The Morning Report – October 30 – Juan Lagares vs. Roberto Clemente, Lucas Duda, Pre-ARB

One thing before you go to bed tonight. If you are half  my age of 68, you make your friends and family members just witnesses the greatest single pitching performance in World Series games since the dead ball era of Walter Johnson.

You will never see this again.

Madison Baumgarner has proven to be the pitcher this game has ever seen produced

I only hoped you wanted every pitch of every ball he threw in this series this season.

It will never be back.

Thomas Brennan is taking some serious shit over in the comments section of one of his posts where he compared Juan Lagares to a ‘young Roberto Clemente.. Some of our more aggressive regulars and the anonymous crew have shot back at Tom pretty hard, so I thought I’m compare these two guys at the same stages of their careers to see if could walk away with some concrete statements to hit over the head of some of these guys.

So Thomas, Eriff, and Anon… get your pith helmuts on.

           

	Juan Lagares		Roberto Clemente
MLB yrs	2			2 (1955-56)
AB	808			1101
Hits	212			290
WAR	9.1			2
HR	8			12
RBI	81			107
K	183			118
BB	40			31
SB	19			8

I’m probably doing something wrong here but the two things that seem to counter each of these guys first two year in the pros is Lagares’ WAR production vs. Clemente much lower K/AB ratio.

Still, based on these figures, it would be impossible to tell who was going to be the legend yet.

BT asked –

Hi Mack, I saw that Duda might go to Japan this offseason.  I was kind of hoping he would go to fitness camp again.  With some of these players, you know they are exercising probably too much, but others certainly do not exercise enough or even take the time to learn their bodies and how to take care of themselves.  Is there any word on the team sending players to fitness camp again this winter?  Which players? Thanks, BT

Mack- Yes, there has been some speculation about Duda going there but there hasn’t been any confirmation by him or the Mets let. I would tend to think that he would be the kind of player that could put on a few excess pounds in the off-season, so maybe playing baseball would be a good thing.

There’s also been no official word on any attendance in any off-season fitness camps.

Last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report on driving fatalities around the world in which the Dominican ranked as the deadliest country in the world for motor-vehicle related deaths. A stunning 41.7 deaths per year per 100,000 people occur in the Dominican. When the Washington Post stretched that ratio out over a 70-year span, it calculated than 1 in 480 people will die because of a motor vehicle-related accident in that lifetime. And the real numbers may be worse. The WHO reported that the Dominican doesn't have an adequate death registration system, meaning many more vehicle-related deaths have likely not been reported.

Venezuela—another baseball talent producer—was the third deadliest country with 37.2 fatalities per 100,000 people per year. The world average was 18 deaths per 100,000 people per year. - https://sports.vice.com/article/oscar-taveras-and-the-perils-facing-latin-american-baseball-players

Mack – Read this article. It’s extremely timely based on the recent tragedy to Oscar Tavares.

Chris ‏@tpgMets  - Alvarez, Brown, Germen, Goeddel, Puello, Rice, Satin, Tovar, Walters my guesses at most vulnerable pre-arbs. Carlyle, Eveland, Parnell, Tejada, Young most vulnerable for NT.

                       Mack – A couple of thoughts…

I go into the Rule 5 (or is it Rule V?) process every year thinking the team is going to lose all sorts of talent and it never does. There are very few players lost in this process and I don’t see the Mets losing anyone of any future importance.

I can’t see Bobby Parnell being non-tendered. I just can’t see it, especially since the complete formation of the 2015 rotation isn’t done yet. The Mets need him back.

I can’t say the same about Ruben Tejada and think his future is tied to a decision on Wilmer Flores and the growth of Matt Reynolds. Cost wise, Reynolds looks like an alternative as a backup middle infielder for the Mets, though I don’t know how he would hold up at second base.

And so we are here…

The last game of the 2014 season has been played and we're five days before the beginning of the Hot Stove season. What have we learned and what have we been reminded of?

Well, I for one remember what I first heard in the first part of the Ken Burns documentary about this fine game… that this is the only sport where the ball is controlled by the defense. God, I could write a 1,000 word post just on this one line.

What I learned here is that any two teams that can make the playoffs through the Wild Card system can produce one of, or simply the most, exciting World Series in my lifetime.

Everybody in my life knows how dedicated I am to baseball and most think I’m nuts to be so drawn to such a ‘slow, boring game’. They just can’t see the beauty here that I do.

And lastly, I walk away from this series knowing that the New York Mets are a twist here and a tightening there from being either one of these teams. They have the young talented pitching that can get them to the one-game portion of this journey and then a healthy David Wright, a streaky Curtis Granderson, and a more improved with age Lucas Duda and Travis d’Arnaud could take them to the same Game 7 we all just enjoyed.

It’s that close folks. 

It’s that close.