At what point is it reckless for the Mets to have a lame duck manager?

terry collinsSo I read Wilmer Flores might be heading to the DL.  Last night he gets banged up – the manager leaves him in.

David Wright grabs his hamstring at second.  The manager leaves him in.

There’s supposedly an innings limit of Matt Harvey.  9 innings last week – there was no reason to pitch the 9th up five. Harvey took a ball off the knee.

8 innings in a close game on July 26th.

7 innings with an early 5-0 the start before that.

What’s the innings limit?  He can’t pitch the 11th?

Terry has to know this is his last chance as a manager.  He won’t get another shot.  I don’t blame him for wanting to stay.  Maybe he should stay.  Or Maybe he should go.  But Sandy should tell him now so that the future is in safe hands.

Maybe 82 wins saves Terry.  Maybe 79 does.  74 probably won’t.  (They are on pace to win 75 which is one more than last year.  Progress.)

Do you want amanager who is trying to squeeze every win out of a team that is 11 back of the wild card.  What exactly is the plan if they make the playoffs?  Do Harvey and Wheeler get to pitch?  Does Carlos Torres pitch Game One?   Does Wright rush back from a hamstring?

If Terry is coming back that’s fine.  Let him know so he can say things like “I took Wright out to be safe.”  “I took Matt out to be safe.”  Don’t try to squeeze this roster Terry, you don’t have the horses and you know it.  Sandy knows it too.  Decide and think long term fellas.

4 Replies to “At what point is it reckless for the Mets to have a lame duck manager?”

  1. I agree with your larger point, but I don’t see why you have an issue with Matt Harvey starting the 9th inning on Aug. 7 – he threw 106 pitches in the complete game, so he had to be around 90 at the beginning of the inning.

    I would have pulled Harvey as soon as he got hit on the knee, but it sends a bad message to take a guy out who’s doing well and has a low pitch count just because of some arbitrary innings limit.

  2. This lame duck thing is created by you writers. What’s the big deal? Is every player on the last year of his contract a lame player?
    Play the year well and that player gets a nice contract at the end.
    Manage smartly and you get extended at the end, its that simple.

    But my hope is that he is gone next year.

  3. You are reaching big time with this theory. The only one of these three situations where there might have been something wrong done was letting Wright play when he was clearly having continuous issues with the hamstring. But I don’t see any connection between that and Collins’ lame duck status. Wright played hurt when he shouldn’t have a few years ago too. And it’s not like the front office doesn’t know Wright is a great player. They’d factor TC not having Wright in any evaluation they make of him. So I don’t see in any way TC playing Wright being tied to him worrying about the front office evaluation of him.

    As for Flores…he twisted his ankle. Players get banged up twist things all the time. You can’t rush a player out of the game any time they feel a little twinge of pain. You do that, you’ll barely have anybody to play. No guarantee Flores playing the rest of the game in any way made the injury worse. And I don’t see a connection at all between leaving him in the game and being a “lame duck”.

    And with Harvey…what do you want to do baby the guy? That complete game he threw he finished with 106 pitches. He was cruising, had a low pitch count, and was trying to pitch a shut out. Why force the move to take him out after 7 or 8? Is taking him out one or two innings early really going to spare him long term?? And as you said it was 5-0…so it’s not like it could even be tied to him being extra desperate to win the game for “lame duck” reasons.

  4. I can’t buy the premise. As a manager, what’s going to get you fired faster, putting players at risk and ignoring directives from the front office regarding player development, or failing to win another half-dozen games in a rebuilding year?

    If Collins is doing this stuff on purpose in order to save his job, he’s barking up the wrong tree, and it’s the one blocking his view of the forest.

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