We are experiencing
some snafus with the elimination of the ‘anonymous’ comments. Comments overall
are way down and some of you have emailed me sirectly (macksmets@gmail.com) of your problem
signing on.
Christopher Soto will
look into this when he can find the time away from his very busy job and we’ll
put up a simple explanation here on the site (as a post) on how to create a
membership on Mack’s Mets.
Bear with us please and
send me any questions you have directly to my email address.
Coming up later today:
10 am - D1 - Friday Night Top 30 College Prospect Stats
10 am - D1 - Friday Night Top 30 College Prospect Stats
12 noon - Herb G - A Seattle Slew Could Mean A Non-Drew Shortstop Solution
2 pm - Top 10 RHP
in 2014 MLB Draft
5 pm - A Quick
Look - RHP - Grant Hockin - Damien (CA) HS
8 pm - Sean Blewett, JD
Davis, Jon Littell, Greg Deichmann
Robert
Brender @robertbrender - Steven Matz nearly took off Sandy
Alderson’s head with a wild pitch during his bullpen session today.
Ernest Dove said –
At this point, I'm cool with however things fall regarding
shortstops throughout the organization. Outside of maybe Gavin C and Rosario,
nobody else is shining, and/or has met expectations since drafted......
Like other comments/posts in the past, I'm more worried about
who loses this game current game of musical chairs in regards to all the Mets
pitching prospects. With all the ones who've come and gone through failed
expectations in the past, it would suck to start seeing some of excess guys
start getting moved, and shine somewhere else.
Mack – Dove is correct. The Mets strength in
their minor league system is the depth of their pitching, especially starters.
I think ove will get what he desires, up to a point.
Nothing is going to change and no one is going
to be traded until the Mets figure out who the best five pitchers will be for
their 2015. After that, they will stack their Las Vegas rotation with the next
best five. Those are the guys that will be in the spotlight, not only as an
emergency sixth starter, but also as trade bait.
The secret here will be the success level of Travis d’Arnaud, Ike Davis, Curtis Granderson, and Ruben Tejada. If that 50% of the
starting lineup does their job up to their ability, the Mets will not need much
more to achieve their goals.
WSJ –
Nowadays, however, teams look for skills other than raw speed
in a leadoff hitter, understanding that in order for a fast runner to steal
second, he needs to be on first. Despite Collins's old-fashioned idea of the
prototypical leadoff man, the Mets' front office seems to grasp this, basing
its offensive philosophy on pitch selection. When asked to identify the key
skill for a leadoff hitter, Young responded, "Ultimately, getting on
base."
But Young doesn't do that nearly enough.
Young, 28, owns a .325 on-base percentage in 404 career
games, spent primarily as a bench player. Last season, in his first extended
look as a starter, that figure dropped to a disappointing .310 in 598 plate
appearances with the Mets and Rockies. Considering that he doesn't get on base
enough and isn't nearly as good a fielder as Lagares, it seems odd that the
Mets would pencil Young into the leadoff slot.
Mack – Christopher Soto and Stephen Guilbert always used to tell me
that it’s very important to have the right person leading off. I always thought
it really only came into play in the first inning. Yes, in theory, if the same
eight guys play 162 games a year, the leadoff hitter will get up more times
than everyone else.
I really don’t see why hitting first should
come into play when it comes to deciding whether Young or Juan Lagares starts. As said above,
Young had a .310 OBP last season. Lagares was .281. Woopty friggin doo.
I’ll make you a guess here. No… I’ll make you
two. I’ll bet both Travis d’Arnaud and Ruben Tejada OBP higher than the .310 posted by EYJ last
year by a long shot.
Let’s not get caught up in this leadoff hitter
stuff. It’s important but it’s not the end all.
Matt Harvey –
I saw that a bunch of Mets writers wrote
features about the fact that doctors cleared Matt Harvey ‘to throw’. I don’t
really get off on this news. It’s sort of like ‘clearing me’ to hook up with Maria Sharapova. Now all I have to do
is figure out a way to convince her.
You do realize that the only way doctors are
going to know if the operation was successful is to let Harvey throw a
baseball, longer and harder each session? This development is worth a mention,
but shouldn’t be the lead story in anybody’s blog or sports section. God…
remember sports sections?
