Hi everyone…
I was going to transcribe what Terry Collins had to say to reporters during Media Day at Kauffman Stadium, and about a third of the way through I thought, “There’s nothing new here. Nothing interesting at all. Nothing he hasn’t said a dozen times in the last five days.”
Frustrated, I decided to hear what Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost had to say, and I was glad I did. I felt compelled to share what Yost said instead of Collins with you. Let me tell you about these Kansas City beat writers, they asked some damn good probing questions about the Mets. This was the kind of stuff they should have been asking Collins.
Please enjoy…
How is this club different from last year?
“You know, they have a lot of confidence. They’ve got a lot of determination. They’ve had determination from day one of Spring Training. I think this time last year we were really excited to be here. I don’t think we really expected to be here, but we were excited to be here.”
“This year we expected to be here. This group of guys has gone out and accomplished everything they’ve set their mind to this year. And they wanted to win the Division, they did that; they wanted to win home-field advantage, they did that; they wanted to get back to the World Series, they’ve done that.”
Mets have a lot of left-handed power will we see more Franklin Morales and Danny Duffy playing bigger roles in World Series?
“Yeah, you could. The teams that we played against, Houston and Toronto weren’t really left-handed matchup type of teams for us. But we do have more matchup possibilities here. Morales and Danny definitely could play a bigger role in this series.”
What is it about this team’s approach that’s so successful against hard-throwing pitchers?
“They’ve got that knack of putting the ball in play. They don’t strike out. They don’t strike out a lot. They’ve got short, simple approaches. We play in a big park, which is not conducive to power. We don’t swing for the fences. We have power, we can hit homers, but for the most part we just try to stay short and quick and drive the gaps, and our guys do a good job with that.”
What does Ben Zobrist bring to the team?
“He brings a lot of different aspects of his game. He plays a great second base for us. He’s a very fundamental player, both defensively and offensively. He’s a table setter, plus a run producer from both sides of the plate offensively. He sets up the top of that order, especially Escobar had a great LCS, ended up winning the MVP trophy. You have those two guys at the top of the order, just sets the table for our guys in the middle of the order.”
“And then you drop down to the bottom of the order, we’ve got balance down there with Salvador Perez, Alex Gordon, and Alex Rios, who has had a really, really good Postseason. Benny Zobrist just brings stability to that lineup and it allows that lineup to be deep, everywhere from 1 to 9.”
After the NLCS Joe Maddon dropped a Barry Bonds comparison on Daniel Murphy.
“He’s been very, very hot. We talked about in our advance meeting today how he stands on top of the plate like Barry Bonds did. So when you’re on that kind of run like he is, he’s very hot. He’s seeing the ball well. You better execute pitches, and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
Wade Davis went from average starter to becoming a dominant MLB closer…
“He’s been great. Him and Luke Hochevar have similar paths; they were both starters, both of them weren’t having tremendous success as a starter. And we had heard that Wade had done really, really well out of the pen when he was in Tampa. With both of those guys, let’s put them in the pen and see what they’ve got.”
“Wade went from throwing 92, 93 to 97, 98 as a reliever because he doesn’t have to pace himself, he just comes in and gives it all he has for an inning.”
“The thing about both Hoch and Wade is the intangible confidence that they have in their abilities. They never panic. They never lose their composure on the mound and both can execute pitches. They both can command the baseball with more than one pitch.”
“Both of those kids, especially Wade, has that closer mentality. We talked about Holly’s closing mentality. Nothing affected him. His heart rate never got up, no matter what the situation was. He just continued to focus on executing pitches and that’s what Wade does so well.”
You haven’t seen the Mets in a while. What do they bring to you?
“We don’t worry about that. They’ve got great advance scouts that have given us a ton of information. The videos that we can look at helps us some. You still have to go out and — I mean, it’s hard to find a comparison to a DeGrom or a Syndergaard or even a Matz or a Harvey. Those guys are exceptional pitchers. You’ve got to go out and see them.”
“For the most part they attack the zone, which, you know, we attack the zone offensively. We understand what they’re about defensively. They’re a very solid defensive unit. We know all about their pen. So not having seen them doesn’t bother us. We feel like we’re prepared and ready to go.”
What about David Wright?
“Yeah, we’ve watched hours and hours of video on all those guys. He’s a tremendous player, he always has been. He’s an MVP caliber type guy when he’s healthy. He looks completely healthy now. He’s a veteran guy and he’s a very, very nice player.”
