Mack Morning Report – April 3rd – Opening Day, ‘Rembrandts’, Alex Castellanos

Well, here we go.

Another Mets season filled with anticipation.

This year, everything seems to be clicking. Four of the five pitchers picked for the opening day rotation already have their game face on. And the everyday players have led the league in win-loss percentage and home runs, while consistently being in the top five category for team BA, OBP, and OPS.

Sure, it’s only spring numbers and there are still some questions…  injuries… the bullpen… who will play second base until Daniel Murphy comes back, but I sure as hell enjoy more talking about a team that has a starting outfield hitting  .475 (Curtis Granderson), .346 (Juan Lagares), and .326 (Michael Cuddyer).

Remember… this is a team that was ranked 28^th (out of 30 teams) in batting average (.239), 22^nd in on-base percentage (.308), and 27^th in slugging percentage (.364).

And, we’ve written five paragraphs and we haven’t even talked about the ERAs of the Mets rotation in spring training. I can’t remember when there were five so dominant pitchers in spring training (six if we count Matt Bowman).

I was asked recently on an online Q and A if I was excited about the upcoming season and I said that I was, but I still warned to be cautious. The team needs to get through all those divisional games in April and then we should be able to get a good idea if they have the goods to score one more run than the other team.

And that’s all you need. One more run per game.

And, if you get three base runners per inning, there’s a good chance at least one run is going to score.

Remember what I have been saying for years now... and you are seeing it play out this spring... if you have a rotation that gives up two or less runs in the first six innings, you are going to win enough games to make the playoffs.

This game gets a lot easier when you are leading 5-0 after five innings and your starter still has at least one more inning in him.

Yes, the spring hitting has been fun, but it's been Matt Harvey, Rafael Montero, Jon Niese, Dillon Gee, and Jacob deGrom that have got them there.

My guess at this point is we will see 'consistent good outings' from both Harvey and deGrom throughout the season. Sure, there might be a clunker or two, but the team is going to be able to count on the kind of game Harvey through on Thursday against St. Louis.

As for Niese and Gee, my guess is 50% excellent outings, 25% 'could go either way' outings, and 25% clunkers. They both just aren't the quality pitchers that Harvey and deGrom are.

As for Colon, I expect nothing here. I take that back. I actually expect him to be replaced in the rotation around the end of May, first with Montero, and then with Noah Syndergaard later on in the season.

There’s a GMC Truck television commercial that is making the rounds this month on the national networks saying that major league pitchers that are known to ‘paint the corners’ with their 95mph fastballs are called ‘Rembrandts’. You know, I’ve been writing about baseball for a pretty long time now and I have no idea what they are talking about. Do any of you? Was Roger Clements a Rembrandt? I just thought he was an asshole.

The Mets made another solid decision this week when they first optioned outfielder Alex Castellanos to Las Vegas and then followed by announcing that he will be in the Vegas starting lineup for the 2015 season. Castellanos may never live up to his prospect labeling from a few years ago, but, in my opinion, he now becomes the #2 AAA outfield option behind Brandon Nimmo, followed by Cory Vaughn, Travis Taijeron, Darrell Ceclliani, Kyle Johnson, or Jared King.


I'm sorry that Cesar Puello didn't work out. I really am, but it's his job to get to Queens, not mine. The organization lost confidence in him the second after he went down for the PED scandal and he never regained their respect. At best, he became the fourth outfielder in Las Vegas and simply could't repeat his Binghamton numbers were, no matter how light the air was. Frankly, the 2015 Mets are past waiting for prospects to develop. There is enough talent on the parent team to make the playoffs and members of the 25-man squad are only going to be moved off if someone comes along that has done their job well in the minors and have earned the 'next step'. Puello didn't. 

This man had so much raw talent, but it just didn't happen for him, or the Mets. Both need to move on.