Morning Report - September 12 - David Wright, Danile Murphy, St. Louis Cardinals, John Delcos

pic by Mack

I wanted to wait a few days before I commented fully on the shutting down of David Wright for the remainder of the season.

I have a few things to say here.

Inflammation isn’t something that is going to ruin your career, but it is something that will limit your ability to play this, or any game, at 100%. It really doesn’t matter how hard you try to swing at a baseball, or throw one to your catcher, your ability to do so at a pro-level will be limited simply by the fact your body will shut down by the percentage that the inflammation is hindering what you are attempting to do.

You can only take so many Ibuprofen and run so much hot water over the area that is hurting you. ‘Shutting down’ will always be top on the list of medical solutions for this problem.

Secondly, whose responsibility is it to come to the realization that there are 138 million reasons to put your start third baseman on the shelf until next season?

 Folks, I usually don’t miss an opportunity to be critical of either Terry Collins or Sandy Alderson. I think it is normal to criticize your management, but, in this case, the first responsibility falls on the player.

I’m sure the Mets management (and medical staff) could observe Wright and see things weren’t kosher. What do you do? You walk over to your guy and ask him if he’s okay and he says ‘yeah’. Do you start an argument with him?

Sandy said all the right things when he discussed this shutdown. You expect your stars to play hurt, but you also expect them to know when even they can do nothing to solve this while still playing the game daily.

Do I blame any of them?

No, in my opinion, this falls in the ‘it is what it is’ category.

Zackery Rymer on Ruben Tejada –

Tejada’s not a totally unplayable shortstop. He at least has a good eye at the plate, and his defense is better than passable. But without a good bat, good power, good bas erunning or a truly elite glove, it’s hard to see him becoming any better than just playable. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2189046-br-mlb-500-top-35-shortstops/page/3

So, at what point does the actions of either Fred or Jeff Wilpon become enough to force the sale of the organization, similar to what went on out in the west coast with Donald Sterling, or the mess currently involved with the owner of the Atlanta Hawks?

            I read over the statements made in the lawsuit against both the team and the Wilpons personally, by ex-VP, Leigh Castergine, that Jeff “frequently humiliated Castergine in front of others”, pretending to see if she had an engagement ring on.  The suit also said that Wilpon told her that she would make more money when she gets a ring.

            Can you do this in 2014? I barely could in 1980.

            New Commissioner, Rob Manfred, will only look weak unless he takes the same approach here as Adam Silver did with Sterling.

            It is becoming so embarrassing to be associated with this team, if you call what I do being associated. Why in God’s name would anyone want to take their family to this city and do what they do best for this man and his family?

            I know people are innocent before being proven guilty, but I hope that Manfred can step in here before this becomes a long, drawn out, ugly mess, both for baseball and the Mets. Find a new owner, settle the suit, and make the Wilpons go away.

            Please.

I was watching MLB television while writing my column and Joel Sherman came on, discussing Daniel Murphy. He said something really interesting. He stated that this currently is a short that simply doesn’t have that many decent ‘hitters’ and he can’t understand why the Mets would want to trade their best hitter, one of the best in baseball, and one that is paid less than $10mil per season.

You know, if we weren’t Mets fans, and we rooted for some American League team out west, all this would sound pretty stupid. Someone in your inner circle might point out that the Mets had a prospect second baseman ready to step in, but you’d counter with the fact of ‘how many times have I heard that before’? Again this is one of the top hitter in the game and he’s cheap!

Just food for thought.

We move on to the NL Central and first take a look at the St. Louis Cardinals.

According to Cot[i], the Cardinals have a 2014 payroll of $111,250,000.

Outfield wise, LF Matt Holliday is under contract through 2016 at $17mil per season. Both centerfielders, Jon Jay ($3.25/mil - .321) and Peter Bourjos ($1.2mil - .245) are entering their second arbitration year. Right field was originally Alan Craig, but has now been taken over by super-prospect Oscar Tavares (.228) since the Craig trade to Boston.

Right behind Tavares in the AAA-PCL is #1 prospect Stephen Piscotty (.288, 9-HR, 69-RBI) and #8 prospect Randal Grichuck (25-HR, 71-RBI).

Regarding shortstop, Jhonny Peralta (488-AB, .264, 19-HR, 63-RBI) signed on for a 4-year, $53mil deal that ends at the end of the 2017 season.

Mack Observation –

            Well, I still think the Mets made a mistake in not signing Peralta; however, in retrospect, he’s only having the same kind of year Wilmer Flores would have produced if he played the entire season. This fact alone represents a $50mil+ savings for the Mets.

            No, this is one of your ‘target teams’, but, in this case, it’s for an outfielder. They can’t field all the great ones they have on their team, and coming up to their team soon.

I know in my heart that the Cardinals would push Grichuck, but the guy you want here is Piscotty. He’s a natural born hitter and his swing would fit in perfect in the spacious CitiField.

What do the Cardinals need? Well, they have to start thinking about an eventual replacement for Yadier Molina behind the plate. A.J. Pierzynski ($8mil) will test free agency and Kevin Plawecki would be the perfect replacement.

Let’s remember that Plawecki is ranked by Baseball America (mid-season ranking reports) as the 40^th prospect… Piscotty is ranked at #49. This is how valuable a catcher-prospect is and a one-to-one deal for these two guys should be accomplishable.

Lastly, in my opinion, there are only a handful of great Mets blog sites. John Delcos’ New York Mets Report is one of them.

The site fell silent in the past six months and it looked like we lost him as a blogger. Well, it turned out that we actually almost lost him... period.

Read what has gone on over there 

(http://www.newyorkmetsreport.com/2014/09/08/please-accept-my-heartfelt-apologies/) and welcome John back. He’s one of the good ones.

---

[i] http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/national-league-central/st-louis-cardinals/