Coming Up –
10
am - Reese Kaplan - More Dispatches from the
Bizarro World
12
noon –
2 pm – BTBS - Top 41
Prospects - Tampa Bay
4 pm - MLB Draft Countdown - Mock
6 pm - C - Chase Vellot -
St. Thomas More (LA) HS
8 pm – Touki Toussaint,
Michael Rivera, Jakson Reetz, Juston Smith
10pm – Matt Garrioch -
Mock
Adam Rubin @AdamRubinESPN - Three
#Mariners scouts again at Roger Dean Stadium today for #Mets-#Marlins.
Adam Rubin @AdamRubinESPN - Ike Davis 1-4 with walk in minor league game. Lucas Duda 3-4 with double, HR, walk. Neither ran
bases, but they ran postgame
Adam Rubin @AdamRubinESPN - Scouts
tell me teams are going to run wild on Jose Valverde this
season. Does not hold runners. Sure enough, enters and Yelich swipes 2B.
I was wondering what it must be like to start your day
being Ruben Tejada. Do you go down to the main strip in St. Lucie and stop by Panera’s
for a cheese danish while, at the same time, go dial up places like the Adam Rubin morning report
that links to all the beat reporters out there writing stories that morning?
Hmm, let’s see… CBS New York’s Ernie Palladino’s story on Tejada
(headline: “ Mets Shouldn’t Settle For Ruben Tejada At Shortstop”) starts off
with the first line “Like Nero, Sandy Alderson fiddles around while the Mets burn... then
there was the NYDN’s John Harper piece that suggests that the Mets sell off a young pitcher to
obtain one of Arizona’s shortstops…
Hell of a way to start your day.
There seems to be a
difference of opinion between Adam Rubin and Andy Martino on the future of Jenrry Mejia. Martino posts last
night that his ‘sources’ have told him that Mejia could ‘start the season off
in the Mets pen’, only to be moved back to the rotation later on in the year.
Rubin reported in his Monday morning report that Mets officials would rather
decide what to do with Mejia (starter or pen) and then leave him to that
decision. We’ll follow this as it develops.
Colon –
Bartolo Colon - My
Rank: 91 | Consensus: 64 - Now here’s
one that doesn’t surprise me. Colon is going to be 41 (!!!) this year, doesn’t
strike anyone out, and posted an ERA about a full run and a half below his
SIERA. He’s not going to have that kind of HR/FB rate and LOB% luck again, so
without any strikeout cushion, his value could plummet. http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/2014-pods-picks-starting-pitcher/
Justin Turner on the Mets –
“I
don’t have that answer for you. I’ve been there for three years. All I can do
is say if I was running an organization, in charge of it, I would look at all
my players as assets, and want to build them up. So even if I didn’t want them
to be on my team, they would have value. But for some reason, I don’t know,
that’s not the thought process over there.”
Mack – Frankly, I always thought of
Turner as a comic book character that probably wore out his welcome because he
was just happy being around rather than winning. He also talked just a little
too much, just like he’s doing here.
Long Toss –
First,
be advised that you may have to work yourself up to the distances listed below
and be patient until you can comfortably work up to these distances. Adjust distances
downward for younger pitchers. Be extremely cautious with both the distances
and the number of throws. This is not a competition of any type between you and
your throwing partner and do not overexert yourself! You and your throwing
partner should be sure to loosen up your arms before doing the drill.
Possible Distances When Long Tossing:
60 feet apart--6 throws
90 feet apart--8 throws
120 feet apart-10 throws
90 feet apart--8 throws
60 feet apart--6 throws
Remember not to overexert yourself and find distances and
number of throws that are comfortable for you! I would not recommend long
tossing on two consecutive days and if you should have a somewhat serious long
toss session, I would take two days off before long tossing again. http://www.larrybaseball.com/component/content/article/34-free-tips/121-the-long-toss-a-pitcher-will-benefit-tremendously-from-long-tossing
Plawecki v1.0 –
A
first-round pick in 2012, Mets catching prospect Kevin
Plawecki delivered a breakout performance in his first full season last
year, hitting .305/.390/.448 for Class A Savannah and Class A Advanced St.
Lucie. His batting average ranked fourth among all full-season Mets farmhands
and his 80 RBIs tied for fifth-most in the system. The big year has propelled
Plawecki up prospect lists; MLB.com now ranks him eighth in the Mets
organization. Besides having a reputation as a strong receiver and leader
behind the plate, the 23-year-old backstop has a knack for making contact at
the dish -- in 168 career games at Purdue, he struck out just 29 times and was
named Big Ten Player of the Year in 2012. http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140317&content_id=68794604&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb
Plawecki v2.0 –
Kevin Plawecki presents an attractive combination at
catcher — a solid average contact hitter with defensive skills which are
continuing to develop. Scouting Plawecki multiple times last season, his bat
proved impressive. Utilizing a repeatable, compact swing that generated above
average bat speed, Plawecki barreled every pitch he made contact with. A
methodical hitter, Plawecki’s knowledge of the strike zone will result in high
walk rates and low strikeout rates. His power presents as average, limiting his
projection to 10 to 15 home runs in a full season. Behind the Plate, Plawecki
provided an easy target for pitchers to throw to. Physically, he resembles
another New York catcher, the Yankees’ Brian McCann.
