Morning Report – 3-28-14 – Touki, Chism, Loopy, Cam-Chat, Martino

1900 Chicago White Sox

Coming Up –

        10 am –  Reese Kaplan - The Mets:  Where New Ideas Come to Die

        12 noon –  D Whit - TC, What On Earth Are You Thinking?

        2 pm –  Dove - Did The Mets Field Their Opening Day Lineup on Thursday?

         4 pm –   Big League Futures - Mock

        6 pm –  Marcus Wilson, Tyler Kolek, Aaron Nola, Ti’Quan Forbes, K.J. Bryant

        8 pm –   SS - Josh Morgan - Orange Lutheran (CA) HS

keithlaw ‏@keithlaw  

Yes, it is. - is it hyperbole to say Lagares is the best defensive OF in baseball?”

Jim Callis ‏@jimcallisMLB   - My top 3 in order: d'Arnaud, Hedges, Alfaro @cbeddick66: @Rangers Alfaro the best catching prospect in the game? @Mets @Padres

Adam Rubin ‏@AdamRubinESPN  -  Jon Niese said he feels very good about his outing today and health. Fully expects one more minor-league starts and activated on 4/6… Dan Warthen says Jenrry Mejia's bunion remained at least a mild issue during between-starts bullpen session… At one point, Terry Collins predicted Cory Mazzoni would miss "significant" time with triceps issue--while noting triceps not alarming area…

Marc Carig ‏@MarcCarig  -  TC makes it sound like Lagares is on the club and he'll share time in OF at the start if the season.

Kristie Ackert ‏@AckertNYDN  -  Collins said the #mets did not answer questions they wanted to answer in ST. Will take decisions to wire on Sunday… Collins seemed very concerned with bunion that bothered Mejia in last start…

John Manuel ‏@johnmanuelba  -  Incredible scouting heat at Field 2 for Gainesville (Ga.) & Michael Gettys vs. Clovis (Calif.) & Jacob Gatewood. At least 15 club SDs here

Coral Springs (FL) HS RHP Touki Toussaint pitched Wednesday against California’s Orange Lutheran in the National High School Invitational at Cary, N.C. Toussant took a no-hitter into the 6^th inning and his final all-over-the-place stat line was: 6.0-IP, 12-K, 4-BB, 2-HBP, 116-P. His fastball sat in the low 90s, plus had an effective mid70’s breaking ball. Toussaint will easily be a first round draft pick and should be around when the Mets pick 10^th. It’s going to be hard not to call his name out.

Adam Rubin ‏@AdamRubinESPN  2-  Mets bringing a few extra arms to Montreal with big-league club: T.J. Chism, Adam Kolarek, Cody Satterwhite and Jonathan Velasquez.

        Mack – we all are familiar with Kolarek, but…

Chism – he was a 32^nd round draft pick in 2009 out of La Salle. Basically he has come out of the pen his entire career and his combined 5-year pro career, starting in K-Port and ending last year in St. Lucie is:  161-G, 13-7, 2.11, 1.14, 161-IP, 182-K, 59-BB. Chism is a 5-11 lefty and will play 2014 as a 24-year old (until 8-9). Did I say he was a lefty?

Satterwhite – The 27-year old Satterwhite was a 2^nd round pick in 2008 by Detroit, who gave up on him (2011) early. He sat out 2012 with shoulder issues and the Mets plucked him off of the Sioux City Explorers (2013: 19-G, 201, 0.65, 0.76, 10.08/K-9) roster. He then went on to pitch last year for St. Lucie (16-G, 2-2, 2.78,1.63, 22.2-IP, 23-K, 13-BB).

Velasquez – Goes by ‘Jon’. We original signed by the Phillies in 2009 as an International free agent (23-years old). Got off to a late baseball start and will pitch 2014 as a 28-yr. old. Pitched last year for Camden/Atlantic League: 61-appearances, 6-2, 1.95, 1.14, 73.1-IP, 82-K, 26-BB, 10.02-SO9

More Loopy Questions –

        John Loopy asked - Mack, I have some more topics that I'd like to pick your brain on.

