Mack Ade – Morning Report – 4-27-13

I really don't have a problem with how the Mets have played April so far. They have been either in 2nd or 3rd place basically with two decent starters, Matt Harvey and Jonathan Niese. Timely hitting, like Jordany Valdespin's grand slam have offset some of the games lost defensively, but I would like to see a little more consistency with the bats. Holding a team to three runs is a good thing, but it isn't if you only score two (overall, the Mets lead all of baseball with 5.5 runs per game). Let's remember it's only April and there has only been around 20 games played. We really didn't expect much here so, frankly, I'm sort of thrilled that they have been in most of the games they have played. Offensively, John Buck carried the team early and Lucas Duda's stats so far have been a real bonus. David Wright is David Wright, and Daniel Murphy has put up all-star numbers. Now, if we could just get Ike Davis to get on some kind of streak.

The bad news has been the pen. There's nothing wrong with Bobby Parnell and, hopefully, Frank Francisco and Pedro Feliciano will resurface before the month is out. Past that, it's Tim Byrdak somewhere down the line and the waiver wire. Don't look for anyone in the system to help right now. The pen remains a work in progress and it might be a long year because of them.

I saw the stat line on Zack Wheeler (I'm typing this in the guard gate on my job around 5am). I don't have access to the Twitter chatter but I'm sure critics there are all over him. Notice the strikeouts. They haven't gone away, so the talent is there.Wheeler needs to work on pounding the zone and letting the eight guys behind him take it from there. He will be fine. So far, in a bad year, he's still striking out 27% of the batters he is facing. He will be fine.

I know Juan Lagares was just promoted, but keep an eye on Andrew Brown in Las Vegas. He's up to .351/.432/.527/.959 and he may be the next outfielder that gets a shot.

And then there is Josh Satin: .362/.457/.638/1.094... playing first base... I'm just saying.

I don't see much movement in the next 2/3 weeks. It's just too early. All the stats I keep quoting are far less than 100 at-bats and in the range of 3-5 starts. Teams don't move players this early, no matter how good they seem to playing. Last week, Brandon Nimmo was leading the Sally with a .440+ BA. Now he's .367. Shit happens and players go up and down. Trust me, players like Wheeler and Nimmo will always win out in the end because they are talented, not because of the results of early games.

The B-Mets Rafael Montero now has 35-K in 27.2-IP (5 starts).

I spent some time with an unnamed scout the other night and his thoughts were interesting:

    -scouts can get a lot of good info by watching side sessions and BP. You know it's not real game conditions, but you can learn alot about the players approach to the game, be him a pitcher or a hitter.

-I mentioned the name of Wilmer Flores and he waved back at me like "forget about it". A lot of scouts got burned about him 3-4 years ago and the word out on him is he's an incomplete player that has no position in this game.

-he didn't know who Brandon Nimmo was, which told me he was there to probably scout the team Savannah was playing.

-he said “every single member of the current St. Lucie rotation will be a major league pitcher”

-and... he, like most of the other scouts, still project Zack Wheeler with more talent than Matt Harvey.