They share the same body type and similar disposition behind the plate.
Defensively, Plawecki flashed plus potential framing pitches, but struggled
with pitches in the dirt and to the back hand side. http://rotoscouting.com/mets-kevin-plawecki-a-valuable-trade-chip/
Vegas –
After
each game, when Backman composes his nightly report to send to the Mets, he
essentially passes along two sets of numbers: the official box score and the
true box score. The second one takes into account the pop-fly homers, cheap
doubles and groundouts-turned-base hits. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303287804579443332756970364?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303287804579443332756970364.html
3-17 Game Notes –
-The St. Patrick’s Day baseball cap has to be a great
reason to beg your coach not to be in today’s lineup. I don’t want to speculate
who designed it which would probably risk embarrassing a very nice, loyal
employee.
-all of the regulars that played in Vegas are off today…
another lost day for team building… jeez
-pitching wise…
It’s John Lannan’s turn (I’m writing
this in real time)… my hopes are we see at least
four innings here… not the start you wanted here… (is it just me or is most of
the projected Mets starters going in the crapper lately?)… gave up 2-R, 3-H in
the first inning…
The second inning started as badly… a walk followed by a
wild pitch… then another walk… this was not going to be Lannan’s day to show he
could earn himself back a slot in the rotation… he did get out of the inning
with some nifty infield field work, but 3-BB, 0-K, 2-ER, in 2.0-IP (6 of first
8 batters made it on base) so far.
The hits… and the runs… kept coming in the third. Stat line
after 3.0-IP: 6-H, 4-ER, 4-BB, 1-K
Well, it may be a bad outing, but the Mets obviously intend
on stretching Lannan out to become part of the opening day rotation. He came
back out for the 4th inning after throwing 31 (15 strikes, 16 balls)
in the first three innings… and KABOOM… a Reed Johnson home run (5-1)… Lannan
was done after 3.1-IP, 5-ER.
Enter Jose Valverde, who
cleans up the last two outs in the 4th inning. He had a good day:
1.2-IP, 0-R, 2-K…
Scott Rice did not: 0.2-IP, 2-ER…
just not a good game for Mets pitching overall (10 runs)
-fielding wise…
Nice pickoff play in the 1st… With
Jeff Baker batting, Jarrod Saltalamacchia picked off and caught stealing 2nd
base, pitcher Lannan to second baseman Omar Quintanilla to first baseman Zach Lutz.
Error on the Captain…
-hitting wise…
the Captain singles in the first, but was
picked off for the third out…
I do want to point out one thing here… there’s
only one person in this lineup that currently projects to be in the Mets
starting lineup, and that’s Rubin Tejada, so I hope you don’t expect much from the outcome of this game…
The Mets did manage to score 7 runs, but all
of them came from players deep within the system… a good example would be OF Eudy Pina.
-Tejada watch…
Two caught looking strikeouts in the first two at-bats… a deer
in the headlights… 2-24 for the spring…
Line drive single to left field (.120) to load the bases in
the 5th…
-Overall summary…
You walk away from this game for what it was. A wasted day of
not playing your regulars and more questions than solutions from the pitchers.
Duda and Tejada at 75% ... Any team would want that for their team, don't you agree? Instead of a fat farm, send them next year to a hammy haven to save those hamstrings, which have hamstrung the Mets' offseason strategies. Yeah, Ruben has been back (and awful) for a while now. But if he had no hammy issues, and played all along, would he at least be passable at this point? How could Ruben not have his hamstrings ready, when he had to realize he needed to be on his game from day 1? Baffling.
ReplyDeleteInteresting notes here. Three Seattle scouts to watch the game. Who could they be looking at ?
ReplyDeleteMorning Mack,
ReplyDeleteI can't feel too sorry for Ruben or Ike for that matter. Sure, they are getting a lot of public heat, but so long as it isn't personal, they should be able to take it. Both are millionnaires and have already earned more in their 20s that I have in my lifetime at 50. And, both are better at baseball that over 99% of the people on earth. That said, to repeat for the 8 millionth time, Alderson desperately needs to upgrade SS and slide Ruben into a utility role. This needs to be done regardless of whether that player propels them into a playoff tea, There are two requirements here - he needs to acquire someone that is under control for more than one year. That can be Drew or it can be an acquisition. If it is a deal, and he is parting with good trade chips, he needs to bring in someone that will last and be at least average to above average. I prefer D first in this position, and Franklin concerns me, although he could slide into 2B when they deal Murphy because of his cost in arb 3 next year. But, that puts them right back to square one at SS.
Thomas -
ReplyDeleteWe must have hit rock bottom with Tejada at this point...
Sugar -
ReplyDeleteAnd they have been here every day for a week...
three scouts don't look at one player... there are multiple players they are cross checking
Morning TP -
ReplyDeleteI agree but you and I are quickly falling into that insanity category where we keep saying the same thing over and over....
Mack,
ReplyDeleteYes, insanity is following this team, but I suppose someone can be addicted to worse things.
I went to WalMart yesterday to pick up some pine straw and I wore one of my Mets sweatshirts... the guy at the door said "you don't really root for that team, do you?"... I laughed and told him I wrote about them and he said "well, you're never going to run out of great material to write about..."
ReplyDelete