5/18/11

Mets Farm, Nick Evans, Justin Turner, Jose Reyes, Buffalo Call-Ups, David Wright

The real hope for the Mets is down on the farm. They got bad news when Jenry Mejia had to undergo end of the season arm surgery. Some argue that the Mets bouncing him around from starter to reliever couldn’t have been the best therapy for his arm. Their hope now rests in the arms of Brad Holt (1-2, 3.12 in AA), Jeurys Familia (0.64 in AA and 1.64 in High A), Matt Harvey (5-2, 2.61 in High A) and the son of ex-major leaguer Ugueth, Juan Urbina. Rule V selection Pedro Beato has yet to give up a run this year and could find himself closing for those starters after Francisco Rodriguez departs myworldofbaseball.



Evans had picked things up with the stick after a slow start in Buffalo; this will be his seventh stint with the Mets in the past four seasons, and it’s unlikely to be the one in which he breaks on through to the other side. Sandy Alderson wanted Tejada to spend a full season in upstate New York after last year's headlong rush to the majors, but ready or not, circumstances required the 21-year-old’s presence. This personnel exchange doesn’t do wonders for the Mets’ season outlook, but since they’re already mired in last place and coming off an offseason of minor moves made to keep the engine idling until it can really kick into gear, they’ll likely be content to stand pat baseballprospectus  

Turner is the latest horse on the Mets second base carousel. Some solid hitting has enabled him to draw regular starts over the last week and as any deep league owner knows, accumulate the most at-bats and you will almost guarantee yourself a top offense. Turner has shown some pop in the minors, despite that power not yet translating to the Majors, and he makes pretty good contact. He has a bit of speed as well, so would probably steal 10 bases or so in a full season of at-bats. With David Wright having been placed on the DL, he will receive full time at-bats at the hot corner for the time being. While he does not excel at any one skill, he is decent enough everywhere to generate some deep league value, even if his starting gig, whether at second or third, ends up not lasting too much longer. .fangraphs  



The Reyes case is an interesting one. As each day passes, you get the sense Alderson appreciates more and more the value of the effervescent Mets catalyst. Clearly, if you read between the lines, you can see he has begun to get the Reyes “it factor” by the adjectives he uses to describe him — “exciting,” “potent,” and “a game changer.” Back in spring training, he used phrases like “we’ll just wait and see.” It seems watching him every day has made Alderson more keenly aware of Reyes’ inherent value to the club. cbs 



Early Tuesday afternoon, the Mets’ band of minor league call-ups sat around the clubhouse and counted heads while reminiscing about the bus rides and laughs they shared together at Triple-A Buffalo. The number they came up with: eight. That’s how many players who started the season in Buffalo are now on the Mets’ roster. Injuries have decimated the parent club, robbing it of its biggest bats and most dominating early-season pitcher. .nj.com 





Mets placed 3B David Wright on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 16, with a stress fracture in his lower back. Wright is expected to rest for 10 days before resuming baseball activities, though it's possible he could miss more time. His only previous stint on the disabled list was for a concussion suffered when he was hit in the head by Matt Cain during the 2009 season. The hot-hitting Justin Turner is expected to get most of the playing time at third base during his absence and is worth adding in NL-only leagues rotoworld.  

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