“I don’t frankly think the last 12 games have a lot to do with evaluating Terry,” Alderson said before his team’s 151st game of the season. “I think we’ve played well to this point and through the first half of September, even the latter part of August. I think the team has responded pretty well.”
snip
“I think Terry’s done a fine job this season,” Alderson said. “I think we’ve improved in a lot of areas. We’ve seen growth in our young players. Particularly with our pitching, in the rotation and the bullpen, I think that’s been well-managed. We’re positioned well for 2015.”
Source: Mets.com
1. The last 12 games shouldn’t have a lot to do with evaluating Terry Collins. You should have made up your mind years ago that this wasn’t the guy to lead a young team forward. Young guys get called up to rot on the bench. The manager doesn’t trust young guys because former managers even older than he is told him not to. The last thing the 2015 Mets need is a senior citizen in the dugout.
2. The Mets were six games under .500 when these quotes were made and were worse than their run differential. If you think the team had played well, you must really think that the talent assembled stinks.
3. The most favorable stretch of “the latter part of August” has the Mets going either 2-1 or 4-3. Overall, the team went 12-17 in August. You can make a time frame that includes a few games in August that shows the Mets playing well because of how they did beating up on weak teams in early September. There’s nothing wrong with beating the teams that you’re supposed to beat. But let’s not pretend that the team’s good play extended longer than it did.
4. Imagine the growth you could see in young players if management made a conscious effort to play them. And just for the record — Why bring back senior citizen Bobby Abreu?
5. If you think the bullpen has been well-managed you haven’t been paying attention. It’s been poorly managed since the get-go, in no small part due to stocking the pen with has-beens and never-weres like Kyle Farnsworth, John Lannan, Scott Rice and Jose Valverde. Throw in the injured Bobby Parnell and five out of the seven relievers from the Opening Day roster had to be replaced. The bullpen performed well despite the manager (and GM) not because of it. Sensible bullpen construction and deployment would save a lot of angst and probably resulted in a few more wins, too. And I enjoyed the irony of seeing this quote while Collins was doing his matchup masturbation in the late innings Monday night. Spoiler alert – it didn’t work. Again.
6. Right now the team has no leadoff hitter, no cleanup hitter and giant question marks in LF and SS. Perhaps you’ll address those this offseason but right now it’s hard to say the team’s positioned well for 2015.
Alderson was hired to be the adult in the room and to make the difficult and necessary decisions. For the most part, he’s done that. Now if he would quit blowing smoke in our face about what a great job the manager has done, we’d all feel a lot better.
They think they are fooling us with all this happy talk. This team has serious problems, the worst of which are Fred and Jeff and everyone they have hired to run this Organization into the ground. Good job guys, you certainly have succeeded. Now sell and give someone who cares about baseball a chance!
What manager and team has Sandy been watching? It can’t be the mets because winning 70 plus games four years in a row is not improvement in my book! Terry Collins may be the worst manager in the history of the mets and there’s been some bad ones so thats saying a lot! He is not the man to go forward with a young team who’s young talent is starting to come into their own! Any other manager gets fired after four bad years in a row(hell he should have gotten fired after two) not given a fifth year to show what all the fans already know!!
I’m so disgusted by the whole thing.I now want TC AND Alderson gone.
Brian,
It might be interesting to run a readers’ poll asking them to prioritize who they wish to get rid of the most: the owner(s), the GM or the manager?
The only answer to that is the owners. Both Alderson and Collins have their supporters. But no one is happy about the owners.
from Metsblog:
Bud Selig does not have a problem with Mets ownership, he told reporters at Citi Field on Tuesday.
In response to a question asking him to explain the difference between Mets ownership and the group that previously owned the Dodgers, Selig said Mets ownership is in compliance with MLB’s financing rules.
“The Dodgers were out of compliance, the Mets are not,” Selig said. “From my perspective, the way Mets doing it, is correct. I’m not trying to be facetious.
“There’s a big difference, big difference,” he said.
” I think we improved in a lot of areas” except in the one that matters most, the won/lost record. The team has remained stagnant and will need to go 7-4 in order to match the 2010 win total that the Collins/Alderson regime replaced.
