Mack Ade – Morning Report – 10-7-13 – Binghamton, Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, 40-Man, Kevin Plawecki

 

Adam Rubin –

                The long-reported potential move of the Double-A Binghamton Mets to Ottawa has received what appears to be its final death knell. Ottawa’s Finance and Economic Development Committee has shifted its attention from a prospective Double-A team to an independent league team, according to a published report in Canada.

                                Mack – This is very good news. You want the Mets AA and AAA teams as physically close to Queens as you can get them. The Mets need to everything they can to keep the powers to be in Binghamton happy. In addition, I hope back channels are being developed between Syracuse and the Mets to hopefully become their AAA affiliate after the 2014 contract runs out with airless Las Vegas. Mets minor leaguers are supposed to be freezing their balls off in April, not doubling down on the strip.

 

Carlos Beltran on Mets –

                “Maybe I’ll see you, maybe I won’t. I’m going to listen to everybody and we’ll see what happens. I have nothing against them. I would say that was unfortunate to go through that whole thing with my surgery, but I’m pretty good in letting things go.”

                                Mack – Beltran is saying all the right things for a guy that could go into the Hall of Fame someday as a Met. He was always a misunderstood Met and I was there first hand for three spring trainings, including the one where he took charge of his only rehab program on his knee. The Mets wanted him to move faster and he would have nothing to do with it. Beltran is a pro’s pro who knew his body better than any Met doctor they threw at him. He also never reacted to that last at bat where fans castrated him for not taking the bat off his shoulder. He thought it was a ball and he’s do the same thing again. I think there is a good chance you could see both him and Marlon Byrd for two-year contracts here to ehlp calm things down while this team still tries to figure out who is going to play in their outfield in 2016 (right wo, my guess would be Dustin Lawley, and elevated Brandon Nimmo, and Cesar Puelo, baring any additional top notched purchase.

 

Joe D –

                Will The Mets Consider A Reunion With Jose Reyes?

                                Mack –Get off of this.  This is a dead horse being dug up and beaten. He bought a home on Long Island for the school, and he loves the pizza there. This ship has passed… this had as much accuracy as the premature moving of the Binghamton franchise.  I’m not a big fan of speculative’ posting like ‘the Mets should…’. It makes for ‘hits’ and nothing more.

 

Brian Joura’s  40-man –

                Pitchers (18) – Vic Black, deGrom, Edgin, Jeurys Familia, Gee, Gonzalez Germen, Gorski, Harvey, Hefner, Matz, Mejia, Jonathon Niese, Parnell, Rice, Hansel Robles, Carlos Torres, Walters and Zack Wheeler.

Catchers (2) – Juan Centeno, Travis d’Arnaud

Infielders (12) – Davis, Duda, Wilmer Flores, Zach Lutz, Murphy, Quintanilla, Rodriguez, Satin, Tejada, Turner, Wilfredo Tovar and David Wright

Outfielders (7) – Baxter, Andrew Brown, Matt den Dekker, Juan Lagares, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Cesar Puello, Young. - http://mets360.com/?p=19242

                Mack – This is a good start. I would add Luis Cessa and Miller Diaz, who are eligible for the Rule V draft. Frankly, I would take off Robles who hasn’t developed… I hope at least one of the first basemen are gone and we can come up with someone better than Quintanilla before the season starts. I simply hate the outfield.

 

Ed Coleman –

                Harvey’s decision also impacts the wealth of young pitching that the Mets have in reserve. Trading away some of those “chips” to fill other holes the team has now probably becomes prohibitive. Alderson was always reluctant to go this course, but now seems even less likely to do so. http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/10/06/coleman-alderson-has-decisions-to-make-in-the-absence-of-harvey-next-season/

                Mack – It looks like all the Mets brass and beat reporters are finally agreeing on one thing… the solution to the Mets problems is not to start prematurely trading away the young pitchers in the system to fill the holes in the lineup. We all saw the injuries last year… Mejia…Hefner… Harvey… etc. We can’t expect the Mets staff to have an injury free season in 2014. However… what I do expect is the timetable on both Rafael Montero and Noah Syndergaard to speed up a little, especially if they have a hot April and May in Las Vegas. I’ve said it a 1000 times… this team gets to the playoffs with pitching and an after all-star game rotation of Wheeler, Niese, Gee, Syndergaard, and Montero, with Mejia, Familia, Black, Parnell, deGrom, Germen heading up the pen. A staff like this can produce an awful lot of wins if you get them a few more runs than you did this year.

