Mack’s Morning Report – 1-11 – ST Invitees, John Church, Tom Glavine, ZIPS Pitching, Brandon Nimmo

 

Photo by Mack Ade

Non-Roster ST Invitees –

RHPs - Chase Bradford, Joel Carreno, John Church, Jeremy Hefner, Rafael Montero, Miguel Socolovich, Noah Syndergaard, Cory Mazzoni, Logan Verrett

LHPs - Adam Kolarek, Jack Leathersich

Catchers - Taylor Teagarden, Kevin Plawecki

Infielders - Brandon Allen, Eric Campbell, Anthony Seratelli, Daniel Muno

Outfielders - Dustin Lawley, Cory Vaughn, Brandon Nimmo

Mack – There are multiple reasons these guys get invited to Big Boy Camp.

One… have you ever watched a pre-season game? If you have, you know that by the 5^th or 6^th inning all starters have hit the showers. In fact, as the pre-season rolls on, more and more players are invited over from ‘the other site of the complex’ to grab their glove and help finish a game. It is a matter of numbers.

Two, in many cases, this is actually the first time people like Terry Collins will get a chance to see some of the prospects play. None of the Mets coaches have seen someone like Nimmo so the Mets field brass will get an opportunity to see firsthand what’s down the pipeline.

And three, it’s just a wonderful thing to reward a player with going through the system. I talked last night with John Church’s mother and, according to her, he’s on ‘Cloud Nine’ about this. So is Kevin Plawecki. These guys have been playing baseball since T-Ball and this begins the reward they had hoped to get someday out of this game.

(speaking of Church, here is your typical workhorse kind of pitcher (23^rd round) that just goes out there and does his job every night. His mother reminded me that I am basically the only writer that has followed him and said anything supportive about him. What has John done? Over five seasons for five Mets clubs: 20-14, 3.41, 1.34, 185-G, 319.0-IP, 277-K, 135-BB. In Las Vegas last year: 23-G, 3-0, 3.21.)

I’ve stopped going to these games due to my inability to drive alone and, when I did, I never really got to know any of these players very well. They are taught early to be careful around news people, especially the ones that don’t come off as a beat reporter. Still, you see them enough so, in the future, if they walk by you in spring training, you might get an occasional nod.

What you do get, as a writer, is the feeling of being a distant uncle as you watch them ascend through the various affiliate levels. And, you smile on days like yesterday, when you see your ‘nephew’ do good.

David Wright on Tom Glavine –

Glavine wasn't worried about jinxing his Hall of Fame candidacy. He knew the credentials he had created at that point of what became a 22-year career would open all doors in Cooperstown. He declined because it was the proper response.

David Wright was apprised of that anecdote two days later -- David Wright, who lives his life by a code similar to Glavine's.

"Would you expect Tom to do anything else?" Wright said. "I have so much respect for him. You can learn a lot about being a good person and being a professional by watching Tom Glavine."

Mack – No one is ever going to call Glavine an ex-Mets pitcher, though he did start for them for five years. The fans will also always reserve their opinion of him on his last outing, sort of like that infamous Carlos Beltran non-swing. Still, in 2006 and 2007, Glavine went 28-15, pitching 398.1 solid innings. There was no trading here. He came in a free agent, declined a $13mil one-year contract option with the Mets for 2008, and signed instead back with the Braves for $8mil. It simply was never the same.

Is he part of Mets history?  Definitely.

ZIPS Pitching –

Mets supporters with a sensitive disposition might want to avoid inspecting the pitching projections for their club below — mostly, that is, because heroic and tragic Matt Harvey‘s name appears atop everyone else’s. ZiPS doesn’t know that he’s likely to miss all of 2014, just that he recorded a total of 178.1 innings in 2013 and was excellent while so doing.

More than has been the case with other clubs in this ongoing release of ZiPS, it’s the case with the Mets that the five pitchers most likely to begin the season in the rotation aren’t necessarily the five considered most qualified by Dan Szymborski’s computer math. Ranked solely by projected WAR, both Rafael Montero (1.5 zWAR) and Noah Syndergaard (1.4 zWAR) would merit a place in the opening-day rotation. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2014-zips-projections-new-york-mets/

Mack – I talked briefly with Dan about this and didn’t share what I’m writing here.

It’s nice to see both Montero and Syndergaard’s name here as projected Mets pitchers in 2014, but how serious can you take a computer sheet that also projects the likes of Stephen Matz and Matt Fox making this team?

ZIPS… Steamer… Oliver… all a waste of paper.

Brandon Nimmo Injury Splits –

            Prior to April 20 (pre-injury): .392/.489/.527

April 20 through July (injured): .207/.330/.282

August through end of season (recovering): .315/.468/.398

And most this was accomplished in a home field pitchers dream of pitching in.

Nimmo is a very young baseball player with a limited amount of experience. He has one of the nicest swings I have ever seen. Sort of hangs the bat just off his shoulder and follows through with excellent bat speed.

The power we haven’t seen yet could be dependent on what he did this off-season. I interviewed him last year with 1B Jayce Boyd and Nimmo was very impressed that Boyd had gained 15 pounds off muscle in the off-season. Hopefully, that’s what we’ll see here once camp opens.

Deadspin -

I guess turning over a vote to an entity consisting of your cronies is fine, and turning one over to an entity consisting of baseball fans isn't. QED. Whatever, though. For our part, we'd like to acquire another vote next year. We think we have a decent line on one, and it wouldn't hurt to get another. The first, we'd hand over to the public. The second? Who knows. Maybe we'll give it to Dan Le Batard.

            (This is going to take a few days to go away…)

Jerry Crasnick

I spent 10 years flying all over the country, waiting for interviews in clubhouses, fighting deadlines and investing a big chunk of my life as a beat writer and national baseball writer to earn a Hall of Fame vote. Maybe it sounds quaint or old-fashioned, but it means something to me to be able to sit down with that ballot every December and make my choices. It's a personal privilege, even though I know the process isn't perfect and we're subject to criticism for the choices we make. So I didn't see anything especially "noble'' in Dan LeBatard's decision to give his vote to Deadspin. I respect Dan and consider him a friend. But if he doesn't like the way the process works, he has a forum to express his opinion both privately and publicly -- and maybe even help change the system. The Deadspin ploy got him a lot of publicity and helped fuel the anti-BBWAA sentiment and rampant sense of cynicism that helps feed Twitter. Beyond that, I have no earthly idea what he accomplished that could remotely be characterized as positive. Maybe Dan can answer that question; I certainly can't.