Mack's Morning Report – 11-18-13 – Noah Syndergaard, 2014 Draft Class, Matt Cerrone, Juan Lagares, Shin-Soo Choo

Noah Syndergaard -

Syndergaard’s strikeout rate reached new heights in his second-half splash of the Eastern League, and his walk rate was lower than at any other stop in his professional career. From the team's standpoint, the hope is that a pitcher will maintain the integrity of his numbers as he climbs the minor-league ladder; those players who up the ante in the face of stiffer competition are playing in a league of their own. In the case of Syndergaard, the stats might even be selling his Double-A performance short. His stat line was marred by a catastrophic outing in his final start of the season, which included 11 runs (nine earned) over the course of 3.1 innings, effectively doubling his earned runs allowed at the Double-A level on the season. He entered the game with a 1.60 ERA for Binghamton and left with a three-flat, while his home run rate was inflated by the trio of bombs that he bequeathed to the Bowie Baysox that day. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=22247#commentMessage

Mack – I don’t normally put up ‘for subscription only’ info because most of us don’t pay these sites to get inside. I do however put up the free portion BP shared with us to remind us of that horrible outing Thor had that, frankly, I forgot about. It’s amazing how even better his 2013 stat line would look with this omitted.

It’s very easy to write about Syndergaard. He’s easily the best prospect the Mets have right now and might be the best prospect pitcher in baseball going into the 2014 season. Boy, what a 2015 pitching staff we are going to have! 

Jason Parks –

After a below-average 2013 draft, the 2014 class has potential to be the best class since 2011’s stellar yield. Obviously—seven months away—there is plenty of time for things to change and come to light. Nevertheless it’s always fun to talk baseball draft and having Park’s insights can only help add to the anticipation.

“I think this year’s class is really strong,” Parks said when asked his views on the upcoming draft. “This is a really strong high school class, and there are a lot of good arms to go along with a good amount of talent up the middle.”

The high school pitching class is as profound as it has been in an inordinate length of time and is brimming with big velocity arms that may well go in the first 50 picks. The high school hitters did not tab well against top pitching this summer, as several of the top hitters offer flamboyant tools but fought to hit in games. http://bigleaguefutures.net/1/2013/11/15/jason-parks-talks-college-baseball-hot-topics/

Mack – This is really important to read a couple of times before you want the Mets to piss away their second round pick for some over-priced 30+ year old who’s best years are behind him. The Mets have an opportunity here to get both a premier bat and pitcher in these two picks, something that might not come around for another 3-4 years. For example, if the Mets go OF with their 10^th pick and take Michael Gettys, you easily could see Mississippi’s LHP Chris Ellis, or Florida’s Karston Whitson still around when the Mets pick their second round pick. I’m just saying…



The Kansas City Royals signed C Francisco Pena to a minor league contract.

  

Matt Cerrone –

I’m trying not to rush to judgement. I want him to execute his plan. However, Sandy should understand that, as a Mets fan, I’m going to doubt his abilities until I see it actually happen. To date, all I have is his words. He’s a great speaker. He’s terrific as a verbal dance partner with Mike Francesa and he ties up his beat reporters in linguistic knots. This is all necessary to buy time, to create awareness, build a market, intrigue and — hopefully — sell tickets.

In the end, though, come April, the time for talk will be long over and it will be too late for action. Eventually, sooner than later, Alderson will need to pull the trigger, as he says, because he can’t fill a roster with rhetoric.

Mack – I’m happy to see that Cerrone isn’t pulling punches because he works for SNY. I still think everybody is missing the point here. Most of your free agents and their representatives want nothing to do with this train wreck that seems years away from going anywhere. Now, give it a season with Harvey, Wheeler, and Syndergaard under their belt, and the free agents in 2016 will definitely look this way for a future. In my opinion, they won’t until then. 

Juan Lagares –

            Mack – Sandy Alderson went out of his way on Saturday (on WFAN) to stress that Lagares’ lack of walking is no big deal. He said that, as long as he ‘made a better effort to get into hitters counts’ he would then have a better opportunity to get on base.        Add to this recent comments that both Alderson and his pitching coach didn’t like the way Marlon Byrd approached his game, I assume leading the team in home runs, slugging, and having a .848 OPS isn’t good enough for this team. Right now. Lagares has a .417 on base percentage in the DWL, with only two walks. I agree that the key number here is .417 and not two, but are you telling me if this was achieved by swinging at every first pitch, there wouldn’t be a place for him on a third place team? I think Alderson should shut up and stop exposing his philosophy on this game. It seems to be getting more bizarre every day he’s unable to pull the trigger. 

Shin-Soo Choo -

Boras tends to exaggerate -- it's part of his business plan -- and comparing Choo to Jordan is a stretch. But Ryu's impact on the Dodgers in his rookie season, on and off the field, suggests there are financial advantages to be found in high-profile Korean players in the right markets.

The Dodgers took a calculated risk on Ryu, who required a $25.7 million posting fee to secure his rights before L.A. signed him to a six-year, $36 million contract. But shortly after that was completed, the Dodgers locked up multiyear deals with new Korean sponsors, including electronics giant LG and Nexen Tire, with other companies also buying ad space at the stadium.

Ryu ranked 17th among the top-selling jerseys after the All-Star break, ahead of David Ortiz and Robinson Cano. That's not a direct payoff for the Dodgers -- the money is split evenly among the 30 teams -- but it is an indication of Ryu's popularity, which usually translates into a bump in ticket sales and increased revenues from other sources.

Mack – I can only assume that the Mets have considered these ‘out of the box’ revenue sources if they met Boras’ demands for his client.