I saw an
interesting stat online this week… The Mets are .500 this year, outside of
their 11 games with Washington.
This is so
hard for me to believe because I still remember how many years in a row this
team came in last in the division. They just outright sucked.
From 2003
through 2010 (8 seasons), the Nat finished either 4th or 5th
in their division.
But, like Houston
and the Cubs will prove someday, if you keep getting the early draft picks, you
will eventually build yourself a great team regardless of whether or not you
know what you are doing.
So, what are
the 2015 Washington Nats?
Well, draft wise, I guess it all
started with the last of the Montreal Expo draft picks left on the team, 2004’s
SS Ian Desmond. We follow this with 2005 first
round pick, 3B Ryan Zimmerman. 2007 brought 1st
round RP Ross Detwiller, 2nd round SP
Jordan Zimmermann, and 12th rd. pick
RP Craig Stammen .
2008 featured UT-2B 3rd rd. Danny Espinosa while
2009 gave them a pair of great first rounders, SP Stephen
Strasburg and RP-CL Drew Storan. They
also drafted RP Taylor Jordan in the 9th
round.
Like 2009,
they once again had the number one pick in the draft (doesn’t hurt) and they
picked OF Bryce Harper.
Following my
‘if you develop one great player a year’ theory, the Nats continued in 2010 by
drafting first 3B-2B Anthony Rendon, and, in the
9th round, RP Aaron Barrett.
That’s 12
members of the current 25-man squad. So, what about the rest of the key members
of the 25-man?
Obtained via
trades -
OF Denard Span traded for pitching prospect Alex Meyer
C Wilson Ramos was traded in 2010 (with Joe Testa) for CL Matt Capps
SP Doug Fister - traded to the Nationals by Detroit for
utility man Steve Lombardozzi and left handed
pitchers Ian Krol and Robbie
Ray.
SP Tanner Roark - traded by Texas (with Ryan Tatusko) to the Nationals for Cristian Guzman.
SP Gio Gonzalez - Gonzalez was traded with Robert Gilliam to the Washington Nationals for Brad Peacock, Tom Milone,
Derek Norris and A. J.
Cole
SS Astrubal Cabrera - on July 31, the Indians traded
Cabrera to the Washington Nationals for Zach Walters
Obtained via
free agency -
OF Jayson Werth – free agency (7-yr, $126mil)
1B Adam LaRoche – free agency (originally 2-yr deal in
2011)
RP/CL Rafael Soriano – free agency (2-yr, $28mil)
In summary,
the one thing that stands out is the fact that not one single player was signed
via the International free agent process, primarily out of the Dominican
Republic and Venezuela. I don’t have any idea why, but this could be an entire
different story for someone on a Nationals blog.
Other than
that, there were only three free agency sings and six trades that they
obviously got the best of their trade opponents. It’s a system built via draft
picks and trades, but dominated by the talent from the early round picks in the
draft.
Klaw-Chat –
Doug (MT) - Shouldn't
Conforto be playing at a more advanced level at this point? Why is he still in
Brooklyn?
Klaw -I have to assume it's part of ownership's
push to make sure Brooklyn wins.
Mack
– Law is probably right here and, his recent slump might have showed this was a
good decision. Let him play it out in the Big City and then come back next
spring in St. Lucie. This team is never going to be competitive without three
big outfield bats and it looks like this could be one of them.
Rave (NJ)- Can
Matt Reynolds stick at SS? Mets badly need one.
Klaw - Haven't seen him since college but I'd bet
against it ... that said, they have every incentive to leave him there and see.
Third base is occupied, and if Reynolds can play even a 45 short, he'd be huge
for them.
Mack –
Sorry Thomas, I didn’t make him write this.
Dave C
(Albany, NY) - Will Dilson Herrera get
consideration for your summer top 100 list? The guy is raking in AA
Klaw - I don't do a summer 100 - I did a top 50,
and he wasn't on it, but he would have made the next 50.
Mack
– Okay… making Keith’s Law Top 100 is just fine with me at this stage in Herrera’s
career. I can’t tell you how important 2015 is going to be for this kid and his
future as a New York Met.
Jacob (NJ) -
Do you like the idea of the Mets slowing down Harvey's rehab because of
Hefner's injury?
Klaw - I assume there's more to it than that,
because each case should be evaluated on its own - why would Hefner's disaster
make Harvey more vulnerable to it? Unless the Mets just think that their whole
rehab protocol was off and needed to be revamped.
Mack –
Well, Law seems to be a little naive here.
