Terry Collins is gonna have to find someone else to get mad at this spring

For the past two years, Terry Collins has made a big angry fuss about players showing up to spring training late. Wait, that’s wrong: he’s made a big angry fuss about players showing up to spring training on time.

In 2011 it was Luis Castillo. Last year it was Ruben Tejada. Each time Collins made it clear that he wanted players there early and that, to him anyway, on time was late. Never mind what those pansy rules say about reporting dates. If you’re not early you just don’t want it bad enough.

Sadly, this year Ruben Tejada is going to make Collins find someone else to yell at for only giving 100 instead of 110%:

After irritating manager Terry Collins last year by waiting until the deadline for position players to report before arriving in camp, the Mets shortstop yesterday said he will be in Port St. Lucie on Saturday — a full week before his presence is required.

So who will it be this year? Lucas Duda? Ike Davis? Maybe Mike Baxter. Gotta be someone who fulfills his contractual requirements and not Collins’ requirements, right?