1/16/15

The Morning Report – 1-16 – Bartolo Colon, Dylan Bundy, Cesar Puello, David Wright, Evan Gattis



Karl de Vries[i] on Bartolo Colon -
He’s also a good fit for the Mets. Colon generates a lot of fly balls, and although the likes of Curtis Granderson and Michael Cuddyer won’t be of much help in the outfield corners, at least he’ll have Juan Lagares in center, the man whose 25.3 UZR/150 ranked first among qualified outfielders. Plus, while Colon’s strikeouts rely heavily on looking strikes — 47% of his punchouts came that way, second only to Mark Buehrle — he’ll once again be pitching to Travis d’Arnaud, who’s established himself as a capable pitch-framer behind the plate.

Mack – My hope is he will still be on the team by the time this comes out in print.

I never had trouble paying a guy for delivering the goods. Colon won 15 games last year. That’s big time in my books.

I want Colon to back end my rotation. My problem is picking between Jon NIese and Rafael Montero. I see a need for a lefty in a rotation, and I see no reason to see why the Mets can’t hide Montero as a long man/spot starter.

He’s also your primary trade bait coming out of future rotations.



Comment From mtsw - Dylan Bundy for Lucas Duda: who says no?
Jeff Sullivan: The Mets would be ecstatic.

            Mack – Oh, hell yeah.

Bundy would immediately start off at SP1 for St. Lucie and just strongly add to what seems like the endless line of Grade A pitching talent that’s going to come out of this team for the next five years.

Who plays first?

Well, for now, John Mayberry Jr. and/or Michael Cuddyer until something better comes along (or move over Daniel Murphy from second for 2015 and bring up Dilson Herrera a year early).

These are good problems.



This whole ‘not playing Cesar Puello’ thing continues to rub me the wrong way. Wally Backman, the Las Vegas Manager and Puello’s manager last season, spoke at the QVC Convention last Saturday and went out of his way to tow the company line, something he has seldom done in the past. Backman said it was an organization decision not to play Puello on a regular basic. I know this to be true when I dealt directly with other managers of Mets affiliates. Every Mets lineup first gets approved by someone in the home office.

Well, there you have it. Backman goes public and sounds like that Obama press secretary. But, who am I to question what he said? Why would a national figure, that is drooling someday to replace the man in Queens that he basically has no relationship with, chose this time to prove his loyalty to his team?

One last thing… Puello could only do one thing to prove all this wrong and that was take his bat to winter ball:  51-AB, .353/.393/.667/1060, 4-HR.  



Kevin Kernan wrote about David Wright[ii]

“I’m hitting off a tee, doing flips [tosses],’’ Wright said. “It’s still pretty controlled, which is fairly normal for this time of year. I feel good. Now it’s just a matter of me trying to get my left shoulder on a par with my right shoulder, just strength-wise. I feel pain free, which is good, feel like the shoulder is healthy, and now it is just a matter of building up that strength.

“In my eyes, I’m not too far behind from where I am normally at this time of year.

           Mack – There’s a big difference between being ‘in’ and ‘all in’.
The Mets may be ‘in’ in 2015, but they could never be ‘all in’ without Wright being 100% and producing up to his talent levels. This is the start of our team and everything has to revolve around him.



The Evan Gattis trade to the Astros (for RHP Mike Foltynewicz, 3B Rio Ruiz, and RHP Andrew Thurman) is a perfect example of the kind of trade the Mets are one year away from. No major league team is going to trade three quality prospects for either a catcher just coming off injuries who has only played a part of a major league season (Travis d’Arnaud) or a minor leaguer who just hit AAA (Kevin Plawecki). Now, zoom ahead a year, give both d’Arnaud and Plawecki a good year, and the Mets could easily see a team like Houston offering these kind of players three-for-one for (my guess) d’Arnaud.




The “Barwis” mentioned there is the Mets new strength and conditioning consultant, Mike Barwis. He is more famous for working for the University of Michigan and West Virginia University. He’s also the star of the Discovery Channel TV show “American Muscle.”