I
believe this is a combination of two things. First, Harvey and Hefener spent a
lot of time rehabbing together and no one saw Hef go through the ups and then
the downs more than Harvey.
Secondly,
the Hefner injury has given Sandy Alderson the perfect excuse to slow down the
process that he already thought was going on too fast. Harvey is in no public
position to argue about this after the Hefner setback.
Richard (NY)
- Is Matz much below Syndergaard and co. in terms of potential?
Klaw - Yes.
Mack – I
believe this is true. Matz is exciting but Thor is the bomb.
Donation
Drive (drive end 8-30) –
Received so far – $75.00
Goal - $1,400.00 - $1,325.00 to go
God
Bless you for your consideration.
Can someone explain to me how Conforto is struggling???
ReplyDeleteHe had one game on 8/9 where the opposing pitcher threw the game of his life and he k'd 3 times. And thats it!
Over the past 7 games he's hitting .350 with a .519 OBP and 5 runs scored....and he's only struck out 3 times from that one game!!
Defensively he already has 4 OF assists.
Plus we only see stats Conforto puts up. Bklyn may have cost him a few long balls, as it is a hard place to hit. Bklyn overall has very few homers. Has anyone ever hit a lot of long balls there for Mets? Not that I recall
ReplyDeleteReynolds may never be a quality SS, but his bat has come a mighty long way with the bat since last year....makes you wonder sort of hitter ceiling he'll have.
I'd love to see Reynolds at 2B.
DeleteMorning Chris.
ReplyDeleteMissed your post yesterday morning.
Michael Conforto went on a short slump, that's all.
I, nor Kieth Law, ever said he was struggling.
Thomas -
ReplyDeleteI don't want to spend any more time on Reynolds than you already do, but the fat of who plays shortstop next year lies in the hands of Sandy Alderson.
I find it hard to believe that he won't bring in an outsider to replace both Tejada and Flores.
I think we can replicate the Nats' success, but we are simply a year or two behind, on a similar path.
ReplyDeleteWe just need to be patient and let the roster develop, which is easier said then done.
On a side note, what the hell is wrong with Terry Collins? With all the arm injuries around baseball and with our own club, he lets Wheeler consistently throw a ton of pitches! 120 last night? It's not like he was a couple outs away from a no hitter, or that we don't have a good bullpen.
Unreal!
Well Thomas, not to brag but I hit two Hr's out of MCU park during a 3 game series in 2002 while playing with the Jersey Angels against Tottenville, so it's not that hard!! :-) But I'm a RH hitter and they were both out of LF, along with every HR hit during that series and others I've seen hit there attending games as a fan, since I agree, it's VERY difficult to hit HR's to RF.
ReplyDeleteOur team HR hitter was a lefty (groomsmen in my wedding) and he still to this day talks about his bombs he hit that he thought were going over the Cyclone and into the water. Unfortunately for us, they all ended up getting caught even before the track. He claims they changed balls for him to loosely would ones, but the wind did knock them both down, though I won't tell him that, since it's fun to hold that over his head. Especially since he's 6 inches taller and 50 Lbs heavier than me. "HIT THE WEIGHTS, BARELY WARNING TRACK POWER"...haha, still gets him!!
I'm sure there were HR's hit to RF, but it's almost as difficult as Grayson Stadium, especially with the wind blowing in off the water adding to the troubles, although it's only listed at 325 ft.
Ike hit 0 in 239 Ab's, Duda only hit 1 in 140 Ab's, Nimmo had 2 in 130 Ab's, my friend Scott has 0 in 11 Ab's, but Conforto already has 2 in 52 Ab's at MCU park (0 on the road) so maybe his power bat is real, time will tell.
It's quite the challenge as a LH in Brooklyn to hit HR's, so I wouldn't be too concerned about his power #'s this year if he only hits a few since as I showed above, it's not exactly Yankee stadium for lefties.
Hopefully next year he skips Savannah and plays alongside Gavin Cecchini & Dominic Smith in St. Lucie as our 2/3/4 hitters (our last 3 1st RD picks) since he's considered an advanced bat, while many college bats start at Adv. A right from the draft, so that makes sense with a potential call up to AA mid season. Start 2016 at AAA, with a Suoer 2 cut off call up in June if all goes well, along side Nimmo, who might be already be there if he plays up to his potential next year and gets some AB's in September/2015.
Thoughts?
Closer we can use your powere in Citifield! Where did I leave Sandy's #? That's a cool memory and it is clearly a reason to not panic over conforto having just 2 homers at this point. Ike of course hit no homers on the road that year either, so his wind excuse would be a weak one.
