Collins Says Duda's A Keeper, Wants His Players Committed To Drawing Walks

Terry Collins was a guest on WFAN yesterday with Mike Francesa and told him that he believes he has some unfinished business as manager of the Mets. They discussed a variety of topics which you can read about on MetsBlog or listen to on WFAN. It was mostly the same stuff we’ve all heard before, but two things that really stuck out for me were the following:

Lucas Duda is a Keeper

There seems to be a huge push for promoting Duda since he was recalled from the minors. Duda will finish the season with a batting average somewhere around the high .230’s. His slugging percentage is 100 points lower than last year and he’ll be 27 in February. He has no defensive position he excels at and has struck out 120 times in 398 at-bats. A keeper? I wish Terry Collins would call Ike Davis a keeper. Calling Lucas Duda a keeper because he drew a bunch of walks maybe? I’ll let you figure that out, but there are not many managers I know that would call anyone with a (negative) -1.5 WAR a keeper. We are getting setup for something here, and as I mentioned last week, I think Ike Davis’ days are numbered and you are looking at your 2013 first baseman. Collins is convinced that Duda is a 30-40 home run guy. Not sure if it’s just overblown hype or a sign that Duda will be back and in a prominent role as Alderson attested twice in the past two weeks. They both gloat over Duda with alarming frequency, but when Ike’s name comes up it sounds more like “we like Ike, but nobody is untouchable”.

Philosophy Of Drawing More Walks

His comments regarding the front office driven philosophy of taking more pitches and drawing more walk seemed out of place. It was almost like he dropped a gauntlet to the players and issued a warning to them. He said he wants players that are committed to this philosophy and who will remain committed from the beginning of the season to the very end. I dont want to make a huge issue out of this, but only four teams had more walks than the Mets this season and last season the Mets led the National League in walks. It’s just very strange, and even though it’s obvious the team has embraced this passive approach, it hasn’t had a positive impact in the wins column these last two seasons. In fact we’ve lost increasingly more games the last two seasons under this philosophy. What this team needs is better “hitters” and better “sluggers”. That’s what Alderson needs to go out and get this offseason if he wants to make an impact in the standings and where it counts the most. Anyway…