Last month at Citi Field, MMO was on hand as the Mets invited local school children who got to meet Terry Collins, Jose Reyes, Mike Pelfrey, Josh Thole, Dillon Gee and Bobby Parnell, as part of the Citi Field Kids program.
Afterward, Collins answered questions for bloggers and reporters alike and had the following to say about David Wright:
Do you think David stressed a bit, having had to carry the team a lot over the last couple of years?
Well, I think that is what he was asked to do. And he’s the kind of player who just accepts it. He says, ‘Tell me what you want, and I’ll go do the best I can to do it.’ I assume if you told David Wright that we need more home runs out of you, he’s gonna swing for the fences.
Is 150 strike outs too much for Wright?
Not if you’re gonna be a run producer. I mean, we ask him to produce runs. So, he had to be aggressive at the plate. I’ve told him, I just want him to be David Wright. I want him to be a good hitter. I know one thing, with our new hitting coach, who I think is gonna do a great job, I think he’ll be a little more selective at the plate, because of our philosophy, and so he’ll get more pitches to hit and I think he’ll do damage with those pitches.
Can having a healthy Carlos Beltran and Jason Bay help to improve Wright’s production?
They can’t pitch around him (laughing). I don’t care what you say, when David Wright walks to home plate there are certain pitchers who don’t want to pitch to him. So, if you want to, these other two guys are gonna be dangerous too. I told David, there are gonna be times when pitchers can’t get Beltran out, they’re gonna have to get David out, they’ll have to come after him and he’ll get much better pitches to hit and I think that’s gonna help him.
