Morning Report - September 3 - 2015, DSL Pitching, Rule 5, Corey Seager

I wouldn’t get too concerned with what’s going on in the Mets games for the rest of this month. This is simply experimentation time and the suits are trying to either determine who has a future next year (example: Dilson Herrera) and who should be showcased for an off-season trade (example: Dillon Gee, Jon Niese, Bartolo Colon). You probably are going to see some bizarre lineups and interesting late inning changes. Again, a possible loo see to the future.

Example from Terry Collins last night - 

     TC put Familia out there for a purpose tonight to chase away Monday's outing. "I also wanted them to try to bunt on him."

It's experimentation time folks and TC and Anderson are already working on who will be around next season

This is sometimes how future everyday players are found. What if you bring up a guy like Erik Goeddel, who has had limited success as a minor league, and he goes lights out as a middle reliever this month? All of a sudden, you have an alternative to other members on your team that are questionable at best.

In a perfect world, the Mets are going to want to trade Colon, Gee, Niese, Kevin Plawecki for equal value on another position, and Daniel Murphy. The tough part is all of these guys come with past or present health issues, growing salaries, and they don’t represent the ‘top prospects’ in the system.

‘Team control’ is the two-letter word these days and other General Managers want the same guys Sandy Alderson wants to keep for his future… Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Rafael Montero, Dilson Herrera… all represent the future of this franchise.

It’s going to be an interesting off-season for Alderson this year. Until then, just enjoy September.

Kevin S. Anderson asked -

I seem to remember after the first 10 rounds of the draft that you mentioned that the Mets focus on drafting hitters over pitchers didn't surprise you because you had heard the Mets were excited by their young pitching coming state side this year. What do you think now that the rookie leagues are wrapping up? The Mets still managed to draft and sign a good number of pitchers in the later rounds as well - do you think that they have really re-stocked the lower levels again this year?

        Mack - Perfect timing for the question... as you can see from the breakout above, there is plenty of room for both new starters as well as member of the pen; however, we haven't factored in any of the guys that will come over from the DSL teams. I have no information on who they will be, but I can speculate a few that pitched well there:

Ronald Guedez - 14-G, 13-ST, 4-2, 3.04

Marbin Montijo -  13-G, 12-ST, 2-3. 2.82

Nicholas Debora -  11-G, 8-ST, 3-2, 3.69

Adonas Uceta -   already on the GCL squad

Harol Gonzalez - 15-G, 7-ST, 2-3, 3.24

As for drafting, no one in the projected lower level rotations currently project as a can't miss prospect, so I expect there's a good chance that the Mets will return to drafting a power arm first in 2015.

Rule 5 Eligible Mets –

AA - Binghamton -  Xorge Carillo, Darrell Cecilliani, Randy Fontanez, Ryan Frazer, Dilson Herrera, Chase Hunchingson, Adam Kolarek, Rainy Lara, Dustin Lawley, Greg Peavey, Tyler Pill, T.J. Rivera, Travis Taijeron, Jon Velasquez, Gabriel Ynoa

Michael Scannell to me -

I guess you can file this under "Long Shot".  With all the attention going to the Cubs and their surplus of MIF's, I'm wondering if the Mets should be looking at other SS prospects out there.

So far so good with Dilson Herrera at 2B.  He'll either be the starter next year or an important part of a trade package.  If the Mets decide to go the cheaper and more long-term route this means Murphy will be dealt this off-season.

Looking at LAD, they have Corey Seager as one of their top prospects.  He's hitting well at AA and should be ready for the majors sometime next year...and it's looking more like the Mets should've drafted him over Cheech in 2012.

If the Dodgers re-sign HanRam, Seager will be blocked at SS for some time.  I'm wondering if there isn't anything the Mets could offer to LA to pry him loose.

He'd be a great get for the team.  The Mets would potentially have Seager and Herrera up the middle for the next 4-5 years.  At 6-4 215, Seager is also a good bet to transition to 3B later in his career as he matures.  Amed Rosario's rise to the majors should coincide with the end of Wright's contract.  At that point Seager could slide to 3B and Rosario could slip in at SS btw him and Herrera.

    Mack - Well, you have it all figured out now, so we can all get on with our day...

    Actually, I wrote about Seager a few days ago in a complicated trade idea one of our readers came up with. I would think this is doable, if both General Managers would put their egos aside and stop worrying about which one would win after a trade is made.

The Dodgers are always looking for young, healthy pitching, but, like all the rest of the teams in baseball, they really aren't interested in either retread, Dillon Gee or Jon Niese. If you want their top prospect, you better be ready to deal yours who will be equally team controlled.

They also need a major league ready catcher so either Kevin Plawecki or Noah Syndergaard should do the trick here.

Remember Michael, you have to give up equal value to get someone that can solve your problems for multiple years. This is why the Mets have all this pitching. Jacob deGrom can step right in and become the SP3 that Thor was projected (remember, the key word here is 'projected') to be and the Mets rotation doesn't skip a beat.