Morning Report – 3-3-14 – EYJ, Grandy, Star Wars Shit, Edgin, Parnell, ST-G3

Coming Up –

          10 am – Christopher Soto - MM's Top 25- #6 RHSP Gabriel Ynoa

          12 noon – Craig Mitchell - The Ying and Yang of Baseball

             2 pm  -  Reeese Kaplan - A Very Grim Fairy Tale 

             4 pm -  D1 – Top College Pitchers – 2014 Stats

            6 pm -  Jacob Gatewood, Ross Kivett, Carlos Rodon, Derek Fisher

           8 pm -  A Quick Look - LHP - Brady Aiken - Cathedral Catholic (CA) HS

Robert Brender ‏@robertbrender  - Talked to #Mets Pitching Coach Dan Warthen about Steven Matz a few days ago. Thinks he has an incredible up-side and tremendous stuff.

Andy Martino ‏@MartinoNYDN  - Few VERY early things from #Mets: Scouts unimpressed by Farnsworth, Valverde. Team impressed by Puello, down on Walters' first outing.

Marc Carig ‏@MarcCarig  -  #analysis RT @JoeandEvan: Valverde looks like Valverde and when Valverde looks like Valverde he’s Valverde… Matz was hitting 95-97 mph today. The LI kid has looked awfully good….

Brian Erni ‏@brianerni  - maybe this is unfair, but i'm kinda over ruben tejada already.

Bernie Pleskoff ‏@BerniePleskoff  - #Mets Matsuzaka throwing mostly off-speed pitches w/ occasional fastball. Not much velocity. Curveball working well… Ike Davis still has the pronounced drop of his hands. Costs him as the ball is passed him when he's ready to swing. 2nd K today… Steven Matz now on to pitch. Got Molina on strikes. Matz has a very solid curveball. Downhill with big break…

Adam Rubin ‏@AdamRubinESPN  -  Scout at game today says Steven Matz should skip Florida State League and just be assigned right to Double-A Binghamton… Scouts are now coming up to me in the press box mocking 90 wins….

Dan Szymborski ‏@DSzymborski  - If Dee Gordon's the front-runner for a starting job, that's one of the signs your auditioning process needs some tinkering….There's a lot of air in those Albuquerque stats - PCL inflation plus walk rate (harsher translate) and BABIP aided…ZiPS projects Dee Gordon at 251/303/315 and isn't an outlier there - Steamer 246/303/312 and Oliver 249/315/304. Gordon doesn't even profile well as a super-sub - he's not a good defensive player…

Eric Young Jr. must be having a hard time accepting reality. He was supposed to play Sunday in Jupiter but, for reasons undefined, he and Mets officials decided for him to pass after he once again took BP. Reporters were told that he felt fine, but fine means he would have been on the bus, right? Or now, Chris Young and Juan Lagares are being given the opportunity to show they could handle the leadoff position and, if I was EYJ, I’d get my ass on the bus before I lost my job.

David Lennon –

Jason Bay got his first taste of the original, pre-renovation Citi Field here. Coming off a 36-homer season with the Red Sox, Bay could not have timed his free agency much better and signed a four-year, $66-million deal with the Mets, who determined that his power profile was a perfect match for their cavernous ballpark.

Could the seeds of doubt within Bay have been planted as early as spring training at Field 6 when he tried to tame that first humbling version of Citi Field? Probably not. But it was interesting to see Curtis Granderson -- the next slugger in line to be David Wright's protector -- take his first hacks at the Citi Field replica. http://www.newsday.com/sports/mets-betting-citi-s-size-won-t-cause-curtis-granderson-to-suffer-same-fate-as-jason-bay-1.7253493

Mack – Lennon presented this article on Twitter with the headline ‘Bay Watch for Granderson?’. Cute, but I’m from a time that you have to earn a negative piece before you become part of it. I am sure Grandy is used to the fact that there are 20 guys out there all having to write a daily spin on the Mets. There just aren’t that many unique subjects, so I give Lennon and E for effort here. I just wish the story was a little more positive after Game 2 of the Spring Training schedule.

