Craig Brown - I May be Wrong But...

Sandy Alderson seems to be at his best with trades like the one yesterday.  For one month rentals of a backup catcher and a guy who he signed out of the Mexican League at the start of the year,  he picked up a second baseman who instantly becomes one of his top 6 or 7 prospects.  To put this into perspective, Dilson Herrera is 3 months younger than last years first round pick Gavin Cecchini, and is playing one level higher and putting up better numbers.  As if that wasn't enough, he also acquired a player to be named later, who is reportedly a prospect currently on the Pirates 40 man roster.  That player could be any one of Vic Black, Duke Welker, Andrew Lambo, Jerry Sands, or 3,4 other useful players.  Great Trade! Love it!

 

The Mets have a long history of making strange decisions on draft day, but what was the deal with paying 11th round pick RHP Tyler Bashlor 450 k overslot?  Baseball America had him ranked as the 323rd prospect going into draft day--scouting reports put his velocity in the low 90's, and being 6'0 he really doesn't have any projection left.  His only other pitch is a slider, he has not yet developed a change up.  He started the year in the Kingsport bullpen, and has not performed well, with an ERA over 6.00.  Maybe you draft experts out there can help me on this one...or maybe he is Paul Depotesta's nephew...

 

Am I crazy, or does Dan Warthen have a completely shitty track record when it comes to injured pitchers?  He started with the Mets in 2008, so I went back to the 2009 roster and made a list of impact pitchers who missed signifigant time with injuries...I came up with: Pedro Feliciano, John Maine, Jon Niese, Bobby Parnell, Mike Pelfrey, JJ Putz, Johan Santana, Jennry Mejia, Billy Wagner, Tim Byrdak, Matt Harvey, Jeremy Hefner, and Jeurys Familia.  A five year tenure as pitching coach seems like a long time for a guy with these results...I say start 2014 with a fresh set of coaches.  Hire Mike Scossia, and let him pick his staff...Not that theres any chance of that happening.

 

So they announced the Arizona Fall League Rosters this week and the Mets will send Cory Vaughn, Chasen Bradford, Aderlin Rodriguez, Cam Maron, and Hansel Robles.  There could be any number of reasons why they choose the players that fill these rosters...they might want to showcase a guy for a trade later on, or they might just want a key player to get some more work in.  I would have liked to have seen Darrell Ceciliani instead of Cam Maron, and Domingo Tapia instead of Bradford...

 

Say what you want, but now is the time to start rooting for an extended losing streak...Right now the Mets have the tenth worst record in baseball, a signifigant losing streak could push that to at best the third worst by the end of the season.  Come draft day, that is the difference between picking Jonathon Gray vs. picking Phil Bickford.  We also need to consider the protected status of next years pick...Only the top ten are protected against the signing of a free agent with a qualifying offer.  The Mets will not sign one of the top free agents this offseason if they don't have a protected pick.  Or even worse...They will...