Morning Report – 4-4-14 – Relief Pitching, Robert Gsellman, SNY

1916 Cubs 

Coming Up –

        10 am – d'Whit - Podcast- Zack Attack 2014 #1 vs Nats 4-3-14

         12 noon –  Ernest Dove - Ok Mets, I'm Going To Rant Now... 

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

          4 pm –   TTF's Dan Kirby's Top 20 Draft Picks

         6 pm -   Brad Zimmer, Luis Ortiz, Touki Toussaint, Taylor Sparks, Zach Sullivan

         8 pm  -  OF - Michael Gettys - Gainsville (GA) HS

SP Tyler Kolek (Shepard HS, TX) for season – 27.1IP, 0-R, 62-K, 1-BB… last pitch, 98.


B-Mets Darin Gorski's line:  3.2-IP, 85-pitches, 46-strikes, 4-H, 2-R, 1-ER, 3-BB, 3-K

A couple of good things I noticed on opening night in Bingmaton. Jayce Boyd (wing healed) played first base and Dustin Lawley was in the outfield, which is the future on this team.

Kenneth Muller –

Mack, There are times I am very frustrated by the organizations moves and what seems to be their philosophy.  Parnell goes down and they reach out to Farnsworth.  Farnsworth is clearly on the downside of his career.  He will not be around when we are able to compete for a championship.  Why in the world do they bring him up when we have kids like Walters and Black?  Both could be valuable going forward. We are not winning it this year.  Give these guys an opportunity to settle in and establish themselves.   What am I missing?

Mack – I understand the frustration, but, if the Mets thought they had a young kid either at AAA or AA that could handle both the task and the pressure, he would be on a plane to New York. The fact is they don’t. Walters is far from ready and all his success has been at the AA level. And Black is just lost right now. There’s no illusion here. The Mets know they must ask more from their bats because their starters are still under pitch restrictions. This could get very ugly very quickly.

The only way this would all make any sense is if the Mets were willing to deal with the 2014 pen as a rebuilding project. Yes, mistakes will be made, but you have to start somewhere and the team needs to place a couple of their best arms to hand the majority of innings that will be used for the pen.

My suggestions have always been consistent... Rafael Montero and Jake deGrom. I know others (Soto) think I'm nuts to sacrifice one of my rotation gems (Montero), but the Mets have

            1.  too much talent in their rotations
            2.  not enough talent in their pens

We don't have to trade for our needs here and we also don't have to sign anymore old men.

The Mets currently have seven (7) relievers in the pen.

I would immediately add Montero and deGrom and send Gonzalez Germen to Las Vegas and release Kyle Farnsworth.

One of these guys go to the front of the pen... to be brought in when someone gets in trouble in the 5th-7th inning range or when a starter hits their pitch count.

The other becomes the overnight 8th inning guy behind Jose Valverde (who really is living on borrowed time in my pen).

My next more is to call Las Vegas every night and find out when they think that Vic Black has corrected his problems. He would be my next move replacing Valverde (remember, we're using 2014 now as a building block for 2015).

Yes, there will be mistakes made, but they will be made on the field, in Queens, and that's where I want the best of my young talent to be in 'my' pen.

I met with the Savannah Sand Gnats’ 2014 opening day pitcher, RHP Robert Gsellman. Gsellman is another of the premier crop of High School seniors that the Mets drafted in 2011. This one, was a 13^th round pick out of Hawthorne (CA) High School and was immediately assigned to the GCL Mets (7-G, 1-ST, 0-0, 4.15) after he signed. He shrugged off the ‘grind’ drag and put up impressive numbers in 2011 for Kingsport (11-G, 5-ST, 1-3, 3.92, 1.37), but it was 2013 in Brooklyn where he really began to get his game in shape (12-G, 12-ST, 3-3, 2.06, 1.01).

Gsellman did finish last year in Savannah, where the jump in levels created a drop in effectiveness  (K9 – 8.23 in Brooklyn; 4.33 in Savannah… BB9 – 1.54 in Brooklyn; 1.86 in Savannah). Still, his five Class A starts created a 3.72-ERA and led to him starting opening day yesterday.

Robert and I talked on the field after lunch this past Tuesday.

Mack – Robert, thanks for talking to me today. First of all, the same question I asked Chris (Flexen). How do you feel about being in such a pitcher rich organization which could lead to you being traded to accomplish your goals in this game?

Gsellman – It’s part of the process. I’m here to seize the opportunity and you never know what can happen… trades… injuries. I’m not worried. I’m young and I have a long way to go.

M – You weren’t picked until the 13^th round in 2011. At what point in the draft did you start worrying you weren’t going to hear your name called out?

G – I had no worries. I try not to worry about things like that. Whatever happens, happens.

M – You pitched well here in Savannah last year; however, your K9 did go down and you BB9 went up from low-A. Did you find the jump from Brooklyn a whole new ballgame?

G – No, but I worked hard last year with Marc Valdez (this year’s pitching coach) on some things.

M – On the same subject, what did you do in the off-season to help improve these numbers?

G – I worked on flexibility, on getting stronger, and my focus.

M – Scouts told me that your breaking ball needs some consistentcy. Will we see more of that pitch this year?

G – I did recognize the problem with that pitch and I also worked on it during the off-season.

At this point, the interview just sort of ended. Gsellman is a man of few words and, though I found him to be a very nice person, he was very guarded and what we call in the industry a ‘hard interview’.

I hope he brings this same business-like approach to the mound this year.

I’m writing this prior to Game 2 and I turned on SNY for the pre-game show, only to find out that my local cable company, Hargray Communications, has removed SNY from their choice of 700 channels. This is a network that not only covers the ‘Yankee-rich’ Hilton Head Island crown, but also the 40,000+ plus people that live in Sun City, located in Bluffton, South Carolina. They replaced the channel (no notification of change) with something called ‘Horse TV’. Maybe this is an omen.

I’m at a complete loss… no pre or post game, no ‘get your New York sports here’, no nothing.