Morning Report – 3-31-14 – TC,VSL, TJS, d’A, FieldRush, Harvey,

1905 - New York City 

Coming Up –

        10 am –  Mack – Opening Day

         12 noon –   Craig Mitchell -- The Mets Six Secret Weapons

         2 pm –   Throught The Fence- Mock v. 6.0

          4 pm –   Big League Futures - Mock

         6 pm -  A.J. Vanegas, Tyler Beede, Kyle Freeland, Josh Morgan, Jeren Kendall

         8 pm  -  3B - Michael Chavis - Sprayberry (GA) HS

Darin Gorski ‏@darin_gorski20  -  headed to the @bmets to start the season.

So… after all that, Didi Gregorious and Nick Franklin both wind up in the minors. Unbelievable.

TC –

I saw that Terry Collins admitted that he does know what his starting lineup is going to be, but he’s not going to share it with anyone until just before game time. In fact, his answer when asked if he knew the lineup was a curt, sarcastic, one word “yes”, followed by a”no” when asked to share. Is this what the relationship with the press is down to two days before opening day?

The Mets first 20 games this season are against Washington (3x-86-76), Cincinnati (3x- 90-72),Atlanta (6x- 96-66),LAA (3x- 78-84), Arizona (3x- 81-81),and St.Louis (2x- 97-65).

Envision this team going 4-16 out of the box and then let’s see what the humidity is like between the beat dudes and Terry.

VSL –

The game was introduced to the country in the early 1900s when U.S. oil tycoons ventured south to strike deals. In 1941, when Venezuela stunned Cuba to win the Amateur Baseball Series, the game caught fire… The late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was a baseball fan, Perez said, and would play in celebrity softball games, batting left-handed. He pitched and Perez caught. There were many more baseball fields than soccer fields in Venezuela, even though baseball was more expensive. The more big-league players that were produced in Venezuela, the more equipment the major leaguers sent back to the country, and the sport mushroomed. Now, the Venezuelan-born big league players are starting academies with their signing-bonus cash, just like the Dominican-born players did when they made it big in Major League Baseball http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/29/venezuelan-playersmakemarkinthemajors.html

TJS –

        “The rehab might be moving too fast,” Conte said. “One thing with Tommy John surgery is you are [inserting] a tendon, but the body recognizes it as a ligament. It changes from a tendon to a ligament. That takes up to at least a year before you can come back to competition. The graft matures to maximum strength, and if you come back too soon and throw too hard I believe there is a direct relationship. How hard someone throws stresses the ligament. Throwing is not the problem. Throwing too hard is if you do it too soon. The theory is that throwing hard stretches out the ligament again and you have damage near the end of the rehab process. http://nypost.com/2014/03/29/harveys-rush-to-return-from-tommy-john-surgery-a-bad-idea/

Mack – this is a very good 2-part article of TJS and the increase of home many young pitchers have had to have multiple surgeries after rushing their return to the mound…

D’A-

               Travis d'Arnaud, C, New York Mets-Best Case: An excellent defensive catcher with an even better offensive game, d'Arnaud is MLB.com's No. 22 prospect and the Mets' Opening Day backstop. In a perfect world for d'Arnaud and New York's NL team, this is the first of many seasons with the 25-year-old serving as an ideal batterymate to Zach Wheeler, and the catcher also provides his staff with plenty of run support.

Worst Case: He struggles to hit big league pitching and never develops into the kind of offensive threat he should. Despite his Minor League success, d'Arnaud batter just .202 with four extra-base hits over 99 at-bats in 31 Major League games last year. After missing significant parts of three of his last four seasons with injuries, d'Arnaud hits the Major League DL this year as well. http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140330&content_id=70184980&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb

FieldRush –

       NL East - Washington Nationals: Stephen Strasburg wins 20 games, strikes out 250+, and posts and ERA in the low-2.00s and takes home the NL Cy Young Award.

Atlanta Braves: Tommy La Stella takes the second base job and never gives it back as he hits over .300 with an OBP over .370 and wins the NL Rookie of the Year Award.

New York Mets: Rafael Montero impresses in his rookie year and Zack Wheeler takes a step forward with 175+ innings of 3.25 ERA ball and over 150 strikeouts. Matt Harvey pitches in five games. Mets fans salivate at the prospect of a rotation with Harvey, Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard, and Montero for the next five years.

Miami Marlins: Jose Fernandez performs just as well as his historic rookie season and does it in more innings. Derek Dietrich hits 15+ homeruns.

Philadelphia Phillies: The Phillies finally realize they need to rebuild and get rid of Ruben Amaro, Jr. That’s positive, right? http://www.fieldrush.com/team-team-2014-mlb-predictions-positive-edition/#.UzhBUPldVsl

Harvey-

        It was a crisp late summer day in picturesque Cooperstown, N.Y.Everyone who was there remembers that detail, even if they don't remember the exact date: Aug. 31, 2006.Two baseball games took place that day at Doubleday Field, in the shadow of the Baseball Hall of Fame. It was a doubleheader between the Japanese national under-18 team and a cobbled-together American squad made up of top high school players from the Northeast.

         The first pitch of the day was thrown by a 17-year-old from New London, Conn.His name was Matt Harvey.

         The last pitch of the day was thrown by a 17-year-old from Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.

His name was Masahiro Tanaka. http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/masahiro-tanaka-matt-harvey-have-a-cooperstown-connection-1.7541512?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter