Morning Report – 3-2-14 – Thought on ST-Day 2

Coming Up –

          10 am – Top 14 in 14 - Texas Rangers

          12 noon – Bronx Empire - Mock

            2 pm - Top 10 Third Basemen in the 2014 MLB Draft - Revised 2-24-14

            4 pm –  Top 10 LHP in 2014 Draft - Updated 2-24-14

6 pm - Kyle Freeland, Chris Oliver, Ti’Quan Forbes, Payton Squier

            8 pm -  A Quick Look - LHP - Brandon Finnegan – TCU

Adam Rubin ‏@AdamRubinESPN  - He was not invited to major league camp this spring training. RT @WillDuBritz: is Jordany Valdespin with the Marlins in Port St Lucie today?

Kendall Rogers ‏@KendallRogersPG  - Legit RT @ Dan Kirby: Kyle Freeland finishes: 9 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 9 K/0 BB. 98 pitches, 71 str. Has 20 K/1 BB over 18 IP on season

I wrote this yesterday about game 2 -

Thoughts on ST-Day 2 –

-          John Lannan may have only thrown his fastball up to 88, but he struck out two in the first and had a perfect first inning. Lannan did give up a double in the 2^nd to Derek Dietrich, but he ended the 2^nd inning with his 3^rd strikeout. The fastball stayed in the high 80s… an excellent first outing.

-          Injuries have a way of creating openings that never would have happened without them. Remember last year with Matt den Dekker and Juan Lagares. Den Dekker was supposed to be the 4^th outfielder and future CFer and Lagares’ name wasn’t even on the table. This year, the tightness in Eric Young Jr.’s side has given TC and Sandy a chance to evaluate Chris Young as a possible leadoff hitter (BTW… den Dekker had a fabulous diving catch that ended the second inning). Young singled in the 3^rd (.500)  for the second game in a row.

-          OF Kirk Nieuwenhuis continued to show that he shouldn’t be written off as the 5^th outfielder. He singled in the first inning.

-          Zach Lutz started at third base this game. I’m not sure of his future. Obviously, he is blocked by David Wright and both Wilmer Flores and Josh Satan offer the Mets depth on the 25-man. In Vegas, Eric Campbell and recently signed Jairo Perez could squeeze him out there also.

-          Kyle Farnsworth pitched the 3^rd inning… with one out, Austin Barnes went 3-2 and then homered to left field... Jake Marisnick singles, steals second… crazy inning included a walk and Taylor Teagarden throwing out an attempted steal at second… the bottom line is Farnsworth got out of the inning giving up only one run (9.00).

-          Six of the first nine Mets batters struck out.

-          Scott Rice pitched the 4^th inning… a  very efficient inning… pop out to first… strike out… one, two,  three…

-          Well, there was more fuel added to the Davis-Duda  fire in the bottom of the fourth when Lucas Duda homered to left field off the top of the berm.

-          John Church pitched the 5^th… shaky start for Church’s first big camp appearance…  single…wild  pitch…  HBP… one good ground ball could get Church out o this inning… another wild pitch…3^rd wild pitch scores run… and inning finally ends thowing out runner trying to steal home. Not what you would call the best first impression, but every young pitcher goes through the butterfly stage of major league pitching. Church will learn and rebound from this…

-          Den Dekker singled in the 5^th, setting up a ‘Captain’-‘D.D.’ battle for that 5^th outfield position.

-          Josh Edgin pitched the 6^th iing and wasn’t helped by a single and an error by Duda, which was followed by a two-run scoring single by Reed Johnson… all with no out  (you have to start to wonder if Edgin might have begun to ‘reach the peaks’ of his potential)…  a walk, another hit, a throwing error by den Dekker, two more runs and the nightmare continues… nightmare ends with 5-R, 4-ER, 36.00

-          Ryan Reid pitched the 7^th inning… Reid did have two strikeouts, but he also yielded the 8^th run of what is becoming a miserable game…

-          The only good news is we’re now going to see some of the more talented players come up to bat…

-          Juan Centeno flies out… Cory Vaughn flies out…

-          Cory Mazzoni pitched the 8^th…  Anthony Seratelli switched over from second base to shortstop… and the ‘1^st time to Big Boy Camp’ butterflies came out again with a walk to the first batter… ollowed by another walk… but he got out of the inning with a strikeout and nice catch by Dustin Lawley (0.00).

-          Danny Muno walked… Brandon Nimmo flies out to left… Cesar Puello walks (OBP!)…

-          Vic Black pitched the 9^th… ground out…fly out…single…Muno error (3^rd Met error in game)… then RBI single… (God, let this game end)… couldn’t they bat Jordany Valdespin and we could get Black to hit him? Oh, he’s not on the Marlin Big Boy roster… a walk loads them up… inning thankfully ends.

-          9^th inning rally… Matt Clark strikes out… Dustin Lawley pops out… ah, forgettabout it…

-          Marlins 9, Mets 1

There’s no way you can analyze something like the second spring training game. Your starters are pitching two innings at the most and your starters on the field start to depart after the fourth inning. By the sixth or seventh, you basically have two AA-ball teams playing each other.

Still, we already can walk away with both some positive… and negative points.

The negatives have limitations. There were three errors today, but only one (Duda) by a possible starter… and there were some spotty pitching, but only by the ‘kiddies’ that always seem to let the butterflies get the best of them.

In addition, no middle infielders have stepped up to the plate let. They have so far hit a combined 1-15. Again, still early, but we knew we had a problem here.

The positives are many:

-In case you have fell off the face of the earth, I should tell you that we have a battle going on for first base. Both Lucas Duda and Ike Davis have come out swinging and even Josh Satin has to be impressed with this. I don’t know who’s going to win this, but you can be sure there will be many more scouts and cross checkers in the stands in the next couple of weeks. Look for them also during BP. Both of these guys have the bat to win a starting job in this game. Only one can do that as a Met. Stay tuned as this becomes fun.

The ‘starters’ have been incredible… a combined: 7.0-IP, 0-ER, 10-K, 0.00... and, you know what?  These aren’t even the pitchers projected to make the rotation coming out of camp!

And lastly, it may seem like a small thing, but Chris Young has hit safely in both games he has played so far in spring training. Again, baby steps, but this just might be your leadoff hitter in 2014.

Two bad loses, but it’s ain’t Kiev, baby.