Mack’s Morning Report – 12-5 – Curtis Granderson, Akeel Morris, AFL, Eric Young, Mike Monster

 

   

Mack’s Mets is looking for a writer to cover the 2014 draft. Please email me at: macksmets@gmail.com if interested.

So, the Mets starting outfield could be Chris Young, Juan Lagares, and Curtis Granderson. First thing first… this will be one of the best defensive outfields in all of baseball. One of these guys is better than the other two, or, you know what I mean…

What was the output last year:

           Young:          335-AB, .200/.280/.379/.659, 12-HR, 40-RBI, 10-SB

           Lagares:       392-AB, .242/.281/.352/.623, 4-HR, 34-RBI, 6-SB

           Granderson:   214-AB, .229/.317/.407/.723, 7-HR, 15-RBI, 8-SB

Granderson is coming off an injury plagued season after hitting 43 home runs in 2012 and 41 in 2011. This outfield easily projects, power wise, as better than anything the Mets have put out there in years. The big loser here looks to be Eric Young who would be relegated to a utility role. My guess is Andrew Brown or Matt den Dekker becomes the 5th outfielder and Lucas Duda winds up on some other team, probably in the American League.

Bottom line… this is both an offensive and defensive upgrade. You can add at least 20 more home runs to the outfielder  production… maybe 30.

The Mets need to get this done before walking into the hotel lobby this weekend for the meetings. Show of strength and the beginning of a new era



***My guess... everyone of these moments have their limits. This screamed of having to have gotten done by last night. I look for both the Mets and the player to move in different directions today.***
 

Christopher Soto continues to work with me on improving the Blogger site. We have reinstituted the current lists of post, in order of posting, on the top right site of the page. This will help us get to easier what goes up on the site each day. Soto also reinstated the most recent comments just below the list of posts which will encourage readers to click there as well. On goals in the off-season is around 2,000 page hits a day and, with a little work in the late hours with my ‘flash’ posts, we’re getting closer to consistently putting back these kind of numbers on a Monday-Thursday basis, Fri-Sun tend to come out a little slower. BTW, we had 2,426 on Tuesday. 

Akeel Morris -

33. AKEEL MORRIS – RHP - St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands - 10th Round of the 2010 Draft - Opening Day Age: 21 - Projected Opening Day Assignment: A-ball Savannah - Relevant Numbers: NYPL hitters batted just .184 off Morris; he gave up just 29 hits in 45 innings and struck out 60!  - Positives: There are a lot of positives to Morris’ 2013 season. The improvement results-wise are stark. His ERA dropped from 7.98 and an even 1.00. His opponents’ average dropped 70 points, basically becoming unhittable in 2013. Morris can get it into the mid-90s and seems to have reappeared to the prospect scene after his live arm went to waste in 2012.  Negatives: His command and off-speed stuff have a long way to go. He averaged better than a walk per two innings. He can get away with that in A-ball, but he’ll have to keep refining everything before he gets to the top. Also, he’s max-effort guy at only 6-1, 170, and so durability is a question. Style: Jose Veras http://acrossthejohn.blogspot.com/2013/11/mets-prospects-countdown-no-31-40.html  

AFL –

Unlike the international winter league rosters, the AFL rosters are determined directly by the major league organizations, who assign players there and determine what role they will play on that particular team for the next month. This provides organizations an opportunity to get one last look at players they may need to make a decision on soon thereafter. It's not surprising then that teams often send fringe prospects who are Rule V draft eligible for one last look before deciding whether to protect them on the 40-man roster. http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-role-of-fall-leagues/

Mack – read this article. It explains why teams send players to play winter ball in Arizona 

Mike Podhorzer -

Ever since Eric Young stole 87 bases in 118 attempts in Single-A back in 2006 with the Rockies organization, fantasy owners have been salivating over his fantasy prospects. With respectable strikeout rates and consistently high BABIP marks coupled with playing half his future home games in offense-inflating Coors Field, we simply couldn’t wait for his first opportunity at a full-time job. Unfortunately, that never really came to pass. After being shuffled between second base and the outfield throughout his career, Young finally recorded more than 200 at-bats in a season and earned a smidge over $9 in fantasy value, good for 49th among outfielders. http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/eric-young-steals-our-hearts 

Mike DiGiovanna -

His name is a headline writer’s delight, but that’s not why the Angels recently signed Mike Monster, a 6-foot-3 right-hander from Kelowna, Canada, who hasn’t pitched competitively in two years. It was a monster fastball that sat in the 95-mph range and touched 97 mph during a late-November indoor workout in Seattle that persuaded the Angels to sign the 23-year-old to a free-agent contract. http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-angels-mike-monster-20131203,0,4950991.story#ixzz2mWUPksST

           Mack – Read this. It’s a great baseball story.  

Howard Megdal ‏@howardmegdal  - Read @AnthonyDiComo's timeline for a great breakdown of why a Granderson addition would help Mets in several ways.

Mack Ade ‏@JohnMackinAde  - @howardmegdal as flawed as it would be, you can walk into wknd meetings w/2014 outfield on the books... position of strength

Howard Megdal ‏@howardmegdal  - Really, adding Granderson would be a big deal in terms of on-field, but also, as reality-changer in what Mets can do off of it.