Mack’s Morning Report – 2-22-14 – Shortstop, Eric Young, Matt Harvey, Sliding, Leading

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

            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.