“man looks into the Abyss, and there’s nothing’ staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character, and that’s what keeps him out of the Abyss…
Lou Mannheim – “Wall Street”
We’re all getting pretty sick and tired of all the one liners on Twitter about the Mets win-loss results post all-star game. No additional time needs to be spent here, but you know there will be plenty.
Baseball, like all sporting events, seems so much easier when you win. Everybody looks like a genius, especially the guy that filled out the lineup card.
Terry Collins’ job seemed quite easy during the first half of the season. Ownership gave him far less talent than was needed to compete for a playoff spot and, when the team was actually competing for the pennant, everyone though he was a genius.
But, like most things in life that are limited in talent, the air came out of the balloon during the all-start break and TC could never get the air back in it.
Collins got this job because of the excellent job he did running the extended camps during the off-seasons. The Mets field management under Omar Minaya did not offer the players a respectable approach or a calming effect. Collins did both and, being a company man, was perfect for a team stuck in a public financial scandal that just couldn’t get off the sports pages.
Blogging has created too many Mets writers and there are only so many subjects to pick from, so when a team goes out and begins to play baseball that projects out at a 40-120 clip, pens start to get dipped more often into poison ink.
It was only a matter of time for stories to be written questioning whether the Mets should consider a change at the managerial level. I wrote one myself. All this was fueled with the drama going down in Boston, Bobby V, and the Red Sox, and the eventual solution of shipping out the bad blood to the left coast. A solution like this couldn’t work for the Mets. They have only four top players, one of which is injured, old, and contract laden (Johan Santana) and another that seems to have forgotten how to play the game (Jason Bay).
What Collins needs to do is resist the urge to look over his shoulder. There’s no one in the organization that would be ready to take over this team under its current ownership restrictions. Volatile Wally Backman wouldn’t last a New York minute with the Wilpons, though the fans in the cheap seats would find him comic relief. Tim Teufel approaches the game the same as Collins and is a former New York Mets star, but this is a troubled team with a tarnished owner that thinks $100million dollars is the proper amount of money to spend of a New York City professional baseball team. Snooki might work here now that she’s had her baby.
No, what TC has to do is not panic, both on and off the field. Avoid the temptation of overworking kids like RP Josh Edgin (though I am told he eats up this kind of work). Play guys like Lucas Duda, who look to be part of the future of this team, rather than Andres Torres, that don’t. We’re going to see some players called up in September that will give some key players some well needed time off. Zach Lutz at 3B particularly comes to mind and no one deserves some mental time off more than David Wright.
But the most important thing Terry Collins needs to realize that this team was never as good as it looked earlier this year and it sure isn’t as bad as they played in August. Help is on the way, but it’s going to take some time. Zack Wheeler, Jeurys Famila, and Jenrry Mejia will join the Mets pitching staff next year in some capacity, at some point of the season. Cory Vaughn, Aderlin Rodriguez, and Wilmer Flores will continue to hit for power and move up levels. And Sandy Alderson will hopefully pull at least one outfield rabbit out of his free agent hat in the off-season. You add Ike Davis, Ruben Tejada, Jon Niese, and Matt Harvey to this and you’re off to a good start.
What about TC? Well, the first thing is he deserves some time away from the beat reporters. Frankly, he has to step back and leave the David Wright contract situation to Alderson. He’ll have 25 players next season on his roster. Two will be Wright and RA Dickey.
He needs to get away from the game. Maybe a trip to the Himalayas. Pour himself a half and half, Arnold Palmer style, and sit back and dream about Michael Bourn, Brian McCann, Robinson Cano, and Joe Blanton.
He’s safe. For now.
Mack,
I agree with most of what you say, but it underscores my frustration with TC. At this point I’d just as soon see him play Hairston every day to see how he fares against right handed pitching rather than watch Torres flail away against pitchers from both sides. I’d even try Baxter in CF…at this point, what do you have to lose?
Reese
Hey Reese:
Welcome to my new world.
I have no problem with either Baxter or Hairston. I’m just very selective about who I want to give the opportunity to run into walls for the rest of the season.
Baxter will be back, but the Mets will have to spend in the $2-3mil range for Hairston. Some writers have been critical about the fact that Sandy didn’t try and move him earlier, but remember, this team was in a pennant race up until the break. Alderson had to respect that.
I agree with Reese. It might be worthwhile to see what Baxter can do in Center. He seems to be a productive batter… right?
Yeah, frankly, I simply forgot about Mike.
I may be wrong about this, but he’s not ARB1 until 2014.
