The Mets officially signed Terry Collins for another two years. Collins has been with the ball club since the beginning of the 2011 season, and has had a 402-422 record. There have been many ups and downs with the team, and he has seemed to be on the hot seat for at least one month per season. However, he always made his way through the seasons, and had a good relationship with the media and most fans. Sometimes he was the center of controversy, but he always made people laugh, spoke his mind, and managed his players well. Even when all seemed lost, he would keep the players from giving up on the season. Each year seemed to mean something different from Terry Collins, so it will be interesting what these next two years hold.
2011: When Collins began his tenure as Mets’ manager, hopes were high for Mets fans. The Mets went into the season with big names such as Jose Reyes, David Wright, Ike Davis, Carlos Beltran, Johan Santana, Francisco Rodriguez, and Angel Pagan (just to name a few). However, the results were no good. Beltran and Rodriguez were traded by the Trade Deadline, Davis’ season was cut short by injuries, Wright was putting up the worst numbers in his career, and Santana missed the entire season. The Mets went 77-85 on the year, leading the only true bright spot to be Reyes winning the batting title (which was the first in New York Mets history). But despite all this, Mets fans kept their heads held high, and looked forward to 2012.
2012: With Reyes gone and Pagan traded, the Mets were in for an interesting 2012. Many thought Collins would crack under the pressure of not having a shortstop, but he put Ruben Tejada in the slot, and he actually had a pretty good season at the plate. Thanks to the confidence of Collins and the effect it had on the players, the Mets had some great moments in 2012. Santana pitched the first ever no-hitter by a player in a Mets’ uniform (although it did ruin his career), and R.A. Dickey had a monster season, winning 20 games and becoming the first knuckleballer in history to win the Cy Young Award. Matt Harvey made his debut, and Wright put up some of the best numbers in his Citi Field career. Jon Niese also had the last 10+ win year of his career to this date. All this can be traced back to Collins and his managing style, but the Mets still ended with a losing season, going 74-88.
2013: After two disappointing seasons under Terry Collins, 2013 looked like it was going to be a great season. The Mets won opening day 11-2, John Buck and Marlon Byrd got off to extremely hot starts, and Harvey looked like the most dominant pitcher in baseball. However, the ball club went into the All-Star Break nine games under .500 and things never really picked up. The Mets won just 33 games in the second half of the season, and Harvey was shut down due to what would end up being an injury which recieved Tommy John’s Surgery. Zack Wheeler made his debut against the Atlanta Braves later in the season, and he looked like someone who would be a solid number two behind Harvey for a long, long time. Buck and Byrd ended up being traded, and Mets fans could not even begin to imagine another season under Collins.
2014: With Harvey out for the season, all seemed lost for the Mets going into 2014. Collins was failing to give fans hope, and it seemed as if it were going to be another dreadful year. But the season was not that bad. To everyone’s surprise, Jacob deGrom stepped onto the scene as the next great Mets pitcher, and dominated all of baseball. By the end of the season, there was really only one question: what was better, deGrom’s performance or his hair? But there were also important events that happened off the field in 2014, the most important of which was something that Collins told the media. Towards the end of the season, Collins expressed that the game is not played for the fans, so they need to stop hating of the ball club and booing the players. Collins, who never played professional baseball, was put under a lot of criticism for his comments, and many fans began to protest for him to be fired. But Sandy Alderson did not give in, and kept Collins in charge for the 2015 season.
2015: We all know the basics of what happened in 2015. The Mets had a great season, Collins helped his reputation and healed the wounds between most of Mets fans and himself. But I am going to focus on one thing. This is something that cost the Mets the World Series and turned their amazing closer into a laughing stock. That’s right…I am talking about the fact that Collins has no idea when to make a pitching change. He seemed to have always left pitchers in for one too many at bats. Whether it be Tyler Clippard in a sticky situation or Harvey after giving up a leadoff walk, if not for Collins’ inability to realize when a pitching change is needed, the Mets may, and probably would, have been 2015 World Series Champions.
