Morning Report – August 30th – Zack Wheeler, Las Vegas, 21-man squad, Bartolo Colon

Noah Syndergaard now leads the PCL in strikeouts (144K/131-IP)

Zack Wheeler –

The last time Zack Wheeler did allow a hit in an 0-2 count was September 11, 2013. That’s 158 innings. Tracking down inning streaks which roll over from year-to-year proves to be pretty tricky, so we can’t pinpoint what the exact record for this is. However, thanks to the help of the great Jeff Zimmerman, I was able to find the highest number of innings pitched in a season without an 0-2 hit allowed since the beginning of the PITCHf/x era in 2008. And Wheeler appears to be in uncharted territory. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/zack-wheelers-historic-two-strike-streak/

 Well, the Las Vegas association is a done deal for two years. It is what it is. We probably have to come up with some new ‘norm’ when it comes to analyzing the pitchers there. Rafael Montero, Jacob deGrom, and Matt Bowman have all proved you can exist there with a below 4.00-ERA, but, my guess is that same number should be the number we should begin our judgment with in the future.

As for hitters, I can’t wait to see the numbers Brandon Nimmo, Jayce Boyd, and Dilson Herrera churn out.

Kevin Burkhardt ‏@kevinburkhardt  - Mets sign 2 year deal with Las Vegas to remain their AAA club. Guam was unavailable.

I want to thank everyone that participated in the semi-annual Mack’s Mets donation drive. I hope all of you loved your baked goods and that ordering window will remain on the right sidebar in case you want to order more down the road (or as gifts for the holiday season). Again, thank you. We finished at around 50% of our goals, and the money has already been targeted to some medical bills around here.

 I’m so happy I had the opportunity to watch the Mets play the Atlanta Braves this week on a 21-man squad. David Wright, Daniel Murphy, Vic Black, and Josh Edgin were not available and the Mets decided to just go with what they had left on the team.

What this gave us was an extended look at people like Matt den Dekker, Ruben Tejada, Wilmer Flores, Jeurys Familia, Buddy Carlyle, Carlos Torres, Eric Young Jr., Lucas Duda against lefties, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, and even Anthony Recker sitting in the background.

The Atlanta announcers were very nice describing how the future of this team looks bright, almost to the point that seemed like they were reading from a prepared script (they were). Still, it was nice to hear some nice things said about our players from a different perspective.

They especially targeted into Juan Lagares saying that he probably is the best centerfielder in baseball today. I will say this… this was an easy observation to make after the handful of circus catches he made in this series.

But, this is where I walked off with a bad taste in my mouth. All these games were close and the Mets could have easily won all three, even without the guys left in the Mash room, but what was left on the field gave me a three game, 27 inning look at our possible future.

There were home runs, but there was not one timely hit when it was needed… Curtis Granderson did not produce one hit under pressure worthy of his paycheck… Wilmer Flores’ bat has quickly become another producer of a .230 batting average, the norm for this team… and Ruben Tejada was just given another chance to show us he can’t produce the numbers to keep his job.

No… don’t get me wrong… my rose colored glasses are around here somewhere, but when this team has it’s best players on the shelf, the lack of depth gets exposed pretty damn fast.

Maybe what Eno Sarris says later on in this report is right. Maybe we're just going to have a pitcher based team to root for until the organization develops a new group of every day bats.

You know your team is in trouble when the Braves announces are saying that the Mets have a pretty damn good defensive second baseman in Flores.

 John Zozo sent this article a http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/shouldnt-some-team-want-bartolo-colon/  bout Bartolo Colon:

Jeff made an interesting point that some of these teams could do just as well by patching with internal options or expanded bullpens. He’s not wrong. There’s only so much value that a non-elite pitcher can add over a month of play, and Colon is a non-elite pitcher. If he’s worth a half-win above replacement over the last month (ZiPS has him for 0.4, and we aren’t quibbling over tenths of a point in WAR) that might not sound like much. The thing is, some of these teams may not have replacement-level options, if we’re talking about guys like Wolf or Volstad or Farmer or Lobstein, and that sort of sinks the “R” in WAR. In the playoffs, when you’re not so much thinking about WAR as you are about what happens in that one game, it’s easy to think that Colon is a better option than some of the potential threes and fours we’re seeing.

The Mets would want some kind of talent in return for Colon, and that can’t be ignored. The cost here isn’t zero. The return on investment isn’t guaranteed. But if Colon is still a Met after this weekend, it’ll be interesting to see if any of these contending teams wind up regretting it.

Mack – I really thought that. once the Mets put Colon on waivers, and then he cleared, this would have gone swiftly. There has to be a hang-up somewhere.

 Eno-Chat –

Comment From Elias - Thoughts on Eric Campbell and Tomas Telis? Deep mixed league help.

Eno Sarris: Campbell only plays v LHP, but I like him.

Comment From Nicolas Stellini - A lot of people talk about the Mets throwing their pitching prospects at the Cubs for one of their MI prospects, but is there a possibility they take a run at Stanton? In-division trades seem a lot less taboo these days.

Eno Sarris: Somehow I doubt that the Mets make a big trade like this with their pitching prospects. I think some of the guys will end up in the pen, some will be injured, maybe one goes at the deadline when they’re going good. In general, I think the plan is to amass arms, find bats.

Donation Drive (drive ends in one more day) –

            Received so far – $ 625.00

            Goal - $1,400.00 - $ 775.00 to go

Paypal account:  macksmets@gmail.com

God Bless you for your consideration.