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10/18/11

Cutnpaste: - Jeurys Familia, Nick Evans, Wally Backman, Al Jackson, Octavio Dotel


10-10-11: - https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/132edccbf718965f  - Top five Met prospects -  Sunday, October 9, 2011 - The Record - 4. Jeurys Familia, RHP, turns 22 Monday (.228 batting-average against in St. Lucie and Binghamton): 132 strikeouts in 124 innings for the right-hander who has been clocked consistently in triple digits. He could switch to the bullpen in the majors.

10-13-11: - http://www.metsminorleagueblog.com/season-review-full-season-1b - Nick Evans played 26 games at first for Buffalo, 10 at third and 31 in the outfield. Oh, and the 25-year old hit .313/.375/.462 overall in 249 AB and .338/.397/.544 against lefties in 68 AB. Will he ever hit enough to hold a job at the big league level? His .256/.314/.403 line in 176 AB this year which nearly matches his MLB career of .256/.305/.407 doesn’t offer much hope as an everyday player. And yet, he owns a career batting line of .295/.360/.489 versus lefthanders. If only there was someone who needed a platoon partner…

Wally Backman isn’t going anywhere- except maybe Buffalo. Backman admitted yesterday he considered leaving for a potential spot on Davey Johnson's staff with the Washington Nationals, but opted to remain with the organization that drafted him. "There was some thought," Backman said of leaving on WFAN Saturday. "It was a long-thought process. I started at 17 years old with the Mets and I'm gonna stay with the Mets." After managing the Mets' Single-A Brooklyn Cyclones team in 2010 and then Double-A Binghamton last year, the 52-year-old Backman figures to be in line to become Triple-A Buffalo's manager this season, replacing last year's manager at Buffalo, Tim Teufel, who was recently was moved up to be the Mets' third base coach. "We haven’t talked about that yet," Backman said. Backman interviewed for the Mets' managerial position a year ago after GM Sandy Alderson was hired, but Alderson chose Terry Collins. Still, Backman believes he has a future with the Mets. "I feel like there's unfinished business," Backman said. "The organization is going in the right direction. And I want to be a part of it." – www.newyorkpost.com

When the National League added the New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45s for the 1962 season, Al Jackson was a 25-year-old pitcher with 11 major-league appearances. And when he heard on television that he had been selected by that new team in New York, he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Not because of any weird premonition about the dismal season the Mets were heading for. And not because he had secretly hoped to wind up in Houston. The Mets simply did not have a reputation for anything yet, good or bad. "How can you be excited about a team when you don't know anything about it?" said Jackson, now 75. "I was just happy for an opportunity to pitch in the big leagues." Jackson was one of 22 players selected by the Mets in that expansion draft, held 50 years ago this week. There had been expansion drafts before and there have been several since, but none remains quite as significant as this one. – www.wsj.org

Even 12 years later, the memory eats at Octavio Dotel. Ask Dotel, the St. Louis Cardinals reliever, about his biggest postseason moment before this season, and the conversation turns to 1999, when he was a promising rookie right-hander for the Mets. But Dotel considers it a slight as much as an accomplishment.  Dotel pitched the final three innings of the Mets’ 15-inning victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. He gave up one run and struck out five, and picked up the victory after Robin Ventura’s apparent grand slam turned into a game-winning single when Ventura was mobbed before he could circle the bases. - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/sports/baseball/cardinals-octavio-dotel-hopes-to-erase-a-mets-memory.html

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