Sliding Home –
I’m having a real hard time understanding why
baseball needs a ‘collision rule’ at home plate, between a runner and a
catcher. First of all, it isn’t a collision. A collision is when two objects are
traveling somewhere and hit each other. This is one person running into a
supposed immovable object.
According to Adam Rubin, Sandy Alderson said that “If blocking
the plate, or colliding with catcher, is "egregious" enough, a player
could be ejected by the video-review people. Alderson also says it would be
replay-challengeable whether a catcher provided a lane for the sliding runner
to the plate.
Alderson spent some time with the Mets catchers
on Friday trying to explain how they are supposed to play their position this
season.
I caught a little when I was a kid and,
frankly, preventing a runner from reaching home plate before I tagged him with
the friggin ball was one of my jobs. Catchers have spent years learning to get
into position waiting for runners to run into them, not collide. You place your
left foot firmly behind the plate, kneel down, and put your right foot in front
of the plate. Your last action is to turn your right foot sideways to create a
block-like defensive wall.
Is baseball trying to say this is ‘egregious’
now? Should catchers just go sit in the dugout and wait until the play is over?
And what about the runners? I agree you
shouldn’t take out a catcher in an all-star game but isn’t it the job of a
runner to get home?
You know I’m old school. You don’t want to be
injured here, don’t catch in high school.
Go play golf.
Leading Off -
Now would be a good time to talk about the Mets outfield,
both because spring training convened in full this week, and because manager Terry Collins made comments last Friday that may throw
a wrench into otherwise well-laid plans.
A week ago, before the team made any concrete decisions
regarding 2014, the most sensible solution looked to be defensive whiz Juan Lagares in center field, big ticket free agent
signing Curtis Granderson in one of the corner
spots, Chris Young in the other, and some
combination of Eric Young, Jr. and Lucas Duda serving as reserves or injury replacements.
That was before Collins met with the media Friday afternoon and offered this:
Collins on leadoff: I’m going to talk to Chris Young about
leading off Sitting here today Eric Young is the guy you’d like to see at the
top
— New York Mets (@Mets) February 14, 2014
So where does that leave things as we head into spring
training, and what does that mean for fantasy owners? - http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/the-mets-outfield-damn-the-torpedos/
Mack - first, some good news.
National writers don’t write about untalented
outfields. This is a better team than the one that was put on the field in
2013.
5 comments:
I feel like we are going to see a lot of baseballs go trickling out of catchers mitts this year while trying to apply tags.......
As for leadoff spot, I still like the idea of Daniel Murphy. Put Tejada number two.
Murphy gets on base. Tejada, even in a terrible year, still didn't strike out too much, so his ball can be put into play. Then let the captain and our high priced outfielders do what they are paid to do.
I think part of the reason for these catching rules is subtle way to increase scoring in MLB. Unfortunately, close plays at the plate will become a thing of the past. I'm not talking about runners barreling into a catcher, I mean even the runner hard sliding into homeplate vs the catcher blocking the plate will, unfortunately, become a part of baseball lore.
In a perfect world we don't sign chris young and have EY jr in left batting first, but since we are the Mets I say go with either Lagares, Tejada or Drew batting first and D'Arnaud second with Murphy batting third.
Mack -
You are old school, like me, when it comes to catchers blocking the plate. I liked nothing better than to see a runner barelling toward the plate as the catcher received the ball . . . and then . . CRASH! It it was a Met on the basepaths I hoped the catcher got knocked ass over teakettle and the ball went flying, allowing two more runners to score. If the catcher was a Met, I hoped he jammed the ball down the runner's throat. But you almost never see a play like that any more. And when you do, too often there is an injury.
This rule is all about safety, and it is hard to argue against that. We know more about concussions today that we ever did, and it seems that many went undiagnosed in the past. Just as helmet to helmet hits have been outlawed in football, baseball is trying to protect its players. I personally don't like the idea of "giving the runner a lane to the plate" but it may be necessary to eliminate the types of injuries that Buster Posey sustained.
Actually, I'd prefer if the rule was merely that the catcher couldn't place his body squarely in front of the plate and runners could not run into the catcher. Sort of like roughing the kicker, although that rule is overdone too. But maybe if they tried it that way at first to see how it worked out, it would be easier to accept.
Ah, screw Buster Posey. He doesn't play for us :)
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