 

Michael Lecolant -

The Mets may have struck pay dirt though, with their number one 2012 compensation pick.  With the thirty-fifth overall selection, the Mets opted for a more polished college catcher, Kevin Plawecki.  After two full seasons playing for Brooklyn, Savannah and PSL, Plawecki, 22, boasts a .278 average in 665 total at-bats, forty-six doubles, fifteen home runs, 107 runs batted in, and a .376 OBP.  He finished the 2013 season with a combined .390 OBP and .305 batting average in 449 at-bats, with thirty-eight doubles and eighty runs batted in. http://risingapple.com/2013/10/06/the-unlucky-process-of-rebuilding-through-the-draft/

                Mack – 2014 will be a critical year for both Plawecki and Travis d’Arnaud. Normally, I would say that someone as talented as Plawecki would be trade bait being directly behind such a projected talent like d’Arnaud, but this does not take into accord the dreaded injury bug that seems to have hit Darno throughout his career. I’m not sure where Plawecki will open the season but he will make his bones in Binghamton this year. Past that, the future of Mets catching looks very bright.

 

John Stubel –

                Vic Black, LaTroy Hawkins, Aaron Harang, Carlos Torres, Jeremy Hefner, Ike Davis, Diasuke Matsuzaka and Lucas Duda are not the answer. To win, and be competitive enough to win a division or play in the post season, Alderson knows the Mets will need more than parts and pieces. The good news is the Mets will "monitor the opportunities in the marketplace factor those in within a budget," according to Alderson. Let me translate: manage your expectations this off-season. For example, will Robinson Cano's name come up at organizational strategy meetings scheduled this week in Port St. Lucie? No. “We’d be in a position to do it, whether it were the right player,” Alderson said last week. “But would it be prudent to do it, even for the right player. It’s not out of the question. Will we do it, that is more of a strategic question, not a matter of resources.” Read that quote again -- carefully. Alderson already answered the question, Whether it's Cano, or Jacoby Ellsbury, Shin-Soo Choo, Matt Garza or Bronson Arroyo, the answer is no. "...would it be prudent to do it, even for the right player," said Alderson. Do you know what prudent means? Here, I'll save you some time: Prudent is acting with or showing care and thought for the future. It appears that with Harvey on the shelf, subsequently, so is the Mets future. http://johnstrubel.com/harvey-surgery-will-impact-mets-plans/

                Mack – I know John. He designed one of my blogs. I also consider him one of the most intelligent and informed Mets bloggers out there. Read what he said again. Here’s your 2014 folks.

 

Tyler Kepner -

When the Mets put Marlon Byrd’s name on the wire, Huntington pounced, hoping that a team with a worse record would not claim him first. Nobody did, and the Pirates sent reliever Vic Black and a Class A infielder to the Mets for Byrd and John Buck on Aug. 27. Four days later, Huntington shipped two more players to Minnesota for first baseman Justin Morneau. For Byrd, who hit a combined .291 with 24 home runs for the Mets and Pittsburgh, this season has been as exhilarating as last season was sobering. In 47 games with the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox, he hit .210 with one homer. He also served a 50-game suspension for testing positive for tamoxifen, a banned substance. Byrd has explained that he took Nolvadex, a medication to control gynecomastia, the enlargement of breast tissues in males. The condition can be caused by steroid use, but Byrd said he did not know why he had it. He told Newsday that he did not know Nolvadex contained tamoxifen. “It was me not doing my homework,” he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/sports/baseball/pirates-willing-to-be-stupid-made-smart-midseason-moves.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1&

                Mack – taking something to try to eliminate male breasts sure sounds like steroids to me… still. 2013 looks to be drug free and let’s give the guy a tip of the hat for a great season that, for him, is still going on. I’ll take him back in a heart beat.

 

Rob Rogan -

Nieuwenhuis’ future with the team is in serious question at this point. The expectation is that the Mets will look to upgrade the corner outfield spots this off-season. Assuming they do, and with Young and Lagares on the roster, it seems that Nieuwenhuis will be a long shot to make the major league roster next season. The presence of Matt den Dekker and the looming AAA arrival of Cesar Puello further cloud his future. The fact that he was not promoted in September when rosters expanded is surely a bad sign as well, and he will most likely remain in AAA as outfield depth moving forward. http://mets360.com/?p=19247

                Mack – 2013 just didn’t work out well for the Captain, who obvious never stood a chance under Terry Collins of becoming the everyday centerfielder. He had only nine, I repeat, nine plate appearances the entire year against lefties. You can’t turn around bad numbers unless you get plate appearances and it looks like the chances for Nieuwenhuis have gone away. Centerfield, at worst, in 2014 will be a platoon with den Dekker and Juan Lagares. For now, I expect the Captain to be a mainstay in Las Vegas, though he could lose a starting job to the trio of Puello, Darrell Cecilliani, and Dustin Lawley.