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Collins Under Fire, but he is just Part of the Problem with 2016 New York Mets

Mets GM Sandy Alderson (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

Mets GM Sandy Alderson (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

Losers of 5 of their last six games, these Mets are watching 2016 go by the wayside.

While the team is underachieving, and Terry Collins and Kevin Long deserve to be under fire for their rigid adherence to strategy that made sense going into the season, but right now, needs to change given the lineup at hand.

But the truth is, it isn’t Collins who is killing this team right now, it is the M.A.S.H. unit that is the New York Mets of which perhaps only Alan Alda could be proud – if only it were that comical.

The truth is, Collins is hamstrung.

If this was the squad that broke camp in April, there is no doubt, it’s an 85 loss team.

Much has been made about the Mets’ over-reliance on the homerun and the critique has been that the team needs to play more small ball.

And while that has some merit given what Collins now has to work with, the truth is, there is a difference when you are relying on the homerun with a healthy Cespedes in the lineup, a productive Granderson, Lucas Duda, David Wright, and a productive Michael Conforto.

This team has none of those things going for it right now and Collins is left penciling names like Ty Kelly and Rene Rivera into the lineup and is left hamstrung at the ends of games.

Should Collins have chosen to pinch run for Bruce with Brandon Nimmo, and for sake of argument, Nimmo slips into home-plate safely, now the Mets are stuck in extra innings with no bench, and no Jay Bruce – a losing proposition.

Mets fans don’t want to hear  that, and will say “you have to tie the game first”, but the fact is, that lineup in extra innings isn’t getting it done.

A lineup that features stars throughout like Detroit’s would most likely get that run over the Mets’ hodge·podge of  [lack of] “talent”.

Game-changing power is just that: game-changing.  Good lineups feature guys that drive the ball, not just for home runs, but for extra base hits as well.  The Mets are left with a lineup that scares no one; lefties that can’t hit lefties, and righties that can’t hit righties.

Collins’ hands are tied in late game situations.

So in assessing the 2016 New York Mets you cannot simply generalize that the organizational philosophy needs to change offensively, you must look at the team as currently constituted.  And as constituted, the New York Mets are an average baseball team at best.

The approach going into the season wasn’t wrong, but it is now.

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