HI Mack,
I liked your story, and as with others find plenty to agree on. TC is doing all he can with what he has. I have mixed feelings about him only now because he seems to have fallen off the deep end in micromanaging every batter. I think he has gotten so used to the notion that he may get a micro-edge on the situation by changing things that he is now nearly a 10th player. This has reached a staggering end point with managing the pen and making righty-lefty match-ups when it simply is not necessary. Consequently, we burn through the pen even when an individual RP is mowing people down. But wait! We can manage a “better” match up if Rauch comes in to face 1 guy? I think its become far too excessive. No different with batting. Why bring in Jason Bay to PH just to get the lefty-righty match…even though he cant hit the ball no matter who is pitching?
Anyway, TC has been through the front lines of the battle. In viewing the Mets through the lens of a whole season, I dont think Im in favor of him going. However, I think his junior commanders have all failed in their tasks. I would clean house almost to a man: Hudgens-out (if our lefty batters cannot hit lefty pitching next year, Im gonna scream…wait, I already am…), Warthen-out (for the obvious endless failures), Geren-out (I dont see him getting the best out of the players or his boss), Goodwin-out (endless baserunning mistakes; no hustle). Of the high visibility coaches, Id keep only Tuff. Despite all that has happened since the ASG, what troubles me most is that we see near criminal behavior in baseball fundeys, and that is a coaching matter. I can accept losing with a bad club that faced lots of injuries, but playing careless baseball is something I find hard to stand up for.
Chris F:
Thanks for the comments.
You’re just about spot on. You have no idea what it’s like to be under the NYC sports magna-glass. Try to imagine what it was like for him during the first 20 games after the ASG. I imagine even his wife put a mike in front of his lips.
Bringing in Jason Bay to PH – see, even you are falling into the trap. You simply can do nothing right under these circumstances.
Regarding the coaches, I’m not sure you know my history, but I have some decent ‘connections’ with this team. Forget the coaches right now. You have to first worry about who will be the GM.
(btw… one thing about Tuff… you will NEVER see him send someone home unless there’s a 90% chance he will score…)
HI Mack,
I have gathered that you are close to the Mets, and I did not mean to use my comment to solicit or incite further “coach beating.” My apologies if my post came across that way. I guess I see TC being a both a participant and scapegoat, but mostly scapegoat, on things that as field boss do reflect on him, but that may not result from his direct action. I think the junior coaching staff must be accountable too, so calling for TC’s head alone is not the right action, or the action that would solve any of the Mets ailments. I accept that being a skipper in NY carries with it a lot of unending questions, and even if the Mets won 110 games there would be those asking why didnt you win 112? I am worried about the GM position to be sure, but as was written elsewhere at M360, we need to ask whether any combination of baseball operations architecture can work under the present ownership. Between the lines, our team, the only team I have ever care about for decades, can and should improve with improved coaching. That wont get us into October, but we had every hope to make .500 and come away with a winning season.
Thanks for your thoughtful contributions. Always a must read!
Chris
One last thing about last night, Tuff, Ike, and the sign. I know Ike blasted through the stop sign, but the big camera angle of the play was interesting to me. Ike had a great jump and obviously making third was not in question. By about half way to 3B Tuff was giving Ike the green light and I couldnt help but wonder if Ike took that early sign, got tunnel vision given the game status, and never saw another thing until he slid at home. He came around 3B as if Tuff wasnt even there!
I think hes done great at coaching 3B and working with the infield this year, especially with Murphs play at 2B and getting Wright’s throwing back in line.
The advantage Tuff has is he was the manager of most of the kids in Savannah, St. Lucie, the B-Mets, and Buffalo. They all respect him as a manager, not just a coach.
One more thing. Tim Teufel is a very hard man to like at first… and an even harder man to get to know. He’s quite the task master as a minor league manager and approaches his job as, well, a job.
The press in Savannah had a very hard time with him both when the uniform was on and in social settings. I remember a particular night at Coach’s Corner Sports bar when the Savannah Morning News veteran sports reporter ran into Tim, who was eating with his wife and two daughters. Tuff wanted nothing to do with participating in any social conversation at all with him
I spent EVERY home game that year in the clubouse prior to the games. I had one interview early on in the season and the rest of the time I don’t think he even nodded at me once. Late in the season, while driving up to the park with his family, he yelled out of the driver’s window ‘hey Mack” which I took as a demonstration for his wife.
But, on the day after the season ended, he invited me in his office, asked me to sit down and, as he put it, “shoot the shit” and we talked off the record for over an hour about each player that played that year.
