Morning Report – 4-1-14 – Catcher Hotels, Gnats Roster, Roster Limits

1907 Chicago Cubs

Coming Up –

        9 30 am –  Game 1  -  The First TC Test

         11 am -  Matt Silva - A Not So Grand Start

         12 30 –  The Mets Bullpen – Total Rectal Destruction

         2 pm –   Baseball Cube – Transactions

          4 pm –   MLB Draft Insider - New Revised 3-31 Mock

         6 pm -  Sean Newcomb, Alex Jackson, Max Pentecost, Cole Tucker, Clay Casey

         8 pm  -  A Quick Look - OF - Derek Fisher

“It’s time for us to get better. What you can measure you can improve. I can’t really measure competitiveness.” Sandy Alderson

Andy Martino ‏@MartinoNYDN  -  Mets fans on a roll.  Booed mayor, apparently forgetting he was on mound with 6 small children affected by East Harlem explosion. Nice.

Just one small correction on the comments made to the fans about Ralph Kiner. It was said that he began broadcasting Mets games ‘right here in Queens’. That’s not true. They began out of The Polo Grounds in The Bronx.

Our NY Yankee writer, ‘Mr. Controversial’, informed me that he will not be able to be an active writer on the site. He’s getting married soon and has other priorities which include (duh) being a Yankee fan. It was a cute idea that didn’t pan out.

Additional, three other writers (Dwight Hood, John Loopy, John Zozo) never posted a single post and have been removed from the writer’s list. As you all know, ‘Loopy’ and ‘Zozo’ are very active participants in the comments section, which we hope they remain active in.

This gets Mack’s Mets down to our version of the 25-man

.

Oh… Christopher Soto is still trying to figure a way for some of you to participate in the comments section of the blog. We really don’t want to reopen it to the ‘anonymous’ option that creates 300-400 pieces of spam emails a day. We’ll keep trying, Bill J

Howard Simmonds 

Catcher Hotels-

The Plaza - Buster Posey,Wilin Rosario, Carlos Santana, Brian McCann

Ritz-Carlton -Joe Mauer, Jonathan Lucroy,Yadier Molina, Salvador Perez, Jason Castro, Wilson Ramos, Matt Wieters

The Hilton- Evan Gattis, Miguel Montero,Yan Gomes,  AJ. Pierzynski

Comfort Inn-Devin Mesoraco,Travis d’Arnaud,Welington Castillo, Alex Avila, Russell Martin-Risers and fallers here in the middle as Mesoraco, d’Arnaud and Castillo all have great potential while Avila and Martin can both be decent options but have their fair share of shortcomings.

Holiday Inn Express-Jarrod Saltalamacchia,Yasmani Grandal, A.J. Ellis, Carlos Ruiz, Dioner Navarro

Red Roof Inn-Mike Zunino,Tyler Flowers, J.P. Arencibia, Ryan Hanigan

Super 8 Motel-Josmil Pinto, Kurt Suzuki, Chris Iannetta, Hank Conger, John Jaso, Derek Norris, Steve Vogt

Habitat Suites-John Buck, Adrian Nieto, Jordan Pacheco, Gerald Laird, Ryan Doumit, Robinson Chirinos, Jose Lobaton

Bates Motel-Hector Sanchez, David Ross, Martin Maldonado, Francisco Cervelli, Nick Hundle, Tuffy Gosewisch, Josh Thole, Jose Molina, George Kottaras, Geovany Soto http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/catcher-tiers-april-2014/

        Mack-d’Arnaud had three home runs in ST…give me 18 and a .250-BA and I’d be thrilled with his rookie year.

        PoorJosh…

Gnats Roster –

       Savannah was the first affiliate to send the opening day roster down the line and it sure looks like another championship team.

       I have no idea what the rotation will be. The roster includes the guys that earned a bump last year from Brooklyn (Gant, Msillman, Diaz), but it also reward two of the young prosects that pitched lights out last year for K-Port (Flexen, Whalen). I count eight starters (Whalen has some leg issues so I don’t expect him to start early). I’ll have a better idea after I talk to all of them at Media Day.

       Naturally, I’m excited that the Mets decide to pass on Brooklyn for Smith. It should be interesting to see how he handles the gaps (Brandon Nimmo and Jayce Boyd earned early last year to not go for the home run here. Just hit the gaps and you can lead the league in extra-base hits).

       I’m also quite curious to see how Gavin Cecchini plays short (there’s a day game on Sunday, 4-6, that I’ll be attending). We’ve read all the negative reports out of camp about his rigidity vs. the more outgoing Latin kids (Rosario, Guillorme), but the ‘bottom line’ is all we want him to do is make the play, right? We know he has the dominate SS bat in the system.

       Lastly, it will be great to put a handshake to Akeel Morris, who I have interviewed a couple of times. He sure seems like he’s back on the prospect road (still only 21-years old), this time as a reliever.

       Yes indeed… a lot of talent on this team.

Roster Limits By League –

Triple-A: International, Pacific Coast — 24 players may be active at one time; 38 players may be under team control.

Double-A: Eastern, Southern, Texas — 24 active; 37 under control.

Class A Advanced: California, Carolina, Florida State — 25 active; 35 under control; no more than two players and one player-coach on active list may have six or more years of prior Minor League service.

Class A: Midwest, South Atlantic — 25 active; 35 under control; no more than two players on active list may have five or more years of prior Minor League service.

Class A Short-Season: New York-Penn, Northwest — 30 active; 35 under control, but only 25 may be in uniform and eligible to play in any given game; no more than three players on the active list may have four or more years of prior Minor League service.

Rookie: Appalachian, Pioneer, Arizona, Gulf Coast leagues — 35 active, but only 30 may be in uniform and eligible to play in any given game; no player may have three or more years of prior Minor League Service.

Rookie: Venezuelan Summer, Dominican Summer — 35 active, but only 30 may be in uniform and eligible to play in any given game; no player may have four or more years of prior Minor League Service.- www.milb.com