But Brian he has to say that. Who hired Collins? An admission of guilt would come
back squarely on his shoulders. the Mets are in a better position for 2015 in spite of their modus operandi. We’re here to win games! Oh, really? How many times must your approach fail before you decide to reconsider what may be an out-dated idea? But then again when was the last time Collins took the blame for anything? What was it he said? I have no control if the players fail? Please don’t give the pity me crap. I f you don;t like the rejects SA provides you then don’t play them just like you do when the kids get promoted to Queens. Oh! that’s right I forgot. You’re here to win games. Well Terry you haven’t done a very good job. You had to wait for SA to tell you to bench Tejada so to at least find out if Flores would be a viable candidate at SS for 2015. But I forgot you’re here to win games. That’s why you had Granderson bat lead off for 2 months with his abysmal OBP. How many games did it take for you to realize that was a mistake? Oh! I forgot you don’t make mistakes. So Met fans do not worry these same two arrogant s.o.b.s will be with us next season and rest assured they will find a way to screw up what little hope we have left in Our Mets. They are the perfect couple with each of them pointing their finger at the players. Not themselves.
Folks, I think we are reading too much into his BS. Alderson is here to give the illusion of winning games, while trying to save this franchise for the Wilpons. If he really wanted to win, he would have made a change years ago. Instead, he just wants a manager that he can control for as long as he is here. The dwindling attendance notwithstanding, this team is not making money and not looking to be successful. There must be something under the surface that they won’t let come out because they have to see what we are seeing; and that is Collins is a clown dressed in a manager’s uniform. It’s just that there must be an ulterior motive for this charade of an organization that claims it wants to win.
TexasGus the only reason Terry Collins is here is because he makes a helluva lot less then All the other managers. But he doesn’t care because he’s been out of baseball so long he appreciates the chance just to be a manager once again. Winning isn’t primary for the Wilpons. Maintaining control and reducing the payroll was and still is the mandate for Alderson. Why else would you see an additional 10 million dollar reduction from the previous years payroll? The only thing the Wilpons want is to break even. And as for their dwindling loyal Met fan base who continue to support the Wilpons by attending games in Citifield? What was it that P.T.Barnum said?
Do the math. 2 million fans. Average cost per seat 45 dollars? Equals= 90 million! Oh! Wow! That’s their projected payroll after the season is concluded after paying players benefits. See TexasGus that’s why the Mets can ill afford any extensive discounts on their premium seating and the Wilpons could care less how much their fans complain. It’s dollars and cents and they all get applied to the interest payments on their massive debts.
What is needed is a boycott to where the Mets are crippled financially and have to sell in order to stave off bankruptcy.and their creditors.
Maybe if attendance dropped by 500,000 fans the Wilpons would get the message loud and clear,
Im sure losing 500,000 more seats will hurt. But remember the owners are vampires and zombies, they dont die. The Mets are part of a portfolio that rakes in money, even if the Mets suck, and they can play the shell game to keep their interests in MLB. The only crack in the plaster is whether this lawsuit has wheels on it. Im so emotionally torn, because it is impossible hope that the allegations are true because of the damage to the claimant, but if they are false then the Wilpons come out looking rosy again. In any event, the Wilpons are protected in all directions. They used MLB coffers to prop themselves up, they renegotiate all loans til the end of time, they win lawsuits to develop real estate for gigantic personal gain…the Mets??? The Mets are like a jet ski or that extra-big-screen tv…just another object to own for the sake of owning.
We as fans can kill the Wilpon vampire by driving a financial stake through their Metless heart. Remember it takes more than one stab. It will be a cumulative effort. Eventually they are going to have to pay back their minority owners. Fred and Jeff are no better than the street savvy card hustlers who use to roam Times Square playing the shell game with foreign tourists
I agree with the last bit…but like I said, the Mets are part of a much larger portfolio. They can move all kinds of shadow money around, play the court system like a Strad, and it matters little to their total bottom line, even if the Mets bottom line is bad. THe question I have is: Is there any point where ownership of a major MLB team in a premier market is not enough of a trophy to prop up with revenue from other resources? They’re still flying in personal jets afterall…and those aint cheap.
The Wilpons can’t fly commercial. Can you imagine the commotion they would cause if they were surrounded for 2 hours on a flight by angry Met fans. I only know that in this life what comes around goes around. And what they did to Nelson Doubleday well…enough time spent on two shady characters for one day.
Pete, one more interesting issue: As owners of the Mets, the Wilpons have exclusive rights to build on the land where Shea Stadium was. No other individual or party can do that, according to NYC ordinance. So, keeping the Mets until they build their playground is vital. But, as Chris also points out, this lawsuit might put ownership on the Mets because it will bring the organization into the light.
