7/26/14

Morning Report – July 26th - Playoffs, Joc Peterson, Wilmer Flores, CarGo, Minor Notes




(apologies for lack of the depth of the coverage the past few days,,, a good friend to the NY Giants, and my next door neighbor died from complications of a car accident on her was to Hilton Head. Got clipped by a 75-yr old going 15 miles over the speed limit. 

Anyway, back to sports…

Mets at the deadline: Tulo or CarGo?
Read more at http://throughthefencebaseball.com/mets-at-deadline-troy-tulowitzki-or-cargo/43575#7PiUYQM6eCbvAEF8.99



No, I don’t think we have a chance in making the 2014 playoffs but, WTF… why not give it a go, right.

For starts, the Mets needed to take three games (out of four) from Milwaukee. 

Someone forgot to tell this to Dillon Gee who had his second bad outing in a row. To do this they need to score more runs in the last six games they have played (nine), which is oddly equaled to the amount Milwaukee scored on Thursday night.

Last night was a wonderful come from behind victory that we just aren't used to seeing. These are the kind of games that usually wind up in a loss and a lot of bad press for Daniel Murphy, but it was Murph that began the three run rally that eventually led to the win.

The series is now split 1-1 and, the race continues.

+++ one more important thing +++

Last night you saw how a perfect lineup works. The problem is that the perfect lineup was three people. Yes, you can add Curtis Granderson before them, and the emergence of Travis d'Arnaud is now creating a 'perfect 5', but this is where it currently ends.

They are now 12 - 6 in their last 18 games


(I will update the race on Monday with win-loss records since the break and the following week's schedule for each team in the race)


For now, I’d like to see the Nats win every game left that they have scheduled against the Braves or Marlins. We only have a chance of being one wild card team that comes out of the NL EAST

Also, I’d like to see the Giants keeping pounding the Dodgers out of the race. They start a series at San Francisco that, if swept, could have us already lined up next to them

But none of this means nothing unless the Mets start winning in the 60-75% range and begin to pass some of the teams with better win-loss records in the books.


Speaking of the playoffs, hats need to be tipped to both Jacob deGrom and Bartolo Colon for keeping us in the peripherals of this thing we are still calling a race. Colon has us in a single handed win-win situation… win if we trade him for a SS or LF prospect and win if we keep him around for another great year out of him in 2015. You’re reading this on the 26th. There are five more trading days for Sandy and Company for find the last person they worked with in the Dodgers organization that it really doesn’t matter how good Joc Peterson is if he’s never going to play for them.

There’s no fair trades during the trading deadlines. There’s only trading for immediately need and the Bums need to stop throwing away well played games (with good bats) with piss poor late inning starter innings and inadequate middle relieving.

We have plenty of that… starting with Colon and ending with Montero and Familia in the pen.


I spent Thursday night trying to get caught up online and I see that Wilmer Flores is back. I can’t see any scenario where this ends well.  What happens if he hits .400+ for the first 20-30 at-bats back in Queens? Are you going to take the job away from Ruben Tejada who has done a decent job of rebounding this year? Let’s fact it, 2014 is Tejada’s year at shortstop and, as I have said before, I don’t see a happy ending for Flores… ever. I’m never going to understand this one.


My post regarding CarGo generated a lot of negative interest in him; however, Joel Sherman confirmed the following day that the Mets are interested in him. As I have said in the past, there are better outfielders out there, but they don’t become available in mid-season trades. I don’t expect this to go anywhere. In fact, I don’t expect much at all out of the Mets this and next week. This team is going to have to first begin to operate differently before I believe it.

My guess as of now… Colon and Dice-K will move on for some AA or A level prospects. That’s Sandy’s speed.


Minor Notes


SP Jose Medina has not been able to duplicate the kind of numbers he put up last year for the DSL Mets (2013: 12-starts, 2-0, 0.35, 2-ER in 52.0-IP). The 18-year old GCL pitcher gave up three more runs in four innings pitched on Thursday, raising his seasonal ERA to 7.16… we need to keep an eye on someone named Adonis Uceta. The 20-year old DSL-Mets starter has now started eight games, going 2-1, 1.48… remember July 24, 2014. It may be the day that CF Brandon Nimmo began to turn things around at the AA-level. He went 3-5, raising his AA-BA to .207…  Lucas Duda is on pace for 25 HRs, 35 2Bs, .492 slugging, and an .853 OPS this season… Wilmer Flores in 55 games for Las Vegas:  .323, 71-H, 13-HR, 57-RBI, 43-R... going into last night's game, Las Vegas SP Rafael Montero was 3-3, 3.95 in his last 10 starts... P Daisuke Matsuzaka shipped back to NYC for MRI on elbow... Las Vegas SP Darin Gorski fractured his foot and was replaced on the roster with SP Matt Bowman...



14 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Flores should stop calling himself Wilmer. Willie Mays Flores has a nicer ring to it. Close enough to Wilmer, and he can say he is taking on this nick name out of honor to the great one. 9 runs in 6 games leads me to still advocate a short term fix of Flores at SS and Tejada as late inning SS guy. Tejada's bat is evaporating.

The leap for Medina and others from the DSL is a very uncertain one - DSL quality seems to be a very shaky indicator of future quality.

While I am troubled that Sandy did not keep Byrd and LaTroy, he has pulled off some good deals in recent years. Can he now do something that is revolutionary, or even evolutionary?

Tom Brennan said...

