3/25/14

Morning Report - 3-25-14 - Draft, Q and A, TTF, Game Notes,Second Base





Coming Up –

        10 am – Craig Brown - I May Be Wrong But

        12 noon – Reese Kaplan - What Purpose Does Spring Training Serve?

        2 pm – BTBS - Top 56 Detroit Tigers Prospects

        4 pm – My MLB Draft - Mock

        6 pm –  Brad Zimmer, Evan Skoug, Trea Turner, Scott Hurst, Kyle Schwarber

        8 pm –  SS - Joey Pankake - South Carolina

         

Stephen Keane @kranepool - I listened to the podcast very funny & witty I ask the same question who the hell is Ruben Tejada? Can't believe they sent Flores down


Dan Milmore @Milmore 
The Mets sent Wilmer Flores to the minors? You've got to be fucking kidding me. How does this move help the team?


Clint Longenecker @Clint_BA  1-  The high school pitching class is showing astonishing velocity. 5 arms have touched 98+ this spring. Kolek, Kopech, Holmes, Cease, Bukauskas


From Craig Brown to me and Stephen Guilbert -  

Hi guys,

None of us ever seem 100% pleased with the Mets first pick the day after the draft...Personally I loved the Smith pick last year, but wasn't happy with the picks the previous two years...I know its early, but what would your "morning after" reactions be to the following players if they ended up with the Mets at #10?

RHP Nick Burdi

I can’t support picking a relief pitcher with the tenth overall pick. He’s a great one, but the 10th overall pick warrants a killer starter of a 5-tool everyday player.

RHP Touki Toussaint

Toussaint may be the most talented high school righty out there ( I think it’s Tyler Kolek). He sits 94-95 and still projects to gain a couple of more ticks. A lot of talent here.

OF Michael Gettys

My ‘best player available’ of these four would be Gettys, who is a ++ bat as well as a projected Golden Glove outfielder (100mph arm to home). Yes, he would be 4-5 years away, but, in this case, it’s probably worth it.

OF Derek Fisher

Here’s the problem with Fisher… he’s out 4-6 weeks after fracturing the hamate bone in his right hand. You simply can’t use a pick this high on someone with this serious of an injury, even though he’ll probably heal 100% and be fine. My guess he will fall to a late first round or sup-one pick when this is all over.


TTF –

        Prediction - The Mets have assembled a few winning ingredients: pitching, prospects, veteran leadership and bona-fide superstars. The National League East is still a division in flux, but it’s also a division with lots of talent. Depending on how they address their remaining needs, the Mets could finish anywhere from second to fourth place. It seems likely they will stay in the wild card race as a dark horse, but they’re still a few moves from being a serious contender.  http://throughthefencebaseball.com/new-york-mets-preview/41599#vKSPKIWUELDmZEPQ.99


Game Notes –

        Dice-K pitched on Monday and I thought outloud on Twitter before the game, ‘what if Dice-K gives up 10 runs today? Does that mean Mejia gets the nod?’ I have this funny feeling that you might as well be rooting for a good outing here, because regardless of the results, TC is going to pick the Dice-man.

        Adam Rubin @AdamRubinESPN  -  Seems like entire #Mets pro scouting contingent here at Tradition Field today. So they're done gathering intelligence for spring training.

        Adam Rubin @AdamRubinESPN  -  Daisuke Matsuzaka, looking to lock up rotation spot, strikes out side in perfect first inning. #Mets 0, #StLCards 0, mid-1

                Mack  - okay, that was impressive…

        Kristie Ackert @AckertNYDN  - Scout said that yesterday was the best he's seen Mejia since back before all the injuries.

        Nice double play executed by Ruben Tejada in the second inning (it’s amazing we now write about routine plays).

        Daniel Murphy’s bat (.316) is season ready… nice 2-run double. That’s what he does the best.

        I see that they packed up Matt Harvey’s gear and put it on the truck to New Yawk City. There never really was a question where he was going to choose to rehab. And, by union rules and regs, it’s his choice, not the team.

