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12/10/14

The Morning Report – December 10 – SP Piggy. Bartolo Colon, The Closer, The Terry/Sandy Disconnect



Michael Baron ‏@michaelgbaron  -Rafael Montero is in consideration for the mets bullpen, right now

Mack – Now, who thought of this one…



Erik Hudson emailed -

Mack, I like your idea of piggybacking Montero (with Harvey).  Why not even have him go 4 innings at the beginning with Harvey going 5?  Keeps Montero kind of stretched out, and on a starters schedule.  You know one of Gee or Niese will go on the DL at some point.  Montero also gets some 9th inning experience.  You rest the rest of the pen one day out of five.  If Harvey needs to skip a spot, Montero is one the right schedule.  Later in the season, when Thor comes up, maybe you switch to a Thor/Montero combo to limit Thor's innings and let Harvey go deeper. 

Mack – It actually does make a lot of sense in a year where the Mets have too much pitching and a bunch of innings limitations.

And, I never considered the injury history of both Niese and Gee and the probability that one of them will be shut down sometime during the season.

What will be interesting is to see if this idea grows legs with the bloggers and beat reporters.  



Sandy Alderson told the beat dudes that he really likes Bartolo Colon and isn’t looking to trade him. He also took the opportunity to remind everyone that Jonathan Niese and Dillon Gee are still available for the taking.

First about Colon… I too like Colon and I think he’s a wonderful 4.00-ERA SP4 for the 2015 season. He also projects to give you an average of seven innings per start which gives your pen a little rest during a grind that will include innings restrictions for other pitchers.

I always figured the best way of generating interest in one of my players would be to say he’s not available, but that’s just me.

Terry Collins said on Monday night that Jenrry Mejia, Jeurys Familia, and Vic Black would compete in camp for the opening day closer job.

I initially found it surprising that Mejia wasn’t awarded this spot because I thought the bad portion of his pitching was the seven starts he threw at the beginning of the season. Then I checked and saw that the 11-appearance, 0.82-ERA July and 12-appearance, 1.54-ERA September surrounds a wild 13-appearance, 5.68-ERA in August.

Competition never hurt a team in camp and all of this might be a moot point once Bobby Parnell comes back, so let the battle begin.

One warning… you take away the closer role from someone that has had it (Mejia) and they may never pitch well again.   



There seems to be a disconnect between Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins.

Collins goes on national television and says that “I’ve done nothing for the last four years but preach to our fan base to be patient, and I’ve been trying to be patient. Well, I think we’ve got the pieces. It’s time to step up.”

At the same time, Alderson is basically down the hall saying that the Mets payroll is around $100mil and there is a good chance it’s going to go down before the season starts.

Us lifelong fans understand what he is saying… one of the back end starters (Colon, Gee, Niese) will be moved and replaced by a minimal waged, team controlled pitcher… but it also speaks volumes about the Mts not being involved in any talks for any of the big guys still out there during the Hot Stove season.

So, basically this is your team, Collins says it’s enough, and Alderson is still cutting back.


Hey Reese, I think you’re going to get your wish this year about TC.

17 comments:

  1. Morning, Hot Stove Ladies and Gents:

    Man, I'd like to see Terry handling Mejia more respectfully. He did a solid job in 2014 closing for the 1st time.

    That said, Mejia is a perfectly acceptable closer on a non-contending team. It is up to him to show he can improve and be a valued closer on a team in real contention.

    I think Sandy's 3 card monte game with SS is simply that he DOES see Flores as a starter at SS, because he, like me, sees huge value in having a team without offensive holes and sees Wilmer as a rising bat. All along, I'll bet the theme has been, if a SS we really like falls cheaply on our door step, fine, but otherwise, Flores is our man.

    Collins with his up for grabs comments regarding Wilmer vs. Tejada must be a sign of approaching senility. Wilmer is your SS, Terry. You'll like it, poorer defense and all, when the likes of Harvey is not painfully getting one no decision after another when he leaves games tied 1-1. I mean, he started 26 games in 2013, won 9 and had TWELVE no decisions, due to the lack of offense. SCORE RUNS!

    I want 100 more runs from this team in 2014, minimum. Then let's see where we are in terms of W-L record.

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  2. Terry Collins said a lot of silly things. .....like Tejada will be competing for starting shortstop in spring.......u can't really take ANYTHING he says seriously.
    I still believe bottom line is that all of the starters/everyday players are currently on the roster.
    They will only be signing/trading for prospects and role players at this point.
    I still think Mets have chance at playoffs.

