Morning Report – 3-17-14 – Dice-K, D-1 SPs, Pen, BoSox, Seattle, Vegas Game

Coming Up –

        9:30 am -    Craig Mitchell -- The Baseball Melting Pot

        11 am –  Mack – Mid-Month Spring Observation

         12:30 pm - Stephen Guibert - 2014 Round One Draft Profiles - Tyler Kolek and Touki Toussaint

2 pm –  Mack – Thoughts on 3-16 Lucy-Vegas Doubeheader

4 pm -    FANGRAPHS - Ranking the Minor League Systems by Impact: #1-15 - Mets - #13 -  Observations

6 pm -     Derek Fisher, Michael Conforto, Mex Pentacost, Kel Johnson

8 pm –   C - Devon Fisher - Greenbrier Christian Academy (VA)

10pm –   BTBS – Top 28 Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects

***The injury yesterday to Arizona SP Patrick Corbin could be the final straw that brings a new shortstop to the Mets (Didi Gregorius or Chris Owings). If this is going to happen, it will happen quickly, sometime this week. 


Mike Silva ‏@MikeSilvaMedia  -  Great news! I will be blogging baseball again NYBD and Sports and Media at Sports Media Watchdog http://nybaseballdigest.com

MLB Reports ‏@MLBreports  -  Terrible news that Arizona Ace, Patrick Corbin's left UCL is compromised + might need Tommy John Surgery

Adam Rubin ‏@AdamRubinESPN  - Bumped into scout tonight who raved about Jeurys Familia. Clocked him at 96 mph, in Familia's 2nd straight day pitching. He'll make bullpen. Bob Geren thought Familia's pitch that broke Teagarden's webbing was 100 mph. Scout had Familia top out at 98 mph. Impressive either way

Bernie Pleskoff ‏@BerniePleskoff  -  Industry challenge: Reduce or eliminate tendon issues.  Fewer cutters? Less heavy weight training? More running? More swimming? Real problem

Andy Martino ‏@MartinoNYDN  -  Wouldve been funny if reporters in Florida refused to tweet Niese saying he was OK. "Sorry, Jon, but no tweeting what goes on in clubhouse."

Adam Rubin ‏@AdamRubinESPN  -  Here's thought: Niese DL could be backdated 9 days into spring training. Sits 1st 6 days of season. Debuts 4/6--1st day 5th starter required… Backdating 15-day DL 9 days into spring training is permissible as long as player does not appear in Grapefruit League game.

Anthony DiComo ‏@AnthonyDiComo  -  #Mets are considering Rafael Montero for the Opening Day bullpen, but NOT as a Niese replacement in the rotation. Mejia, Lannan in that mix.

Maury Brown ‏@BizballMaury  -  Average AAV for the 180 MLB players in salary arbitration for 2014 was $2,866,136.02

Nathan Rode ‏@NathanRode  - 2014 LHP Mac Marshall (Parkview HS, GA) getting warmed up for #NHSI14. 5 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 10 K tonight

Terry Collins on Cory Mazzoni –

"His stuff plays. He's got three plus big league pitches. He throws 94-95, he's got a great split, he's got a good curveball. The location, when it gets to where he knows where it's going he's going to pitch in the big leagues a long time."

It’ a shame Mazzoni got off to a bad start this spring but it’s not like he really had any chance of sticking this spring. Now he has to worry about a pitching slot in the over-crowded Vegas 25-man. My guess is he will be the SP5 with Noah Syndergaard, Rafael Montero, Jenrry Mejia, and Jake deGrom. Thse five could give some major league rotations a run at their game!

Dominic Smith on his first at bat (single) –

"I felt a little bit of nervousness. I was just happy to play on the same field with some of these guys. It was fun to get a little taste of it."

Boy, I don’t want to rush this kid, but please, please, please… start him off in Savannah this year. We’ll watch over him real good down here… hell, my wife and some of the mothers of the local kids I wrote sports on will keep him in home cooked food… I’d like to think he could finish this year in St. Lucie, play some Arizona ball in the fall, attend one of those strength camps the Mets have been using, report to Big Boy Camp in the 2015 ST and fly to Binghamton around 3-29-15.

 From Richard Herr –

        Hey Mack -

On the rotation: Sandy likes what he’s been able to do so far trading veterans for prospects. He thinks Dice-K did well when Dan Warthen worked with him. If D-K does all right in spring training, he goes north as the 5th starter. Mejia starts for the 51s. Then when we no longer spell months using the letter R, Sandy deals off D-K (and possibly Colon) for prospects. Some or all of Montero, Mejia, and Syndergaard come up, with possibly Thor going to the bullpen to ration innings.