Sort of like what Charles Wang was trying to do with the Nassau Coliseum? Maybe the Wilpons will try to build a hotel and complex in the shape of a dollar sign as a monument to themselves
First off, this is not to be combative with Brian. But I looked to see if this ” not playing young guys” was the case, and I have a problem with supporting it. Again, I’m no TC fan but the more I thought about it, the more I have to think he deserves some respect. (yeah, I said it.)
Bullpen … who was he to pitch at the outset of the year? Vic Black?? I still don’t know how he even made back to Citifield. He was atrocious at the start and really didn’t improve his control at LV. But he got here, he performed, and he got a larger role as he performed.
Edgin? Did he deserve the manager’s trust in April? Or for that matter, let’s look at his atrocious numbers at LV. I still don’t know how he made up to the big leagues again, but when he did Collins let him pitch. And as he performed he got more innings.
Familia certainly wasn’t warranting a big role in April – he had terrible start to the year. When he improved, the manager gave him a bigger role. Of course, Mejia would never have been in the pen if he could have managed starting.
I would say Collins wasted a stack of innings on a “young” pitcher in German, and was it wrong to get really good innings out of the likes of Carlyle and Eveland? Oops. Why give innings to them; they are too old. Or for that matter, taking the chance on Dice-K in the pen?
I thought we got an awful lot of good stuff from basically chicken wire and electrical tape in the bullpen this year, and I didn’t see much in the way of options at the end of March. And the veterans you want to pillory him for (Lannan, Valverde, Farnsworth, Rice) pitched 44 innings.
Starting 8? First off, they sent down a previously successful 29 year old in order to keep Campbell on the OD roster.
LF – You can hold Collins responsible for giving CY too many games in LF. But if we are talking about playing “young guys”, Campbell (27), MDD and KN (26) don’t qualify – but together they did get nearly 500 ABs. Together the trio is playing sub-par baseball for the entire year, so its not like he stopped playing them.
Nobody is sitting the RFer.
And when Lagares didn’t start in CF, it was so MDD or KN could play. By the way, Mets outfielders had the fourth best cumulative comparitive WAR in the NL according to BB-Ref. (Yes, Lagares impacted that.)
Infield? Herrera came up and immediately got most of the next 20 starts. Tejada is 24, and by the end of the year Flores (22) will have started probably 70 games or more. I suppose they could have sat the Captain down, but nobody was calling for that. Where else was he starting players? Catcher? Well TDA got about as many starts as possible and he’s 25.
I’m no fan of TC; I think he’s a terrible game coach. But SA gave him chicken shit this year and as much as possible, he turned it into chicken salad. His ace pitcher was burned up, his third baseman basically ended his season in June, Granderson blew up. As you say, four in his bullpen really sucked but he choked off their impact at less than 1/3rd of 1% of total innings pitched. He gave the ball to Mejia and Familia, took chances elsewhere.
Maybe some people take the ball away from a rookie when the team loses 6 of his first 7 starts, and the guy has a 4.86 ERA and getting tattoed for a 441 SLG percentage, while walking 18 in 41. And before I forget, we lost how many starts from Niese (remember, that was our opening day starter) and Gee?
I don’t mind playing Devil’s Advocate for a minute. It’s like not one of you can say anything good about him. No Harvey. No Wright (nearly). No Granderson. No Noah. Only one of the opening day guys in the bullpen there at the end of the year. No solution given to him at SS, not even a passing shot.
What in the world were you guys expecting here? We are in position to be in second place at the end of the year. Honestly, we should have lost 100 games this year. Give Collins the contract
he
earned.
TexasGus. just a thought. I do remember that because public funds were used in the construction of Citifield that the Wilpons had to make certain financial records public. Was that a one shot thing or do they have to do it annually?
Jerry Grote. You forgot first base Davis,Duda,Satin. Three roster spots for the price of one! Who assembled this ragtag bull pen group opening day roster? The new television baseball contracts went into effect this year. An increase from 25 to 50 million dollars. And yet the payroll was 10 million less than the previous season. If the Mets ran with a 100 million dollar payroll there wouldn’t be so much pressure on SA to find these hidden gems in the garbage. Will 2015 be any different than 2014? Hopefully they move Colon and his 11 million and apply CY’S 7.25 million towards a real left fielder.
The last paragraph basically sums it up.