Mack Ade – Morning Report – 3-22-13

Mack Ade – Morning Report – 3-22-13

We’re getting closer to reaching our goals this month on donations and a big God bless you goes out to the individuals that donated last night. The total is now up to $285 with a goal of $500 (for the record, we do these drives twice a year, once before the season and once after). Once again, thank you to all of you that have donated. Now, back to the Mets…

David Wright:

                   "To be viewed in this light -- both by ownership, by [GM Sandy Alderson] and the front office, by the coaching staff and most importantly the players -- means a great deal to me. A dream come true, to say the least. Something I'm very, very proud about. I think that the responsibilities are kind of the same as what I've always tried to do. I'm not a real 'rah rah,' yell and scream kind of guy ... I think it's more lead by example. I'm going to take the responsibility seriously and with a great deal of pride."

I think we need to spend some more time on this. The owners of all the baseball teams are going to each get a check for $50,000,000.00 from the networks this year to help runs things around the office. At the same time, these bastards are planning to vote away the pension plans from the office workers whose job it will be to place this money in the till. Yes, majority will rule here and I’d love to know how Fred Wilpon votes here, but I have a funny feeling that this one is going to be a sealed ballot. Maybe they could lock themselves in a room with a hot stove that has a pipe up to the roof and they could burn the white paper their trainers and ticket sellers use to write down their schedules each day designed to keep the creep down the hall happy.  $50mil coming in from one check. Retirement plans for minimum wages down the toilet.

I can’t make up shit stories like this one. I know I’m a sports blog an my readers hate when I interject my thoughts on politics, religion, and other Mets blogs, but you trust me on this one. Every revolution started with tired, hungry, broke people that couldn’t see a way out their mess because of the elimination of the middle class in their countries. You can only let the rich get richer while the poor get poorer for so long and one generation will finally come along that is willing to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of their children and grandchildren. Okay, enough of this and back to the day.

This is a very interesting article on the work being done to possibly return a major league franchise to Montreal. link It couldn’t hurt having another last place team in the division, right?

The Cleveland Indians optioned P Trevor Bauer to AAA Columbus (meaning Scott Kazmir probably made the rotation).

Boston reassigned pitchers Chris Carpenter, Terry Doyle, Oscar

 Villarreal and Chris Hernandez to minor league camp.

From Al Skorupa - link - Zack Wheeler (NYM RHP): Wheeler had been sidelined by an oblique issue earlier in camp and was still ramping back up to full speed. Even in a short outing it was clear that Wheeler is going to be something special. He comfortably sat 96-97 and the fastball has late life on it. His power slider was also working and features late, biting break. Wheeler throws almost effortlessly and it’s a low effort starting pitcher delivery. He was leaving his fastball up a bit and not locating all that well, but that’s not really unexpected considering he’s still working up to full strength. Wheeler is a big, strong kid who pitches on a tough downward plane. This is an absolutely dynamite arm that’s ready for the big stage. Fantasy Impact: Wheeler will be a front of the rotation pitcher very shortly.

Jorge Castillo‏ - @jorgeccastillo7m - Shaun Marcum said he’s had same shoulder issue come up each of the last springs and wanted to fix it right away w/cortisone shot. Marcum said his lower velocity his last start triggered the decision. Said he had to talk doctors into giving him the cortisone. Marcum said he doesn’t feel pain or discomfort. Felt some tightness. Expects to throw 80 to 85 pitches next start.

Jorge Castillo - ‏@jorgeccastillo9m - Justin Turner said he’s still scheduled to play tmrw but he’s going to take ABs in a minor league game today and see how that goes.

Game Notes From Thursday:

          P Jeremy Hefner is making it very easy to forget about Johan San-drama.

          It was good to see Justin Turner back.

          I also heard that Kirk Nieuwenhuis had a double in a minor league game.

          Here comes Duda.

          Well, at least Matt den Dekker is making it difficult to send him down. I wouldn’t because I would use players like him and Jordany Valdespin to define 2013 as a transition year. dD can learn to hit just as easy in Queens and a Duda-den Dekker-Byrd outfield looks a lot better than I thought this team would go into the season with.

And lastly…

          We’re getting closer to picking the outfield.

          Duda and Byrd are locks.

          Valdespin is a lock because of his hot spring, Reyes-like ability to tilt the field as a lead-off hitter, and the fact that he can play both the infield and outfield.

          That leaves Cowgill, den Dekker, Brown, Hoffman, Baxter, or Nieuwenhuis for the last two slots.

          For me… it’s not either Brown or Hoffman.

          I give one slot to Cowgill, but I’m reluctant to make him anything more than a platoon player. This doesn’t work on paper since the Mets only have one RHH-OF.

          I can’t see Nieuwenhuis being ready (even though he did hit a double today in a minor league game) so I guess Baxter wins a slot he hasn’t earned this spring.

          That’s how I see it.

          Later.

THREE-YEAR TOTALS FOR HITS PER PARK
MOST HITS	LGE	LVL	H/G	FEWEST HITS	LGE	LVL	H/G
High Desert	CAL	HiA	23.29	Savannah	SAL	LoA	15.11
Albuquerque	PCL	AAA	22.91	Pensacola#	SL	AA	15.40
Colorado Springs*	PCL	AAA	22.66	Arkansas	TL	AA	15.64
Las Vegas	PCL	AAA	21.97	Wilmington	CAR	HiA	15.90
Reno	PCL	AAA	21.75	Lakewood	SAL	LoA	15.94
Lancaster	CAL	HiA	21.52	Palm Beach	FSL	HiA	16.04
Tucson^	PCL	AAA	21.05	Bowling Green	MWL	LoA	16.06
Salt Lake	PCL	AAA	20.51	Great Lakes	MWL	LoA	16.20
Asheville	SAL	LoA	20.04	Birmingham	SL	AA	16.26
Round Rock	PCL	AAA	19.49	Charlotte	FSL	HiA	16.30