The Morning Report – December 20 – Cuba, Mike Piazza, Justin Upton, Tulo, Mets Front Office

The United States changes in moving closer to full normalization with the island of Cuba could be a blessing for major league baseball. Cuban baseball players could be signed and assigned to club DSL and/or VSL teams at a comparable age their Domincan and Venezuelan are signed.

The minimal age for these counties as well as all foreign players sent there to play, is their 16^th birthday. Leagues don’t have to be this specific in the beginning and no one is trying to destroy the neighborhood league in the home country.

Believe me, top players from Mexico (Oliver Perez), Nicaragua (Everth Cabrera), Columbia (Julio Teheran), Curacao (Jurickson Profar), and Panama (Ruben Tejada) have found their way to the major league through the DSL/VSL system and so should the Cubans.

This way, teams could stop having to guess where a current star on a local team projects, but more importantly, it will eventually line up all the youth of baseball to be evaluated in the same leagues.

What you don’t want here is a similar situation that Korea and Japan has where teams have to first pay posting fees to the league.

My guess something will be in place for the 2016 season.

A SABR[i] pitch for Mike Piazza for the HOF –

– Piazza’s nine years of 30 or more home runs is more than double any other catcher. Johnny Bench, Roy Campanella, and Mickey Tettleton only managed it four times each. Where did Piazza get his swing and power? He was the second of five sons of Vince and Veronica Piazza. His father built a backyard batting cage at the family home in Valley Forge that was used all year long: Mike used to shovel snow out of the cage so that he could practice. One summer when Piazza was just 15 years old, Ted Williams was at a Pennsylvania card show and Vince invited him to look at his son batting. Williams watched Mike’s swing and remarked, “If this kid is swinging this well now and he’s only 15, I guarantee you that he will hit in the major leagues.” Williams told Mike that good mechanics were just 50 percent of hitting and advised him about blocking out distractions and concentrating only on hitting

The Justin Upton trade is interesting.

The Padres seem to be signing or trading for every person they can get their hands on. They obviously have decided that 2015 is their year to compete for a championship.

The Braves; however, immediately replenish a minor league system that needed replenishing.

Dustin Peterson and Max Fried has only reached the high-A level while Mallex Smith has only played A+.

What I can’t figure out is what they are going to do with SS Jace Peterson. He’s basically finished with the minors (2014 – AAA: 248-AB, .306) and did get in 53 at bats last year for the parent Padres.

I can’t see a division rival like the Braves putting a deal together with the Mets for the services of Peterson, but you never know.

Do we want him though?

It must be a slow press day… another Mets/Tulo story came out yesterday.

John Heyman[ii] came up with a report that the Mets were still talking to the Cubs about the services of the best shortstop in baseball.

 Adam Rubin shut it down just as quickly, saying that one Mets official said that the fans would go ‘batshit’ if they saw the demands the Cubs want in a deal for Tulo.

 I actually still see a chance of a deal getting done, but not until midway through the 2015 season. This would give both teams the time needed to see if Wilmer Flores worked out, and which Mets pitchers have stepped up.

Use the Justin Upton trade as a good example of what a deal like this would need.  Four team controlled players which, in the case of the Mets, would include at least two quality pitchers.

 Comment From L. Scott - Please explain the Mets. They have solid SP, but adding Cuddyer to Murphy, Wright, Granderson, Duda, and d’Arnaud only makes them slightly better. Juan Lagares is not a leadoff hitter. Do you see them taking a flyer on Everth Cabrera to fill the SS/leadoff hitter need?

Eno Sarris:[iii] They keep talking about Cabrera’s off-field stuff, so I doubt it. I’m souring a bit on the front office. I do think the Reyes non-trade and the Wright extension smell terribly of Wilpon, so I don’t necessarily blame that on them. And their deals have been short. But they didn’t draft these pitchers and they need to hit on something, or be a little more aggressive I think.

Mack – Once again, I want to remind everyone that the Mets are still in a ‘financial rebounding’ situation and, considering where they have come from, creating a $100mil payroll is a step in the right direction. I don’t think we will ever see this team operate like the way San Diego is doing this week, as long as the Wilpons own it and have a General Manager like Sandy Alderson.

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[i] http://sabr.org/research/mike-piazza-numbers-hall-fame-case

[ii] http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-heyman/24901768/rockies-are-still-talking-tulo-and-the-mets-are-one-team-listening

[iii] http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/eno-sarris-baseball-chat-121824/