Mack Ade – Morning Report – 4-16-13

According to Elias, Matt Harvey is the 1st P since 1900 to win each of his first 3 starts of a season, w/ at least 25 Ks & 6 or fewer Hs

LHP Adam Kolarek transferred from Binghamton (AA) to Las Vegas (AAA)

RHP Cory Mazzoni placed on disabled list (right elbow neuritis), retroactive to April 11

RHP Luis Mateo transferred from St. Lucie (High-A) to Binghamton (AA)

LHP Shawn Teufel transferred from Extended Spring Training to Binghamton (AA)


Regarding Boston, never take this country for granted. Incidents like this happen every day in some nations, yet we see them once every, what, five years?

Still, places like baseball stadiums become more of an open target every day. Look for increased security measures if more events like this one happen.

I love spring baseball, much more than the heat of summer down here in Savannah. That being said, who in God’s name scheduled a baseball game in either Minneapolis or Denver?  Worse than that, schedule it in an un-domed stadium. What exactly do you do in a stadium like that in Denver? Ice shaking? Penquin grazing?  Nope… baseball. It will be interesting to see if the majority of the Mets- Colorado games get weathers out. When would you make them up? On the all-star break? Such an easy mess to avoid come scheduling day.

Young arm update:

                        Everything seems to be on target for a killer 2015 rotation.

Zack Wheeler has been struggling due to a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand. That’s all healed up now and he threw eight strikeouts in his last outing. There still seems to be about a 33% chance that we might see him in Queens come the all-star break.

Rafael Montero was doing just fine…  3-games, 2-0, 2.16, 16.2-IP, 21-K. He is currently projecting to AAA by the end of the season and could be ready for Queens on opening day 2014.

Noah Syndergaard has also gotten off to a good start, this one being in St. Lucie: 2-games, 0-0, 2.00, 9.0-IP, 13-K. He probably will pitch most of the season at this level and finish off in AA-Binghamton, where he will open up the 2014 season with. ETA remains opening day 2015.

Luis Mateo has made a bump on the list, getting promoted to Binghamton to fill in for the Cory Mazzoni injury.   Mateo was impressive in his first A+ outing: 0.00, 6.2-IP, 9-K. His ETA is also OD 2015... but did not pitch well last night after being rushed to AA due to the Mazzoni injury.

There are others (Jacob deGrom, Cory Mazzoni), but, right now, these are the four top pitchers that have a shot of breaking through the Mets rotation in the 2014-2015 seasons.

With no injuries:

                        OD 2014 – Harvey, Wheeler, Niese, Gee, Montero

                        OD 2015 – Harvey, Wheeler, Niese, Montero, Syndergaard

Positional update:

                        1B – Lots of pleasant surprises here.  Josh Satin (AAA - .419) moved over from second and third and offers the Mets soe good emergency relief for one more year. Richard Lucas (AA - .412) is also an ex-third base prospect who has caught wind at the AA level. And Jayce Boyd (A - .368) has returned to his great FSU hitting days.

                        2B – It’s a small sample and it‘s far too early to get excited about, but Reese Havens (AAA - .333) is both healthy and producing.

                        SS – Matt Reynolds (A+ - .300) has stepped up as a primary prospect option at both third base and short.

                        OF – Andrew Brown (AAA - .366) and Juan Lagares (AAA - .340) both offer the Mets utility alternatives in Queens. True prospects Gilbert Gomez (A+ - .303) and Brandon Nimmo  (A - .405) are on target.

                        C – Prospects Travis d’Arnaud (AAA - .912-OPS) Kevin Plawecki (A - .410) as advertised.

Hi Mack, I went to the St Lucie game against Bradenton on Sat. and similar to Michael Baron's post in MB I came away very impressed with Syndergaard. He was in the mid 90's with his FB and mid 70's with his off speed stuff. After breezing through the first 3 innings he struggled some in the 4th with a couple of singles and 2 walks but all and all 2 runs given up in 9 innings so far  after missing a good portion of spring training is impressive. I also caught Harvey's game (thank God for DVR's) when I came home and what can you say except he's amazing! In 50+ years of watching the Metsies there have only been two pitchers for us who were "must see" and now could it be we finally have a third?  If Wheeler is supposed to be better than Matt I better start making plans next year to make it back up to N.Y. for W.S. tickets .  As far as our new found offense it's really not that surprising ( o.k. Buck IS surprising) when you consider how dreadful Bay, Torres and whoever was catching was last year and Wright and Davis haven't started hitting yet. This should certainly be an interesting week coming up if they can dig out the field in Colorado. You asked about who to interview this week and how about Matz and Plawecki who both have looked very good far. Have a great week, Gary Seagren

Ken Rosenthal ‏- @Ken_Rosenthal 36m

Yes. RT @HCharara17: @Ken_Rosenthal You think Mets would trade one of Wheeler/D'Arnaud for Stanton

JONATHAN LEHMAN on Rafael Montero  - link

The 6-foot, 170-pounder (a Pedro Martinez-like frame that doesn’t fill the typical power righty mold) made four stops that year culminating in a two-game cameo with the Brooklyn Cyclones. He was named the organization’s minor league pitcher of the year for 2012 — over the likes of Zack Wheeler — after blowing through the low-A South Atlantic League and high-A Florida State League en route to his innings limit (combined 2.36 ERA and 110 strikeouts in 122 innings).