Jose Reyes has got most of the credit for the Mets success this season, and don't get me wrong, he deserves it. But there is also this manager on the Mets, who has done a spectacular job this season. His name is Terry Collins.

People were frustrated that Terry Collins took over the job for the Mets, most wanted loud mouth, Wally Backman.

The arguments you may ask?

Simple, Collins never made first place in his entire career. He also hadn't coached in the big leagues for 12 straight seasons.

The Wilpons (Fred and Jeff) knew something no one else knew, Terry Collins would work his butt off to get the Mets back into contenders.

Before the season even started, Johan Santana had surgery to repair his shoulder, and hasn't been expected back any time soon, possibly by late July, but that seems unlikely at this point.

The 2011 season started out very poorly for the Mets, at 5-13, but some how, on April 21st, the Mets changed as a team. They won six straight games to make their record 11-13.

Things didn't get better, Pagan got injured, and Jason Bay and David Wright started to struggle at the plate.

Then, the Mets looked lost on an 11 game stretch, and on June 1st, Terry Collins went on an outburst.

"I'm running out of ideas here," Collins seethed in a rambling, seven-minute diatribe after the Mets fell to 3-8 in 11 games since reaching the .500 mark May 20 against the Yankees. "I sit here every night trying to figure out what can we do to get us over the top. I don't have the answers. I'm searching. I'm wringing the rag dry coming in here and having to look at you guys and you look at me like I'm a stinking fool. I told these guys, we're good enough, but we have to go and play the game right. We just can't continue to make foolish mistakes."

Ever since that rant, the Mets are playing with more fight, more confidence, and feel like they can win every game. They still believe they can make the playoffs, and win the World Series.

Later, the Mets realized that Wright injured his back on a play on April 19th tagging out Astos' Carlos Lee out at third base after an overthrow from the outfield.

Ike Davis also got injured on a pop up by the pitcher's mound. While Mets' pitcher Mike Pelfrey didn't call Wright or Davis to get the ball, they collided, and he twisted his ankle.

Davis' ankle injury didn't get better while it was in a boot, and is now thought to be that it made it worse. He might need season ending surgery to repair his ankle.

Meanwhile, Wright is now back to baseball activities and is hoping to return by July 15th.

Manager Terry Collins, without Johan Santana, Ike Davis, and David Wright has his team at .500 on the season (39-39).

With Jose Reyes trade/contract talks, and Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez trade talks, having his guys play good baseball has been very impressive.

Terry Collins has been daring this whole season, and it has paid off. With 1/3 of Collins' line up made up of minor leaguers (Justin Turner, Ruben Tejada, Lucas Duda), he has still found ways to win, and is not afriad to use those players.

Look at his number 1 pitcher's stats, Mike Pelfrey has a 4-6 record with an earned run average of 4.78, and I am going to be scared when he faces the Tigers' Justin Verlander in the 3rd game of the series. Pelfrey might be the worst number 1 pitcher in the league, yet again, Terry Collins finds ways to win ball games.

Thats not all, look at the bullpen, Jason Isringhausen setting up K-Rod? Genius!

Last series against the Texas Rangers, the Rangers scored 17 runs with 7 home runs. Mets? 23 runs on 0 home runs. The Mets only have 47 home runs this entire season mainly because the Mets power hitters Davis and Wright are injured. The Mets are 26th in the MLB in home runs, but they have scored 337 runs this season, 6th best in the NL. 

Carlos Beltran wasn't supposed to be an every day starter for the Mets, but he got enough trust from Collins to let himself play everyday, and it payed off. Beltran's bat has been very good this season and now has suddenly thought about stealing bases.

What other manager would put Daniel Murphy at clean up (4) for most of their games? Only Terry Collins, and by doing that, the Mets have won more games then lost when Murphy is in the clean up spot. Go figure.

The Mets second base issue was large in the beginning of the season, but Brad Emaus won the spot over Justin Turner, Daniel Murphy, and Ruben Tejada. Now, all three of them are in the line up most of the time playing 3rd base, 1st base and 2nd base respectively and Emaus was let go.

Jason Bay who was supposed to be that guy to help us win with batting runners in, only has 19 of that stat called RBI.

But Collins gives his players confidence, and builds on it each and every day.

“The thing that we continually preached since the first day of spring training is that there are things in your control and things that are not,” Collins said. “We remind (the players) that at 7:05 each night, when you take the field, take a deep breath and enjoy it because that’s where you belong. The stuff on the periphery has to be set aside. We reinforce it every day. A lot of things have popped up, and we’ve tried to cut them off the best that we can.”

Yet, no one gives credit to Terry Collins. Everything is about Reyes.

A few weeks ago, Jason Bay sat out 3 games straight to clear his head because of his poor hitting, after that Bay looked more confident at the plate, and was definitely seeing the ball better. You can only credit Collins on that one.

Analysts had the Mets as a .500 team based on their starting roster, now without Davis and Wright, they have what analysts say is poor talent. But they are .500 right now, and if you added all-stars like Wright, Davis, and Santana makes the Mets better then .500.

It has been amazin' on what Collins has done this year, improving the bats of young guys like Turner, Murphy, Tejada and Duda, in which Jerry Manuel couldn't do.

I wouldn't go far in saying Terry Collins should win the Manager of the Year award, because frankly, .500 managers don't win those awards, but he has done a fantastic job this season.

Collins hasn't got recognized by anyone other then Mets fans on what a great job he has done this season. Adding Wright, Santana, and Davis (if they come back) can only help Collins managing this already tough challenege.