2/17/14

Mack’s Morning Report – 2-17-14 – Danny Anderson, (Exclusive) St. Lucie, A-Rod to Bo-Sox, D-1 Stats




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Coming up Later Today - 

    11 AM - Christopher Soto - Mack's Mets Top 25 - #16 - P Jack Leathersich

    2 pm  -  Craig Mitchell - The Curly Fry Incident

     4 pm  - D Whit  -  Ralpn, Lindsay, Murph and My Misspent Mets Childhood



Danny Anderson, who was the clubhouse manager for the St. Lucie Mets since 2006. died on Friday of an undisclosed form of cancer. He was 48-years old. Danny was the kind of person that was loved by anyone that came in contact with him. He first began his Mets career as the visitor’s clubhouse manager, then moved on to managing both the minor league complex during spring training, and the St. Lucie Mets home clubhouse. He became ill in November and entered the hospital in December.

Danny’s last entry on his Facebook page was to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.



(Exclusive)  -  In other news out of St. Lucie, there will be no radio broadcast of either the home or away games in 2014. Last year, they here heard on WPSL-AM 1590; however, it was team officials that decided not to continue their relationship. I attempted to reach last year’s media contact, but was told he no longer is with the organization.

My first contact with the St. Lucie Mets were in 2007 and, I have to say, drawing media information out from them has, at time, been close to working with North Korea. It did get better these past few years when they hired  a new media contact, but it’s my understanding that his position have been eliminated from the budget.
Yes, that’s right… another Met cutback, the return of no information coming out of Lucy and now, not even a game to listen to. As of right now, I’m not sure there will be anyone sending press releases out and it looks like the organization will return once again to the Dark Ages.

Look, I understand the lack of media releases from the GCL Mets and even nothing coming out of Kingsport is alright with me, but I’ve never understood why the boys down in Florida don’t seem to understand that Toby Hyde and I aren’t the only two people on earth that follow the minor league teams of this organization.

You have to have someone in that front office that punches out a daily release on how the game turned out. We’ve all turned to the TC Palm newspaper during the season and we’ve seen how miserable they’ve covered the Mets. Hell, they haven’t even assigned a reporter to the team since I began going there in 2007.

Now, there isn’t any arrangement worked out with one of the local or regional radio stations (remember… I come out of radio… the broadcast is something produced by the radio station and it is they that pay the play-by-play announcer that is in the booth. This hasn’t been the way St. Lucie operated. They chose to fully employ the person in the broadcast booth which, as I say, isn’t the norm for either industry).

There has been one constant throughout this period… the same General Manager. Decisions like these do not come from Queens and, for whatever reason, the St. Lucie Mets have been allowed to operate outside the boundaries of how other teams run their organizations both in the same league and within the same organization.

It’s pitiful that the Mets now have two minor league teams, their extended camp, and their entire minor league brain trust complex operating in a media fog, all because of the actions of one man being paid to punch out the best product in 2014.

The listening to St. Lucie Mets baseball games is a very important part of the retirement community of Pt. St. Lucie and it’s a shame they don’t even realize at this point that that privilege has been taken away from them.

I’m actually sickened by this development and find more reasons every day to direct my last professional efforts to other directions other than writing about this organization.




D-1 Sunday Stats - 

           #1 Cal State Fullerton - 3B Matt Chapman - 2-3, 1-R

             #5 Florida State – SS Justin Gonzalez – 3-3, 2-R, 1-RBI, 2-BB, .700
                                            3B Jose Brizuela – 2-3, 1-R, 1-RBI, .462

            #7 Indiana -   C Kyle Schwarber – 0-3, .200

             #9 UCLA  -  SP Cody Poteet - 4-1-IP, 1-ER, 4-H, 3-K, 2-BB

            #12 South Carolina -      LF Joey Pankake – 3-5, 3-R, 1-HR, 1-RBI, .400
                                                CF Tanner English – 2-4, 1-R, .455
                                                C Grayson Greiner – 1-4, HR, 1-R, 3-RBI, .417

            #14 Louisville -       P Cole Sturgeon – 2.0-IP, 0-H, 0-R, 2-K, 2-5, 2-R

            #16 Clemson -        C Garrett Boulware – 2-4, 1-R, 2-RBI, 1-BB

            #21 Florida -           SP Karston Whitson – 2.0-IP, 3-ER, 2-K, 2-BB
                                                C Taylor Gushue – 1-3, 3-RBI, Sac, .364

            #22 TCU -                 1B Kevin Cron – 0-3

             #31 Stanford -       3B Alex Blandino - 1-4, 1-R



Mike Puma -  Mike Harvey is unhappy having to watch things from afar...

  http://nypost.com/2014/02/17/harvey-unhappy-having-to-watch-mets-from-afar/ 


Anthony DiComo - Wilpons funds are steadily improving -      

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/nym/mets-coo-jeff-wilpon-the-mets-fortunes-are-steadily-improving-on-and-off-the-field?ymd=20140217&content_id=67831958&vkey=news_nym         

   

Rany Jazayerli

After three seasons, Rangers owner Tom Hicks had apparently grown tired of Rodriguez’s consistent excellence, and decided it was time to trade him.7 The Red Sox, who had just lost Game 7 of the ALCS to the Yankees on Aaron Boone’s 11th-inning homer in the Grady Little game, and who were in the process of trading for Curt Schilling in their ongoing game of nuclear proliferation with the Yankees, were interested. And so was Rodriguez.