During the Winter Meetings I spoke with a baseball source who voiced some non-specific skepticism about these workouts and the Mets’ hiring of Barwis. I am going to assume that Rubin’s view — that Mets players are, more or less, being compelled to attend these things, at their own expense, no less — is what they were talking about.

If this is true — and given that Barwis himself is telling people that minor leaguers are paying him, there’s a good chance it is  — it’s simply awful. As we’ve discussed an awful lot around here, minor leaguers make peanuts for the most part. And yet the Mets are, allegedly, requiring them to shell out for their own training and, subtly or otherwise, communicating that there is a penalty for not attending the sessions.  http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/15/wait-the-mets-are-charging-players-to-attend-offseason-workouts-really/?ocid=Yahoo&partner=ya5nbcs

            From Reese Kaplan - However, as more stories evolved it became clear that once again the Mets are merely guilty of not knowing how to position things to the media.  It seems that Barwis is a consultant at their facility in Port St. Lucie and pays them rent for its use.  The players who come there are contracting with Barwis for his services and thus paying out of pocket for it just as they would had they elected to go to any other personal trainer wherever they chose.  People are so fast to connect the dots to the Wilpons being cheap that they didn't consider the facts.  Where the Mets are culpable is in not making it crystal clear when Barwis signed on to work on premises that he was not their employee.  If he was and they charged the players, then have at them all day long and twice on Sunday.  But if the arrangement is as it has been later reported -- that Barwis is merely paying rent to use their facilities in Port St. Lucie -- then shame on the media for vilifying the team unnecessarily.  Be patient.  There will be plenty of other opportunities to rightfully do so, but this one doesn't appear to be justified. 


Mack – I see nothing wrong with Barwis charging $1,000 to a ballplayer making a minimum of $300,000 a year… and, the Mets deserve a vig for the use of their facility.


18 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Play Puello. Period. Put perfectly.

Let's see what Colon has left in the tank in 2015...hopefully plenty. We need a good half season from him.

Was Dylan Bundy for Duda just idle speculation, or is that any sort of a rumor?

Hobie said...

PR Flop Dept:

How much different would a "Mets subsidize off-season training program and encourage players to attend" story sound?

Tom Brennan said...

Spot on, Hobie. Small investment, good P.R

Zozo said...

All in on selling high on Duda, I am not comfortable with him repeating those numbers. Would prefer Mdd/Puello split time in right and move Cuddyer to first.
I feel we match up so well with the Orioles, trade any or all of Duda, Murphy and Granderson. Since we are still a year away from where we should of been, we might as well sell high on Duda and Murphy. Get what u can for Grandy.
As far as the Wilpons why not just give the guy the location and work with his guys at a discount? They are at your facility at least front the money.

Anonymous said...

Think you have to keep Duda and bet that he has found his professional groove. Trading him lightens up the bats from the Left side, especially in anticipation of Murphy either being traded or let go. To few power bats in the league right now and have to hold onto whatever you have. Look how hard it is trying to find another one.
Anon Joe F
PS-Puello needs one more shot before just letting him go

Ernest Dove said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ernest Dove said...

Leave it to Mets fans to wanna trade away one of only like 5 guys in the league who hit 30homers last year LOLWe expect 'prospects' like puello, mdd, wilmer and company to magically put up amazin offensive numbers with no major league history of doing so, but the guy with the 30 major league dingers should be let go, cause there's no say he does it again, I guess because he's a met and they never sustain success.

bgreg98180 said...

sure
The Mets should trade Duda for Bundy.
Then trade Murphy for a pitching prospect.
Granderson for a pitching prospect.
Flores for a pitching prospect.
D'Arnaud for a pitching prospect.

let's finish off by trading Wright for a pitching prospect.

Alderson will be happy that he has the strongest pitching staff and pitching prospect pipeline in all of the major leagues (in an era that appears to value hitting more)

Ernest Dove said...

Hey Bob don't forget to also sell high on Lagares and deGrom, and trade off Thor, Montero, Nimmo, Conforto while they have value, and add about 10 more 'high ceiling' pitching prospects to the farm system.

IBfromWhitePlains said...

