the years without caring about us fans as long as we pay. The wilpons don’t want the best for the mets or our city as long as their pockets are taking care of. Right now we need bullpen help, we need a veteran catcher too, believe me. A left fielder to paltoon with scott. Like i sdaid i am a proud mets fan. i take my team to heart, but common we should have taken the whole series against the yankees. We need to play like men not like oh we are men look under the skirt, no way.