        Travis d’Arnaud’s broken bat bloop single brings in PR Brandon Nimmo.

        It’s been an impressive 6-innings of scoreless ball thrown by Dice-K which, I assume, locks up his SP5. Keith Hernandez things so and said so before he through a HBP to open up the 7th… in comes Ricky Vaughn… he hits the next batter… lol… single loads it up… wild pitch… another single… Black this spring: 8+ IP, 9 BB, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 8 K, 5.63 ERA.

(it seems to me that the Mets have to seriously consider sending Black to Vegas next week and replacing him with Gonzalez Germen. He’s not the pitcher he was last September)

Anthony DiComo @AnthonyDiComo  =  All that said, #Mets have few in-house alternatives beyond Black. Gonzalez Germen has also struggled this spring. Farnsworth even worse.

John Lannan comes in for the first time in his career that he pitched two consecutive days.


Second Base - 



2B Tiers
http://cdn.fangraphs.com/fantasy/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2B-Tiers.jpg

10 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Discussion hit on Dice K, Mejia (how good both looked) and Black (not good) possibly being replaced by German. I only saw highlights of Mejia posted on Mets site yesterday - he HAS to be on team - he looked lethal. Great stuff - STAR stuff.

So if Black goes down, Mejia has to be on the team before German. Mejia has to be there.

The concern Mets have with Mejia is limited 2014 innings - so they'd send him to AAA to start? And use all his innings up in AAA? That would be insane - put him in pen - try to give him multi-inning stints so if a starter goes down, or one like Dice K is traded, he can readily step in and give them 5 the first start and up from there. With him in the pen, you might win 90.

Anonymous said...

@Tom

Something tells me Mejia will be on the team "in the bullpen" to start the season. He may not pitch the first few games though. If Niese is not ready April 6th, Mejia will make the start. After that....idk

Mack Ade said...

Thomas -

Morning.

Sadly, arms don't work that way. You are either a starter or a reliever and a relief pitcher throws balls-to-the-wall rather than the long haul a starter needs to endure.

No, if Dice-K wins the S5, which it looks like he will, Mejia goes down and waits for the phone to ring. Juddging from past injuries to Gee and Niese and Dice's bloated past ERAs, it will ring and he'll be back.

Until then, he pitches in April and it's 78 degrees out with no humidity and show girls living next door. Not bad if you can get it.

Mack Ade said...

Chris -

Mejia could be that extra man until April 6th, but I wouldn't play with his head. Get the deed done and send him on the first plane to Vegas

Tom Brennan said...

I'm OK with Mejia starting in Vegas if he is back by may 1 - obviously no guarantees he will be, but that is my personal time clock, after which I'd get increasingly annoyed for Mr. Mejia if he is not back. (Wait, did you say 78 degrees?)

Anonymous said...

@TOm

Vegas is nice this time of year lol

Craig Brown said...

I think its really important that they stop messing with Mejia..He's been bounced back and forth from starter to reliever too many times already...Put him in Vegas (where its nice and warm) for now, and just keep his innings down...Start him every seventh day, and no more than 65 pitches...Its not like they are going to have a tough time finding guys to pitch over there--Its going to be the best AAA rotation in baseball...

Mets Dreams said...

How come the Cardinals can take their young starting pitchers, put them in the Major league bullpen and they are hailed as geniuses. But when the Mets consider putting Mejia in the pen, they're going to ruin his career?

Anonymous said...

@Mets Dreams

Cause the Cardinals are an award winning organization that pretty much does nothing wrong. Plus when they put young stars in the pen its just once...they don't bounce them back and forth every year.

Tom Brennan said...

Ask Jennry, if you could pitch in relief for Mets, at ML salary, or in Vegas at the AAA rate, which would you prefer. He'd say, while I prefer to start for Mets, my next option is definitiely the Met pen - and Met paycheck.