Terry Collins Wants More Home Runs

With 25 home runs, the Mets have the second least round-trippers in all of baseball. It is something that Terry Collins would like to see changed.

“In certain hitters’ counts, take a shot at it,” Collins told the New York Post.

The Mets have not hit a homer in five straight games, although it should be noted that they won three of those game.

For his part, hitting coach Dave Hudgens is not concerned.

“I think they come in streaks,” Hudgens said. “You can hit five in a week and then all of a sudden guys are hitting homers — as long as we have good at-bats.  Jason Bay not being in the lineup, Ike [Davis] with his struggles, that contributes. Once those guys are on target and healthy, things will be a little bit better.”

With all of his troubles, Davis still leads the team in home runs with five. That is a sad commentary on the state of the Mets and the long ball. The Post writes that the team “isn’t built around the long ball,” but that’s just not true. The Mets surely expected a line up that includes Bay, Davis, Lucas Duda and David Wright to hit home runs, but it just hasn’t happened.

As well as Wright has been doing thus far this season, I am a bit concerned about his lack of home runs (not that I’m complaining about hitting .400!). I would expect him to have close to 10 dingers by now. I hope we don’t have a repeat of his 2009 season when he hit 10 all season long. Don’t forget, as late as June of that year he was hitting in the .350s with just a handful of home runs.

Certainly you don’t need home runs to win games. But a three-run home run every now and then definitely makes winning easier.