3/1/13

3-1-13 – Zack Wheeler, Sandy’s OF, Amway, Noah Syndergaard, Landon Powell




Mack Ade - ‏@JohnMackinAde
           @cam_maron - how is Erik Goeddel? Surgery?

Cam Maron‏ - @cam_maron
            he's doing all right, I'm not sure about surgery or anything



“My fastball is pretty good. I have both a two- and a four-seamer. I think everybody does. The hitter dictates which one I throw, as does the count. I like to throw my two to the right side of the plate most of the time, but it doesn‘t really matter. They’re both hard and both move. I’d say they’re pretty equal. I’ve developed my off-speed pitches. What I’ve really concentrated on is throwing them for strikes, so I can get ahead of hitters and put them away later. I’m happy with both my curveball and slider right now. My changeup has gotten better as the season has gone on. It started out as a circle change, but then I moved my hand up on the ball a little bit to put more pressure on it. That was to make it move a little more, as well as take some speed off of it. The pressure is more on the pinky, underneath the ball. I’m trying to get that little bite. When it releases out of my hand, there is also speed taken off of it. I accept being labeled a power pitcher. It’s part of who I am. I throw hard. But I also work with it. I try to control my pitches well, and with a few little fixes, that should get better. Most of the year my walks were down — my strikeouts have been the same as usual — but that has started to break down a little bit lately. I don’t mean it to be an excuse, but late in the season you have to kind of just push through. Mechanically, you can break down a little bit, but that’s just baseball. It’s pitching. Every once in a while you can lose your mechanics and not have a good feel for your pitches. I’ll get it back. I think my mechanics are usually pretty fluid. I’ve worked hard on them the past few years. I don’t know if I’d describe my delivery as drop-and-drive, but it’s probably something like that. My arm angle is three-quarters, I guess. I don’t really pay too much attention to stuff like that. How close I am to the big leagues isn’t up to me. That’s up to the Mets. But I feel like I’m getting close. A couple more adjustments and I’ll be ready.”

                       This is some good stuff out of the mouth of Wheeler.


This whole incident seems like a classic overreaction which, I guess, is a good thing right now. Players seem to dropping like flies this past week and the last thing the Mets want to do is to push this kid in the wrong direction. It hasn’t been the best of camps so far (I’m writing a separate post on this tonight which will lost up later today) and one of the real highlights has been Wheeler. Me? I’ll send him back to the minors side of the field and let him work out with his soon-to-be Las Vegas teammates, but, that’s just me.



Ed Marcus/ Real Dirty Mets Blog: What have you seen so far in the outfield competition, and is it still a weakness?

Sandy Alderson: The outfield is definitely a question mark, collectively. I think we’ve like what we’ve seen from Cowgill, but I don’t think Brown or Hoffman have had much of an opportunity to play at this point. Nieuwenhuis and den Dekker have some work to do offensively. Marlon Byrd is what he is. Mike Baxter is certainly in that mix, and I expect him to be on the team.The classic outfield offensive player, we don’t have. We think Lucas Duda will be fine, offensively. But his defense is a question mark, so the balance is difficult to maintain. He’ll have to really produce offensively. Center and right, we will have to see. I wouldn’t eliminate Jordany Valdespin as a candidate either. That’s how open things are.

I’m not a member of the blog elite that gets to participate in these conference calls. If I was, I too would have asked a question about the glaring omission of a decent outfield. Alderson sounded like he was fishing here which is bad for a General Manager. I’m sure this subject is a very embarrassing one for him.

Look, we will never know how close the Mets got to a deal for either Upton or Bourn, but what we do know now is that Alderson was confident that at least one of them would transpire. It didn’t and we all now have to live with the fact that the team needs three start outfielders, not the two they stil would have needed if Bourn or Upton were signed.



The Mets have not acquired any high-priced free agents in the off-season, but they have a new tenant at Citi Field: Amway   . Amway is something of a strange partner for a baseball team. It is a multi-billion dollar direct seller, which deploys millions of independent sales agents worldwide to sell mostly vitamins, dietary supplements, energy drinks and home cleaning products. The Amway Business Center opened Saturday on the 126th Street side of Citi Field, near the ballpark’s bullpen gate. The opening of the outlet was first reported by www.CapitalNewYork.com

                        There’s nothing legally or ethically wrong about this, but it does have that “John’s Bargain Store” feel to it. Maybe the owners of two companies are good friends, but it seems to me that this space could have been leased out to a more high-end tenant. And selling “vitamins, dietary supplements, energy drinks” from a storefront at a baseball stadium… doesn’t this have a little Balco-ish odor to it? I’m just saying…

                        (BTW… kudos to Howard Megdal for the WSJ link)



Noah Syndergaard is one of my very favorite prospects. A supplemental first round pick in 2010 from high school in Texas, he’s thrived thus far in pro ball, generating very enthusiastic scouting reports to go along with excellent statistics. Syndergaard has a 92-98 MPH sinking fastball that gets on top of hitters quickly. He picks up a lot of grounders (2.16 GO/AO), while maintaining a strong strikeout rate (122/31 K/BB in 104 innings in Low-A, just 81 hits). He’s developed a very good changeup, and I think his curveball is underrated. He commands all three pitches well, shows positive mound presence, and seems like he will be durable. The Blue Jays have managed his workload well. Assuming no injuries or weird command slippages, Syndergaard can develop into a number two starter. I really like him. He was traded to the Mets in the R.A. Dickey deal. Grade A-.

There’s a fair amount of debate going around where Syndergaard will start the 2013 season. Remember, this was a system that was chock full of lower level pitching talent before he joined the organization.

In 2012 the pitching staffs of Brooklyn, Savannah, and St. Lucie, all had the lowest ERA and WHIP in their league. That’s close to a one time stat ever.

Syndergaard pitched A-ball in 2012 (27-games, 19-starts) and others have skipped A+ before, but he will be only 20-years old and teams tend to take their time with their best arms. His slot in St. Lucie has a lot to do with whether or not Luis Mateo makes the jump from Brooklyn. We’ll just have to wait and see.


NY Mets catcher Landon Powell reveals how rare disease, Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis   , or HLH, led to death of infant daughter Izzy

The important thing here is not the player. It’s the awareness of the disease that could easily knock on your door someday. Please read this one.

4 comments:

TP said...

Mack,
Alderson's miscalculation with the OF cannot be overlooked. Yes, he got a good return for Dickey, as he did for Beltran, but that is not so much a function of his abilities as it is a function of another GM to ante up. He also looks bad with all this talk about being "close" or "in the mix". How would he feel if his manager said that in the post game interview after every loss "oh, we lost, but we were right there". This is MLB, in NYC, and its about wins and losses, both on the field in in the acquisition of players. The message from him, along with Freddie's comments, still isn't credible, and won't be until their actions are that of a team looking to compete. I am all for the youth movement, but when they walk away from guys that won't cost any picks, and won't command money beyond 2013, as they are doing right now in the bullpen, and pass up on guys like Courtney Hawkins on the draft/development side, the message is still ringing hollow, at least to me.

Unknown said...

I like Alderson and where, I think, this team is heading. I just feel like Alderson has total job security and is in no rush. He's going to build the team the way he thinks is best. Doesn't care about what the media or the fans think about it... ya know, since the Wilpons would probably need Selig's blessing to fire him before the calender hits 2016

Mack Ade said...

Michael, you might be right.

Anonymous said...

Spot on Mike,

And you know what? Im fine with it. Alderson is building franchise that will be playoff worthy for years to come.

Forget the fans and the media...they don't know jack shit about building a perennial winner. Its what Alderson was brought in to do...and that's what he is doing.