TERRY COLLINS: We’re no underdogs (Anthony J. Causi)
PORT ST. LUCIE — Terry Collins hasn’t let the stress of two straight losing seasons to begin his Mets tenure diminish his fastball.
In an impassioned speech yesterday before the team’s first full-squad workout of spring training, the manager warned his players that winning is expected, regardless of the outside perception the Mets have too many holes to compete in 2013.
But instead of harping on the familiar underdog theme, the manager told his players how good they were, reminding them that 99 percent of participants at the amateur level never reach the major leagues.
“I don’t want them thinking it’s just about trying to prove people wrong,” Collins said. “I mean, you’re big league players.”
Collins later told The Post he wants the younger players to understand superstars such as Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter once made about $100,000 in salary and weren’t much different than them.
The manager might have won a few believers.
“He can really motivate,” said outfielder Collin Cowgill, who hadn’t seen that side of Collins since arriving in a December trade from Oakland. “I was fired up in the meeting. I was ready to get on the field and get to work. He has that presence. I’m looking forward to some more meetings like that.”
The Mets finished 74-88 last season for a fourth straight fourth-place finish in the NL East. They spent the offseason building for the future — adding stud prospects Travis d’Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard in a trade with the Blue Jays for Cy Young award winner R.A. Dickey, but have significant holes in 2013.
That resonates most loudly in the outfield, where the Mets will choose from a pool that includes Cowgill, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Mike Baxter and Marlon Byrd to join Lucas Duda.
Collins initially prepared three pages of ideas he wanted to convey to his players, but said he condensed his words. But it wasn’t so much the message he delivered as the tone he used.
“He starts pretty calm and it just gets progressively louder and louder and more excited,” David Wright said. “I think he made it a point to say he wasn’t going to get too fiery during the speech, but by the end of it he’s yelling and screaming at us, so it’s the same old Terry.
“You can tell how much he cares just the passion he has in his voice.”
If Collins has a reason not to write off 2013, it’s because he’s not guaranteed a 2014 — the manager’s contract expires after the season and general manager Sandy Alderson has indicated he’s in no hurry to consider an extension.
The Mets started the season strong the last two seasons under Collins only to crumble following the All-Star break. Lasting six months instead of three is the next step.
“Every year there is a team that shocks everyone and comes out of nowhere and wins ballgames and makes the playoffs and wins the division,” said Cowgill, who played for such a team in Oakland last year. “There’s no reason this team can’t be that. Just because other people don’t believe it doesn’t mean the people in this room don’t believe it, because we do. We know what we have here and it’s going to be a special team.”
Collins called yesterday the biggest day of the year for he and his staff.
“When you stand up in front of them, you look out there and you see everybody is excited to be here, and you see the bodies,” Collins said.
“As I told them, just because we don’t have 15 $20-million players sitting out there in that audience doesn’t mean this is not a good team. You see the bright, young faces and see the guys who have heard it 50 times, and I thought they were paying attention.”
mpuma@nypost.com