Mack - Random Thoughts

I wrote this at various times on Saturday and Sunday. It's just some thoughts I had left in my head that didn't make the posts I put up this weekend and would be too dated to wait until next weekend. Thus, I scheduled this after Chris' Morning Report today to add some additional things to discuss.

Dillon Gee -  It was announced that he was ready to come off the disabled list this weekend, though the Mets also said that they were in no rush to do anything about it. Ya know, the last time I looked, this team was pissing in the wind and I can't understand why you wouldn't want one of your best 12 pitchers on the 25-man squad. 

On 'my team' (if I was the General Manager) he is currently #7 in the rotation (behind Steven Matz). Whether it was planned or not, the fan base has already been given a taste of what real baseball feels like. Look around the stands. Many of these fans were is diapers the last time the Mets played a playoff game. You can't put the elephant back in the box (or something like that) and the operational plan now should be to win the divisional championship this year, not a one-game wild card series. What this means is you put the best team out there that you can dress up and Gee is one of those pitchers.

Shortstop - Sandy Alderson seems to be waiting for a miracle here. The Mets could win the next 10 games in a row, but that doesn't mean that Wilmer Flores is going to play well enough to be a major league shortstop. He's a mess out there even on plays he gets done. I don't know why, but for some reason Matt Reynolds doesn't seem to be in the cards for this job. He both shocked and impressed me in his one season in Binghamton, but hitting over .300 in Vegas isn't enough to get you to the majors and most who have seen him play over an extended amount of time are not impressed with his defense. Someone told me that that reason you don't see a lot of errors 'on paper' from him is he never gets to the difficult balls hit in the holes, thus, the official scorers score the play a hit ( remember being also told that the reason you see Kirk Nieuwenhuis dive for so many balls is be is basically so much slower than Juan Lagares and the only reason he had any chance of making the defensive play was to dive). There's nothing spectacular here.

If that's true, you need to do two things for the rest of this year. First, return Ruben Tejada (and his glove) to the starting shortstop position. He will cost you less games than Flores. Second... when he is ready... promote Gavin Cecchini to AAA and move aside Reynolds. Or, you can have him play some second and third base also. Cecchini is your true prospect here... if there's one at all.

I'm sure at least one of you is going to spell out the offensive stats for Flores so far this season and, yes, I do believe the grand slam Saturday could turn out to be the spark to get this team back on track, but the fact still remains that he can't play shortstop. 

Another of you might point out that Flores and Cecchini are neck and neck in the amount of errors which, in my book means the tie goes to the kid that is at least two years behind in growth rate. Flores should be making the plays now, not be compared with someone playing AA ball.

Make him your utility infiielder/pinch hitter/DH against AL teams and be done with this.

Second Base - Past Dilson Herrera, there really isn't any prospect material in the organization at this position. The Mets are obviously going to play Daniel Murphy here for the rest of the season, or until he goes on the DL. That would open a temporary slot for Danny Muno, but that's all it would be.

This would be a good time to covert one of their lower prospects, Amed Rosario or Luis Guillorme, to second base. Minor league baseball is not supposed to be a place that you worry about winning games. It's supposed to be a place that you develop talent. This year's disabled list should prove that you can't have enough depth at every position in this game.

The Herrera injury is minor and my guess is everything will be fine here long term, but the team still needs a Plan 2 when it comes to second base.

Alderson/Collins - Alderson needs to go closed door with TC and make sure he understands that this isn't the time to 1) panic, or, on the other side of the coin, 2) try to win a popularity contest. You have to do more than walk through the clubhouse and pat players on the ass, telling them everything is okay. Everything isn't okay and these are not teenagers at the rookie league level. They are grown up baseball players that need to know that this entire 'problem' can be turned around with a couple of series wins. 

My understanding is that the Mets players love playing for Collins. I fully understand that. He comes at them like it's a pillow fight. Collins needs to show his players the side of him that cost him other manager jobs in his career. And Alderson needs to get it across to TC that this doesn't fall on the shoulders of his 'veteran players'. This is all about the manager and always has been in this game.

First Place -  Let me let you in on a big bad secret. You are not going to win your division unless you win more games than the teams in your division. In the case of the NL-East, we're talking about the Washington Nationals and we all know they will finish the season with enough wins to get this accomplished. What this means is the Mets have to manufacture their own wins and win a good percentage of the games they play the Nationals.

The period in which the Mets were in first place should have been a very special time, but it will always be tarnished with this piss pour decline that was accentuated by the Chicago Cubs series. What the Mets have to do is put all this behind themselves and re-climb this mountain again. If they do, and fail, they still could win a wild card slot.

There's nothing the Mets can do about Washington in May. They are the hottest team in the National League this month and the Mets don't play them again until after the All-Star game.

What you can first do is become a Yankees fan on Tuesday and Wednesday and then hope that the Phillies, Cubs, and Reds can slow them down after that series.

A nice target goal would be to win three of the next four against the Cardinals.


Outfield - Folks, you're not going to like what I'm about to write here.

First, the team is contractually tied to using Curtis Granderson and Michael Cuddyer as the corner outfield starters through the 2016 season.

And next... don't look for Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo to be the answer to your outfield problems past that.

The Mets are not going to 'properly' solve at least one of these corner outfield problems unless they step up in the off-season and sign a big time free agent. Another way would be to trade one of their quality young pitchers (Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz) during the second portion of this season, for someone that is currently only signed through the 2016 season. Past that, they cold trade a smaller chip for someone who's contract runs out this season.

And this guy can't be window dressing, like Cuddyer and Granderson.

A good target list would be Justin Upton, Jason Heyward, and, possibly, Alex Gordon. And this kind of move is going to cost the Mets big money, but they will have up to $26.55mil
(Colon: $11mil, Murphy: $8mil, Parnell: $3.7mil, Blevens ($2.4mil, Mayberry: $1.45mil) coming off the books next season. David Wright ought to be able to help you here with Upton, who would be a perfect candidate for a 3-5 year deal.

You put Upton in the same outfield with Lagares, and the same lineup as Wright, Duda, d'Arnaud, and you have vastly improved the offense potential of this team.

You also tell both your fan base and your own young pitching staff that you are going to support what they bring to the table with a signing like this.

Just some thoughts.