Yesterday at about 4:30pm, it was leaked that the New York Mets have extended Collins for two more years. That’s right…we are stuck with him through the 2017 season! He is the oldest manager in the big leagues, and although he is a baseball lifer, it still seems he has a lot to learn.
I agree that Collins in game decision making and handling of the bullpen leaves something to be desired but to pin the World Series loss on that is unfair. First off, no team that hits .192 deserves to win. Secondly, no team that makes as many fielding errors and baserunning blunders as we did deserves to win. Lastly, Familia just didn’t have it in this series and who’s to say he’d have closed out any of the games if brought in earlier? I agree however that Collins had too much faith in Clippard.
“Collins, who never played professional baseball,……”
Only true if you don’t count the minor leagues as professional baseball.
I’m not a big TC fan, but you seem to imply that a better manager would have made the Mets into WS winners. This totally discounts the fact that KC was a much sounder club. Maybe the Mets might have stretched the Series a bit, but not even a combination of Stengel–LaRussa–Maddon would have made the Mets better than the Royals.
A much sounder club? If the Mets and Royals played a 162-game season against one another, what do you think the Mets’ record would be at the end of the year?
I feel as if I’m walking into a trap, but here goes—-
Using my highly analytical eyeball method, I would say that of the starting eight position players the Mets only have a clear edge in RF. Every other spot is either a toss-up or KC has the edge. Playing with the DH also gives KC a big edge. The Royals are faster and appear to be better defensively.
The Mets have more power but it is inconsistent, whereas speed and defense are usually more consistent.
The Mets have better starting pitching, but the Royals have a deeper bullpen. The Royals approach to hitting seemed to frustrate the Mets pitching to a degree. Over the course of a season one would hope the Mets young pitchers would make adjustments.
The bench might favor the Mets, but Orlando and Dyson can be potent late-inning weapons.
During a 162 game season, with 81 games played with a DH, I’d stick by my original statement.
This is totally make believe and nothing more than an opinion but I’m curious to see how much better you think they are. Would you say the Royals would win 85 games? 90 games? 95+ games?
I grant that the Royals are faster and play better defense. I think the Mets’ offense is every bit as good (Mets outscored them 318-284 once Cespedes came along and that’s without a DH) and I think the Mets have better pitching.
Anything can happen in a short series and we saw the Mets’ weaknesses exploited and the Royals’ ones were not. If the Mets got 30 chances a season to bat against Chris Young, I’d bet my house he wouldn’t have a 2.57 ERA. And I just don’t think the Mets put up a .552 OPS over an entire year.
The Royals won and my hat is off to them. But the idea that they are somehow vastly superior is one I cannot agree with in any way.
In my mind there is a great distance between “much sounder” and “vastly superior.”
In head-to-head play over 162 games with the DH in 81 games I do believe that the Royals would at least 90, but a season has many variables which might not show up in a best of seven series.
Picking 85 basically says they’re almost a toss-up. Picking 95 comes close to being dominant.
It’s only an opinion.
Thanks for putting down your thoughts.
162 game season would even out because the Mets have a far deeper rotation. However, going forward, as the Mets brass prepares their roster for the season they now need to give thought to how the strentghs and weaknesses will play in the post season.
Completely agree about pitching changes
“If the lead run got on base we were gonna pull him”
Hahahaha this is the world series terry not a weekend in DC
The hitting coaches and the pitching coaches did a good coaching job terry just an ok one
Lets Go Mets!!!
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The list of players in the 2011 timeline appear to be a solid corp of players that could have kept the Mets competitive during 2012, 2013 and 2014. It all had to do with money and the Wilpon’s keeping the team.
Reyes brought us Plawecki in draft. Beltran brought in Wheeler. Pagan had 3 of 4 good years and his trade brought back zero. F Rod brought back nothing and was an all star the past two years. Davis hit 32 homeruns in 2012 but the front office could not decide who to trade, Duda or Davis, in 2013.The 2011 team yielded us Plawecki and Wheeler. I think the 2011 team was “short changed” because the Wilpon’s had ” no change”.