Terry Collins was hired as the 20th manager in the history of The New
York Mets. Coming off of their second consecutive losing campaign in
2010, The Mets were left for dead. They have the owner in Fred Wilpon
that lost money to Bernie Madoff and now he is stuck with needing to pay
shortstop Jose Reyes “Carl Crawford money” where he may only be able to
afford to pay him like Casey Candaele. The Mets entered this season
with the look of an easy pushover who would be languished to the cellar
of The National League East, but through Collins’ guidance The Mets are
respectable. The Mets started the season with a record of 5-13 and many
felt they would be on pace to lose 100 games. Collins got this team on
track and through 81 games The Mets record is 41-40 which puts them
right in the mix for a The National League’s wild card berth.
Collins is a fiery man and that demeanor is perfect for The Mets and New
York City. Collins is getting the most out of Reyes and outfielder
Carlos Beltran who are both in contract years. Reyes is leading The
National League in batting average at .352 and Beltran’s bothersome
knees have held up in the first half. All-star third basemen David
Wright as well as first basemen Ike Davis have missed significant time
due to injury. In their absence, rookies Lucas Duda and Justin Turner
have stepped in as utility players along with infielder Daniel Murphy to
keep The Mets afloat. Murphy is hitting over .300 and has cut down on
the fielding errors while Turner is strong candidate for Rookie of The
Year.
So far this season The Mets have winning records against National League
foes The Arizona Diamondbacks and The Atlanta Braves. The Mets just
finished a 4-2 road trip where they two out of three from both The Texas
Rangers and Detroit Tigers. Defeating The Rangers is no small task as
they won The American League Pennant last season. The Mets totaled 30
runs over two wins in Motown which included two grand slams in the same
game which hasn’t been done since 2006. Only some sloppy pitching by the
bullpen late in games has kept The Mets from having a 6-3 record versus
the arch-rival Philadelphia Phillies instead of the 3-6 mark they have.
Time will tell what will happen with The Mets and Collins. With the
financial cloud hanging over Citi Field, it is wait and see on whether
Reyes and Wright will remain in the blue and orange. These will be the
last days for Beltran as it is highly unlikely that he will be a Met in
2012. Collins only tries to take care of the situations he can and that
is to have his team ready to play every game. Through 41 wins and a lot
of scrappy play he has done that.
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