Morning Report – 3-30-14 – Drugs, Sherman, Montreal, Fulmer

1904 Boston Red Sox

Coming Up –

        11 am –  Top 10 SS in 2014 MLB Draft - Updated 3-28-14

         2 pm –   Top 10 OF in 2014 MLB Draft - revised 3-28-14

         5 pm –   Top 10 RHP in 2014 MLB Draft – revised 3-28-14

          8 pm –   Max Pentecost, Tyler Beede, Sean Newcomb, Milton Ramos, Todd Issacs Jr.

        11 pm -  3B - Jack Flaherty - Harvard-Westlake (CA) HS

MLB/MLBPA announce stricter drug policy with a 1st offense now worth an 80-game ban, a second, 162 and a third, banishment for life. Every player suspended for PEDs will be subject to 6 additional urine tests and 3 additional blood tests for rest of career, all unannounced. Players suspended for PEDs will no longer be part of the Players Pool for postseason shares. On HGH blood collection: will increase to 400 random per yr, in addition to the 1,200 mandatory collections conducted during Spring Training

        Mack – It’s about time…

We’ve talked about this so many times over the years and the one obstacle was the players union. Well, Biogenesis took care of that.

This is going to sound racist…

The vast majority of players that violate these policies are Latin and they begin their ‘habit’ while they are still ‘in country’ usually supplied by their ‘advisors’ or, even team trainers.

This isn’t going to change until the major league teams at least clean up what is going on within their own DSL and VSL walls. This sport needs a couple of lifetime bands for this to sink in. Maybe then all this will be taken serious.

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I go out of my way not to read or follow most Mets blogs (we’re a web site for sports writers, not a blog). There are exceptions… Mets360 and Two Guys Talking Mets Baseball are friends of mine and they practice the same professional approach we do here at Mack’s Mets.

Still, I never read the rest of them and absolutely hate the sensationalism used in some of their headlines. Where do they get this approach from?

And then I scroll down my Twitter feed on Friday morning and I see that Joel Sherman wrote a story on the possibility of Matt Harvey bolting to the Yankees once he reaches free agency in 2018. Didn’t we have enough to worry about this spring? Is this what you do when you’re on a plane ride to Toronto?

Next week I will attend the welcome luncheon for the Savannah Sand Gnats. I can’t tell you how many blank stares I get when I introduce myself to each of the players. We in media have earned this level of disrespect and articles and approaches like this to the sport create the divide between the player and the press.

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I couldn’t help but think as I watched Friday’s game from Montreal that this would be a great city to transition back into the majors with a 5-year stint as the Mets AAA affiliate…

No matter how you slice it, no major league team is going to move there in the next five years. Not even Tampa. And yet, this is a baseball starved city.

Set it up and get the Mets out of the desert. Weather wise, if they can play baseball there on Friday, they can play baseball there next week.

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Fulmer –

Under the Radar: RHPs Michael Fulmer, Jeurys Familia and Domingo Tapia - As mentioned, the Mets rotation looks pretty crowded in the years to come, so some other top pitching prospects may end up in the bullpen if they make it to New York. Michael Fulmer is just 21 years old, and still has time to establish himself as a starter, but many experts feel he is destined for the bullpen. The combination of a mid-90s fastball with movement and an above-average slider show he has the arsenal to succeed late in games. Fulmer struggled with injuries early in the year and only made nine appearances over the course of the season. Nevertheless, he put together a strong performance late and posted a 2-0 record and 2.35 ERA in three August starts, in which he held hitters to a .137 average. http://gradingonthecurve.com/2014/03/28/future-closers-new-york-mets/