        Mack – Hey Richard.

All bets are off right now pending the results of Jon Niese’s MRI. My guess he will be okay (he didn’t even want to come out of the game and Niese is the last person on the team that would test an arm in pain), but, he’s run out of time to be game ready by opening day. So, watch for things to slow up and he’ll probably open the season after a short stay on the 7-day DL.

I’ve talked to three people in Florida. All three worried what Jenrry Mejia’s reaction was going to be when he found out he would be returning to Las Vegas. That looks like it won’t happen for now and he’ll get at least two starts with the parent team.

Either way, the decision has been made to add Dice-K to the rotation. Being that, we all need to rally around the decision because the better he pitches, the better SS or 1Bman we get in a trade around the all-star break.

Richard, this is NOT going to be a good year for the Mets, and it  won’t be until the rotation is firmed up for the future. Guys like Dice-K, Chris Young, and Bartolo Colon will be made available to pennant contenders and we’ll add more team controlled prospect type players to our ‘payroll’.

On Moneyball batting philosophy: Davis, Duda, and Tejada came up from the minors and showed very well. Once they were with the big club, their hitting dropped off. The only people hitting well ignore the M-ball batting philosophy. In four years, Sandy cannot show one poster boy for this system. Something in there is broken. I don’t know what, but something, and it needs fixing

Moneyball, smunnyball. How many World Championships have Billy Beane built?

That being said, I love the long range plan Alderson has built. It’s the short term portion of it that has failed the fan base.

Is it his fault? Is it the ownership? Look, it’s all management to the average fan and this is supposed to be a baseball team in the largest media market in the world, owned by a family that doesn’t owe a penny.

It makes as much sense as playing Ruben Tejada on short.

From Bill Metsiac –

        Hi, Mack, I read the discussion between you and Herb re: the rotation, and was surprised that neither of you mentioned that the Mets won't need a 5th SP until April 14, two weeks after OD. That means that if Niese has to miss OD but isn't seriously hurt, he can go on the DL and rehab in the warm Florida weather until that date. Whoever wins the #5 slot (I still feel, as I said a few weeks ago, that the Dice-man will be this year's "sleeper" and pleasantly surprise) can then slip into #4, with Niese making his debut as #5.

In any case, I seriously doubt that they'll go into the season with an all-RH rotation, which practically hands a spot to Lannan (at least until Niese is ready) if he doesn't suddenly fold. But the 4-man rotation, regardless of the names, will allow an extra bench spot to start off with. Maybe denDekker or Kirk goes north, or Campbell gets a chance.

It'll be interesting, but let's not panic until Niese's MRI tomorrow. We'll know more by Tuesday morning (today).

        Mack – Well, a few thoughts…

I thought it was interesting that the Mets ‘stretched out’ Carlos Torres Sunday with a three inning outing. He would be a perfect fill in during that first five-games-in-a row series, especially if Niese’s injury is minor.

I agree that Lannan would be the odds on favorite to replace Nielse and Mejia would be odd man out once again.

My guess for the extra bat would be the pop of Andrew Brown (as of 3-17: 30-AB, .      567-Slug).

Wilmer Flores –

Wilmer Flores, 3B/1B — New York Mets - Flores began his pro career as a shortstop but quickly outgrew the position and has now done the same with second base. He’s slow-footed but his arm strength fits the hot corner. The questions surrounding his bat and how it profiles in a corner are real, however.

Flores, 23, isn’t particularly patient but has above-average power and I’ve seen him square up a half-dozen fastballs in a 4-game series, but for me it’s a reach that he ever hits for enough home run power to play first base, which puts a lot of pressure on his glove at third, which some scouts believe has stagnated.

Flores is a B-level prospect, but not one that likely helps Seattle anytime soon. http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2014/02/27/scouting-rumored-trade-returns-for-mariners/

Xander –

        The player was Xander Bogaerts, and very little about his fall odyssey made much sense. Who else earns a starting job at a new position in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, less than two months after his major league debut? “He’s 21 and he plays like he’s been here five or six years already,” said third baseman Will Middlebrooks, whom Bogaerts replaced. “I don’t know how many games he has, 30? He’s so mature for his age, he has a great work ethic, and he’s open to learning and making himself better.” Middlebrooks is back at third now, with Bogaerts at his natural position, shortstop. The Red Sox have moved on without the free-agent shortstop Stephen Drew, and the spot should belong to Bogaerts for years to come.

I do have to say that I really am not a big fan of this travelling to Las Vegas crap. This team is having a hard enough time getting it’s regulars back in the lineup (David Wright) and the last thing they needed was rest time after the long flights. We’re running out of time to put the best team on the field and, as of right now, April looks like it is going to be a disaster. In the future, the Mets might want to save the jet fuel and build the cost into an offer for a shortstop. If they don’t stop this madness there will be a team someday that flies to Australia to open the season!

