Mack Ade – Morning Report – 3-16-13

Morning.

First of all, thank you to the first person to donate ($25) during this donation month drive. The goal is $500 and the Paypal account is on the right side of the front page. I appreciate any consideration.


P Noah Syndergaard hasn't thrown for over a week... per Adam Rubin, he had injured his side muscle and is now working back in cycles.

I listed the 'Group 2' pitchers (AA) yesterday on the blog. Alex Panteliodis should have been on that list also.

There obviously are too many starters on that list and some may be reassigned to St. Lucie after some cuts are made in camp. For now, they are 'assigned' to Binghamton.

 I talked with P Corey Oswalt and he told me that he will not be starting this season with one of the full season teams. In fact, he said that he doesn’t report to Extended Camp until April 13^th. Oswalt was given big-time over slot money ($475,000 vs $146,600) after being drafted in the 7^th round last year and had a rough nine games for Kingsport: 4-3, 8.15, 35.1-IP, 20-K, 7-BB.

Never, never evaluate stats from high school kids that finish up a pro season somewhere. It’s an entirely different game and schedule than they are used to… literally a grind. Very few do well.

Oswalt was a big-time high school prospect out of Madison HS (CA). My guess: Clones. His Mets days are far from over.

This is a nice story…

Ex-Met pitcher Scott Kazmir is now the frontrunner in securing the 5^th starter slot for the Cleveland Indians. Kazmir has struck out 13 batters over 11 innings and has his fastball sitting in the 91-92 range once again. Others in the run are Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco and Daisuke Matsuzaka, but Manager Terry Francona said Thursday that it’s Kazmir’s to lose.

All Mets fans should root for him. He was a great kid in our system.

 Jorge Castillo‏ - @jorgeccastillo - Yesterday, Terry Collins said he hoped Kirk Nieuwenhuis would resume baseball activities outside today, but that didn't happen. Collins hopes Kirk can resume baseball activities outside sometime over the next couple days. Kirk is dealing w/a left knee injury.

Mack –So, what happens if he comes back?  Someone is going to have to lose at-bats and my guess is it would be his fellow centerfielder, Matt den Dekker. It looks like Marlon Byrd has won the RHH platoon guy job, while Lucas Duda and Collin Cowgill will go north as LHHs.

This whole process would have been a lot easier if Mike Baxter would have hit something. That would have left the fifth slot to either the Captain or the Spinster( Jordany Valdespin).

I can’t see Nieuwenhuis getting back in game for 7-10 more days which makes a trip to Las Vegas in April more sense.

Good piece on Dillon Gee - link

John Delcos on David Wright - link

Bill Madden on Tom Seaver and his battle with Lyme desease - link

Fangraphs takes a look at the Mets infield and it ain’t pretty:  link

Second base would belong to Daniel Murphy, except that he’s missed all of camp with a strained intercostal muscle and has yet to play in a single game. He’s expected to get back on the field next week and should still be the primary player at the keystone, but there’s limited fantasy value here. Sure, he hit .291, but it was a very empty average — in over 600 plate appearances, he contributed only six homers and 10 steals. The year before, it was only six homers and five steals. Murphy has now lost the outfield and third base eligibility he once had, and considering that his spring injury and generally poor defense potentially put his playing time in danger… well, it’s hard to recommend him outside of NL-only leagues. He’s batting average, and not much else.

Thursday Game Notes –

           Johan Santana threw a bullpen session and ‘felt well’ afterwards.

           Daniel Murphy played 2B (defense only) in a minor league game

Jordany Valdespin put more pressure on Lucas Duda by showing his versatility by playing 2B today. Duda responded to that, and yesterday’s story that he could be losing his starting job to the Spinster with a 2^nd inning bomb.

Brandon Hicks played 3B and doubled in the 2^nd Mets run in the second inning. This raised his spring BA to .154 so he’s still a long way from winning a slot on this team.

The Mets started to come back in the 8^th inning, but let’s remember this was after most of the major leaguers were removed from the Atlanta team. By the 8^th inning, it’s scrubs playing scrubs. The key hits to remember were by Travis d’Arnaud in the 8^th and Valdespin in the 9^th.

Excellent relief outings by Scott Atchison (1.1-IP, 0-R) and Aaron Laffey (2.1-IP, 0-R).

And finally

           Per: link

           Home Run Leaders During Each Pope’s Reign:

           Pope (Reign), Player, HRs

Pius IX (1846-1876), Charley Jones, 6

Leo XIII (1878-1903), Roger Connor, 138

Pius X (1903-1914), Frank Schulte, 73

Benedict XV (1914-1922), Babe Ruth, 162

Pius XI (1922-1939), Babe Ruth, 552

Pius XII (1939-1958), Ted Williams, 482

John XXIII (1958-1963), Hank Aaron and Harmon Killebrew, 174

Paul VI (1963-1978), Hank Aaron, 437

John Paul I (1978), Jim Rice, 13

John Paul II (1978-2005), Barry Bonds, 703

Benedict XVI (2005-2013), Albert Pujols, 312