Mack Ade – Morning Report – 4-17-13

MLB-com on Brandon Nimmo – link  -  The results were particularly encouraging because of Nimmo's background. There is no high school baseball in Wyoming, so the bulk of his teenage experience came through American Legion. "In Legion ball, you'd face a good pitcher maybe every fifth day or so," Nimmo said. "In the New York-Penn League, I just skipped a whole bunch of levels and was facing great guys all the time. You can't take any at-bats off. It took time to learn how to approach the game and how to be at 100 percent or close to 100 percent every day, mentally and physically."

This confirms the level of poor pitching I had always suspected in American Legion ball up there. Still, the kid is leading the Sally League in hitting right now so we do have to give him that. Right now, he’s sort of the Mets version of Bryce Harper. It will be interesting to see how they handle his growth.

We seem to be running out of starters in the minors. Luis Mateo joins Jenrry Mejia, Michael Fulmer, Alex Panteleodis, and Cory Mazzoni on the DL. Jake deGrom joins the B-Mets rotation for now and I have no idea who will be the fifth starter at Lucy.



I'm going to spare you the speech on lack of defense costing a team ballgames. You have heard me talk about this for the past four years. This is a bad defensive team and no one gives a fig about it. Everybody keeps worrying about walk offs rather than saves created from fundamental baseball. Last night was an embarrassment. TC and Sandy should be ashamed of themselves assembling a team like this.



Sadly, SP Chris Schwinden might have hit the wall. He gave up eight runs (4 earned) in 3.2-IP Monday and raised his season ERA to 8.10. He has had two shots with the majors… 0-2, 4.74, in 4-starts in 2011, and 0-1, 12.36, in 3-games, 2-starts, in 2012. I didn’t expect him to get a third shot before this spring and I sure as heck don’t know. Some players have a remarkable amount of talent that place them above their high school buddies, but not past their AAA teammates that work their way of the chain. Remember, there are nine minor league teams, so at any given point you have 45 starters all trying to work their way (or keep) the five positions at AAA. Then, they have to wait their turn in Queens. I price the Mets at given Chris two shots but this might be a good time to move on. Time this with the Shaun Marcum activation this weekend when Aaron Laffey comes back to Las Vegas.

Matt Harvey was named the National League Player of the Week for the week ending April 14. This was the 79th time that a Mets player has won this honor. 47 different Mets players over the years have been named Player of the Week. The most frequent winner was Dwight Gooden, with 5. Darryl Strawberry and Tom Seaver were named Player of the Week 4 times. Three-time winners are Dave Kingman, Jesse Orosco, Keith Hernandez, John Olerud, Mike Piazza, Carlos Beltran, and David Wright.  Not all winners have been legendary Mets; among the Players of the Week are players like Mike Phillips, Frank Taveras, Octavio Dotel, Dave Mlicki. Click on the attached link to see the full list of Mets who were the NL Players of the Week. link

Robert Patterson on Terrorism -  link

Ultimately, too much energy is lost debating the successes and more frequently, the failures of our favorite sports franchises.  That faux pas takes place on a daily basis throughout social media and on sites just like this one.  I’m just as guilty as many of your reading this.  We’re debating a game..something that shouldn’t be life or death. It’s unfortunate that it takes such tragedy for things to fall in line once again, but it has become apparent that this is the world we live in now.  So remember, the next time your headed out to Citi Field, be cognizant of those around you, because not everyone is on the same team.

               

MLB Reports – link  - possible trade targets:

David Wright- The Mets franchise player was just locked up a 7yr 122M extension and the chances of him being dealt are very slim. Dealing him though would help tremendously for a rebuild. David Wright has a career average of .301 with gold glove defense at the hit corner.  -   Probability: 5%  -   Possible Package: (LAD) Dee Gordon, Zach Lee, Stephen Fife, & Chris Reed.

Shaun Marcum- He signed an incentive laden contract with the Mets this year and will be very valuable if he avoids injury. If he can recreate his 2010 & 2011 form he can be an extremely effective number 3.  -  Probability: 65%  -   Possible package: (Was) Brian Goodwin, Paul Demny, & Sammy Solis.

Jon Niese - He’s under contract through 2016 with club options in 2017 & 2018. He took a big step last year decreasing his ERA a full point to 3.40. He also set a new career high in strikeouts with 155.  Probability: 17%  Possible Package: Adalberto Mondesi, Jorge Bonifacio, & Yordano Ventura.

The Mets are not going to trade away either Wright or Niese, but Marcum is gone for a bag o’ balls around the all-star break.The problem is he is already damaged goods and, no matter what he puts up eventually in May-June, other teams will continue to project him to eventually wind up on their DSL list, rather than the Mets’ list.

IMO, the Mets will now not get a front line outfielder or SP for Marcum.