I have to say I am more than a little surprised that some Mets fans have made Terry Collins the bad guy for being totally, and in my mind justifiably, pissed off over the rash of injuries that have hit the Mets this spring. Two of Collins “Must Do’s” on his list of things to work on this spring were improve the defense and work on baseball fundamentals, two of the biggest deficiency of the 2011 Mets. It’s very hard to do when the players you are counting on for the season are sitting in the trainer’s room.

I don’t understand why some folks feel that Collins tirade yesterday meant he wanted players to spit on the injury or rub some dirt on it, no it’s more frustration as to why are these players are suffering  pulled muscles and how does the training staff help prevent these nagging hurts.

Collins is a realist he knows his team is projected by many to be awful this season add in that the same people feel Citi Field will be a ghost town as well, so he knows it’s his job to get this team off to a fast start. That’s why he gets giddy talking about Johan Santana’s performance so far this spring.

Sitting Ruben Tejada yesterday was the right thing to do, but put yourself in the managers shoes. He makes out his lineup and is set to go but then he finds out his shortstop can’t go, what is he supposed to do laugh and make jokes like Jerry Manuel? You all detested Manuel for his clown act and now you’re all pissed that Collins is intense. Your all are sick of being the laughing stock of baseball but you don’t want the players challenged?

David Wright is starting to annoy me as well, not because he’s hurt but he’s supposed to be the leader here but when he makes statements like this I shake my head a bit:

As for the frustration Terry Collins expressed the previous day about the litany of Mets injuries, Wright said: “It’s OK to be frustrated. But at the end of the day it’s spring training. You have to err on the side of caution. We spoke to Terry about it. Terry will be the first one to tell you that if you feel something, come right in. It’s frustrating, obviously, because you want all of your guys out there. But if you look around the league, every team is going to be banged up and every team is going to be more cautious than trying to push guys out there in spring training.

“I think sometimes a guy gets a day off or two and things get a little overblown. Spring training, it’s not about trying to go out there and push yourself. We’ll do that during the season. We’ll go out there and play banged up. Everybody has done it. But spring training you have to be a little more smart about it.”

First I don’t care what other teams are doing I care about that the Mets season not being done by Memorial Day. I care that this team is nowhere near good enough to flip a switch on April 4^th and play good baseball. The margin of error for this team is slimmer than the Olsen Twins standing sideways.

The injury to Wright has me worried because what happens if the injection he received doesn’t work, what if this becomes chronic like Ryan Zimmerman last season and he misses more than a month or two? What is Plan B if Wright can’t make opening day?

Wright seems to think he can just go over to the minor league camp to make up missing at bats which is fine but as much as his offensive game has slipped the last two seasons his play at 3^rd base has deteriorated even more and I worry about that part of Wrights game than his offense.

When you’ve been as bad as the Mets have been the last few years and with all the negative off the field bullshit that surrounds the team, I would hope the so called face of the franchise would have more of an edge to him.

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