MetsBlog –
Over his last four games for Los Bravos de Margarita, Wilmer Flores is 7-for-13 with three doubles, two RBI
and only one strikeout. Overall this winter, Flores is hitting .391 with six
RBI and only four strikeouts in 46 at-bats in 13 games, and is 9-for-19 with
runners in scoring position.
Mack – One caveat… this is not major league
baseball. The competition here, especially the pitching, is far from major
league ready and most of the guys Flores has hit against are near the end of
their professional career. Still, .391 is better than the .211 he hit last year
as a Met.
The bad news is they keep moving him around
from 1B to 2B to DH. Remember, the Mets have no control where players play in
leagues like this.
New York Magazine -
Almost every move Sandy Alderson has
made since taking over in 2010 has been golden. The Mets’ farm system, decaying
when he took over, is now near the top of the majors, headed by pitchers Noah Syndergaard and Rafael
Montero. But his specialty is the pump-and-dump: The best example is
R. A. Dickey, a cheap free-agent-to-be the Mets swapped for Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud from Toronto. (Syndergaard is now one
of the top pitching prospects in baseball and was only the second most valuable
player in that trade.) Alderson had done the same a year earlier, turning Carlos Beltran into Zack
Wheeler, at the time the Giants’ pitching future and now the Mets’
likely opening-day starter. In an age when prospects are the highest-valued
assets in the game, Alderson, somehow, pried away three top ones for players
with expiring contracts. No other G.M. has been able to wrangle up even one
player like that in a similar deal. http://nymag.com/news/articles/reasonstoloveny/2013/sandy-alderson/
Mack – If you’re a big Sandy fan, you will love this
article.
MetsBlog -
The Mets may consider converting minor-league RHP Cory Mazzoni into a relief pitcher in Spring Training,
which should give him a chance to make the Opening Day roster (Rubin, Dec. 16).
http://metsblog.com/metsblog/cory-mazzoni-may-be-a-candidate-for-the-bullpen/
Mack – The 2014 pen looks to be in flux.
I’m going under the assumption that Bobby Parnell will not be
ready. This opens the door for Vic Black to start the season as the closer.
There are only two lefthander relievers on the
40-man so we can assume that (as of today) Josh Edgin and Scott Rice are safe.
***one
caveat – Sandy may not be done here***
RHP Jeurys Familia still hasn’t tied down a spot. He’s currently
having control problems in the winter leagues (10.2-IP, 12-K, 6-BB, 5-WP,
1.88-WHIP) and the Mets may be running out of patience here.
RHP Carlos Torres is going nowhere because he’s the emergency SP6
and RHP Gonzalez Germen will be back to hopefully duplicate his
excellent rookie season (29-appearances, 3.93).
That’s five set and two question marks.
There obviously is going to be a lot of
competition in camp for the last two slots (best stats last year: John Church), but I still feel at
least one of these will be filled by a player that still is unsigned.
Look, this problem sort of goes away in 16
months when this team will have 8 viable starters. Rafael Montero will be ready to step
in for Mejia if he stumbles in 2014 and then the Mets need to make room for Noah Syndergaard after the all-star
break (Matt Harvey returns opening day 2015).
The second-half-of-2014 pen could easily have
both Montero and Mejia it which (added with Familia) might give the Mets the
pizzazz they need coming out of the pen gates.
18 comments:
Mack,
Good stuff.
Yes, Wilmer certainly isn't facing the best, but hitting .391 is good, even if it is stickball. Even though he has no position, I am still excited about his potential.
That article on Alderson is nuts. Maybe Jeff Wilpon wrote it. At best he gets an incomplete...anyone can trade all-stars, Cy Young winners, and potential HOF players for prospects. He get no credit until they contribute to the big league team or are flipped for someone who does.
Lastly, the pen needs one external addition - a legit big leaguer who has closed already. Parnell is about as doubtful as you can get - dropping 30 lbs from surgery can take up to a year to get back to full strength. A guy like Perez, discounted but with something to prove, works. Sure, I'll take Balfour, but our big market team doesn't seem to have the $$$ for that. Otherwise, I agree that the young guns get sprinkled in there, and at least a couple should excel. Ultimately, you want a home grow guy to that that closer and 8th inning role, a la the Braves. It allows them to spend the stack of $5s elsewhere.
To make matters worse on Flores he hasn't been fielding too well down in the winter leagues.
I do believe he has made 2 errors in 7 games at 2B and 1 error in 2 games at 3B.
I wasnt to impressed with him in last yr. He looked completeley over matched. I have a feeling he'll have a similar career as Fernendo Martinez. I hope im wrong.
Am I the only one who remembers Flores drove in 9 runs in his first 27 big league ABs, then he got the ankle injury? I think they should pencil him in at worst as the RH half of the first base platoon if not give him the job outright and see how he does. Can he be worse than Duda?
