Morning Report – August 22nd – Fences, Understanding Scouting Charts, Wilpons, Andy Martino

It was late Tuesday evening when Bob Gregory left one of the most intelligent paragraphs I’ve seen written on this site. It came as a comment on my Morning Report that day and it said:

Mack, you have come a long way in the bring-in-the-fences question. It does seem like an acceptable option if the team is limited to a lower budget and resistant to trading young players. Also in a statistics driven league, all of your offensive players suddenly become more valuable to other teams as trade targets. Heck, Granderson's contract would not look so costly if he could benefit from Yankees stadium-like shorter dimensions.

I have gone full circle on this because all I now want to do is develop an offense be it real or pseudo. Winning games is one thing, but the baseball world has turned WAR-BABIP-FIP crazy and I want some of it too.

Have you ever watched the MLB channel on cable and they are telling how many home runs Nelson Cruz has this season? Do they point out that 14 were hit is stadiums with shorter fences? Hell no.

Just add around six more rows in front of both the right and left field. Make them straight rows with seats next to seats or tables and chairs. Whatever. Just lower the home run line on the front end around six inches lower than the last renovation and target the change based on lowering the distance to the stands.

20 feet?  30 feet?  Let’s not go crazy. We have all this shit on tape now and we can tell you where every ball was hit by every Met hitter. You do the work and you can figure out the subtle changes needed without putting the fences just behind the second base bags.

Let’s build a new 2015 team using the same 2015 baseball players but adjust this stadium to their ability. The gaps will still be there for the gap hitters, but the shifts have created more demand to get this ball moving toward the LaGuardia runways.

I love it Bob.

I’m sort of getting sick of discussing who is going to play shortstop next year for the Mets, so I thought I’d move on to a subject only Tom Brennan and I can love… grading out prospects..

Obviously, there are two types of players to report on, everyday players and pitchers. Each has their own categories that in compass all of the tools that make a prospect. They, and the way they are graded are:

Batting – sums up the offensive skill set via projected batting average. It is further broken down into 1) plate discipline, 2) bat control (ability to hit different pitches), and 3) tools (which includes bat speed). Each should be graded on a 20-80 scale

General assumptions in minor league baseball scouting –every hitter in the minor leagues is presently a 20 hitter, expect for a handful of power hitting AA and AAA hitters (see, I told you not to try and grade the kids out too early… they’re hitting against fringe 45 pitchers (see later).

The BA scales all scouts use is .270 is a 55, .260 is a 50, .250 is a 45… etc.

OBP - .330 is a 55, .320 is a 50, .310 is a 45…

Power – split it into two grades:

1.     Raw – raw power is how far you can hit the ball

2.     Game – home may HRs you should be expected to hit in a season

50 – 15-18/HR… 55 – 18-21/HR… 60 – 22-25/HR…

Speed – Amateur players are judged by their recorded 60 time

            Pro players use the time ran from home to first base

Arm Grades – most amateur players star making a 0.0 UZR/average shortstop, or a center fielder has a 55 grade fielder because that’s where most start. 

Examples – HS SS is 45/55/defender – he’ll move off that position and you need to check the scouts notes to see where the scout is recommending he will eventually move… a 50/55/defensive shortstop in HS is being scouted (and reported) that he most probably will stick at short… a 55/60 would make him above average (with a UZP up to 5.0)

Let’s move on to pitching.

                        All pitchers are graded on the 20-80 level for sub-big league players

                        #45” is fringy

“50+” is solid-average (the vast majority of pitchers in minor league baseball)

Fastballs – three grades

1.     Velocity

a.     90-91: 50, 92: 55, 93: 60… etc.

2.     Movement

a.     Fair: 50, Good: 55, Excellent: 60

3.     Command

a.     Same as movement

Off-speed pitches –

                             

            A 60 or better is for a ‘swing-and-miss pitch’

            Two 60 pitchers a 50 pitch, and 50 command, is a #3 starter

***NEVER scout command or swing-and-miss stuff from a minor league stat line… it’s a waste of everybody’s time

           

                                                                        Thank you to Kiley M

What makes the Mets unique is also what has made them lousy for nearly a decade: they are an extension and reflection of their owners, both in terms of the team's money problems logically flowing from those of the Wilpons' and in the way that the promising, intermittently joyous team that's developing in Queens is doing so amid an ambient vibe of blustering, blowhardy pissiness. Of course the baseball is more fun than the non-baseball -- that is always true. But what's not fun about the Mets comes so clearly from the issues -- the personality, self-created and self-denied money problems and general towering competence issues -- of the owners. http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/8/19/6003707/matt-harvey-mets-wilpons

I keep reprinting paragraphs from articles that tear into the Wilpons so all of you continue to see how your favorite team, and its owner, is represented to all of baseball.

This was a story on Matt Harvey, but the author couldn’t help himself by throwing in this filth about the owners. Remember… free agents have a choice who they play for and most want nothing to do with this team and their front office.

And lastly…

                        Andy Martino chimed in on the possibility of a Mets-Cubs trade (http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/baseballinsider/final-word-big-ny-mets-chicago-cubs-trade-big-loss-yankees-blog-entry-1.1910028)

                       

                        He says it would be a no-go from both clubs because each one would want too much from the other.

                        See? That’s what I said (was it) yesterday. No one can just make a deal anymore that’s good for both clubs. Someone always has to win.

                        I don’t know where this game is going. All 30 teams only have a 25-man squad so you can only field so many ‘prospects’, especially starters (5).

                        In the case of the Cubs, how many middle infielders can play a baseball game at the same time?

                        Martino speculates that Mets would probably be okay with sending SP Zack Wheeler and SS/2B Wilmer Flores to the Cubs for SS Starlin Castro, but Chicago would want someone like Jacob deGrom or Noah Syndergaard thrown in also.

                        See, this is where the whole trading process goes out the door and everyone is left to fielding a team from their own system… which is fine… but, wouldn’t this whole process be much easier if the team with a shit load of talented, young starters traded one to the team with a shitload of young, talented middle infielders?

                       

                        Doesn’t both teams benefit by this?

Donation Drive (drive end 8-30) –

            Received so far – $ 400.00

            Goal - $1,400.00 - $1,000.00 to go 

Paypal account:  macksmets@gmail.com

The donation drive is moving in the right direction and I’m trying not to make the process annoying. God Bless you for your consideration.