So here we are enjoying a somewhat interesting, compelling, and exciting Winter Meetings… We’re all having fun reading and deciphering what seems to be a non-stop stream of Mets news, rumors, and quotes. Then along comes Terry Collins, who decides he’s flying to San Diego to hold a press conference about nothing, who completely douses our enthusiasm with a few well chosen preposterous mutterings. Apparently, Bobby Parnell is the closer no matter what, and he practically told Wilmer Flores to go home and get his shine box, while bracing the fan base for 500 more at-bats of Ruben Tejada who he believes is going to have a breakthrough season.
It’s so difficult for me to see Terry Collins ever leading a young and exciting Mets team to the heights we all know they could achieve. I believe so much in this team, but I lack the faith that Collins could ever lead this team to a championship season. And even though he’s never even sniffed an 80 win season, there he was again – just like last Winter – talking about October baseball.
The difference between this season and last is that there will undoubtedly be severe consequences for Terry Collins if this team underachieves like every other team he’s guided in his managerial career.
For his sake, he better hope the Mets get off to a blistering start in 2015. Unlike his first four seasons with the Mets, another bad April wont be shaken off as easily as before. There will be many calling for his head this time and I will lead the charge
Collins will have a month to play with his ill-constructed lineups, continue to bench younger and more productive players in favor of veterans in steep decline, his painful bullpen management, and all the baffling in-game decisions you’ll ever see. But once that calendar flips to May, he better hope for a Mets record that puts this team on pace for no less than 90 wins. That’s the goal. That’s the benchmark. That’s the expectation.
As a lame duck manager on a Rent-A-Wreck type salary, there’s nothing to keep Sandy Alderson from firing him and from chief executioner Jeff Wilpon to give the okay.
Yesterday, Collins admitted, “Well, I think we’ve got the pieces. It’s time to step up.” You’re damn right it is. You want to push Tejada and a yet to be tested Parnell over the promise of Flores, Familia, and Mejia, be my guest. It’s your neck not mine.
To me, Collins is the antithesis to managers like Gil Hodges, Davey Johnson and even Bobby Valentine. Those three embraced the youth movement that eventually vaulted the Mets into the World Series, but not Terry. Last season, Collins actually admitted that he believes playing younger players over veterans is a recipe for disaster.
Collins operates without any thought about player development and has an unnatural predisposition to playing older and unproductive veterans who he sees as the keys to winning.
We needed a new and refreshing message from a leader who can deliver that message as the Mets get set to usher in a brighter and better future. I don’t view Terry Collins as that leader.
I’ll be rooting hard for him and the Mets from day one because that’s what Mets fans are supposed to do. But the minute I sense more of the same old tired play and awful decisions, I’m going to demand some accountability and I hope Sandy does likewise.
And do yourself a favor Terry, avoid any open microphones like grim death. Cripes…
