4/27/14

Morning Report – 4-27-14 – Collette-Chat, Draft Stuff, Building A Team, Mike Puma

Coors Field 


Coming Up –

        11 am – Indians Baseball Insider - Mock

2 pm – Top 10 OF in 2014 MLB Draft - revised 4-23-14

          5pm -  Luis Ortiz, Jackson Reetz, Chris Ellis, Mike Papi, Brandon Downes

          8pm –  RHP - Luke Weaver - Florida State



1B Brandon Allen has been promoted from St. Lucie (rehab) to Las Vegas.


As of end of game Friday, on pace for 92 wins.


(Going into Friday’s game) By the Game Score metric, 17 of the Mets' 22 starts have been quality (GS>50). The others: 50, 46, 42, 42, 10 (Colon vs. LAA).



Collette-Chat –

Comment From Larry - Best stash: Montero, Jon Gray, Syndergaard or Bundy?

         Jason Collette: Gray or Syndergaard




commit and top prospect Tyler Kolek hit 100 last night, and struck out 16. That’s pretty good



A day late… we’re getting closer to draft day, so we need to start keeping a closer look at some of the guys that may be still on the board when the 10th pick rolls around.

Word out of Olympia (FL) HS is that SS Nick Gordan’s stat line is .507/.620/.870, 27-G, 9-doubles, 5-HR, 17-SB, 18-BB, 3-K. He just may be the first shortstop taken in the draft, which would mean he’s be gone before the 10th pick.

Gainesville HS (GA) OF Michael Gettys stat line over the past 12 games: .421/.532/1.000… for the season: .380/.479/.798. Obviously his numbers dipped mid-season which has dropped him out of the projected top 10 picks.

Actually, Evansville LHSP Kyle Freeland (I really hope the Mets pick this kid) had an ‘off night’… ‘only’ 10-K and 2-BB… he now has 97-K and 6-BB in 71.2-IP.

Florida State RHSP Luke Weaver will probably still be around and, though he has bounced around this season, he pitched will Friday night against Virginia: 7.0-IP, 3-ER, 5-K, 0BB (I’m hoping the Mets pass on him).

Ole Miss’ Chris Reed will definitely be around and he outpitched Kentucky’s A.J. Reed Friday night (7.0-IP, 2-ER, 5-K).

NC State’s Carlos Rodon (3-7) continues to get very little support from his team. Friday night he went 9.0-IP, CG, 1-R, and 15-K. You should earn a win every time you do this.

Oregon State’s Ben Welzler come backs from a three week suspension and mows down Oregon. Stat line 8.1-IP, 1-ER, 7-K, 1-BB, 7-1, 0.78.

Virginia’s OF Derek Fisher (3-for-5) delivered his third straight multi-hit game in his fourth contest since returning from a broken hamate bone.



Building A Team –

       The best way to solve this problem is to use monthly WAR data, which the good folks of FanGraphs were able to provide. We looked at WAR and WAR distribution for the month of April each year from 1974 through 2013.1 We ran month-by-month Gini data for every team going back those 40 years, tracking WAR inequality for the month, then comparing that result to WAR totals for the rest of the season, to see which of the two roster construction methods yielded more wins. http://fivethirtyeight.com/


Lardball –

       This came from Adam Rubin - The Mets would not speak with the media postgame Friday until Post beat writer Mike Puma left the clubhouse, the Daily News reported. Wrote Kristie Ackert and Justin Tasch: Apparently angry about an article in the New York Post on Friday about Bartolo Colon under the headline “LARDBALL,” the players would not talk to the media until Post writer Mike Puma left the clubhouse. Puma was asked to leave and did so without incident. Within a minute, several Mets appeared in the clubhouse. The team would not comment on the incident.

Mack – The relationship between the beat media and the players is always guarded at best, but this team seems to have found the positive energy needed to get themselves to the playoffs… and, they aren’t going to let some newspaper nerd get in their way.

I see it every year even in Savannah. Let’s say I walk in a room with five players there…none of them pay me the light of day because it’s just not kewl…

Now, have me walk in a room with one player and everything changes.

The beat reporters spend more time tweeting each other their perceived one-liners rather than writing good baseball… and it looks like it has caught up with Puma.
Good.


6 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Let's hope we are larding on compliments about Bartolo's extreme effectiveness as the season rolls on. We can come up with a new slogan: WIN CHUBBY

Mets Dreams said...

Mack:
2 Thoughts
It was good to see the Mets take a stand against Mike Puma. It's amazing that he thought what he was writing about Colon was funny. Especially when you see the picture of Puma in the Post, not exactly the poster boy for fitness. Always good for a team to start to develop an us vs. the world mentality.

Second: I'm a huge Syracuse fan and it's always a kick in the stomach when they get eliminated from the NCAA tournament. During this year's tournament, I was thinking about how mellow it has been in September and October being a Mets fan. Gone has been the angst felt after the Wainwright curve, or the 2007 and 2008 meltdowns. Sleepless nights wondering why Omar couldn't find another reliever after another devastating late inning loss. Last night I realized how much I missed those days of playing games that counted. Even though it is only April, it has been fun to dream a little that this team could actually be better than I thought. Up 5-1 and looking to cruise to another series win, then the bottom falls out. The return of that knot in the stomach feeling and wanting today's game to come quickly so the team can get back on the right track.
I've missed all the ups and downs of a pennant race. Hopefully this team can at least flirt with the possibility that just maybe they will be playing meaningful games in September. Of course then I look at the everyday lineup and wonder how that could possible happen.

Mack Ade said...

Dreams -

I understand your pain.

I looked upon last night's loss differently though than similar losses last year. I turned it off after the Salty home run and chalked it up to just a bad night. A team is allowed to lose at least 72 games in this division and still make the playoffs. This had loss written all over it as Mejia was being charged runs.

In defense of Puma, he doesn't write the headlines, but the story was wrong. I haven't checked but it doesn't look like any of his 'friends' have come to his defense either.

Reese Kaplan said...

I'll be curious to see how Mejia responds when the weather warms up (just as it will be interesting to see if any of the bats can heat up.) Right now if I'm an opposing pitcher facing the Mets, who do I fear? Bueller? Bueller?

Bob Sugar said...

If I was a leader in that clubhouse I would ask PR to now let Puma in the house again. Period end of story. Write your articles but don't disrespect!

Mack Ade said...

The point was made.

I expect puma back in the clubhouse on Monday.