I thought this was pretty funny and worth sharing with you. Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post sheepishly sneaked the following into his Kirk Nieuwenhuis article.
“There is a small corollary to Nieuwenhuis’ big day, and there is probably a segment of Mets fans who will want to skip ahead five paragraphs and look for the end of the italics before you’re inclined to throw the newspaper across the room, throw your iPhone into the river or slam your laptop shut, depending on how you happen to be reading this.”
But here goes: Terry Collins is doing a hell of a job this year.
This would be the case even if he hadn’t played a hunch Sunday and stuffed his lineup with lefty bats against Arizona right-hander Rubby De La Rosa, which is the reason Michael Cuddyer was sitting and Nieuwenhuis was, mostly, trotting.
But the fact is the Mets are five games over .500 at the break, they are absolutely in the thick of both the division and the wild-card races, and they are where they are despite the fact that on more days than not, Collins is forced to do things — all due respect to the man of the hour — like hit Kirk Nieuwenhuis fifth in his batting order.
Is this a surprising thing to hear? It’s a surprising thing to type. I still would have stalked Joe Maddon in the offseason. But fair is fair, and the Mets have had plenty of opportunities to fall completely off the cliff since the 11-game winning streak early in the season. They have not. And they are playing as well now as they have since April. The manager is allowed to get credit for that, isn’t he?
Vaccaro is right, and Collins deserves a heck of a lot of credit for what he’s managed to accomplish with this ragtag offense and elite arsenal of pitching. I like what Collins had to say after the game on Sunday.
“We’ve still got 70 games to play,” Collins said. “At the break to be over .500, yeah, that’s a nice accomplishment. It’s certainly not the end-all. We’re a little frustrated we’re not more over .500.”
“Our pitchers have hung in there. They’ve pitched very well. We’ve gone through an offensive slump and yet we’re still right there. I attribute that to the fact that these guys come out every night and they don’t get down when things aren’t going good.”
“You know what? When we come out of the break, we’re going to be in the hunt. That’s all we can ask for.”
Despite all the wacky in-game decisions, the crazy things he says at his press conferences, his unorthodox lineup cards, and how he’s completely oblivious to his player’s injuries, Collins has overachieved with this group, most of whom were in the minor leagues to start the season.
In fact, if I were to grade his performance for the 2015 season, I’d give Collins much higher marks across the board than I would GM Sandy Alderson.
Let’s say a B+ for Collins and a C- for the Sand Man.
