Mack Ade’s Afternoon Report – 11-15-13 – Alfredo Aceves, Logan Morrison, Instant Replay, Jhonny Peralta,

 

Alfredo Aceves -

All those things about Aceves are true. What's also true: He's a bit, ah, eccentric. He wore out his welcome with John Farrell very, very early, and was shipped to Pawtucket before he got the chance to poison the fear-the-beard atmosphere that was building even then. (He made a couple of brief returns when injuries struck in Boston, with the operative word being brief.) After that, he got hurt (oblique strain). And he was pretty much forgotten from there, until he opted for free agency on Oct. 4 . . . ironically, right at the beginning of the Sox' postseason run. -     CCNE    

Mack – Aceves is best remembered in Boston as having multiple run-ins with ex-manager Bobby Valentine, including refusing to hand him the baseball when Valentine took him out of a game. Last year, he pissed off John Farrell by dogging it in some training drills. This no longer is the 26-yr. old that went 10-1 for the 2009 Yankees, or the 28-yr old that went 10-2 for the Red Sox in 2012. He’ll play 2014 as a 31-yr. old reliever and the last thing the Mets need is a Jordany-like attitude out in the pen. I hope Alderson can come up with something better than this for the first announcement. 

The latest name being thrown around as a possible trade candidate is Florida Marlins’ 1B Logan Morrison. On the surface, one would think that the last team the Marlins would trade one of their key bats would be a divisional rival; however, it’s never stop them in the past. Morrison had a miserable year in 2013 (85-G, 293-AB, 6-HR, 36-RBI) after suffering from a knee injury. Actually, 2012 (.230) and 2011 (.247) weren’t that hot either. I thought I was typing Ike Davis’ stat line for a minute… hey, I got an idea… why not a Davis for Morrison one for one swap? No, that will never happen because the Marlins aren’t looking for someone that would be paid the kind of money Davis would get in arbitration. No, this would take a couple of team controlled players, at least one of which would be a prospect pitcher. My question to you is would you make the phonecall? 

Instant Replay –

I have no problem with this. I want every play in baseball to be accurate and, if it takes slowing the game down a little and having someone in the booth check out the TV feed, that’s fine with me. No team deserves to lose a ballgame on a bad call and no player (i.e. Armando Galarraga) should have a no-hitter taken away from him from a bad call by a (Jim Joyce) good umpire. Human beings are, well, human, and we all make mistakes. I also don’t want my team winning any game they don’t deserve to. It’s not going to take much to do this a lot better. 

Jhonny Peralta  -

Peralta’s latest salvo is that he wants 3-yrs at $45mil (after being paid to kick the ball around for $6mil last season) speaks volumes to why Major League Baseball has to turn away from the demands of some of these agents and place the majority of their future on player development within the system. Frankly, at this point in the off-season, I would consider going back to an infield of Davis, Murphy, Tejada, and Wright and give them all another year to turn around their 2013 season. We know we have decent reserve players at both 2B and 1B in Satin and Flores and Murphy could be 3B relief for Wright throughout the season. All you need to do is add someone like Wilfredo Tovar for shortstop and you have a cost effective infield to hold the fort down while players like Dilson Herrera, Gavin Cecchini, Amed Rosario, and LJ Mazzilli mature at the A+/A levels. Let’s try to remember that Flores and Travis d’Arnaud are supposed to produce us 20-25 home runs a season. A return of these levels by Davis, a repeat of Wright’s contribution, and Murphy’s repeated .275-.285 batting range in 300-400 at bats just leaves Tejada to get his shit together once again. Excuse my French, Zozo, but fuck the Peralta’s of the world, especially if they want this kind of money. We’ve got more good infield prospects coing down the line (Pedro Perez, Dominic Smith, Jayce Boyd, Kevin Plawecki, Jhoan Urena, Jeff McNeil, Victor Cruzado, Alfredo Reyes, Yeffry de Aza, Lus Carpio) and we haven’t even discussed the ability to insert Jordany Valdespin and Lucas Duda into this mix either.

This isn’t a perfect situation, but $15mil a year for three years for a 32-year od with limited range who’s real future at this stage of his game in on the corner positions. Give me a break. Go firm up your 2014 rotation and overspend in the outfield.

I’m telling you… Tejada and Davis can turn this around because we already have seen them produce at these levels in the majors.