Morning Report – October 18 – George Greer, David Wright, Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia, Dario Alvarez, Bartolo Colon

Todd Gold ‏@TGold_PG  - #Mets 2B LJ Mazzilli showed controlled aggression at the plate, very solid offensive 2B profile. Geared for hard LDs, will hit a few out too

Adam Rubin –

George Greer, the popular hitting coach at Triple-A Las Vegas, has been hired away by the St. Louis Cardinals, a baseball source told ESPNNewYork.com. Greer, a former Wake Forest coach, has been credited with helping several Mets players, including Travis d'Arnaud during this past season. Greer is expected to oversee a hitting program for the Cardinals system. http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/95850/source-vegas-greer-hired-by-cardinals?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

            Mack – IMO, this is a big loss for the Mets. Greer has done a wonderful job for the Mets at many levels.

You have to wonder if this is tied into the Mets quest to name their own hitting coach. It sure looks like Greer wasn’t going to get the job.

Big loss here.

What is going on with David Wright? The Mets captain went from sinking ship to sunk with the worst season of his career in 2014. His .269 average is poor, but you could live with it if he hadn’t lost his power completely. Not only did he hit just eight homers (the third straight year he’s declined), he was only fourth on the team in extra-base hits (39). The Mets better hope it was just a balky shoulder.  Grade: D  http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/mlb/2014/09/30/mets-2014-report-card/

            Mack – ‘D’ is a pretty harsh rating… I’d say C-. One must write-off 2014 as an injury caused problem and the assumption is Wright will return to a better level in 2015. Now, we just have to determine what ‘better’ is. How is it that these ballplayers that sign a long term contract seem to drop a tick or two the next day? There’s 20 HRs here… I know it but I’m not convinced he should be batting third anymore, which will be complicated even more if the Mets go out and sign another legitimate bat for 2015.

Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia. Finally, the Mets bullpen has order and clarity. These two relievers stabilized the bullpen for the final four months of the season and give the club two great building blocks going forward. Familia was among the most heavily used and best relievers in the NL since May and Mejia took to the closer's role with flair. http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2014/10/mets_7_best_things_about_their_2014_season.html

Dario Alvarez - Alvarez didn't get much of a chance to pitch in September, but he's a young lefty with enough fastball velocity and a decent breaking pitch, so the Mets are going to want to keep him around, if for no other reason than the fact that they don't have a lot of left-handed depth in their farm system. There's little harm in keeping Alvarez around, although his performance in the AFL could signal whether or not he can pitch in the big leagues. http://www.rantsports.com/mlb/2014/10/10/determining-fate-for-each-member-of-new-york-mets-bullpen-in-2015/#slide_25

Mack – I would expect that Josh Edgin will give up the ‘LOOGY’ role in which you sometimes pitch to only one batter per game, and that will be turned over next season to Alvarez. I know a lot of you were hoping for Jack Leathersich to work his way into this role, but it just doesn’t look like he is developing into the kind of left hand control relieve the Mets need here.

I keep making adjustments to my (own) predicted rosters and I’ve placed Steven Matz back on the Binghamton roster to open the season. It wouldn’t kill him to start 4-5 more times at the AA level before joining the mess waiting above him at AAA-Las Vegas.

Right now, my rotations going into spring training are:

Mets (6) – Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, Jacob deGrom, Bartolo Colon, Dillon Gee, Jon Niese

Las Vegas (9) – Noah Syndergaard, Corey Mazzoni, Tyler Pill, Gabriel Ynoa, Rainy Lara, Darin Gorski, Greg Peavey, Logan Verrett, Matt Bowman

Binghamton (7) – Steven Matz, Kevin McGowan, Domingo Tapia, Luis Cessa, Michael Fulmer, Luis Mateo, Michael Koch

Gorski and Peavey has more to worry about since they will play 2015 as a 27-year old.

My guess now:

-         One of the Mets rotation pitchers will be moved in the off-season

-         Mazzonni will join the Mets pen

-         Gorski will join the Vegas pen

-         Fulmer will begin the season on the DL

A scout on Juan Lagares –

“For anyone who underestimates the value of his defense, just ask his starting pitchers what they think.  Anyone who doesn’t think he’s terrific isn’t paying attention. He still has a ways to go. He continues to learn plate discipline. I think there’s more power there. He’s already a good base runner. In the NL East, I like him over Denard Span, B.J. Upton, Ben Revere and Marcell Ozuna. He’s at the top of the division.

Mack – I’ve said this before. You want to read as much information you can get your hands on from scouts of other teams. They have the best knowledge of how your players stack up with the rest of the league.

As for what this scout said, this is the kind of stuff you want to read… and, I agree with him. I think there is some more power here and we started to see it near the end of the season.

Juan Lagares and Jacob deGrom… two reasons to never give up on the organization.

Beisbol.org on Bartolo Colon -

I had Bartolo Colon down as a candidate for minor improvement in the second-half, not quite what I had envisioned for Brandon McCarthy. Bartolo’s first-half ERA: 3.99 in 121.2 innings pitched. Bartolo’s second-half ERA: 4.24 in 80.2 innings pitched. This sounds like I picked the wrong path for Colon’s second-half, but there was less of a change than just ERA presents. In the second-half, Colon’s strikeout rate increased, home run rate declined, his home run-to-fly ball ratio stabilized, but Bartolo got some bad breaks (and three notable poor performances) in the second-half. It may be worth noting that his FIP actually declined in the second-half (3.66 to 3.44) if one were to put value into that. You could classify this pick as a swing and miss, but for the reasons listed I would put his performance level as roughly the same as it was in the first-half.

Mack – I still have no idea what the Mets are going to do with all these pitchers, but, for now, I’ll at least keep you abreast of what’s being written about them.

I really wish the Mets had room to keep this guy as their SP5, but I just can’t see how. Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, and Jacob deGrom have sewed up the first three slots. We’ve discussed this a number of times and we all know how many guys there are competing for the other two.

Can Colon bring a return in a Hot Stove deal? Well, if he could, why didn’t someone claim him when the Mets designated him for assignment?

Or should the Mets keep him in 2015, use him in the same role Dike K played this past season (long man/emergency starter)?