On Monday, the New York Mets will reportedly announce the hiring of 61-year-old Terry Collins (above) as their new manager,  succeeding the deposed Jerry Manuel.  Collins, who led Houston and Anaheim to five successive 2nd place finishes between 1994 and 1998, has been described as “high-strung”, “high-strung”, and most worryingly, “high-strung”.  I’m pretty sure that veterans like Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran will respond well to Collins’ brand of constructive criticism (when have they ever shown a tendency to sulk?) and given Collins’ alleged track record in player development, it’s a wonder the Mets don’t want him to manage Buffalo and New York simultaneously. While this news may or may not represent a blow to the credibility of Dino Costa, please keep in mind that none of the other candidates for this position — including the vaunted “Final Four” that included Bob Melvin, Wally Backman or Chip Hale  — can claim tenure as manager of the Chinese WBC squad on their resumes.  When and if MLB institutes international play, Collins’ Mets will possess a pronounced competitive advantage over China’s professional teams.  And for the plethora of Chinese free agents on the Mets radar in 2010 (or perhaps later, given the team’s financial constraints), what other MLB team would represent as attractive a destination?