Mack’s Morning Report – 4-18-05 – Phillies, Brady Aiken, Eight Relievers, Rafael Montero

Good morning.

I’ve decided to return to writing the Morning Report each morning, at 8am, on Friday through Sunday (three mornings) on Mack’s Mets.

12:26 - Comment From MetFaithful5 - Any concern with how a terrible Phillies team was able to hold their own against Harvey yesterday? Or just an off night for him?

12:26 - Dave Cameron: The terrible Phillies didn’t hold their own; the good one did.

Mack – Tuesday night was not a great outing for Matt Harvey, but it was good enough for him to leave the game with a lead. Frankly, a high percentage of his fastballs were high in the zone and the Phillies were able to time up on them… but this is a terrible team (Phillies) with one good hitter (Utley) and Harvey would win 18 out of 20 games again them all year long.

There’s been some very good baseball players go down with seasonal injuries this year and I wonder if the Mets would have the guts to draft one of them come June. We all know it’s a week draft to start with and, with the Mets already down their first pick, a chance on one of the few blue chippers might be considered even though there is a current Tommy John Surgery rehab to consider. Two top pitchers would be:

Brady Aiken – last year’s unsigned number one overall pick had surgery on 3-25. The 18-year old has been pitching for the IMG Academy.

Michael Matuella – the Duke junior entered this season as the top college draft-eligible pitcher. He had surgery on 3-27.

I’ll tell you this… there won’t be a more talented pitcher available when the Mets first pick does come around in the second round.

Look, everything seems to be clicking on all cylinders even when our Captain goes down for the count. Still, we can’t expect to continue to hold the fort down at these lofty levels on excellent pitching alone.

I’ve loved the eight pitchers in the pen stuff only because it has worked in a small window, but there will come a time very shortly that this team is going to need more than having, let’s say, Anthony Recker play third base.

I’d hate to send one of the pen down, but it’s going to have to be either RHRP Buddy Carlyle, RHRP Eric Goeddel, or LH-Rule V pick Sean Gilmartin. It’s too early to bail out on A. Torris and Jerry Blevins is a Godsend right now.

You’ve got three moves coming up.

The first should be bring up OF-3B Alex Castellanos and send down Goedelle.

Now, you have to find two slots for RHRPs Bobby Parnell and Vic Black when they come off of rehab before the end of the month.

Sadly, they look to be Carlyle and Gilmartin.

The good news is the pen will strengthen up even more though friendships will abruptly come to an end. The business of baseball.

Michael Baron had a Friday feature about Mets pitcher Rafael Montero here .

Baron said he has no idea what to make of him yet.

Look, Montero was never a ‘short man’. He was a starter for 73 of his 78 minor league games, all of which were in rookie ball. This is a starter turned into a reliever on the airplane taking him to Queens.

Pitchers use their signature pitch to set up the rest that they throw and Montero’s signature pitch is his change-up. Can you really set up a major league hitter with a changeup when you come into a game with bases loaded?

The Mets need to take a step back with Montero and let him develop his ‘pen game. He can’t perform this role if he doesn’t have the confidence to succeed.

For now, put him on the front end of your pen. Use him when your starter is run early and you need a couple of innings from a guy to settle things down.

Don’t send him down. You’ll ruin this guy if you send him back to Vegas.