Morning Report – August 29th – Dilson Herrera, Rule 5, Matt Reynolds, Lucas Duda, Yusmeiro Petit,

Last 5 starts for Casey Meisner: 1.76 ERA over 30.2 IP, 28 H, 35 SO: 5 BB (28 K%: 4 BB%)


The GCL Mets finished their season yesterday. Stars for the season included:

    OF John Mora - 110-AB, .318/.433/.427/.860

    OF Emmanuel Zabala - 196-AB, .301/.356/.367/.724

    LHSP Adrian Almeida - 10-G, 7-ST, 3-2, 2.13

    LHSP Kevin Canelon - 123-G, 5-ST, 1-2, 1.45

    RHP Tyler Baldamo - 10-G, 4-ST, 1-0, 1.74

    RHRP Alex Palsha - 14-G, 0-1, 0.69, 10-SV

Last night's announcement that Daniel Murphy was going on the DL and would be replaced by 2B Dilson Herrera changed everything. 

This isn't how the team we have grown to moan about operated... promoting the youngest player in baseball. What does this do to the future and how Terry Collins fills out a lineup card. I mean, just how many people can bat 8th?

An hour ago I wrote about a story out of NYC (Andy Martino) that the Mets were considering converting Travis d'Arnaud to fill the LF spot that is open. The logic being two fold... one) to prevent a 5th concussion and 2) make room for Kevin Plawecki.

You do realize that, if this was accomplished successfully, you now have filled every position other than shortstop and haven't moved one of your 1,248 potential starting pitchers.

Potentially, you now have a 15-25 HR hitting LFer, and a 10-20 HR hitting catcher in his first year

Wow.


Matt Reynolds -

Last October, he went bow hunting in southern Oklahoma with his father and two brothers-in-law. Alone in the woods, he finally began to exhale. Then, in December, his agent, Jason Wood, had him meet with Rick Strickland, a hitting instructor and part-time scout for the Mets. Strickland concluded that Reynolds was not moving his body in unison as he swung.

Adjustments were made and the results were immediate. Reynolds hit .355 in 58 games with Class AA Binghamton this season and was promoted to Las Vegas, where he has continued to hit just as well. And the line drives are going to the opposite field again.

Mack – It always seems to be adjustments that turn marginal minor leaguers into prospects.

While I’m on the subject of ‘adjustments’…

Lucas Duda currently has one home run and is hitting well below .200 against left handed pitching. Can you imagine what this guy would be worth someday at contract time if he could just hit 10 home runs and bat .230 against the same pitching?

I never understood why established major leaguers can’t go back to ‘school’ and approach this game like Reynolds, and those around him, did in St. Lucie.

Go to the St. Lucie camp for 3-4 weeks in the off-season. Get up early and open up the minor league clubhouse. Go outside and do your stretching and find someone to give you 10-15 minutes of soft BP… take a break and, now, here comes the important part… hire yourself (or get the Mets to supply) 3-4 left hand pitchers to rotate, one a day, pitching you 30-40 full speed pitchers from the mound… catcher… umpire (if there is one in the neighborhood).. the whole nine yards.

You can find the pitchers through local college or high school coaches, or the Mets may house some of the kids in the system.

Lastly, try to bribe one of the hitting instructors to stay around for your sessions. Sit down at the end and discuss what transpired that day, what went right and wrong, and do it again the next day.

You’re not going to learn to hit major league lefties by taking soft BP from a righty pitching coach. Do the work needed to earn the paycheck.

The players on the Las Vegas roster that will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft on 12-11-14 – Chase Bradford, John Church, Darin Gorski, Jack Leathersich, Cory Mazzoni, Daniel Muno, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Thornton, Cory Vaughn, and Logan Verrett.

Mack – My guess is the Mets will ‘protect’ Mazzoni, Syndergaard, and Verrett

Fangraphs –

           Yusmeiro Petit, a 29-year-old journeyman, has found a home as a swingman this season. Petit has appeared in 33 games for the Giants in 2014, which is one more major league game than he’d seen in the past five seasons combined. Petit was once a top-100 prospect, and he has been around for so long that he was part of the 2005 trade that sent Carlos Delgado from the Marlins to the Mets, but he’s also been DFA’d at least twice, including by the Giants last year, and lost on waivers from Arizona to Seattle another time. For a three year stretch between 2010-12, he threw exactly 4.2 big league innings, and he spent all of 2011 in the Mexican Leagues before the Giants took a flyer on him as a non-roster guy in January of 2012. In the minors, he was once described as having the potential to be a “Nelson Figueroa type,” which: high praise! http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/a-good-reason-to-watch-yusmeiro-petit-pitch-against-the-rockies/

Mack – A great success story from an old Mets prospect I once

projected as a ‘can’t miss’ Mets rotation start. Every once in awhile a guy like this comes around and teaches us that it’s ain’t over until it’s over… what a great saying… 

Continuing with my recent wearing of rose colored glasses, I couldn’t help but smile at the Braves announcer who said on Tuesday night that ‘two thirds of the world is covered by water while the other third is covered by Juan Lagares’.

The announcer also said that Terry Collins had told him that the Mets would be looking into bringing in the right field wall and particularly pointed out that Curtis Granderson could easily hit 25 home runs a year if conditions were altered to fit his power zone.

I talked yesterday about the prorated home run figures of both Travis d’Arnaud and Lucas Duda… and I also talked about getting David Wright back to the 20-25 home run range we’ve come accustomed to.

Maybe I should have included Granderson and, just maybe, the Mets already have their four power hitters on their 2015 team.

Donation Drive (drive ends in 3 more days ) –

            Received so far – $ 625.00

            Goal - $1,400.00 - $ 775.00 to go

Paypal account:  macksmets@gmail.com

God Bless you for your consideration.