Alderson Tepidly Supports Collins, Indicts Himself

Sandy Alderson spoke out about his view of manager Terry Collins' job performance yesterday, with Collins nearing the end of the last year of his contract. He spoke about the skipper in a positive light, highlighting the difficulties anybody would have in managing this ball club: 

He's done an excellent job across the board with the talent that he's had, with the injuries he's had to endure, with the other changes in personnel...

 Wins and losses I don't think ever determine a manager's fate, frankly. Even winning is not necessarily a guarantee of tenure. So it's always a little bit subjective. In this case, perhaps more so. But you have to temper your evaluation with the circumstances and the context, which includes the players, the injuries, the trades. - Alderson 9/23

Well, that's terrific Sandy. You feel like he's done a terrific job with the talent he's had. All we have to do is find the guy responsible for constructing this roster, which ranks 27th in team batting average, 25th in your beloved on base percentage, and next to last in front of only the Marlins in slugging percentage, and talk about that guy. Because that guy fielded a baseball team that only hit 128 home runs this year, while striking out 1337 times to date. 1337 strikeouts! Only the Twins and Astros have struck out more than that, in case anybody was wondering what kind of company this team keeps. So let's just find the guy in charge of building the team, of surveying the talent and then trying to put a competitive group of nine guys on the field, and talk to him about job security.

I know it's the Wilpons job to spend the money, and I'm not saying it's time to move on from Sandy. I just don't understand how a team's general manager gives a pass to their manager based on the lack of talent on the field, and not one person asks him why he didn't do more to change it. Put him on the spot, make him answer the questions. If it's not his fault and he's working with a ridiculously low spending cap, get the info out of him. He's probably dying to tell us this isn't his fault. So somebody ask him.

"Why is there such a lack of talent on this club that you think a 222-258 record is good enough over three years?"

"At what point will we begin fielding a team that we expect to play over .500 baseball?"

"Is there anything specifically that has prevented you from acquiring any front line free agents or making upgrades at the Major League level?"