Morning Report – 4-16-14 – Megdan, Freeland, Akeel, Burgamy, Szymborski

1939 Flushing 

Coming Up –

        10 am  -  Christopher Soto -  SABR Talk - Why Travis d'Arnaud is Perfectly Fine

        12 noon –  Reese Kaplan - A Milkbone for Sandy; A Muzzle for Terry

           2 pm – ScoutingBaseball - Top Draft Prospects in Georgia

           5pm -  Taylor Sparks, Brandon Finnegan, Michael Conforto, Luke Bonfield, Carl Chester

         8pm –  OF - Austin Cousino - Kentucky



You need to walk away with one major accomplishment from Tueday's game... Jerry Mejia is healthy and dealing. It's a whole nother ballgame if this guy comes through.

I should do more reading.

Howard Megdal[i] wrote another of his anti-Mets business stories on Monday. The first line of the piece was “The Mets lost Sunday, 14-2, dropping the team's record to 5-7 on the season.”… you have to wonder if this story would have gone in the same negative direction if the team had won two more games and their record was 7-5.

Like most of what Howard writes about (and he always writes well), is how much the Mets spend, owe other people, and the interest on their debt. Howard doesn’t seem to understand that this is how banks like to work.

An old banker told me once that there are only two things a banker doesn’t want to hear… one, ‘I can’t pay off the loan’… and, two, ‘I’m paying off the loan’. The banks are in it for the juice, and if the bank that the Mets used to refinance their debt has given them five more years, than we’re stuck with how this team is being run for that long as well.

The article is worth reading just to understand how “carriage fees” work.

I had to reprint what Dan Kirby of TTF[ii] said about LHP Kyle Freeland yesterday. This could be the dark horse of the draft and it may be hard for the Mets not to call out his name if he’s still on the board come draft day:

Kyle Freeland, LHP, Evansville - I’m running out of words to describe Freeland’s performances. He had 15 strikeouts for the second start in a row and now has 74 K/4 BB over 57 innings. If you include his Cape Cod League totals, he has 122 K/8 BB over his last 97 innings. At 6’-4” and 190 pounds, the southpaw is one of the best power/control arms in the 2014 MLB draft as his fastball can touch 96 mph and he adds a plus slider. He still has upside due to his size and easy delivery, and you could argue he has been the best pitcher in college over the past month. He is 6-1 with a 1.74 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and an 11.84 K/9 ratio through eight starts. I could see him going in the 15-25 range easily.

Craig Brown asked -

Good Evening Mack. What’s you're impression of Akeel Morris?  He's like a man pitching against boys...Should they have placed him in Lucie this spring instead of Savannah?

        Hey Craig.

Morris is a very talented pitcher who simply lost the ability to find the zone in 2012 at Kingsport (0-6, 7.98). He got his act together last season in Brooklyn (4-1, 1.00, 14-G, 3-ST, 45.0-IP, 60-K)… but he still had some control issues (23-BB) to work on. So far this season, he’s 14-K, 3-BB in 6.2-IP, but I have to tell you, all he’s doing is throwing his fastball past the A-ball hitters. Many of these pitchers were out of the strike zone but were swung at anyway. I’m not trying to take anything away from his game, but he’s going to have to develop at least one effective secondary pitch if he wants to get to the majors someday.

Striking out batters is a wonderful thing. Just ask Jack Leathersich, but his problems now developed because the higher you go, the more talented and patient the batters become.

Back to you original question… yes, due to hiccups in the past, Morris should be pitching at St. Lucie, but let him have some fun until he’s named to the all-star team.

I subscribe to SportsSpyder, so no matter how hard I try to avoid the various Mets blogs that report to them, I still get to see their headlines and tweets that are featured on the right side of the page.

                It looks like everyone is already heating up over the probability of Juan Lagares losing playing time when Chris Young returns to the lineup. Terry Collins has made it very clear that Curtis Granderson will not be part of any rotational play, thus, there will be three outfielders (Lagares, Young and EJY) waiting to hear who is in the lineup each day.

                Please understand something.

                Collins has nothing to say about Granderson playing every day. He also has nothing to do with the decision who does play each day. All those decisions will be coming out of Sandy Alderson’s office, so, if you don’t like the lineup, make sure you’re yelling at the right Mets exec.

I’m always fascinated about baseball players like Brian Burgamy. I’m equally fascinated when General Manager’s like Sandy Alderson pluck these guys off the trash pile.

                But, let me ask you a question? We all know that the 32-year old Burgamy, who is playing 1B/IF/OF for Binghamton this year (.270 through 4-14), is never going to make it to Queens.

                I think it’s great that Alderson found him in the Mexican League, and all that, but isn’t he also standing in the way of someone else that might have a future with the Mets?

                I would think the Mets would be best served with Jairo Perez playing AA ball this spring. He already had 238 at-bats at the A+ level last season (.265) and isn’t the first rule of minor league baseball the development of ballplayers that can someday serve you at the major league level?

                I’m just saying…

Szymborski-Chat –

                Comment From Billy - When will the mets call up Montero? shouldnt they offer an extension for him and Syndergaard to remove super 2 consideration at call up?

                Dan Szymborski: June 1st? I’d certainly try to offer extensions right now. They’re both close enough to majors that they’re not really riskier than others.

                Comment From Joe - It’s only a matter of time when valverde losses that closer spot for the Mets. What is your outlook on Germen taking over?

Dan Szymborski: I think it’ll be longer than is reasonable – I have zero faith in Terry Collins. Germen’s the likely candidate, especially with Jeurys Familia’s command issues. Let’s not forget, Collins watched Eric Young play for his team for most of an entire season and came away with the conclusion “This is the dude that should be up at the plate the most for our team.”

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[i] http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/04/8543654/what-dodgers-tv-deal-says-about-mets-future

[ii] http://throughthefencebaseball.com/2014-mlb-draft-10-college-players-rise-week-9/42523