1/16/14

Mack’s Morning Report – 1-15 – 2001 Draft, 2014 Draft, Sickles on Mets, Baseball Games, A-Rod

USA Today


-Some of you have mentioned that you enjoy reading the morning report and you ‘sometime’ come back for another peek at the site later on in the day. I do want to remind you that there are other great writers you may be missing if you don’t visit at least twice a day.

Here’s what I’ll do… I’ll try to remember to tell you each morning in my report what original posts are coming up, and when.

I also suggest you come back to the site between 3-4pm EST to check what went up throughout the day.


-We continue to look at the draft years of 2000-2007 for the NL East teams. Specifically, we break out the players chosen in the top three rounds and an overall assessment of success (sic) in choosing players in the draft.

2001 –


Mets  -          
            #1       P Aaron Heilman   630-IP, 35-46, 4.40
            #1       3B David Wright   5,172-AB, .301, 222-HR
            #2       OF Alhaji Turay      career ended at the AA level
            #2       SS Corey Ragsdale               career ended at the AAA level
            #3       P Lenny DiNardo   257-IP, 10-18, 5.36 over six years

            Four of the 52 players drafted made it to the majors

            Three (Heilman, Wright, DiNardo) had any success at that level


Florida -      
 
            #2       P Garrett Berger    career ended at the rookie level
            #3       P Allen Baxter        career ended at the A+ level

            Two out of the 49 players drafted made it to the majors

            Two (Chris Resop, Jeff Fulchino) had any success at that level


Montreal -  

            #1       P Josh Karp              career ended at the AAA level
            #2       P Don Levinski        career ended at the A+ level
            #3       P Mike Hinckley     23-IP, 0-0, 1.93 over two years

            Four out of 50 players drafted made it to the majors

            None had any success at that level


Atlanta -     

            #1       P Macey McBride  103-IP, 6-2, 4.35
            #1       3B Josh Burrus       career ended at the AAA level
            #1       IF Richard Lewis    career ended at the AAA level
            #2       P J.P. Howell           25-24, 4.10, over eight seasons
            #2       3B Cole Barthel      career ended at the A level
            #3       OF Adam Stern      43-AB, .116

            Seven of the 53 players drafted made it to the majors

            Two (Howell, Kyle Davies) had any success at that level


Philadelphia –

            #1       P Gavin Floyd         1,151-IP, 70-70, 4.48

            Three out of 46 players drafted in 2001 made it to the majors

            Only one (Floyd) had any success at that level.


250 ballplayers were drafted in 2001 by the NL East teams

20 made it to the MLB level -  8%

Only eight had success at that level   -  3.2%


2B Chad Zurcher announced on Facebook that he is retiring from baseball. I had Zurcher as the 3rd second baseman on Savannah this coming April, behind either Dilson Herrera/LJ Mazzilli (one goes to St. Lucie) and Yucary De La Cruz. We wish Zurcher well in whatever he chooses to do.


Sickles on Mets –

Thanks to trades, improved drafting, and the quietly efficient Latin American pitching program, the Mets have a huge amount of depth in C+/C prospects, especially on the mound. There are a lot of guys who have a chance to be number four/five starters or at least valid relief arms. In those terms this is one of the stronger farm systems in the National League: the raw material for a really nice pitching staff is here and there is talent at all levels. Given the attrition rate among pitching prospects, gathering as many pitching arms as possible is a worthy strategy. Everyone tries to do that, but the Mets have actually made it work. http://www.minorleagueball.com/2014/1/13/5303318/new-york-mets-top-20-prospects-for-2014

Mack We just aren’t used to people like Sickles saying things like this (the underlined portion) about the Mets. The fact is we have turned out to be right. The potential 2015 rotation of Harvey, Wheeler, Syndergaard, and Montero could rank this team as one of the top rotations in baseball… as well as being one of the youngest.