A deal was reached, and all sides were amenable: The Rangers would trade Rodriguez to Boston in exchange for Manny Ramirez and a prospect named Jon Lester. The Red Sox would then trade incumbent shortstop Nomar Garciaparra to the White Sox for Magglio Ordonez and a prospect named Brandon McCarthyhttp://grantland.com/features/alex-rodriguez-alternate-career-history-red-sox-yankees/


MackEverybody forgets when A-Rod offered to take a pay cut and pay part of Manny’s contract  so he could become a Red Sox. Read this story for a catch up…


11 comments:

That Adam Smith said...

Good morning, Mack. Hope you're feeling well. It's so good to have actual baseball players running around on actual baseball fields again.

The St. Lucie thing is an absolute joke. How do you run an operation like that? What don't they understand about visibility creating interest creating revenue? This is like a throwback to the early days of TV when some in baseball didn't want games televised because it would hurt the gate. Backwards, backwards. Plus, all of us Mets Minor League Junkies spread out across the country (and the world.) I mean... what the hell?

Meant to mention this when it came up, but I am super excited to see "the new" Flores play some SS. I'm generally a big believer in defensive SS's, but I'm even a bigger believer in this kid's bat. Looking at pics it seems like - with the help of a workout program - he's just now starting to grow into his body. If I squint, I think I can see a .310 hitter in there, with an .850 OPS, 25 HR's and 100 RBI. I'll give back ten runs per year on the defensive side for that. And maybe in a couple of years, Murph is part of a package with a young pitcher for a young star at SS and Flores takes those numbers over to 2b. Just dreaming here.

Mack Ade said...

Adam -

Regarding St. Lucie, yeah, I don't know where to take this info to... the team is owned and operated by the Mets so they must know what's going on here. It's really sad and I've lost a critical source of good material for the site.

Regarding Flores, he looks fantastic, and we do have to remember that Derek Jeter once led A-ball in the amount of SS errors... still, I worry that the DP combo of Flores to Murphy to Davis may look like Groucho to Zeppo to Chico...

Hobie said...

Mack,

Last week I attempted a reply to a "ST surprises" post from my (new) Iphone--screwed that up I guess, but suggested.

1- Wilmer gets some extended PT at SS and makes the 11 o'clock highlight clips.

2- Den Dekker rakes, so now what?

Just sayin'

Herb G said...

Mack - Do those of us already registered with blogger need to reset our accounts?

Hobie -

I'm looking forward to seeing Wilmer get plenty of time at SS this spring. I have a hard time imagining that he would win the starting job, though, since the spring is such a small sample. I think, if he really does well, he either comes out of it with the utility spot on the bench, (edging out Seratelli) or gets a committment to regular time at SS in Las Vegas. The best case scenario, to me, is that they sign Drew, and then trade him in July if Flores is ready to take over full time.

If den Dekker rakes in spring training, he probably gets the lefty outfielder spot on the bench instead of Duda.

Mack again -

While catching up on the A-Rod saga is interesting, the real question is whither Alex in 2015? Will the Yankees welcome him back? Will they try to trade him? Will they eat his salary and dump him? Would you pick him up at league minimum if the Mets still need a SS and he is there for the picking?

Anonymous said...

@Herb

nope...The only users that should see change are those of you who only comment via the Anonymous option.

We apologize for the inconvenience but in only the past 2 weeks the site has been hit with over 1,230 spam comments.

Mack Ade said...

Herb -

A-Rod was and probably still is one of the greatest SS in the history of baseball

I would gladly pay him $2mil a year for 2 years to play shortstop in Queens

Mack Ade said...

Hobie -

I'm afraid that 'DD' is left out this year... his only hope is to rake .350+ in Vegas and hope someone slumps or gets injured.

Bill metsiac said...

How do I "register"? Every time I want to comment I have to click on an option and type my name in.

Mack Ade said...

Bill, you are already registered... your posts already have your name on them.

Now, if that's happening because you are having to type your name in EVERY POST, then, I assume, we have an issue.

Soto... you out there?

Can you help the oldest living Mets blogger out there :)

bill metsiac said...

Yes, every time. After I type the post, it asks me if I want to use my Google Sign-in, my name, or several other choices. I click on "name", and it asks me to type in my name.

Once I do, I'm allowed to choose "preview" or "publish".

Every time.

Mack Ade said...

Bill -

This doesn't happen to me. Maybe because I am an administrator.

I ask all the readers out there to help Bill here and confirm if he's doing it the right way or is there an easier solution to this problem.

I'm going to bed Bill. I've had a horrible fucking day on this site, with readers, other bloggers, and frankly the entire Met world.

I gotta re-think this out...