4/17/09

The Mack Attack - April 17, 2009




Mets:


David Wright has struck out 11 times in his first 31 at bats this season.


Regarding the future of the 1B position, maybe the Mets might want to take a look at… Carlos Delgado. Currently, he is hitting .367, with 2 HRs and 9 RBIs, and this comes right after hitting around 5000 in spring training and the WBC… he never looked better, and frankly, he looks as young as the guy who came from Florida, now, so many years ago. I’m sure he wouldn’t sign for less than 2 years, but, hey, it may make a lot more sense than Lucas Duda or dud-Ike Davis.


Anybody that was present during the Billy Wagner workout earlier this week said the same thing… the guy is in great shape and well ahead of schedule. This is a veteran that wants to remain in baseball far past this season and is looking forward to a new contract with someone. There is no better way of getting that accomplished than getting back on the mound for the Mets in September.


I can’t even imagine the effect of Wagner in the 7th, J.J. in the 8th, and Frankie to mop.





Mike Pelfrey (0 DXL) - Pitching injuries are often insidious. You only see the cause afterwards. The Mets haven't liked what they've seen from Pelfrey thus far. It goes beyond the normal first-week worries. Remember that Pelfrey was extended far into the Verducci Effect zone—Pelfrey even confronted Verducci about it this spring—as the Mets tried to win the division. The team knew they were doing it, and they did everything they could to keep him relatively safe. If that's not enough, what is? Pelfrey is a big, strong guy who didn't show any noticeable mechanical changes when I saw him live last week. Still, through his first two starts he's been so off that the question has to be raised as to whether we're already seeing the effects of that workload. The Mets have some options, but we don't have a good answer for how to "solve" the Verducci Effect in the short term. Argue all you want about the quirks of it, fatigue is the villain, and it manifests itself in a number of ways that are not always apparent. The Mets knew this might happen, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.


http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=8746




Willie Randolph will wake up Friday morning in his own bed. He will have breakfast at his own kitchen table, overlooking his sylvan backyard in Franklin Lakes, N.J., and then he will make a very familiar commute, with very unfamiliar feelings. Willie Randolph, No.33 in the Milwaukee Brewers' road grays, bench coach to manager Ken Macha, has not only never been to Citi Field. He hasn't been to a Mets game since his dismissal as manager last June 17. "It's going to be a little bittersweet for me," Randolph said of the Brewers' weekend visit to Flushing. "Of course, I'd still like to be managing the Mets. That's just not how it worked out. I still feel disappointed that I didn't fulfill the dream I had of bringing a world championship to the Mets


http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2009/04/16/2009-04-16_willie_heading_to_the_citi.html



Minors Thoughts:




The Herd



"It's almost the same song and dance each day," said manager Ken Oberkfell. "One run short."


Don’t tell that to Nick Evans today, Ken… Evans may have finally broken out of his season-starting slump and slammed two home runs on Thursday…




B-Mets:


A very impressive 4.0 innings pitched by Adam Bostick Thursday night… 0 ER, 5 Ks and his ERA now 1.69.


Oh yeah… Roy Merritt now 4-4 in save opportunities (0.00).



Emmanuel Garcia is attacking his second Double-A season with the Binghamton Mets with a renewed sense of confidence. In the first week of the season, he has been the team's best position player. He's hitting better than .300 out of the leadoff spot for the B-Mets, who host the Portland Sea Dogs at 6:35 p.m. today in their home opener at NYSEG Stadium. It's the start of a four-game series against the Sea Dogs and of a seven-day home stand. Through the B-Mets first five games, Garcia was hitting a team-best .375. He has at least one hit in all five games. "The biggest thing between last year and this year is that I'm more confident in myself," Garcia said by phone on Tuesday. Garcia, 23, inherited the center fielder position and leadoff spot occupied by prized prospect Fernando Martinez for much of the past two seasons. "Him being in center field is going to help him a lot," B-Mets manager Mako Oliveras said. "It's going to help us, too."


http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20090416/SPORTS02/904160331/1118/SPORTS



Lucy:





A few words on a guy I got to know last year… OF Carlos Guzman, who is currently 2nd in the league in hitting. Guzman is an infectious “kid” (turns 23 in May) that has fought his way into this sport. Never drafted out of Brookdale Community College, he’s a Brooklyn native that earned the bump to Lucy this year after being the closest thing the Sand Gnats had last year to a hitting outfielder. We used to kid him last year that he was being shipped back to Brooklyn, which he’d respond with a resounding “noooooooooooo…”. Carlos said he was only going back to Brooklyn to see his family, not play baseball.


Carlos told me early on… “all I want is a chance to play every day and prove what I can do”… well, he’s sure doing that this year… going into Thursday’s game: .524/.583/.810/1.393.




Gnats:




Mack’s Mets Prospect #26, SP Chris Schwinden, continues to impress, going 6.0 scoreless innings Thursday, while lowering his 2009 ERA to 0.82. Schwinden, who represented Brooklyn in the 2008 NY-Penn League All-Star Game (while going 4-1, 2.01, 70K/62.2 IP, only 12 BB), is armed with four pitches, a fastball sitting at 92, changeup, curve, and slider. He’s a control pitcher a la Tom Glavine, who reminds me a lot like Brian Bannister was early in his Mets career. Keep an eye on this kid.


MMP #5, 3B Jefry Marte, was removed from Thursday’s game after the first inning. Marte was hit by a pitch and then throw out trying to steal second base. No word yet on his condition.


MMP #24, RP Jimmy Johnson, threw two more scoreless innings. His 0.00 ERA is now intact through three appearances. Johnson, like Schwinden, is a control pitcher, and was drafted in the 28th round of the 2008 draft. He went 5-0, 1.25, in 23 appearances for the Clones last year.




Draft:


Through 4-16, the top 10 lowest ERAs in Division I Baseball:


1 Josh Spence, Arizona St. Jr. 1.01
2 Mike Recchia, Eastern Ill. So. 1.16
3 A.J. Morris, Kansas St. Jr. 1.19
4 Taylor Jungmann, Texas Fr. 1.26
5 Austin Dicharry, Texas Fr. 1.35
6 Jarrett Maloy, Southern U. Jr. 1.36
7 Buddy Baumann, Missouri St. Jr. 1.37
8 Eddie Medina, St. John's (NY) Fr. 1.38
9 Brett Brach, Monmouth Jr. 1.42
10 Mike Ojala, Rice Jr. 1.43




General:


Les Keiter, who spent 50 years as a sportscaster, including three years re-creating San Francisco Giants games in the late 1950s, died Tuesday in Kailua, Hawaii. He was 89. Keiter's wife, Lila, announced his death, the New York Times reported. Starting in 1958, the Giants' first year in San Francisco after leaving New York's Polo Grounds, and for the next two seasons that followed, Keiter greeted listeners of WINS radio in New York with the refrain, "Hi there again, baseball fans, this is Les Keiter with Giant baseball."


http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090416&content_id=4292322&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb


Former Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster Merle Harmon died Wednesday afternoon at Arlington (Texas) Memorial Hospital after an illness. He was 82. Harmon was both a Milwaukee Braves and Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster. He called Braves games in 1964 and '65 and Brewers games from 1970-’79. He was also a founder of the old Merle Harmon's Fan Fair stores.


http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/43068937.html

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