Mack Ade – Morning Report – 5-30-13

Here's an old scouting report that Seattle did in 1988 on the Mets pitching staff.

Keeping an eye on:

                RP – AAA – David Aardsma – it may be a small Mets sample (4-appearances, 4.0-IP, 1-ER, 2.25), but, combined with his past 2013 PCL team, he’s 14-appearances, 1-0, 2.50, 18.0-IP, 16-K. Okay, he does need to work on his control (13-BB), but the good news is most of those runners are not crossing the plate. Injuries cost this guy the lion share of 2011 and 2012 but let’s not discount his major league stats of 2009: 73-appearances, 2.52… 2010: 53-appearances, 3.44. This is a big-time major league relief pitcher that just needed some extra time to heal. He really should be on the parent squad.

               

RP – AA – Jack Leathersich – I’m not exactly sure why ‘Leather’ is still in New York State. The 22-year old has 24 strikeouts in his last 11.1 innings. That’s 45Ks in 24.1-IP for an unheard of season stat of 16.64 SO9. He also has 18 outings, however, his BB9 is still too high (4.81) which would be the only blemish on a record setting career: 3-yrs, 109-IP, 184-K, 15.19-SO9. Unbelievable.                

SS – AAA – Omar Quintanilla – The Mets tried to explain that the reason they haven’t called up a .328 hitter (Quintanilla) to replace a ,209 hitter (Ruben Tejada) is because Quint is out of options and the team is “low on shortstop depth”. Really? What about Brandon Hicks, Josh Rodriquez, Wilfredo Tovar, Matt Reynolds, Phillip Evans, Gavin Cecchini, Jorge Rivero, Ismael Tijerna, Leon Canelon, Ahmed Rosario, Alfredo Reyes, German Rosario, Anthony Chavez, or Richie Rodriguez?

                SP – A+ - Michael Fulmer – threw an inning in extended camp on Tuesday

               

C – A+ - Albert Cordero – Albert Facebooked me that he is back playing for St. Lucie. This gives Lucy a real backup catcher to Cam Maron until Kevin Plawecki arrives from Savannah. After that, all bets are off regarding who catchers where. Considering Travis d’Arnaud is close to, and the Mets like to carry three catchers per team, my guess around June 15^th would be:

 

                                AAA – d’Arnaud, Pena, Powell

                                AA – Forsythe, Carillo, Gronauer

                                A+ -   Plawecki, Maron, Cordero

                                A -   Glenn, Zapata, college draft pick                     

I got a roommate for Jordany Valdespin.

Tampa Bay suspended OF Josh Sale (1^st Rd., 17^th overall – 2010) for bragging on his Facebook page about throwing money at a stripper in a local club. This follows a 50-game suspension last year for methamphetamine and an amphetamine to be named later. He hasn’t played a lick yet this season after hitting .264 in A-ball last season. Wait a minute… what about a Spin for Sale swap?

Mrs. Mack and I had a wonderful dinner with Carolyn and Gary Seagran this weekend. Gary used to write for Mack's Mets, but found it more comfortable to email me questions that I could answer in my morning reports (I still miss him as a a writer though). It's great to break bread with a close friend of Mack's Mets.

I’m writing this on Wednesday night prior to the game and, yes, I agree with Terry Collins. These four games do have the feel of a World Series. It seems to me that it is vitally important that the Mets win one of these last two and take this series. This is probably going to be the second biggest highlight of the year, first being Matt Harvey starting in the All-Star game at CitiField. Even my wife who prides herself on her lack of baseball knowledge asked me if Harvey was pitching again tonight. Wouldn’t that be great if that could happen? I mean, it use to on our chose up team after school. Jimmy Armet always pitched, so why can’t Harvey. Oh yeah… it was soft-pitch softball, but still…

While I’m on the World Series, what about a vote for Daniel Murphy? I just read somewhere that he hasn’t had an error in, like, 38 games in a row. He went into Wednesday’s game with the 14^th top BA (.304) in the National League, the third ranked second baseman to Marco Scutaro (.372) and Matt Carpenter (.309). Obviously Scutaro has earned the starting slot, but what about Murph coming in for the back innings? Get that ballot out.

Great baseball story:

As a youth, Puerto Rican slugger Carlos Delgado drew great attention from international scouts. Among them was Toronto's Epy Guerrero, who recalled working with Blue Jays GM and future Hall of Famer Pat Gillick to sign Delgado. "Pat tells me he's got no money. I say, 'Find it. It's going to take a $100,000 bonus or Atlanta is going to sign him.' Pat comes down. He's got to ask the owners for money out of next year's budget. We sign him." Soon they saw the Atlanta delegation. "We say, 'Don't bother. We signed him.' They don't believe us - till they go to Carlos's house." - LINK

Joel Sherman wrote a piece on the top sophomores in baseball. The top five were ranked as follows:

1. Mike Trout, Angels

2.   Brett Harper, Nationals

3.  Manny Machado, Orioles

4. Yu Darvish, Rangers

5. Matt Harvey, Mets: Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said what distinguishes Harvey is most hurlers want to make a pitch look like a strike, but ultimately the hitter swings at something that breaks out of the zone. Harvey “throws four pitches in the zone and beats you with each,” Long explained.