Star Wars Shit –

At the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics, MLBAM announced a new tracking system (there isn't even an official name for it yet), similar to the SportVU cameras that the NBA has installed and totally separate from FIELDf/x. It tracks the speed and efficiency of fielders, based on highly accurate readings on hit balls—batted ball speed, launch angle, distance, hang time—and then how fast and how well the defenders react, capturing 30 frames per second on players and 2000 fps on the ball. It's the Holy Grail, basically.

The cameras went through a pilot test last year at Citi Field, and track the trajectory and speed of a ball, and show the path it takes. Simultaneously, they recognize where defenders are on the field, and how far they are from where the ball will land; it then tracks their actual paths, and how optimal they were. One of the examples used was a fly ball hit to left-center: Jason Heyward tracked it and caught it, running at a top speed of over 18 miles per hour, accelerating at 15.1 feet per second, and taking a path that took 83.2 feet, compared to the 80.9-foot optimal path. This is a 97 percent-efficient path, and was far faster than that of the left fielder, whose stats we also see. (Also tracked: reaction time, which is both useful and cool.) This will happen for every single ball put into play. http://regressing.deadspin.com/mlb-announces-revolutionary-new-fielding-tracking-syste-1534200504

Mack – This sounds exciting though I have no idea what they are talking about J

Word is the Mets have sold out their supply of $5 tickets or 2014.I have no idea how many were allotted here and, the Mets might want to consider adding more, especially for the first half of the season. It’s going to be important to fill up the seats with this young team.

                                        (update – guess what? They did.)

Josh Edgin –

Josh Edgin – Edgin has all the makings of a good reliever, but has yet to fully blossom at the major league level.  It can be said that manager Terry Collins’ bullpen management has affected him in a negative way, but Edgin has still walked 3.64 batters per nine innings in his career.  Collins’ preference for two lefties in the bullpen certainly helps Edgin’s case, and he is good enough that he should break camp with the team http://mets360.com/?p=20840

Mack – The author, Joe Vasile, must have missed the game yesterday J  Actually, there isn’t a tremendous amount of lefty competition in camp. They could break camp with only Scott Rice, or add John Lannan to the pen. Either way, Edgin needs to better his 2014 stat line of 34-G, 1-1, 3.77, 1.33, 28.2-IP, 20-K

Bobby Parnell –

There was various reports from the typewriters (do they still use them?) yesterday regarding Parnell’s BP session. One said Parnell was ready to go…another passed on a direct quote that he felt good the day after the session… and a third said there doesn’t seem to be a problem here.

A small reminder… first, Parnell will be ready when the Mets say he is ready. And secondly, it’s the day after the day after you throw that tells you if your arm survived the session.

                  I’m sure things are okay here, but we’re not done here yet.

Sunday Game 3 –

Dice-K was the first of the top 6 pitchers vying for a rotation slot out of camp to pitch this spring. He went two innings on Sunday…Matt Carpenter started things off in the 1^st with a double… scored on a Matt Holiday double (1^st Mets starter this spring to give up a run)… ended up: 2.0-IP, 1-ER, 0-K, 0-BB – curve was sharp though FB in mid to low 80s

Nice OBP in first inning… two walks and a double (Grandy) in six at bats (.500). Stranded a bases loaded situation… you aren’t going to get too many chances like this against Michael Wacha.

Jose Valverde pitched the 3^rd… Matt Holiday doubles over Juan Lagares’ head in the 3^rd (0-2, St. Louis)…

You know, to be honest at this point, other than the Ike Davis home run, he’s looked pretty bad in the batters box.

LHP Steven Matz pitched the 4^th… fell behind 3-0 to Molina but rallied to strike him out… next up, singles… 2 strike outs… no runs… very impressive inning.

(I have to say at this point that, yes, I know, most of the Mets starter still haven’t played a lick, but it would be nice to get a couple of hits and score a couple of runs, fellas…)

Logan Verrett pitched the 5^th and gave up a run.

Wilmer Flores moved over to SS for the 6^th… LHP Jack Leathersich came in to pitch it... watch out folks… single… HBP… single to the pitcher (?)… 2-run scoring double… (Mets fans heading to their cars…)… first pitcher not to complete an inning… Joel Carrero comes in… gives up single to charge run #3 and #4 to ‘Leather’…

          (could you just start the bus up?)