I don’t think anyone who has watched the Mets regularly during Terry Collins‘ managerial tenure will be very surprised by his comments in Bob Nightengale‘s USA Today piece.
“I’m not going to sit there today and look at all of these (expletive) numbers and try to predict this guy is going to be a great player. OPS this. OPS that. GPS. LCSs. DSDs. You know who has good numbers? Good (expletive) players.
For better or worse, that’s who Collins is… he’s going to summon that lefty reliever to get a left-handed hitter out even though the lefty reliever fares better against right-handed batters, and he’s going to go with the hitter who he believes gives him the best chance to win even if those numbers suggest he should use somebody else in that spot.
He did get to the World Series last year and all of the Mets players seem to love him, so it’s hard to argue with success.
But as a fan, I’d sure like to think that there’s somebody in the dugout who is paying attention to the numbers. Someone who has enough of Collins’ respect to maybe talk him out of some of those not-so-good strategic moves, and who can help players identify and perhaps overcome their weaknesses.
Or we can just keep pushing Sandy Alderson to fill the roster with “Good (expletive) players.”
Whatever works.
PaulHadsall.com 