The Mysterious Moves of Terry Collins

Let me start by saying I like Terry Collins a lot. I love his attitude and demeanor. Overall I think he's the right guy for this team, but some of his moves lately are baffling.

Take Sunday night for instance. Bases loaded in a tie game with 2 outs. Righty on the mound. Instead of a seasoned player, like Scott Hairston being able to bat for himself he puts in the rookie Captain Kirk (yes, I still don't know how to spell his last name from memory) in the tightest of spots. I get he was doing the lefty vs. righty thing, but there's gotta be some common sense that tells you don't throw the rookie cold off the bench into the tensest moment of the game. He had Murphy on the bench too who is a much better contact hitter than Kirk even though he's been struggling.

Speaking of Murphy, all of a sudden Murphy is no longer considered a starter? We live through Ike Davis batting .150 for 3 months, but Murphy's average drops to .270 and all of a sudden he's relinquished to platoon duties? Where's the consistency. Murphy is a hitter. His glove in the field will never be golden. With the rag tag defense the Mets already have is Murphy really going to do that much more damage? Why isn't he given the opportunity to play his way out of a slump when he's way more reliable a hitter than Davis?

Then you have the whole Torres/Kirk/Hairston platoon going on in the outfield. Kirk should be playing every day. He's proven he's a talented player and has earned the right to do so. The Mets lineup is already lefty heavy so is it really going to make a difference that Torres is in vs. Kirk?

There seems to be a lot of turnover on the lineup card the past month where for the first few months of the season it had been relatively consistent outside of injuries. I think the Mets play is showing this to be an issue as well. The defense has been atrocious and there's no continuity in the lineup.

The Mets are a flawed team with some serious holes and I'm not even getting into the pitching/bullpen. But the best thing for a young team is to allow them to get into a rythmn, establish roles and quit over analyzing ways to mask the issues your team has.

Let Kirk play everyday. Give Murphy the chance given to Ike. Let's not make the lineup card a daily surprise.