FLUSHING, NY– I received a directive from Short Matt about today’s topics and his verbatim text is the column’s headline. I agree with none of it. The boss has clearly taken another blow to the head so we’ll need to forgive his knee-jerk reaction to the Mets problems.
Outside of the other night when he let the pitcher bat with two out and the bases loaded later in the game, it’s not Terry Collins‘ fault the Mets are floundering. The manager plays the cards he’s dealt and there is no Yoenis Cespedes readily available on the market compared to this time last year. And puh-leez, let the ship sail already that is not re-signing Daniel Murphy. If I hear one more caller to sports radio shows lament over this, I will vomit in my corn flakes.
To quote the late Dennis Green, the Mets are who we thought they are as I wrote several weeks ago as an all pitch, no stick team. As soon as the opposition scores their second run you feel as the Flushing Nine are headed for another “L”. Doesn’t the performance of this Blue & Orange configuration fall on the General Manager Sandy Alderson? Collins is dealing with a bunch of Mario Mendozas and it would be just plain wrong to make him the fall guy. What’s to believe for a hot second that another manager can possibly get more out of this roster?
If the bats are that horrible the situational hitting is even more deplorable. Remember when your Little League coach would remind you to shorten up on the bat and protect the plate with two strikes? There’s a reason why there are so many strikeouts in the game today but back to the Mets. James Loney , a stroke of luck picked off the scrap heap and Cespedes are the only players with a clue at the dish. So what is to be done if Granderson is benched and replaced by the likes of very green players like Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo? You’re back where you started in the first place at about a .230 batting average. Then there’s playing the field which I am more comfortable with the Grandy Man out in rightfield. With Juan Lagares out with an injury for a decent spell there really aren’t many moves to make other than dropping Granderson to the eight spot and playing Jose Reyes every day in the lead-off spot until he rights himself.
A bat. Just one? Try two of them and then you have a major league lineup. Jonathan Lucroy makes a lot of sense and would be a godsend. Anybody but Travis d’Arnaud. Anybody. But there’s more to be done aside from trying to acquire the Brewers catcher. A thumper, even one that bats .235 like the rest of the Mets, but can hit the long ball when he does connect can be a boon to the lackluster offense. There’s work to be done and it simply starts and ends with Sandy Alderson.
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