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  3. I think moving Gee and having an opening rotation of Harvey, deGrom, Wheeler, Niese and Colon with Montero in the pen to throw on a Harvey day makes the most sense for this team. There would be no rush to insert Thor. If Colon has a good first half, somebody would take him at the deadline and Thor could step in. We also have a ton of SP5 guys like Mazzoni, Verrett, etc. that could step in for a few spot starts.

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  4. I hope to see both Thor and Matz by June, once they pass Super 2.

    I think Matz will continue to dominate in AAA as he did in AA. ERA may get PCL-inflated, but I am expecting him to be exceptional when he arrives.

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  5. Mack,
    Montero to the pen - now why didn't you every make that suggestion?

    I think the reaction to the Collins SS comments is way overblown. Right now, the METs have two candidates, a 23 year old and a 25 year old. We all are interested in seeing how Wilmer's bat plays with regular big league time, but they can't just hand him the job. Virtually all minimum wage players need to compete and win a job. No biggie as far as I'm concerned. Whether he likes Wilmer or not, Alderson absolutely needs to find a glove man for that middle infield to hold down games late, as most of the big arms at the back of the pen are also ground ball throwers.

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  6. Tom,

    I don't think there is any reason to rush Matz to the majors this season. If he forces your hand with solid results, then great.

    He only made 12 starts in AA so I think you could make a case to have him start in AA and when Thor moves up to the big leagues, promote Matz to AAA. I'm in no rush to rush this kid. Put him on the Nimmo path and make him play his way to the big leagues.

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  7. Guys -

    There's not much to say right now if you're throwing a Mets press conference and most of the time TC is covering for Sandy's ass.

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  8. For a marginal upgrade at shortstop, the Mets are better off holding on to their pitching surplus. Opportunities will become available during spring training when pitchers will start to get hurt and teams desperate to replace them.

    As the saying goes "Good things happen to those who wait" and are prepared obviously.

    Syndergaard is more valuable in the rotation for the Mets then having a Gregorius type shortstop on the field knowing that he will have to be replaced as well.

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  9. Hi Kevin,

    I understand they can go slower with Matz, but with the Tommy John plague, I'd prefer guys get to the bigs sooner, and not waste innings in the minors if they are ready.

    Matz sufficiently proved himself in AA, and he has just been great so far, so I get the sense another 12 minor starts in 2015, at AAA level, and he'd be ready.

    His ERA, K rate, and HR allowed rate, has been close to sensational the past 2 years. I do not see a hiccup in Vegas.

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  10. I'm much less concerned about SS than I am about payroll.

    Wilmer Flores hitting 12/58 would be a huge improvement over Tejada (and that's just doubling his stats from last year for a full season without assuming any increase in production).

    However, I am livid they're doing nothing about Daniel Murphy and the pitchers. They don't have room for all of the pitchers and without a QO they're going to lose Murphy for nothing at all. Take SOMETHING rather than have a Jose Reyes II situation on your hands.

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  11. BTW, if the Phillies are shopping Antonio Bastardo who is a lefty who's been mostly effective in his career and is under 30 years of age, making just $2 million...where's Sandy Alderson? I don't want to hear this crap about not dealing within your division. In case no one's noticed, the Phillies are in freefall and anyone the Mets sent over there isn't going to help them recover during 2015.

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  12. Alderson doesn't seem to juggle deals very well.

    My guess is nothing gets done until one of the 'little three' pitchers are moved

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  13. Folks,
    Not to be and Alderson defender, but remember that Freddie and Jeffy are the ones setting the payroll bar, not the GM, no matter what the GM says publicly. If he has to wait to deal a pitcher and free up money before adding an asset, that is a joke and incredibly weak in the NY market, but it is not doing of the baseball people.

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  14. The comments in regards to shortstop competition shouldn't be taken seriously IMO. Public opinion on Flores at short is not too favorable and I'm sure TC is just trying to make sure he creates the impression that the job is going to go to the person who earns it, so it doesn't seem like they're just handing the job to a kid. That said, I don't expect much of a competition at all unless they bring in someone else. Everyone's over Tejada by now. I'm sure it will be the sort of "competition" Matt Harvey is going to have to get his ace slot back, assuming he doesn't completely shit the bed.

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  15. Jacob, i hope the competition,if considering only folks in the system, is between Flores and Reynolds.

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  16. Kevin S./
    I think you can expect us to lose Mazzoni and Verrett to the Rule 5 draft.

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  17. Yeah I really hope Reynolds does get his shot. They have such a pileup of people who could be solid if given the right chance but no real potential superstar outside of Rosario.

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