Mack Ade – AM Report – 9-17-13 – Juan Lagares, Dillon Gee, Steve Cishek, CWS

Bleacher Report on Juan Lagares –

20^th overall CF - Lagares’ bat and baserunning needs some polish, but he’s got some pop and can play a mean center field. He was a guy who only prospect nuts knew about not too long ago, but now it looks like he may be sticking around as an MLB regular for a while (ranked ahead of George Springer, Angel Pagan, Jackie Bradley Jr, John Jay, Lozendo Cain, Greg Polanco, B.J. Upton).

               

Howard Megdal on Dillon Gee -

Gee’s ERA this season is 3.47. But since May 30, when he had his revelatory, 12-strikeout start against the Yankees, it is 2.42. And that’s in 137 innings, or more than Niese’s entire season, or Wheeler’s season since getting promoted. He’s at 187 innings, which means if his next start goes even moderately well, he’ll top Niese’s career-high in innings. So Gee owns the best, and longest, stretch of starting pitching for the Mets in 2013 this side of Matt Harvey, who, sadly, doesn’t look like a very good bet to pitch at all in 2014. And he’s going to lead the team in innings pitched by a pretty wide margin. http://mets.lohudblogs.com/2013/09/16/dillon-gee-2014s-ace/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Mack – This is a nice piece about a very good pitcher, but make no mistake about it. Matt Harvey is your SP1 and, in his absence, it will be Zack Wheeler. I hope the 2014 Mets can be built without losing either Gee of Jon Niese, though I can’t see any other scenario to secure a top bat, either at SS or in the outfield. We all know it’s a very good pitching staff but we also know that they are not enough to make it to the playoffs.

 

We’re going to begin to move the morning report more in the direction of the ‘Hot Stove’ season during these winter months. We also will keep you up to date with the results of the players in the various winter leagues. I’m not sure if I’ll keep the ‘War Room’ going in the off-season. Participation was way down this past Sunday which was expected. We’ve pretty much invented every trade and free agent scenario there could be.

I’m also frankly having a tough time staying focused on the team here in September. I’m particularly disturbed at the lack of production coming from some of the guys that are supposed to be future starts on this team. In general, Wilmer Flores, Travis d’Arnaud and Vic Black have underperformed during a time where there simply isn’t any pressure on them. The lack of offense is simply painful. I think we all could use a month off from this plus a good dose of playoff baseball.

 

There is considerable chatter about whether or not RP Bobby Parnell will be ready to close by opening day 2014. The Mets may want to take a look at what’s going on down in Miami. Steve Cishek is a 27-year old righty that has successfully closed 30 of the 55 Marlins victories this year. He also has succeeded iin the past 25 in a row. The Carson-Newman College pitcher was a 5^th round pick in 2007and his stat line this season is: 61-appearances, 61-K, 2.48, 1.07, 19-BB, 61.2-IP, 30-CL, 55-GF. The Marlins, who have a good history of trading with the Mets, need so much, and a package of two players that include bad-boy Jordany Valdespin would make so much sense,, probably to both teams (let’s not forget about Valdespin, who is worth a lot more than a simple release). Cishek might be ripe for the taking. He made $505,500 in 2013 and is subject to ARB-1 this off-season (Andy Martino thinks that the Mets should bring back LaTroy Hawkins).

 

MLB Reports on CWS 2014 1B -

Who will play first base for the Sox next year? As I mentioned earlier, Paul Konerko may retire. That has yet to be determined. But if he does, Adam Dunn cannot be the everyday first basemen. Well, he could, but lets just say that would not be preferred. Does Dayan Viciedo get converted into a first baseman? He’s certainly a liability in the left field, but does possess a very strong throwing arm. Jeff Keppinger has had some spot starts at first this year, but again, not the best option. Keppinger does have 2 more years remaining on his contract, so expect to see him in a White Sox uniform next year in some capacity. http://mlbreports.com/2013/09/15/white-sox-2014-questions/

 

This is the normal time of the year that I would hold my bi-annual push for donations (to total $500), but I can’t seem to figure out how to put up a Paypal donation button on this new site. At this point all I can ask is, if you’d like to help, please send any amount to Paypal and my email address, macksmets@gmail.com . I will make full disclosure as to the amount raised and cut it off at $500. Even a $5 donation is a big deal to me