Baseball games -

For me, personally, there are so many things beyond the outcome that make attending a baseball game exciting. There is nothing like sitting under the hot summer sun wearing your team’s favorite colors or feeling the heat coming off the bleachers as you roll your sleeves up while sitting under a cloudless sky or hearing the singing of the National Anthem, the sound of the ball snapping into the mitt, the sound of an organ and the songs that only make sense at a baseball game, the cheers from the crowd when your favorite player comes to the plate, the crack of the bat colliding with a 97 mph fastball or the smell of the grass and the stain it leaves on a player diving up the middle, the dust thrown up in the air as a player slides into second, the yell of an umpire on a strike-three call, the movement on a well-thrown breaking pitch, singing in unison to Take Me Out to the Ball Game, the taste of a perfectly cooked hot dog, the crunch of ballpark peanuts underneath your feet, the perfectly chalked baselines, the frat guy trying to start the wave, the fireworks, the newness of a scorecard before the story unfolds, the artwork of it after nine innings of scribble, the second-guessing with the random fan next to you, the smack of high fives after a game-winning home run and, most importantly to me, the feeling of being relaxed, brushing all cares aside for three hours as you enjoy the finest sport ever created, freeing your mind of all the turmoil and wickedness this world provides, and focusing on something so insignificant in the grand scheme of it all that you’re okay making it the most important thing in your life for however long the game may last. http://throughthefencebaseball.com/baseball-much-more-than-just-a-game/40858#WLxIrtKcv6lz0L0I.99


Marty Appel -


Ok, so I thought of this last night. It's September 29, 2014. Yankees and Red Sox have tied for first in AL East and need to have a one-game playoff to see who wins the division. But wait, it is game #163.....A-Rod has served his 162 game suspension, and although the decision says no post-season --- this ain't post-season. It is game 163 of regular season, and he shows up and insists he is eligible. And, well, he is. And, well, without joy, Girardi sends him out to pinch hit in the 11th inning, since he is out of players. Having swallowed a gummie just 4 hours and 9 minutes earlier, A-Rod is ready......John Sterling and Michael Kay are talking all about Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone.....and here's the pitch......

18 comments:

greg b said...

Mack i might be one of the few fans who thinks that the mets should continue drafting as many pitching as possible. Its the only way i think to have winning seasons year after year. The more pitchers you have you can always trade pitching for hitting.

tommyb said...

I disagree with Greg B, not in general concept, but because I see such a plethora of pitching in the Met pipeline right now that I would veer towards selecting the right hitter, if he is equivalent to the best pitcher available to the Mets in the draft. If the pitcher could be Harv/Wheeler/Noah-level elite, however,that is a different story.

There are so many potential rotation and pen guys in the pipeline, it is amazing. So if a guy is out there who could play OF and go .300, 25, 90 in 2-3 years, the pitchers coming up on the conveyer belt will appreciate the support.

I threw out the idea the other day of trading A- Noah for the Cubs' A prospect, and it was not agreed to by Mack. I'd love to see a rotation of the big 3 kids and Montero and Mejia or Gee (or Niese or Degrom etc.) in 2015, but if we had a SS that could win us 8-10 more games because he is so much better than a Tejada, I'd reluctantly bite the bullet and hope a Fulmer or Mateo or Degrom or one of the bevy of other up-and-comers could be a real rotation alternative by 2015, with others ready by 2016 and 2017.

Mack Ade said...

Greg -

You share that opinion with an old reader of ours, Charlie, who doesn't comment anymore

Mack Ade said...

Tommy -

Trust me... no one drafts by position in the first three rounds... these kids are 3-5 years away... it's always 'best player available' on the board and, around the 8th or 9th round you start to fill in your rookie rosters

Unknown said...

I agree Mack best player available always. Never for need...

Ernest Dove said...

As far as drafting, Macks current/ongoing and amazingly detailed posts of drafting history of the national league east shows that its extremely difficult to pick the right guy..so I agree to simply take/draft anyone, high school or college, pitching or hitting, who they believe might someday contribute at the major league level.

Mack Ade said...

Thank you Ernest.

And, it won't change, for the NL East, or any other conference.

Draft rate to pro level ranges from 4-7.5%

That's why your first three round picks are so important to draft 'best player available on your board'.

You get 50 picks so there is plenty of time to fill in the spots needed for the rookie teams.

I don't care if you have picked a SS with your first pick 5 years in a row... if the top person on your board is a SS... pick him.

The reason you see more pitchers... they simply are the best athletes in the game

TP said...

Mack,
I agree with Ernest - your review of the NL East drafting is tremendous and really illustrates what a crap shoot it is.

Stephen Guilbert said...

That Through the Fence excerpt is one of the best series of sentences I have read that describes how I also feel about the game. There is something so beautiful about the game of baseball and how it can capture our attention for hours and let us tune everything else out. While it is far more than escapist entertainment, it's transcendental properties make it the best sport for me to watch. When a game is on during the season, it doesn't much matter what else is going on for me. I'm there, I'm enjoying it, and no one can take that away from me.

Dallas said...

Mack, I have started reading more of some of the other original posts lately. I think the barrier to people reading other original reports is the mix of AP related content like the minor league ones. I dont think you need those posts or you could aggregate them into one post. AP reports can pollute the original content. I think one of the reasons I have read a lot less Metsblog content in the recent months is the very high ratio of AP/non-opinion to original/opinionated content. On the weekends they have mostly given up on providing original content.

