Levine: Terry Collins Unafraid Of Joe Maddon
By Bruce Levine--
NEW YORK (CBS) -- The New York Mets certainly match up well with the Chicago Cubs in this winner-goes-to-the-World-Series battle. Managers Terry Collins and Joe Maddon also have a long history and friendship from working together with the California Angels.
I asked Collins, who I've known for 30 years, if he will be matching up against the Cubs' young sluggers or the baseball brain of the Chicago manager.
"Joe was never a very good hitter, Bruce," Collins said, tongue in cheek. "So I am not really not worried about Joe right now. I am worried about their lineup. We know some of the things they do. What we try to do is make sure they don't have first and third. They are pretty good at scoring those runs. That is why I like our guys. If they command their pitches, they are going to be hard to hit."
The Mets will start right-hander Matt Harvey in Game 1 and boast a hard-throwing staff that also includes Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz.
Collins is concerned with the left-right mix of power hitters the Cubs can present and switch to throughout a ballgame.
"They've got a lot of weapons," Collins said. "We think we have (good) power. They have tremendous power. The location (of pitches) is going to be, first and foremost, the most important thing we can do. We must keep them off the bases, because they are a team that executes very well offensively. They have a tendency to strike out, and we must use that to our advantage. We must make good pitches."
The two managers were together in the late 1990s, Collins as the Angels' manager and Maddon as his bench coach. The Cubs were 7-0 against the Mets in the regular season.
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