DeleteI noticed that Nimmo and Herrera hit homers last night......cant wait to see them both at aaa, just one level away people. ..
ReplyDelete..
...
On their way...
DeleteMore random thoughts/observations
ReplyDeleteWheeler now consistently throwing 95+ in the later innings.
Familia, when on his game, makes hitters (like last night) look like that little leaguer whose dad is making them play, and they have no idea what they're doin in that scary batters box)
I really love vic black. ...............
Black, Edgin, Black, Mejia, Parnell...plus other potentials in the minors who are currently starters but might make effective relievers like Verrett, Mazzoni, Fulmer, plus Leathersich. This team has the luxury of building its entire staff from within, keeping the best talent for themselves.
DeleteErnest,
ReplyDeleteMy 2B plan is to trade Murph this offseason (his value will never be higher) in a package with a non-Harv/Wheels/deGrom/Thor pitcher, and let Flores and Herrera battle it out in ST for the gig. At worst, you let Dilson hit (an apparently meaningless) .340 in Vegas until the Super 2 date.
Toss Matt Reynolds in there as well.
DeleteOne of my objectives in breaking out the Washington team was to show the time element it takes to turn around a bad team.
ReplyDeleteAnd they were the baddest of bad.
Nothing has changed here... they won last night with only 3 runs...
they need bats, LF, SS
Anonymouus -
ReplyDeleteI never was a pitcher, but I was told that having your pitchers pitch 120 innings LATE in the season... if they were properly built up throughout the season... is not a bad thing.
Thomas, I was a lead off hitter with more speed than power, but I loved the big spot and could Jack a few HR's along the way. Playing in the NY mets minor league stadium was an experience I'll never forget particularly the Friday night game under the lights with 2,500 fans in the stadium. Oh and did I mention I played SS?
ReplyDeleteYou can look this up, but I broke the Middlesex County All time SB record in 1999 and held that record until a young buck named Eric Young Jr. (who I coached his summer league team in 2002) came along and shattered it 4 years after I graduated HS. He's a special talent when it comes to SB's, but I believe the phrase, "You can't steal first" comes to mind since he was never a great hitter, especially from the left side of the plate. The idea was hes closer to first from the left side and we even tried to incorporate the famous Timo Perez slap hit from the left side, but his dad put the kabosh on that real quick.
I'm 33 now and I'm fairly positive I could hit .224 with a .279 slg %, like Ruben Tejada, who BTW makes $1.1M this year. That which makes me cry to think about having multiple surgeries (achilles, acl/lcl & rotator cuff) in a 5 year period did to my chances, but everything happens for a reason my man, I can't be bitter about that now 10-12 years later, since I'm bitter enough about this Mets organization and when we're going to actual be a contender already. What's the phrase, $hit happens!! :-)
Closer... Thomas...
ReplyDeletewe spend all this time trying to come up with ways of making this a better team, but the fact remains that the Wilpons will not support what Alderson is trying to do through the draft, trades, and international signings, with new money for bats.
The three of us... and 15 others on this site... have looked far and wide through this system...
And there is no one that can help us next season currently wearing a Mets uniform
Closer, you're 33... I'm turning 68... I'm sick and broke and spend all day creating a blog that brings me no financial relief or excitement anymore being a fan.
The 'hits' on this site are down 40% in the past 6 months while at the same time it has more original material than ever. The problem is just look in the stands at the average fans... they are children... then look at who reads Mack's Mets.
I can't keep trying to come up with both entertaining and creative posts (1000 words a day) when the owners of this team don't give two shits.
The Mets have this upcoming off season to keep me around. If they can't support their own 'business', I'll do something else with the time I have left.
Mack, I know we've gone round on this before, but IMO you're being too harsh on the owners. They (well, Fred, anyway) have a VERY strong track record of being among the top payrolls in MLB in the 30+ pre-Madoff years. To say that he/they don't want to spend is over the top. I don't (and I suspect that you don't either) know their financial status at present, but IMO if the money is there and Sandy wants to spend it, that's what will happen
ReplyDeleteBill, I can't believe you can defend the Wilpons.
ReplyDeleteWhat do the 'pre-Wilpon' years have to with anything that isn't transpiring today?
Do you actually believe that a family that owns his much commercial real estate, in the country's largest city, in a boom market, and who don't have a single member of their family have one single cent of personal debt... and they can't afford a left fielder???
I simply can't argue this with you anymore.
Losing Doubleday was a huge negative for this organization.