Regarding the upcoming draft, obviously there are players that are absolutely no chance to fall to the Mets. Is there one player, who you believe is a chance to fall to our pick, that you would love to be able to select? I can only judge on write ups and the odd clip, however I would love Michael Gettys to be available.

Mack – I can fully understand your desire to pick Gettys; however, there are a fair amount of scouts that aren’t convinced he will have the bat needed to be a sure fired hit. Also, this is considered a weak draft for outfielders and you might not see one of them picked in the first 10 picks.

The one player I would love to see still available when the 10^th pick rolls around would be Vanderbilt’s RHSP Tyler Beede, though I’m not sure Sandy Alderson has it in him to pick a college player with his first pick. That just isn’t the way he rolls. Beede could be major league ready as early as late 2015 and projects in the SP1-3 range.

On to my obsession with the farm system, what weight do you think the front office places on the prospect pipeline when looking at trades and free agents? Do they totally ignore the fact that they have, say, Smith and Rosario as long term options? Are they too far away to factor in? I guess what I am asking is would the FO bring in a 1st basemen for example, on a long term deal of 6-7 year, when they have Smith maybe 3 years away?

Well, this one is easy. As long as Sandy Alderson is General Manager, you are never going to see someone ‘come in’ at any position with a 6-7 year deal.

To a degree, every so-called prospect below the St. Lucie level can only be evaluated by projecting their tools and ceiling, not what they are producing at these lower levels. I could tell you stories of 100’s of ‘Smiths and Rosarios’ that never worked out. They are simply too green playing against other greenies.

Who is the next big time pitching prospect that you see coming through? We have Syndergaard, Montero, and deGrom, with Matz and Fulmer a bit further back, but who are the guys in rookie ball that we should be keeping an eye on?

As I mentioned before, never count your chickens before they hatch. My guess is at least two of the five names you just listed don’t pan out at the major league level.

Past them, there is no sure fired ‘ace’; however, the Savannah staff could be a fun one to watch. Remember the names John Gant, Robert Gsellman, Chris Flexen, Miller Diaz, and Robert Whalen.

After that, Marcos Molina and Jose Medina should play on one of the short-season teams.

Bill Metsiac added –

        Hi Mack, remember a few weeks ago, when I wondered why the Mets didn't have a Latino coach or mgr at AAA or Queens? Well, Howie just commented that one aspect of Luis Natera's promotion to the big club as Asst. HC "gives the team something they lacked---a Spanish-speaking coach to guide the young players like Tejada and Lagares".

Mack – You might be on to something here. We all know the percentage levels for Hispanic speaking ballplayers on our teams now. Maybe the word ‘Assistant’ really means ‘International’ and probably it would be a good idea to have an “assistant pitching coach’” as well.

Cam-Chat –

       Comment From MSW - I’m mildly surprised the Mets came in at #29 for SP. I didn’t think they’d be in the top half of the league, but pitching is widely considered to be their strength. Is it just that they’re fielding a rotation with more filler than their top arms? How would you explain this disconnect? Thanks!

Dave Cameron: If they put Mejia and Syndergaard in the rotation, they wouldn’t be 29^th

Andy Martino –

The Mets are marginally better.

Ninety wins is a silly topic for this team, but I can tell you this: The scouts who have been crushing on the Mets every spring for the past half-decade have begun to change their tone, if just a bit. Where the question used to be, “How many games will they lose? A hundred?” now it’s “Finishing .500 would be a good goal for them.”

The primary reasons? The young pitching that the Mets have been bragging about for years is finally just about ready to help the big club; baseball people love Curtis Granderson as a power threat, and as a leader; and Chris Young has looked pretty good this spring.

There remain many black holes and issues, and the payroll is too small for New York. Still, passing along that the evaluators are just a tad more positive this year, when talking about the Metsies… http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/baseballinsider/scouts-spring-training-teams-players-trending-yankees-ny-mets-texas-rangers-miami-marlins-cleveland-indians-blog-entry-1.1736451