I agree with the comments above. It's nuts to trade a guy who hit 30 HRs last year, played credible D, for yet another prospect. When will it end? I could maybe see this trade if the Mets had a deal in place to immediately trade Bundy et al for a real good ML player, but that's it. How many years waiting for prospects? The time is now.

Reese Kaplan said...

Am I the only one who thinks the Gattis trade is even dumber than the Markakis signing? Look at the numbers of the guys they received...a 3.98 ERA pitcher, a 4.99 ERA pitcher and perhaps the only decent one -- a .293 hitter for 3B with 11/77.

I had someone argue that numbers aren't the whole story and I acknowledge that, but how many people star in the big leagues that had mediocre or WORSE numbers in the minors? Granted, sometimes they mature. Just look at de Groom and Harvey who did better in the majors than the minors. And there are AAAA superstars who can't take it to the next level. However, I'm at a loss to find people who stunk up the joint in the minors and then flourished in the majors.

I think the Braves got majorly hosed in this deal for a 22 HR hitter.

Tom Brennan said...

The case for Duda doing as well or beter than 2014:
1) he was too passive (Getting himself into too many bad counts, which he does poorly in) until Memorial Day. Then got appropriately more aggressive. Look at his before/after stats. All he has to dois stay aggressive.
2) Closer fences.
3) Better hitters in lineup makes it easier for all Mets hitters. Duda included.

Zozo said...

Since this ownership group is not putting the necessary funds into this team and has set us back a year, I feel we should try and sell off some of these high salaries so we can reinvest it next year. On players like a Jason Heyeard or Ian Desmond.
Murphy is as good as gone at the end of the year.
Grandys contract should never have been given to him by us last year.
Duda might hit at least 25 homers this year with a full year but I still am not 100% confident that he is made for NY and has the mental toughness to stick it out.
Last I looked last year's World Series winners didn't have a 30 homer guy on there team, and it might true of the 2 previous winners as well (haven't checked if that is true or not).
I think Cuddyer will hit concistently at first base and put up 15 homers but providing a better average. It will also be better on his body to not play the outfield.
I think Puello/ MDD combo is a better fit in right field.
I would then trade some of these prospects we get for Elvis Andrus.
I love defense to go with my pitching.

bgreg98180 said...

Defense and pitching may make it difficult for the other team to score, but it has never won a game in any sport ever.

In order to win a team HAS (just for you Mr. Anonymous) to score.

Some days 1 run/point/goal could win a game. Other days it may take 10.

Yes defense is certainly important, especially in the major leagues, but the goal of the game is to

Out score the other team.
not
Keep the other team under 3 runs/points/goals.

Mack Ade said...

Thomas -

The Bundy thing was just a question from one of his readers

Mack Ade said...

The Atlanta sell off is making no sense to me

They become even less of a team after the 2016 free agent season

Stephen Guilbert said...

A little clarification on the Gattis trade--This is probably the best move Atlanta made this year. Folty is a Familia type when Familia still had a shot at starting. Wild, and could either be a high-octane closer or a dominant starter if he can figure it out, this is a top 100 prospect in all of baseball and perhaps higher.

Rio Ruiz is a 3B power prospect who gets great marks for his light tower homers and overall hit tool, with enough arm and footwork to stick at third.

Both of these guys are top 10 prospects in most systems and certainly will be for Atlanta. Getting those two and a back-rotation projection starter is an incredible return for a guy who is only worth 2-3 WAR/season.

As for trading Duda, yea it's silly. Fair value? Fine. But you have to consider timing, too, and the Mets have little replacements--for the power or the position.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Stephen, the Braves got a decent haul for a guy that probably should be a DH. I'm actually pretty high on Folty, he has a HUGE fastball that may be better than Familia's and a strong secondary pitch in his slurve. His downside right now is all that velocity comes with control issues. He could be a strong set-up man in 2015 and beyond.

Ruiz is a young high upside play at 3B with a good chance to develop into a plus hitter with plus power. IF he can stick at 3B he's a good pick-up but if his slow feet and range issues force him to 1B he'll end up being a tweener and get stuck behind Freeman.