Morning Report: - 5.17.11 – Moves, Zach Lutz, Justin Turner, Ruben Tejada, Bobby Parnell, Matt den Dekker, Cory Vaughn, Dylan Bundy



Photo By Mack Ade

 Queens:

You'll notice that I wrote something about Ruben Tejada in the Buffalo section of this morning report. I wrote that around 11am yesterday, long before the David Wright announcement, and the moves that came after last night's loss.

Let's go over them:

IF Chin-Lung Hu was sent to Buffalo. I don't think Queens fans will see him again.

RP Ryota Igarashi was also sent to Buffalo. I expect him to finish out his contract there unless there are future injuries in the pen.

2B-SS - Tejada was recalled. He will play second base and, frankly, if he can hit .275, he might play it for years. This is his shot.

3B-1B-OF Nick Evans was recalled to be available to play where needed. Good move and also, last shot.

RP Pedro Beato came off the DL and will fill the Igarashi slot in the pen.



Today could have been an exciting time for us minor league weenies if Zach Lutz wasn’t on the DL. None of us ever expected Lutz to ever replace Wright some day, but it would have been kewl to see him playing in Queens until the all-star break. As I understand, Lutz’s hammie was just about healed when he broke one of his fingers when it was hit by a foul ball… or something like that.



Going into Monday’s game, the Mets are 5th in the NL race for the wild card.


You might not want to jump on the Justin Turner bandwagon yet. True, he had a great game on Sunday, but so did Victor Diaz once. The 2011 Mets can not afford to keep Daniel Murphy’s bat out of their lineup as long as they are in the wild card race, and they are. Murphy will return to second as soon as Ike Davis is back in the lineup.



Buffalo:


Ruben Tejada was back in the starting lineup on Monday, batting first. The 21-year old has only hit .147 in his past 10 games and has done nothing to prove he can step in for Jose Reyes in case Reyes is traded. Look, we all know that the field tilts when Jose gets on base and no one brings more positive energy to both the field and the plate. This simply doesn’t happen at any level when Tejada is in the game. I’ll never understand the logic of trading an established star, that’s under 30 years old, for a prospect that hasn’t done squat yet in the majors. Think the Santana trade.


Bobby Parnell has proven every time he has pitched during his rehab that he should remain in Buffalo for possibly the remainder of this season. Parnell gave up another run on Monday and his AAA ERA is now 7.36. At the same time, Jason Isringhausen (2.19) is doing just fine and Mike O’Connor (0.00 in 4 Mets outings) has done nothing to prove he should be demoted soon.




St. Lucie:


The general consensus of Mets experts all agree that CF Matt den Dekker will most probably get bumped to the B-Mets once the first half of the season is over. He proved last year he could hit at the A-level (.346), and he is currently 9th in the FSL in hitting with a .331 BA. den Dekker is also the top Mets defensive outfield prospect in the system and 23 of his 48 hits this season are extra base. Based on his current performance, and the lack of others I have had ranked higher in my “Keepers” series, I’ve moved him from 27th to 21st.


Savannah:


We’re starting to get to the point in the season where certain players are proving they can play baseball at a level higher than they played last year. Prospects usually don’t have that much difficulty in doing this. OF Cory Vaughn, who wowed everybody (even me) last year in Brooklyn, has already proven he can dominate at the next level in the Sally League. I can speak first hand to his desire to excel, something I didn’t think he possessed when he was drafted out of college. Here is a guy that went into Mondays game leading the league in OBP (yes, even higher than Bryce Harper) and he honestly feels he has played like shit this year. Amazing. He has been the only consistent bat on the team, and, now that other players are being to hit, we should se a huge increase of RBIs from this true prospect. I had him as the #15 “Keeper”, but I have now moved him up to #10.




Draft:


Jim Callis tweeted that the asking price for P Dylan Bundy is 6 yrs/$30M. Archie Bradley is 5 yrs/$20M. The funny part about this is Bradley might still be around when the Mets pick. The entire order of the first round could alter greatly if TCU’s Matt Purke bounces back beginning this Thursday. The more I see these numbers, the more I think the Mets may go bat with their first pick, specifically, George Springer.