I saw him two years later in the clubhouse in spring trainng. He smiled at me, didn’t even take the time to walk to say hello (uniform was back on), and, turned and walked away.
Tim is all business and he and the Adam Rubin’s of the would make for quite the scene.
Mack, I love reading about these “moments” or ” experiences” you’ve had over the years with these people, who to us, are just names and faces that we’ll never get to know what they’re really like. It’s the best, most interesting stuff. I had a totally different impression of Tuff, from the outside looking in anyways.
Hey Mack, nice read. At this point, anyone who questions the mets manager doesn’t really have any understanding of what the Mets real problems are.
For one, they’re not loosing games because of Collins…it’s the 25 men on the roster losing them. 25 ball players who everyone picked preseason to be as bad as they are playing now anyway. Honestly, I thought they’d be watchable and for a moment, they were. But in an instant, all the good will and hope they accrued during the first half, came crumbling down. Baseball is a game of averages, so I guess we’re watching things even out.
My point, is that everyone knew this team was bad. Nobody picked them to win. But then Santana came back healthy and was pitching wonderfully. Dickey became a Cy Young contender and David was flirting with a .400 batting average. Suddenly, the Mets were winning and alot of people allowed themselves to hope. To believe they might actually make the playoffs. Heck, this wasn’t just a good April. They competed excellently the entire first half with a horrible Ike Davis, a crappy or hurt Jason Bay, and a brutal bullpen.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last, as we all know. But because they did have such a good first three months, it gave people the opportunity to call Collins out for a calapse. This is a team who everyone expected to be bad. If they stumbled through the whole season, nobody would think twice about the job Collins did because it was expected with the players they put on the field. Now, because they showed some heart until July, Collins gets his job security called into question as if it was all his fault. It just doesn’t make any sense.
Whereas I agree that Collins needs to start managing for the future by playing the younger guys and benching a player like Torres, I certainly don’t think this man should have the job he’s done questioned. If this team played with half the fire that he uses to just fill out the lineup card, they’d be ten games over .500.
Let’s face it, this team needs another forty million invested into their payroll…not a new manager.
Charles, we’re spending time talking about Mike Baxter when we should be talking about Adrian Gonzalez, or Michael Bourn.
Exactly
Chris F, again great insights. I can’t blame TC either and agree with your observations on the coaches. Alderson perplexes me but I can give him more leeway because he is entitled to his plan and two years is not enough time to incorporate it. I just get frustrated that there have been some available upgrades that should have been made at the cost of some low level prospects and money. It is obvious the money is not there which ultimately points to the Wilpon’s as the problem. Mack, are you saying that Sandy may not stick around? Is he just an overseer for Selig?
Metsense –
I’m going to do a seperate column on my observations of Alderson’s disatisfaction with the current situation, both with the Commissioner’s office and the Mets ownership.
I broke the story of the Mets 3-headed VP monster. I had two of the names (Sandy and DePo) correct, but my source gave me the wrong 3rd name. I was taken over the coals on Twitter and by the likes of Cerrone, Silva, and Rubin.
Sandy agreed to this job for two reasons.
1. he was promised he would be given the funds to build a winner
2. the job would lead to the Commissioner’s office once said Commissioner stepped down.
Neither has happened.
Sandy Alderson is a real baseball person and is not going to sit around much longer representing, IMO, this vaudiville act called the New York Mets.
But that’s another column…
That is terrifying because as a real baseball guy, this must eat at Sandy to no end. The commish is obviously going nowhere, and this team is is gonna be a millstone he drags around for eternity. The look on his face when they introduce “Commisioner Torre” (or insert the appropriate name) I’m sure will be one for the ages.
It appears we will have some very evocative reading to look forward to!
Riffing on your Wall Street quote to open the piece — if only Jeff Wilpon would say to Fred, “I’m going to jail dad and you know it.”
It’s all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.
Besides the wind sprints in the outfield in front of the Citi Field audience:
Can you imagine the string of obscenities that would flow from Tort’s mouth if he was told to aim for third place? 🙂
While i cant quantify the numbers of games the Mets could have won extra if TC didn’t overthink his bullpen usage, even the most casual fans can’t not agree that he has been micromanaging too much. This, by far, is the most pressing issue that needs to be addressed with Collins.
Also, i don’t think the Mets overachieved at all during the first half, in fact, i think they UNDERACHIEVED. If you think about it, they had so many things go wrong(THE BULLPEN), but i won’t spend the time naming them all out to you (THE BULLPEN). Just spend some time thinking about it. (THE BULLPEN)