One of the things you have to love about baseball, and it’s something I’ve grown to appreciate as I’ve gotten older, is how often the game will reverse what was essentially a bad decision to begin with.
While an imperfect game at its heart, baseball has this beautiful course-correcting nature about it, and given enough time even the worst decisions eventually eradicate themselves.
Such is the case with Terry Collins and his obstinate view that Eric Young Jr. was the team’s optimal everyday leadoff hitter. His reasoning was as basic as this, “He’s done it.”
Done what you might ask? You’ll have to consult directly with Terry for an accurate answer, but obviously whatever EY has done it was enough to take any other leadoff contenders out of the equation – not that our options were ever that grand to begin with.
With the impending arrival of Chris Young off the disabled list on Friday, fate will most likely hand Eric Young a utility spot on the bench this weekend.
Clearly, it’s what his role should have been all along, but hey, it’s not like he didn’t get an opportunity to try and change some minds about him. However, he turned out to be the kind of player I always said he was – a speedy bench option who could back up the outfield and second base.
And so it goes.
Eric’s tenure as the Mets leadoff man currently has him batting .186 with a .280 on-base and a team leading 17 strikeouts.
But fear not, we’re about to upgrade… Once Chris Young is activated – he of the 5-for-5 Sunday night with two home runs, a double and five RBIs.
Shockingly, if not for Chris Young’s strained quad, we may have never known what Juan Lagares had in store for us this season.
You see the plan was for Lagares to begin the season on the bench. But alas, the baseball gods would have none of that, and a late scratch on Opening Day made Lagares the center fielder to begin the season – and he’s been thriving there ever since.
The paradox of a Terry Collins decision can never escape it’s inevitable outcome – a forthcoming reversal.
In an earlier post I shared some numbers that currently have the Mets sitting with the worst offense in baseball. An embarrassingly shocking .610 OPS to be exact – and spare me the small sample size argument – nearly 500 at-bats produced that appalling result.
Hopefully some better production at the top of the order will have a positive trickle down effect on the rest of the batting order. It certainly can’t hurt.
I’m looking forward to seeing what an outfield of Curtis Granderson, Juan Lagares and Chris Young can do on an everyday basis. I have to admit I’m hopeful things will get better.
Speed only kills when you can get on base… Another lesson for Mr. Collins from the outer reaches of the Twilight Zone…