Tejada is a conundrum. Only 5 errors...excellent. On base % good. But he has played an awful lot and scored something like 25 runs and knocked in 22. Flores playing that much would have generated many more runs. Would his defense negate all that? Not so sure. A plus for Wilmer playing is Wilmer needs at bats to get thru his major league hitting adjustment phase. To do that he needs to play. If he gets at bats, he'd be much more ready to replace Murphy if Mets were so inclined...as his bat would be broken in on the ML level.

Ernest Dove said...

Regarding players like cargo (and kemp), im kinda over the whole idea of mets signing/trading for guys who are coming off poor seasons. Byrd and dice k worked out for cheap, but try not to forget that farnsworth and valverde also plAyed for our team.........CY.........nevermind about CY..........
My point is that this organization has quickly built such a strong farm system, that there should be NO reason to trade off the top ones for guys who may of may not have lost it. And I don't care if injury may or may not be the reason.
Quick sidenote: remember when many out there wanted Stephen Drew?
.170 BA, 4hr 11rbi and 35Ks in 34 games...

Reese Kaplan said...

Señor Tejada should have been benched on merit, not beaning. For the month of July he's hitting a robust .196 with a plethora of strikeouts (a bit of an anomaly for someone with no power).

We're back to business as usual, of course. Flores gets 50% of the Mets offense on Thursday and is benched. Tejada goes 0-4 with 2 Ks on Friday. I'm betting he starts over Flores on Saturday. Any takers?

Mack Ade said...

I'm not taking any bets against Reese

Anonymous said...

OK, a deal that involves one or more of Matz, Syndergaard, Herrera and/or Nimmo better bring back a young, future superstar (Stanton type).

It is NOT good management to deal your best assets for a declining return. Tulo and CarGo (talent wise) are better then our in house alternatives RIGHT NOW.

Adding one or both of them to our current roster MAY increase our chances to grab a playoff spot this year.

Over the course of the next three to five years, both Tulo and CarGo will be aging, expensive and underperforming (relative to their salary and expectations), while the four prospects listed above will be in their primes!

Just say NO, Sandy! A deal like that is something Omar would do and it is the thinking that got us into this mess in the first place.

Stay the course and be patient....as much as it sucks to watch our current team in 2014, MUCH better times are just ahead.

Tulo and/or CarGo would both be train wrecks in NYC and dealing our best prospects would waste the last three years of work Sandy and Co put into rebuilding our TOP FOUR farm system.

Possible playoff berth this year or an extended run of success and WS contention over the next five years?

Easy choice for me.........Mike

Ernest Dove said...

Changing topics:
Has anyone noticed that cesar puello is now apparently the 4th/5th outfielder in vegas? If I'm not mistaken, he is recently losing time in OF to 30something yr old utility guy saritelli.
As a true pessimistic mets fan, I fully expect puello to be another teams future carlos gomez..........or they will leave em in aaa until he's 27-28 like dykstra, satin, lutz and campbell.

That Adam Smith said...

Ernest, clearly, despite Puello's utter domination of AA as a 22 year-old, this front office is not particularly interested in seeing what he might have done this year with regular playing time in AAA. I mean, really, why would they care? Who needs young, fast, power-hitting OF prospects?

Are they in some sort of a power struggle with this kid - enough that they're willing to throw away a whole season of his development? F'ing mind boggling.

Mack, with all due respect, Ruben Tejada, despite reasonable defense, is hitting .230 and has something like the second-lowest slugging % of any regular player in the NL. He's a valuable backup, but at this point, I'd be running TJ Rivera (as one example out of many) out there over him. Like Puello, with Flores, this FO just doesn't seem very interested in finding out what they have.

Are these guys so arrogant that they know, for certain, that these highly productive prospects can't make it in the bigs? So smart, that they don't even have to bother giving the kids a chance to prove them wrong? They can afford to just throw years away with these kids?

Someone is going to reap the benefits of Puello's tools and Flores' bat. It certainly doesn't look like it's going to be us.

Ernest Dove said...

I know nothing of the prospects involved, but the giants apparently traded two of em to the redsox for a pitcher who is 1-9 with a 4.72 ERA.......
How was colon not a better option for them?
Im sure a healthy dice k would have been a better option.... (yeah, peavey used to be an all star...so was CY)

Mack Ade said...

My guess:

Mets trade SP Bartolo Colon and SP Dice-K to some team for a AAA or AA top prospect pitcher with a 2015 ETA

The Mets then package that pitcher, Noah Syndergaard, Rafael Montero, Brandon Nimmo, Kevin Plawecki, and Wilmer Flores to Colorado for BOTH
CarGo and Tulo

The Mets lose nobody on their current team

Lineup:

Granderson, Murphy, Wright, Tulo, CarGo, Duda, d'Arnaud, Lagares...

2014 Rotation:

Wheeler, deGrom, Niese, Gee, somebody

add Harvey 2015
add Matz 2016

Unknown said...

Looking back do you guys think the Met's dodged a bullet or missed the boat on Justin Upton a couple years back? A 26 year old putting up .275/25/90 would be much more attractive than the always injured CarGo. Probably would've cost Wheeler and Murphy plus though!

Ernest Dove said...

Sounds interesting Mack, but who's gonna pay tulo and cargo salary? Sure as hell ain't the wilpon's........still gotta also give Murph and Duda a raise in the offseason.

Mack Ade said...

The money is there, Ernest.

They just need a chance in policy.

Tom Brennan said...

Macks idea is quite interesting...a true blockbuster. Of course, Reese, Tulo would sit while Tejada played. Kidding aside, I don't give a hoot about past injuries, what is the prognosis for Tulo and CarGo going fwd? If they look fragile, no dice (dice K, though, would be fine). Go totally radical and call up Matz...he could win now in bigs with that line up.

Duda starting to remind anyone of Boog Powell?