Terry Collins
According to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com, barring a nosedive down the stretch of this season, the New York Mets are expected to retain manager Terry Collins for the 2015 Major League Baseball season. Collins is in his fourth season as the Mets skipper and under his watch the team has never won more than 77 games in a season. This season the Mets are on pace to win 75 games and for the eighth consecutive season the Metropolitans will more than likely not make the postseason. The Mets are also on their way to their sixth consecutive losing season and their fan base that is already frustrated will not be satisfied to know that Collins is expected to return for 2015.
What Collins represents is the image of a stuntman for Mets general manager Sandy Alderson and team owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon. We all know that the Wilpons were taken to the cleaners after their dealings with convicted ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff a few years ago which has had a negative affect on the franchise. The same way that the Wilpons have penny pinched in the past few seasons as far as fielding a team is the same way that they have dealt with their managerial staff. If Collins was that good as an MLB manager why had he been out of work in the big leagues since 1999 before the Mets hired him in 2011?
Sandy Alderson
After being swept this week by the Washington Nationals, the Mets now have a record of 57-65 and they are now 10.5 games behind those same Nats for first place in the National League East. Most people didn’t listen to Alderson’s boast in spring training that the Mets would be able to win 90 games this season and with about six weeks left in the regular season his pipe dream is just that. This season the Mets have only been above .500 for 14 days and under Collins, they have never entered the month of September with a winning record which shows that his teams tune him out down the stretch.
The Mets have not retained a manager that led them to three consecutive losing season since Joe Torre who was fired in 1981. At that point the Mets were a lost cause and fans were tuning the team out: Sound familiar? The Mets will more than likely keep Collins on board when they have former Mets second baseman Wally Backman who is managing their Triple-A affiliate in the Las Vegas 51s and he is more than qualified to be in Queens. Backman has won at every level in the Mets minor-league system and unlike Collins he might actually help the big league club win some games.
Teams such as the Nationals who have won 11 straight games versus the Mets at Citi Field are fearless when they arrive there which is something that a manager like Backman would change. Unlike Collins, Backman asks now quarter and gives no quarter as well. Backman was a member of the Mets last World Series Champion in 1986 and he is no-nonsense guy which is something that the Wipons and Alderson apparently do not want. Instead of presenting future Hall of Famers such as Chipper Jones, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera with more gifts after the Mets laid down for them during their careers, Backman would instead lead a team that would look to blast their teeth in. But Backman won’t manage the Mets since the Wilpons obviously do not want to win.
Since their on-the-field product is not currently successful, the Wilpons have been forced to be creative in order to get fans to come to Citi Field which has included concerts from the likes of Nas, 50 Cent, and Huey Lewis and The News as well as sleepovers. But instead of the Wilpons going into their pockets to sweet talk Grammy Award winners to perform at an empty stadium, why not get baseball players on the payroll who will entice people to pack up the family and get on the Grand Central Parkway and watch a few games?
The Mets began this season with the 23rd lowest payroll in MLB and their record reflects that. The Mets are still an offensively challenged team as they are 10th in the National League in runs scored (463), 13th in hits (987) and home runs (89) while they are 14th in batting average (.238) and slugging percentage (.358). On the flip side the Mets pitching staff has the seventh best team earned run average in the NL at 3.57 and they’re fifth in quality starts with (75). But the Mets bullpen has blown 17 games this year which is tied for third in the National League.
Due to the fact that Collins and Alderson are acting as the errand boys for the Wilpons who are financially strapped, we can expect a Mets team in 2015 that will once again be near the bottom of the team payrolls in Major League Baseball. And if the Mets do decide to spend some money it will once again be on a player that is well past his prime. If you build it they will come and in business if you don’t spend money, you will not make any money. With Collins on board the Mets will continue to lose and losing leads to empty seats at the ballpark. The Mets might as well make Citi Field an extension to Flushing Meadow Park and allow the people of Queens to have another picnic area there because it is not worthy to host Major League Baseball.
Source: Baseball-reference.com
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