Morning Report – 4-7-14 – Observations on the Minors and Majors

1920 Tigers Stadium 

Coming Up –

        10am – Jack Flynn - What Does Jack Think?

        11:30am – Craig Mitchell -- The Tom Seaver Theory

         1 pm  -  Reese Kaplan -  There's Bound To Be a Pony Somewhere!

        6pm – Derek Fisher, Jacob Gatewood, Carson Cross, Nick Gordon, Braxton Davidson

         8pm – OF - Marcus Wilson - Serra (CA) HS


We're thrilled to welcome back one of the original Mack's Mets writers, Wally Murphy. Wally has attended every single Savannah Sand Gnats home game since the Mets became an affiliate (he actually goes back further than that...) and I believe he has a signed baseball card from every single player since 2007. He became part of Mack's Mets that year, but became a staff writer last season for MetsMerised. 

Wally will post up the results of all the home games sometime before 7am each day.

Please welcome him back.

Some early observations about the minor league players…

-1B Dominic Smith looks a little overmatched right now, but I think he’ll be fine. He definitely has the talent and comes off much older than he actually is. Oh, and I love his stance at the plate.

-I guess I expected SS Gavin Cecchini to be a little bigger. He did hit a solid rocket to dead center that was caught right at the wall

-Speaking of rockets, OF Victor Cruzado lost one over right field in less than five seconds. We’re going to have to keep an eye on this one.

-3B Jeff McNeil is having some trouble defensively early on.

-I wasn’t at the John Gant game but one scout that I know was (and saw him on Saturday) and he said that Gant’s first outing was ‘quite impressive’. 

-C Kevin Plawecki seems to be having no trouble picking up (at the AA level) where he left off last year in St. Lucie. I think all this will do is make Travis d’Arnaud a stronger trade chip some day. It’s hard to find anyone in baseball that doesn’t think that d’Arnaud will be a star in this game, no matter how slow his career seems to be starting. The Plawecki drafting may be one of the best one’s Sandy Alderson has ever did for this team.

-Why does OF Cory Vaughn’s game always have to run so hot and cold? It’s a new season which mean Vaughn is once again hitting below .200.

-We worry a lot about our relief staff… let’s check on what’s going on down in Vegas… Erik Goeddel ERA: 13.50… Ryan Reid: 18.00… Josh Edgin: 45.00… Jeff Walters: 54.00… Dana Eveland: 13.50… Joel Carreno: 27.00… I feel much better now.

-It will be interesting to see how Michael Fulmer comes back from his first start this season for St. Lucie (3.2-IP, 7-ER). Hopefully, there’s no structural problems and it’s just a matter of adjusting mechanics. Scouts still have him as a future middle MLB starter.

-Jack Lethersich is starting to become quite the annoying problem. He throws another inning on Sunday with three strikeouts (now 2.0-IP, 6-K), but also gives up single, HBP, double, and run scored). Then, in his second inning, strikes out one before walking two more… I’m not sure there should be a roster spot for someone this out of control.

Solid start for St. Lucie's Domingo Tapia. 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 3 K

Some early observations about the Mets –

        -the decision for CL Bobby Parnell to undergo TJS this week stresses even further the importance for this team to direct their goals to 2015 and beyond. They simply do not have enough current talent to compete and general health and fitness of who does have a genuine future on this team is tantamount to the success of this team 

        -It seems quite evident that Curtis Granderson’s game has some flaws. He is not going to lead this league in batting average. I think the team will get 20-25 home runs in the long run and 4-5 games might be won due to his bat, but how many countless other’s will there be lost when he strikes out in a critical situation?

        -The Mets may not be producing much offense, but most of it is coming from the first base position. Other teams have to recognize this and it’s only a matter of time that some team offers someone to Sandy Alderson that will send either Lucas Duda or Ike Davis packing. I hope, for his sake, it is Davis. He’s put up with more shit from this city, the team, the press, the fans, and everything that represents the Mets. I pray that it’s for something boring like a speedball reliever.

        -Sadly, Jon Niese’s first outing should have ended after five innings, but there’s no plan for simply being hit. He was targeted to go 90-95 pitches and didn’t hit 80 until one out in the 6^th. I think he did wonderful up to the point they put a baseball in his hand for the star of the sixth. One good point to make here is the Mets lack of offense caused the minimum amount of time for Niese to rest between the fifth and sixth inning. Sometimes too much offense causes too much a delay for a pitcher. A Mets pitcher should have this problem.

        -Gonzalez Germen did have a good outing on Sunday. His 1.1-IP of scoreless ball got his ERA down to 2.08 (I’m not the biggest fan on ‘G.G.’, but he is one of the guys that has to work out their problems at this level if you want this team to win any decent amount of games this year). Frankly, you have to root for him at this point. There’s no one banging at his door.

        (Hindsight – take Niese out after five innings because it’s his first start, then follow with Germen… Mets still have the lead after seven)

       - FWIW, another relief pitcher I haven’t been high on, 85-y. old Kyle Farnsworth, also fared well on Sunday, reducing his season ERA to a livable 2.70. Again, no doors knocking.

        -I’ve never seen someone hit a ball better while, at the same time, go hitless for the season. Welcome Travis d’Arnaud. He’s going to be fine.

        -The Mets have much bigger problems than who plays first base. You can’t win well pitched games by producing 4-hits. You’ll wind up with less than 60 wins for the season and, if you’re in management, you may be working at the Shake Shack stand before the end of the season.

There’s a bigger issue here.. and we’ll begin to talk about it tomorrow.