Morning Report – July 22nd – Michael Conforto, Wild Card Race, Minor Moves

                                                                                                                                            

Coming Later Today –    

              2 00 pm - Baseball America - Highest Draft Bonuses of All-Time

             4 00 pm - 2015 Draft - Profile  -  2B  -  Ian Happ  -  Cincinnati - UPDATED 7-9-14

Christopher Soto will be updating his version of the top 25 Mets prospects this week. We have ‘cleared the board’ on the right side bar, so get ready to see some major changed since he last did it before the season started.

 Well, we finally got Michael Conforto back to playing baseball. I’m being told that he will get his feet wet in Coney Island for the rest of July, but will finish the season playing in the Savannah Sand Gnats outfield. It seems that the Mets would really like to win back-to-back championships there and Conforto would be a nice addition to bat right after Dominic Smith in the lineup. They also are very high on the progress of 21-yr old Champ Stuart who will also he held back so he can play in the Sally League playoffs. It’s frustrating when teams have to sacrifice the progress of their players to make the owners of their affiliates happy, but this is a business. All three of these first tier prospects will open up 2015 for St. Lucie.

The hardest part of this equation seems to be holding back Conforto in Brooklyn until the end of the month. He's eating up (small sample) the NY Penn pitching, which is also getting more quality pitchers for players like 3B Jhoan Urena and 1B Michael Katz that bat before and after him.

I may be wrong about this guy... he looks like the kind of bat we haven't had in this organization since that kid came out of, where, Virginia, 10 years ago

Dan-Chat –

Comment From Kevin - What kind of pitcher do you see Zach Wheeler turning into down the road? Good #2, or more mid rotation kind of guy. Figure he continues to struggle with his command ROS?

            Dan Szymborski: I think a good #2 more likely than a lower rotation guy.

                         Mack - I don't want to sound impatient, but I sure would like to see Wheeler step up for the remainder of this season so we would all know that we are going to go into the 2015 season with a killer 1-2 with Matt Harvey.

Wheeler has been brilliant every once in awhile and has strung four outings (6.0-IP each) in which he only gave up one earned run each, but he simply can't get into the 7th or, God forbid, the 8th inning. 

He's even cutting down some of his BBs, walking only five in his past three outings.

I can't see the Mets trading this guy this month unless it was in a Tulo-like deal. If that's true, it sure would be nice to see him start off a game without taking 20+ pitches to get out of the first inning.

I decided to throw the site into following the Wild Card race which makes one immediately realize just how many things have to go right for the Mets to make it that far. The easy part may be winning 65% of the rest of the game. The difficulty lies in the nine or 10 other clubs that are trying to accomplish the same thing.

So many things have to happen here right and a little luck wouldn’t hurt either. Remember, there are two races here. One for the division which, IMO, could only happen if either the Nats or Braves win five of the remaining nine games left they play each other on the schedule. If this doesn’t happen, one of the Wild Card teams will be one of these two guys which limits any success for the Mets immensely.

In the future, this will be updated every Monday morning.

The Mets are not starting off well here, losing the series to the lowly Padres; however, they did make up some ground on the Reds who were swept for four games.

I may have fell for another false alarm here. I seldom get excited about what comes out of Queens anymore by the 8-2 home stand did make me take a second look at the chances of making it as one of the two wild card teams. 

This week would also determine if we were going into the remainder of this season as 'buyers' or 'sellers' and, frankly, we only had around the first 6-8 games after the ASG to send those signs.

So what happens?

Right back in the ole toilet with a 1-3 start for the week.



The following stats are through Sunday's  games unless indicated.

NL East –

            Mets – 

                        Record (through Monday) since ASG  -1-3

                        next up through next Sunday – at Seattle, at Brewers

            Braves – 

                        Record (through Monday)since ASG -2-2

                        next up through next Sunday – Miami, San Diego

            Washington –

                        Record (through Monday) since ASG - 3-1

                        next up through next Sunday – at Rockies, at Reds

            Miami –

                        Record (through Monday)since ASG - 2-2

                        next up through next Sunday – at Braves, at Houston

NL West –

            Dodgers –

                        Record (through Monday)since ASG - 2-2

                        Next up through next Sunday - at Dodgers, at Giants

            Giants –

                        Record (through Monday)since ASG – 3-1

                        Next up through next Sunday - at Phillies, Dodgers

NL Central –

            Brewers –

                        Record (through Monday) since ASG - 2-2

                        next up through next Sunday - Reds, Mets

            Cards –

                        Record (through Monday) since ASG - 2-1

                        next up through next Sunday – Tampa Bay, at Cubs

            Reds –

                        Record  (through Monday) since ASG - 0-4

                        next up through next Sunday - at Brewers, Nats

            Pirates –

                        Record (through Monday) since ASG - 3-1

                        Next up through next Sunday – Dodgers, at Rockies

Minor Moves… Kingsport catcher Brandon Brosher is probably out for the season. Reports are that he either broke his leg or tore an ACL during an off the field incident. Brosher was leading the team with a slash line of .387/.424/.774/1.198. 4-HR in 31-AB… not only did Savannah Sand Gnats RHP John Gant have his 10^th win this weekend, he also threw his third shutout of the season. Gant is blocked by a number of less talented pitchers in both Binghamton and St. Lucie... P Buddy Carlyle has played for Las Vegas in three different decades (for three different teams): 1999 Padres, 2005 Dodgers, and the 2014 Mets...