Morning Report – June 26th – Corey Oswalt, Mets System, Dillon Gee, Momentum, Greg Peavey

                                                                                             

Coming Later Today –  

                                                                                             

        2 00 pm – 2015 Draft Profile  -  2015 Draft Profile  -  RHP  -  Kyle Cody  -  Kentucky

1.0-IP rehab for P Luis Mateo for GCL Mets - 1-H, 0-ER, 2-K



So P John Lannon took seven weeks off after being demoted and came back last night to begin his 'rehab' with St. Lucie. How did it go?

             0.1-IP, 1-H, 1-K, 4-BB, 5-ERA, 135.00-ERA

Okay...



Binghamton 1B Matt Clark was granted his unconditional release. No reason was given publically but the 27-year old has chosen another direction to go within baseball. He obviously didn't see a future with the Mets...  this year, he hit .297 in 219-AB with 10 home runs. 



@DillonGee35 Nothing like being out on the mound competing!! Good to be back in action!! Even better to feel great doing it!  #DLsucks

Ashley Marshall on P Corey Oswalt -

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140623&content_id=81277546&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb&tcid=tw_article_81277546

Mack – I’ve never been a big fan of reading (or writing) puff pieces on lower level baseball players having early success in this game. I used to do a lot of this myself, but 90% of the time it doesn’t pan out and all that’s remembered is the fact that I said someone was something special when they turned out not to be.

Read the story… it’s an interesting history of the infielder turned starting pitcher, Corey Oswalt.  Oswalt came out of a San Diego Prep high school as a third baseman, but it was first scouts that began to write about his mound appearances in secondary high school games.

No one was excited about his as a hitter and the assumption was he would improve on his pitching while attending college. The Mets, who always seem to love raw, high ceiling high school players, over slotted him in the 7^th round of the 2012 draft and, as they say, the rest was history.

   

His 2013 season for Kingsport was headed in the right direction (3-G, 3.46) when he went down with a torn right meniscus.

The 6-4 20-year old is healthy now and, after two starts for the Brooklyn Cyclones, has produced: 13.0-IP, 0-R, 0.00, 0.54, 14-K, 1-BB.

Nice start… but, don’t get excited yet. It’s very early in the process.

Bob Sugar –

       Read an article potentially on this site that we now have the strongest farm system we've had in the last 25 years. It's great to hear but I just hope it translates to the big club one day. I don't need to win the South Altantic title every year- just want to be very competitive and knock the Yankees off the back page.

       Mack – Sandy Alderson was basically hired to revamp the system while, at the same time, operate under strict salary guidelines. In actuality, he has done a good job at that.

       Looking at the 2011 and 2012 draft, as of this week, four members of the Mets are in AAA (P Logan Verrett, RP Chase Bradford, 2B Danny Muno, and SS-3B Matt Reynolds).

In addition, 10 are in AA (pitchers Matt Bowman, Tyler Pill, Jack Leathersich, Randy Fontanez, catchers Kevin Plawecki and Xorge Carillo, infielders Jayce Boyd and Dustin Lawley, and outfielders Brandon Nimmo and Travis Taijerson.

The problem is only one of these players (Nimmo) is considered a top 100 prospect while only one more (Plawecki) projects in the top 200.

Alderson has also added a few top level prospects via trades (SP Noah Syndergaard, RP Zack Thornton and Joel Carreno, 2B Dilson Herrera).

I think he’s done a nice job, but I don’t see enough sizzle yet, nor do I think it will develop here. Alderson and Company pride themselves on drafting position players that have showed the ability to get on base. That’s all well and good but it would be nice if a couple of these guys hit the ball over the wall a minimum of twenty times a year.

What’s the difference between an Alderson draft and a typical one from the Omar Minaya era. Well, take 2010… the first 18 players picked came out of college. Only 10 of the 50 picks were high school seniors. None were signed.

      

Mike Vorkunov on Travis d'Arnaud - 
               
http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2014/06/mets_travis_darnaud_back_in_the_majors_but_will_his_career_follow_path_of_other_young_catchers.html#incart_river 


Dillon Gee looks to be coming back to the Mets rotation sometime in the next two weeks, which asks the question, who steps down? The assumption is that 松坂 大輔 will return to the Mets bullpen, forcing a move there (Gonzalez Germen to Las Vegas?).

Webster’s dictionary defines the word ‘momentum’ as “the strength or force that allows something to continue or to grow stronger or faster as time passes”.

Most of us as Mets fans have sort of let this recent win streak get past us. We’re stuck on all the negative that surrounds this team and the last thing any of us think of these days is a playoff game in October.

I have started away from both the standings page of MLB.com as well as the wild card race. I have followed how far the Mets have fallen and what their projected draft pick would be in 2015 if the season ended on that particular day.

What I haven’t spent much time on is how average the entire National League is. Average means that, for some teams, you’re as close to last place as you are to first. Sounds ridiculous? Well, check this out.

As of the ‘end of business’ 6-24, the Mets record was 35-41 (.461), making them the 11^th worst team in baseball… but, at the same time, they were only five loses away from a wild card slot.

We’re getting to the end of June which means we still have July, August, and September left. That’s three months of baseball. That’s a lot of baseball games in which you can score four or more runs per game and have your starters give up less than four in the first seven innings (my mantra). Forget all the speeches for 90 wins. 85 could easily be the magic number here.

There’s 85 games left.

You go 49-35 the rest of the season and you should be in the playoffs.

Is this humanly possible?

Well, can Bartolo Colon hit a double?

(as many of you know, I try and operate a day ahead, so what you read on Thursday morning tends to originally be written on Tuesday and then updated until the morning you read it.

To a great extend, it looks like momentum went out the door last night, but all it was was one game... under my scenario, the Mets are now 0-1 and have to go 49-34 for the rest of the season.

There was no way the Mets were going to sweep Oakland. In fact, winning one game was quite impressive.

Let's see how the next two weeks go before we throw them out the window with that bitch Jack offed.)

Greg Peavey is going to get another shot at AAA soon.

He once again dominated as AA game on Tuesday, throwing six scoreless innings (5-K) and lowering his 10-start ERA to 2.86.

The problem is he’s already been asked to step up to Las Vegas which didn’t turn out to be the trip he had hoped for (0-3, 3-starts, 15.09).

It doesn’t matter. If you’ve pitched ten starts at the AA level and your ERA is below three, then it’s time to prove you’re in it to win it.

Peavey has basically been an unheralded 6^th round pick in 2010 out of Oregon State. Wouldn’t it be something if we actually had another pitching prospect?


And lastly... 

Derek McKnight	11:54 PM (2 hours ago)
to me Re: Wilmer Flores

I am done with this team. I have enjoyed your site and your insight as the only bright spot  to keep me engaged with this team. 

How many days until football?

Thanks for all the entertainment and I have enjoyed every article and shortbread :)

 Mack - I understand, my fried. Wanna do a Nat one together?