DeleteBill
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but the Wilpons have done nothing over the past few years to deserve any benefit of any type of doubt no matter how small it may be from the fans.
They have mistreated the fans through their words and deeds.
They should be thankful that some fans are still around. They should also be doing whatever possible to dispel fan mistrust and scorn.
Bob and Mack--- Sorry, but you're sounding wa kid who gets nice Xmas presents every year, but resents his father when he loses his job and can't afford them until he gets a new one.
ReplyDeleteIf you have knowledge of the Wilpons' finances, which I have said I don't, it's all speculation.
But it's undeniable that Fred has never hesitated to spend until the Madoff disaster. Saying he "doesn't WANT to spend implies mind-reading skills, which I doubt anyone here (including me) has.
Money WAS spent on a LFer (and a RFer) last Winter. It was the GM who decided on CY/Grandy as the choices.
That should read "like a kid"
DeleteBill, $84,951,365 is our current payroll obligations for 2014, down almost $60M from just a few years back.
ReplyDeleteThis went from being top 5 in the league, to now bottom 5 in MLB coming in at # 26 behind Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Tampa & Houston, which represents the small market teams. Even sadder, teams like Kansas City, Minnesota, San Diego, Milwaukee have higher salaries than us.
The chances of being able to sustain long term championship level success becomes very difficult with very little margin for error maintaining a bottom 5 payroll since Sandy will need to hit on EVERY single move he makes, which as we've seen is not easy to do.
I doubt if it were up to him, he wouldn't want to have a bottom 5 salary and maybe make a few moves to make this a winning organization again, but he doesn't write the checks. Why did we have to wait to rid ourselves of Jason Bay and Johan Santana's salary before we could make moves for Granderson, Colon & Young? There's no room in the wallets to afford bringing on too much salary, which is frustrating as a fan since we could have had a bat like Nelson Cruz instead of Chris Young, but because of not being able to afford him, we get stuck with CY and we all know how that worked out. That's just one example, I could name MANY others.
If he could even bring the salary up to middle of the pack, which is in the area of $115M, which is an additional $30 M plus and if he can move Colon & Murphy, we could make some blockbuster, power moves if they players were available, but we know that this is fantasy talk because that's now how the Wilpons want to operate this team in the biggest market in the world. There in lies the frustration with Mack, Thomas, Stephen, Christopher, myself,,etc..etc..etc.. and until this ownership takes this team and fans seriously enough to put a championship level team on the field, we will continue to vent our frustrations on this and other websites because that is what we like to do.
No GM wants to work with a limited payroll like this, you can't possibly blame this all on him knowing what limitations he has to work with, regardless of what he says in public, he knows how to take the pressure off his bosses. I'm not exactly a Sandy fan by any means, but sometimes you have to take a step back and see the real problem for what it is and if the Wilpons can't support a Major League Baseball team in NYC they way that a Major League Baseball team in NYC should be, then they should step aside and sell the organization to someone who can and who's first priority is to make the Mets the greatest organization in baseball.
Bill
ReplyDeleteYou are correct nobody can read the Wilpons mind.
So..... should we judge the Wilpons on their own words then.....?
Fred and Jeff stated in their own words, quite a few times over the past few years...... "there are no financial problems that affect the Mets operation and payroll"
Don't tell me as a fan.... there are no money problems and that the payroll will raise this year and then have the payroll in fact go down when there were available players that could have helped this team at reasonable prices. Whether by trade, free agency, or international free agency.... doesn't matter.
Just don't lie to me and then tell me as a fan that I am the reason a New York team is among the bottom half in payroll over the past few years because I am not giving them enough of my money!
You ( the Wilpons) won't create a contending team until I give you more money???!!!!!
GRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!
Closer--- We all know about the last 5 years AND the reasons for the lack of funds. We do NOT know what the plans are for increasing spending or not. And don't "feel sorry for poor Sandy". He came into this mess with full knowledge of the budgetary limitations and is part of the solution to the on-field mess, if there is one.
ReplyDeleteAnd if we signed Cruz INSTEAD of CY, we'd have had to pay something close to his asking price in $$$ and years. The Birds only got him for the cheap one-year deal after no one else wanted him. Yes, he's having a fine year with the bat (though not with the glove), and will be a FA. Would you sign him this Winter for the multi-year deal he'll probably get as a DH?
Bob--- Words are fine, but it's actions that count, along with past history. Yes, it's frustrating for us fans, but we'll see in the next 6 months what next year's budget will be.
Bill
ReplyDeleteTHAT'S my biggest problem with the Wilpons though
Their words have been lies to Mets fans