Mack Ade said...

Dallas -

I agree.

I have slowly turned my Morning Reports into 90% original material, or original material based on a quote I find from someone in baseball about the Mets. The problem I have is the need for around 1,000 words a report to make it entertaining and punching that out seven days a week can be taxing.

I just turned Sunday morning over to one of my writers, Thomas Brennan, which will help.

As for the future, I wish we looked up what we do here online like most emerging businesses. This could use a good old fashioned merging period where two or three (let's say Mack's Mets, Mets360, and Two Guys Talking...) merged into one site. The combination of all the writers could produce 6-8 quality pieces a day.

For now, my writers average around 3 original stories a day, all that are posted before 2pm EST. I concentrate on press releases and draft stuff after that.

Dallas said...

Mack, I'm not talking about your Morning Reports (I love these), I'm talking about the articles on each minor league game for example. Its hard to distinguish what is going to be original content or not when first clicking on articles to your site. Over time you become more familiar if you are a regular. I just don't click on the Binghamton recaps anymore. I can get that plus the boxscore (which is my main interest) by going to milb.com. Anyways my main point is that its hard for newer users to see your great content by original writers. I think if you posted less of the milb type recaps for example you would get more traction on your other content. Just an observation I had and I could be completely wrong.

Tom Brennan said...

hey Dallas

took me a while to figure it out but you can go quickly from one article to the next by clicking the Newer/Older Posts at the bottom. Much easier way to navigate from one to the next. I usually bang thru them all that way on the train to work in AM.

I like the individual minor league articles, as they add more detail to the morning minor league report in case you were interested in more.

Great reminder on draft, Mack, and how hard this game is to succeed in. Occasionally, I talk to a non fan who says "those ballplayers make way too much $$" but don't really stop to realize how hard it is to get there and stay there.

Even with Tejada, who gets ripped a lot, he's nonetheless ahead of a bunch of IF guys in our system, and some like Chad Zurcher never get close.

Mack Ade said...

Trust me Thomas -

Dallas knows everything that is needed to know about the Internet. He owns and operates the very successful Sportspyder site.

You may be right Dallas.

I reprint the press releases (identified as team press releases at the bottom of each posting) as a service to my readers. I always put them up before 8am when the site starts to hum up.

I NEVER, I repeat, never get a decent amount of 'hits' until the 8-9am hour.

I also NEVER, have got more than 1,000 hits expect for around 20 days in 7 years... half of which were on day one of the draft.

I took the site down three times which didn't help... new website... manic incident... hospital stay.

At first, I had 6-8 legit advertisers... now, haven't had one in over 4 years.

I've chased off all the Mets Twitter kiddies and we seem to have just become a nice place for a bunch of old Mets fans to hang out and bullshit. Our readers here don't live on the net and they appreciate reading the roster moves and injury reports... also, I've built up a decent secondary following for the draft coverage.

I had hoped to make some money doing this to offset some bills, but that's not going to happen.

Thanks for the suggestion...

Mack

Dallas said...

You have a lot of good content around the draft so I'm sure you are ranked well in Google for those related keywords. People are all looking up names on draft day sending you a bunch of page views. However Google likes unique content, they may penalize you to some degree for the direct reprint of those press releases. I'm sure my site is penalized to some degree for the same reason.

Of course none of this really matters if you just want to keep up what you are doing for existing followers and fans shooting the shit. Its hard to actually build enough following to make any real money off of it. Its a mix of SEO (changing the url and links every year hurts you A LOT) and good original content. However the more traffic you get, the more advertisers will come directly to you. If you are interested I could also pitch your site to my USAToday ad rep that I have.

If you want to balance giving current followers the transaction/minor league stuff you could combine them into one or two posts and reduce the noise ratio. I think that would drive more people from SportSpyder as well.

Mack Ade said...

I didn't realize putting up the press releases actually hurt my site. I'll stop doing that and see if that helps.

Also, I can add up all the roster moves and put them each morning in my morning report.

Please feel free to mention me and my site to your USAToday ad rep. I welcome any help in that area.

Dallas said...

Here is a nice write up on duplicate content straight from the horses mouth (google)

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2319706/Googles-Matt-Cutts-A-Little-Duplicate-Content-Wont-Hurt-Your-Rankings

I'll send a message my rep for you.

Mack Ade said...

Thank you Dallas for the article. I seem to be doing a bunch of things wrong.

I also checked Alexa and I'm way down from rankings from 4-5 years ago... oh well.