I got a chance Sunday morning to watch the replay of the Mets game that ‘featured’ RP Vic Black (5.40) giving up three runs. Simply put, it was a bad outing that featured a bunch of hits and walks and, it could have been a lot worse if it wasn’t for an inning ending double play. Black needs to bear down and get back on track or he could see himself losing his slot to someone like Miquel Socolovich (0.00).

I also got a chance to see the Dominic Smith single… he didn’t look nervous. Got the single on the fourth pitch after a ball outside, a bad call ‘welcome to the Bigs’ strike one, and a weak swinging strike two. The single itself was barely outside the category of an ‘infield hit’, just going over the head of the pitcher and bouncing off the SS’s glove after an attempted stab. Not much here… the ball would have ran around five more feet before it stopped… but the BA is listed at 1.000, which is totally kewl for an 18-year old.

There was an article on Sunday in the TC Palm (St. Lucie newspaper) about how the loss of the Mets’ complex/teams in Port St. Lucie could be devastating to the economy of the ‘Treasure Coast’. I couldn’t read the article because it’s blocked by a membership icon. Seems the folks in St. Lucie feel subscribing to their newspaper is something I should do after they fired a good friend of mine that was the beat reporter for the Mets games there. Frankly, I didn’t realize the Mets were looking to leave the area. I thought they were trying to recruit other teams into the area. Anyway, if anyone has paid the freight to this world class rag and there’s something worth my time in it, please cut and paste it to me. Thanks.

Latroy Hawkins –

        When LaTroy Hawkins finally retires, Major L`eague Baseball not only will be the lesser from his absence, the states of Arizona and Florida could see a drop in tourism. That’s because every year, an inner core of members of the LaTroy Hawkins Fan Club travel to spring training to support the reliever, wherever he’s playing and for whomever he’s pitching.

Well, officially they are members of his fan club. But they and roughly 40 members overall are all so amazingly close that Hawkins considers them part of his own family. “One of the coolest things happens when we’re talking to him before the games and people will come down and want to interrupt," says Larry Campbell, LHFC member No. 21. “And LaTroy says, ‘Not right now, I’m talking with my family.' He refers to us as family. Not friends. Family." http://espn.go.com/blog/spring-training/post/_/id/1976/latroy-hawkins-and-family

Observations – Sunday’s Vegas Game

On pitching…

        Just fiddlesticks on Jenrry Mejia giving up two runs in the first (only one was earned, 2.25-ERA at the time). The Mets really need a spot on performance from him today after the Niese mess down in Florida. A home run plus a deep fly ball to center in the second sends Mejia to the showers… ST ERA up to 4.15 and F.U. Vegas…  it is too damn important right now to leave Mejia out there to be banged around in that thin air.

        Mets bring in the Vegas killer… Rafael Montero… and get out of the inning, trailing 3-0. However, he too let a Cub go yard in the 4^{th (2.57-ERA)} … then a fourth run scored from a walk, stolen base, and a single. That’s simply bad execution by a pitcher, something that Montero is supposed to be past doing (God, is this an awful day…).

        I’m done for the day…

On fielding…

        Juan Lagares did it again in the 3^rd. Catches a deep fly to center and throws out a runner at home… is this guy human?

(same play…)

John Harper ‏@NYDNHarper - Flores just showed why he's not a major-league SS. Went to his knees on half-dive to stop DP ball toward middle. Lack of range cost the DP.

Marc Carig ‏@MarcCarig  -  Made nice play to his left earlier. RT @_mistermet: @MarcCarig How has Flores looked at shortstop so far?

On hitting…

        Look at these batting averages after two innings… David Wright (.176), Curtis Granderson (.192), Travis d’Arnaud (.154), Wilmer Flores (.179)… I know everybody gets a clean slate come March 31^st, but come on guys, you’re the meat in the freezer!

        The Cubs don’t seem to have any problems understanding that they are playing in Vegas… 2-HRs and 5-H in 4-innings… the Mets? One hit.

Adam Rubin ‏@AdamRubinESPN  -  Ike Davis went 2-for-6 in a minor league game as DH but did not run in game. Did run afterward. Lucas Duda had Sunday off from games


As I mentioned above in the pitching section, I just had to walk away from this game during Montero's struggles. Frankly, I can only take so much bad baseball and a doubleheader of this is really too much on a Sunday afternoon.

There is very little I can wrap my head around positively right now and it's probably best that I just hush up.

I'm going to nap up before Walking Dead.