Mack’s Morning Report – 5-16-15 – Q and A

Morning.

The questions keep coming.

Frank asked –

Hey Mack, I’ve got a quick question for you. Who do you see as the next guy joining the Mets rotation, Dillon Gee, Rafael Montero, or Steven Matz?

Mack –

          Hey Frank. Interesting question.

My guess right now is that the Mets are going to allow Noah Syndergaard at least 3-4 starts to show everyone if he should remain in Queens for the rest of the season. Let’s remember the first 3-4 starts that Zack Wheeler had when he came up. These things take time and it’s going to take some real bad pitching by him to get sent back to Las Vegas.

Based on that, I see no movement of the current rotation (Harvey, deGrom, Thor, Niese, Colon) for at least the remainder of May. The funny thing about disabled lists… it’s hard sometimes to get your players on them, but you can come up with a million excuses to keep them there.

I also think they are going to make these decisions one month at a time.

Back to your original question… I don’t see Matz coming east until after the all-star break. First off the disabled list will probably be Gee but I have no idea where he will pitch.

Troy asked –

        Mack, where are the Mets going to play Dilson Herrera when David Wright comes back from the disabled list?

Mack –

        Morning Troy.

        Let’s remember one thing. 2015 is still the year that David Wright plays at third base and Daniel Murphy plays at second. That isn’t going to change unless the Mets can dump… err… trade Murph’s contract to another team.

        It looks like Dilson Herrera will be the future Mets second baseman, but that isn’t going to begin until 2016. I hope the Mets keep Herrera around, but he’s probably best served playing every day in Las Vegas.

        Is there a chance that Murphy gets traded? Sure, if you can find a team that wants an overpriced infielder getting close to 30, who plays poor defense, can't throw from third, and has limited pop.

Carly asked –

          Mack, are we ever going to see an old fashioned ‘slugger’ on this team?

Mack –

          Hey Carly.

Frankly Carly, the short answer is no under the current ownership restrictions. 

The Wilpons simply will not participate in the craziness out there that is going on, especially in the free agent and international market.

The Mets brain trust decided early on that they were going to build this team around pitching. Most of what you see out there on the field right now comes out of the Omar Minaya era. It was his scouts that filled the lower levels with young, fresh, team controlled arms.

The Mets financial mess, coupled with the changes in how baseball controls bonus money, brought on the Sandy Alderson era and he know from day one that he was not going to be allowed to solve the teams problems with a huge free agent signing or some crazy Cuban deal.

Instead, they have tried, and relatively failed, to bring pop to this team through draft picks. Lucky for us, Lucas Duda has developed, but it may be the best pop we see in the Mets lineup for years to come.

I watch this Chicago Cubs series and it makes my stomach sick when I see all the young power on this team. Now, in defense, Chicago did have to really suck for many years to get this many early draft picks, but they decided early to concentrate building their team on offensive everyday players and, boy, have they done a great job at it.



Frankie asked  - 

Hey Mack, is there anyone 'down the road' that we should keep an eye on?

Mack - 

Hey Frankie.

There are two players in Savannah that could become a very important part of the 2019 Mets.

The first is RHSP Casey Meisner. Meisner is 19-years old (turns 20 on 5-22), has started five games for the Sand Gnats, and has a stat line of 2-1, 1.78, 1.09, 30.1-IP, 27-K. Rotational pitchers don't usually get promoted until around their tenth start, or the all-star break, whatever comes first. Meisner looks to be a show-in to end this year playing for St. Lucie. The 6-7 righty may be a rare find after being drafted in the 3rd round ofthe 2013 draft. A type Alderson high risk-high reward high school pitcher.

The last is OF Wuilmer Becerra, who was a throw-in that Sandy Alderson demanded in the R.A. Dickey deal. Seems that Becerra's bat is now beginning to heat up in a town that has enough heat of its own. Last year, Becerra went .300 for Kingsport (228-AB, 7-HR, 28-RBI) as a 19-year old. This year, he has four home runs so far and this is the age (20) you expect to start seeing some of the pop he was projected to develop when he was first signed by Toronto. He needs to move on to A+ ball so we can see the extent of his progress though.