Reese - The answer is YES, he certainly could be worse than Duda. Remember, Duda is a natural 1B and handles that position quite well. Flores would need alot of reps at 1B before I would even consider him. He needs to show he can master the footwork.
I actually thought he handled 3B well in the few games he played there before the ankle injury. I would think he is a better bet to compete for the 2B job if Murphy is traded.
Hoping Flores' WB will help make a Ike/Duda+Wilmur+? package yield something of value. Satin can platoon at 1B =/better than Flores & I'm for keeping Murph.
Funny...
I have NEVER heard Flores' name mentioned in any deal, by the Mets, or by another team
Mack-
I think it may have something to do with the fitness camp. You don't hear Tejada's name come up in any trade talks either. And maybe that is one of the reasons that Duda has been played down in trade talks and become the anointed one for the 1B job. They maay have told the players they sent to fitness camp that it means they intend to keep them around.
I find the sudden buzz about Mazzoni interesting. It seems pretty clear that Sandy intends to bring in at least one veteran arm to the pen. As you said, that leaves one spot open, at least until Parnell is ready.
You indicated that Church had the best stats last year, and I imagine you singled him out because he spent half of the year toiling in Las Vegas. But Walters, Kolarek and Gorski also had outstanding years, and of course, Leathersich and Hutchingson will be in the mix as well. A dark horse that bears watching, Justin Hampson could be this year's Scott Rice. He has logged 106 innings in the majors, mostly with the Padres, and pitched well. Last year, in pitcher's purgatory (L.V.) he certainly held his own. It would be a nice story if he went north with the team and stuck.
Herb -
Nothing against Mazzoni but it seems to me that most of the buzz about these borderline guys come from blogs at this point in the slow off-season.
Some of them drive me nuts just looking at their headlines... "Player A" - Prospect On The Cusp"...
The Mets blog world is just running out of players to write about and, I have to see another full season out of Mazzoni before I would call him a potential major leaguer
Are we seriously not in on Tanaka. How could we not just attempt to want any of these international signings? WHat the HELL!!! Everyone else gets them but us. Don't they wanna make a bigger name for themselves in other markets? They definitely don't know how to market themselves in any way at all. Every sports store I go to has 4 Yankees items to our 1, and that's not including jerseys (that's a lot higher of a count).
Actually they probably know something that the other 29 teams don't about all international signings??? I don't know what that is, but theres gotta be something.
In this line of business you must invest in your product, at least a fair amount of money compared to what you are charging for it!!!
Thanx for my daily rant...
Zozo.
The Mets are not in the market for any significant SPs let alone Tanaka. The team is 1 year away from having the best rotation in the Bigs with Harvey, Wheeler, Niese, Syndergaard, and Colon/Montero/DeGrom/anyone.
also kaz matsui. nuff said
Zozo -
you remind me of a sales manager I had once at one of my radio stations... I just told the department heads that we were going to give away $100 an hour on-air for the holiday season and he balked, saying why don't we give away a car, a boat, or $50,000?
I told him we couldn't do that because it wouldn't be within the budget which he balled at again.
I then reminded him that if he and his sales staff had sold more commercials we might be having that conversation.
John, the Mets are not going after Tanaka.
It's not in the budget
Mack -
I don't think it is fair to say that the Mets reluctance to bid on Tenaka is solely (or even primarily) a budget issue. As Soto said, this team is on the brink of having an outstanding, young, inexpensive, controllable rotation for the forseeable future. Beyond the obvious Harvey, Wheeler, Niese, Gee, Syndergaard, Montero, there is deGrom, Fulmer, Matz, Ynoa, Verrett, Whalen, Flexen, waiting in the wings. We know Sandy abhors long term contracts, and Tenaka is likely to command a 5 or 6 year deal. I think Alderson is weighing his birds in the hand against locking himself in for 5 or so years with a very expensive bird in the bush, and comes out opting to go with what he already has.
Herb -
Of course it's a budget issue...
the Mets do not have enough money left in the 2014 unspent portion of the budget to bid on this guy...
I'm not making this into a budget ISSUE...
the money isn't there anymore... period. It has nothing to do with how many pitchers are in the system or how many other players are in the system.
It has to do with a fixed budget minus what has already been spent... and nothing else.
This guy is way out of the Mets league in 2014.
I disagree Mack....EVEN IF we had millions of dollars left we still would not be going after Tanaka.
Why would any team push 2 MLB Top 100 bright young stars out of rotation spots when they are only a few months away?
Chris -
You're not disagreeing with me... you're just coming up with another reason the Mets won't go after him.
I'm just stating the obvious... the money is no longer there in 2014 even if the Mets had crap for pitchers
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