Terry Collins has better things to do than look at numbers

Terry Collins has better things to do than look at numbers
(AP)

Don’t bother sticking a statsheet in front of New York Mets manager Terry Collins. Chances are he’ll have better things to do with his time than look at the numbers. He won’t give them a second thought, and that’s if he even bothers to give them a first look.

In an interview with USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, Collins made his feelings about stats and the sabermetric world clear. Simply put, Collins is not a big fan. He suggests there’s no advantage to considering them, and that he doesn’t have the time or desire to study them.

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“I’m not sure how much an old-school guy can add to the game today,’’ Collins said. “It’s become a young man’s game, especially with all of the technology stuff you’ve got to be involved in. I’m not very good at it. I don’t enjoy it like other people do.

“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.”

Collins then made it clear he considers Yoenis Cespedes to be one of those good (expletive) players.

“That’s why to me the (Yoenis) Cespedes signing was good for us. He changed our team last year. He makes our lineup legitimate. This guy is going to hit 25 to 30 homers. He’s going to drive in 100 runs. That’s what he does. Those are the numbers I like.”

Fair enough. Collins is set in his ways, and he’s not going to lie or mislead about what they are.

The honesty is good here, but that’s probably not an attitude that will be conducive to maintaining success.

It is a young man’s game to some extent, but that doesn’t mean an older, more experienced baseball person like Collins, who’s 66, shouldn’t make the effort to move forward with the game. In fact, there’s no excuse to risk being left behind. In today’s game, a manager almost has a responsible to be familiar with advanced statistics, and to acknowledge they produce information that’s useful and usable. Without doing that much, a manager most certainly will be left behind in due time.

Collins hasn’t reached that point, but there’s certainly a disconnect. The disconnect won’t always be fatal though. Sometimes talent wins. Sometimes baseball is just baseball and things fall into place. That was the Mets story last season, and it might be the reason Collins is comfortable making his point so strongly right now

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Collins went from the hotseat at this point last year to being one peak short of the top of the world after his Mets fell in the World Series, and he did it his way. That would boost any person’s self assurance and confidence.

But that doesn’t mean the disconnect will be any less present or any less dangerous for the Mets this season.

Yeah, they still have the talent, but will they have proper guidance when it’s required, and will they have it often enough if Collins isn’t doing his due diligence?

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