The Morning Report – December 26 – Cesar Puello, Matt Reynolds, Sully Chat, Brandon Nimmo

  

I hope you, and yours, had a wonderful holiday.

I did have something say about the Fangraphs assessment of OF Cesar Puello the other day –

22. Cesar Puello, RF Video: Puello has been on Mets prospect lists for a while and it seems like his stock is tied to what you think about the Biogenesis scandal that he was involved in.  He was the best player in the Eastern League in 2013 during the season when the revelations came out, with a 50-game suspension coming at the end of the year and following an injury-riddled 2012 campaign.  Puello went from hitting 16 homers in a neutral park in 2013 over 377 PA to hitting 7 homers in 2014 over 371 PA in an offensively-charged Las Vegas park and Triple-A Pacific Coast League. Assuming 2014 represents the real Puello, he looks like a toolsy 4th outfield whose erratic tendencies at the plate hold back his everyday player tools. He’s a solid average runner that can play center field for stretches, but Lagares, Nieuwenhuis and den Dekker are all above him in that regard. Puello has the above average arm for right field and solid average raw power, but he has trouble laying off the right-on-right slider and that undermines the whole package.  It’s unclear where his career will end up, but Puello could be an everyday player if it all clicks.

Mack – In this ‘slow season of off season’, there does seem to be a few people that everyone out there just can’t stop writing speculating about.  Wilmer Flores… Troy Tulowizski… and lately, Cesar Puello.

Puello fans, though smaller in size than the Tulo lot, have always stood by their guy and projected him as the next great right fielder in CitiFiled. Or, was it left field? Ya know, this debate has been going on so long I remember when he was a centerfielder.

-   Matt Reynolds,[i] SS (Profile)

PA             AVG  OBP   SLG   wRC+          WAR

550           .238  .290  .330  79     0.9

Reynolds entered the 2014 season having only played one game ever above High-A. He ended it, though, having recorded more plate appearances with Triple-A Las Vegas than the Mets’ Double-A affiliate in Binghamton. Reynolds’ refulgent batting line at the latter (.355/.430/.422) was the product, in no small part, of a .433 BABIP. He proceeded to benefit from a .400-plus BABIP at Triple-A, as well. Steamer doesn’t assign much weight to those results, however — especially just one year of them — calling for a major-league .280 BABIP (or its equivalent) from Reynolds in 2015. With Reynolds’ defensive skills, though, that still produces a player worth something better than replacement level

Mack – Look… I don’t worry about finding either a shortstop for the remainder of this decade.

Wilmer Flores, Matt Reynolds, and Amed Rosario will play shortstop, while Daniel Murphy and Dilson Herrera will play second.

What I worry about is the talent level here and will it be good enough. 

Comment From Jeff[ii] - How would you grade the Mets front office? These past two off seasons have been bad.

Jeff Sullivan: Never did understand the Granderson move, but it’s hard to evaluate a front office without totally understanding the conditions in which they have to maneuver

Comment From L. Scott - Obviously the Nationals are the team to beat in the NL East. Do the Marlins, Mets, or Braves keep it close?

Jeff Sullivan: No –

Mack – Sadly, at this point in the off-season, I have to agree with both statements.

The only way Mets fans should think about the Madoff money is if it is a two year contract, for around $30mil a year, for a player that doesn’t exist anymore.

The monies owned the people that got screwed will go away around this time in 2017 and the Mets won’t have this financial burden handing over their head.

As for competitiveness, I see the Nats holding their own, the Mets improving a little, the Marlins improving a lot, and the Braves falling into a race with the Phillies for last place.

Yes, we know the Mets have great young pitching, but so does 

Washington, along with Ian Desmond, Anthony Rendon, Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, Jayson Werth, Nate McLouth, and Denard Span. There simply is too much on field talent for each game

Here’s another positive off-season article on Mets OF prospect Brandon NImmo[iii]. You know, you can’t get enough of these in the off-season.

Nimmo on getting to Queens –

“I need to get better at everything. If I'm not in the Major Leagues, I'm not where I need to be. I'll need to make adjustments in my hitting, in my fielding, throwing, base running, base stealing, the mental aspect of the game. There's going to have to be adjustments made after every single game, and so really, that's the key for me -- to learn either how to do it or how not to do it after every game and make an adjustment from there. …You never settle for where you're at. You always need to make adjustments to become better. So I think for the rest of my career I'm going to try to get better at everything I do”

So Joel Sherman[iv] put together a new apathy article about the Mets. Hey Scrooge, was this necessary to add more gloom and doom before we Christians pass the turkey drumsticks? LEVE THE TEAM ALONE, WOULD YA! 

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[i] http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-top-five-mets-prospects-by-projected-war/

[ii] http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/jeff-sullivan-fangraphs-chat-122314/

[iii] http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20141223&content_id=104331330&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb

[iv] http://nypost.com/2014/12/24/mets-must-prove-they-dont-have-creativity-gap-with-nl-rivals/