5/4/15

The Morning Report 5.4.2015 | Gee Deserves Better, Flores on the Hot Seat, Murphy on the Trade Block?, Thor the Next Man Up



Bill Madden | NY Daily News- Seems like every time Dillon Gee takes the mound for the Mets he’s looking over his shoulder at Las Vegas, where in case you haven’t heard, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz are a combined 5-1, with a 1.86 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 50 innings. It shouldn’t be, however, that Gee should also have to be looking over his shoulder at his own infielders. Gee set a Mets record by turning in his 51st consecutive start of five innings or more, but it was all for naught when the only run he gave up — which came as a result of yet another breakdown by the Mets’ middle infield — proved the difference in the second straight 1-0 loss to the Washington Nationals. 

(Chris Soto: Gee has been fantastic and deserves better run support than he has received the last few times out. That said...Yes an error resulted in a run scoring, but that was not the reason we lost the weekend series with the Nationals. The team scored a total of 6 runs the entire series with 4 of them coming in a Matt Harvey start. While the Mets offense has been excellent the first month of the season a regression was coming and it him them hard this weekend. Hopefully a day off today and another one on Thursday will help reset the club back to their winning ways.)



Rob Piersall | MetsMerized Online- Matt Reynolds is tearing the cover off the ball at Triple-A Las Vegas so far this season, hitting at a vigorous .330/.398/.545 clip. With the Wilmer Flores experiment at shortstop not working, as he has struggled both offensively (.240/.278/.387) and defensively (7 errors; .917 FPCT). and Ruben Tejada batting just .167 this season, could Reynolds finally warrant a call-up? With the Mets already promoting Dilson Herrera to replace Daniel Murphy‘s poor defensive play at second, they should consider promoting Reynolds as well. Is he the answer at shortstop?

(Chris Soto: Flores has had an extremely rough past 10 days. After losing an 8 game hitting streak he's gone 2 for his last 20 AB's watching his AVG/OPS drop from .291/.800 to .240/.665. He's in a slump, it happens to everyone, but for Flores, his slump is magnifying his shortcomings defensively. According to Baseball Info Solutions, Flores is only converting 76% of plays in a normal SS's "zone" and according to Inside Edge Fielding, Flores is only converting 90% of "routine" plays. The MLB average is 98.9%.)


Scot Cohen | Amazin Avenue- Brian Sabean, Giants executive VP, has been seen at Citi Field during the Mets-Nationals series this weekend. The reason for the visit is unknown, but the Giants could be looking to upgrade at third base and the starting rotation, two positions at which the Mets have depth. Current Giants third baseman Casey McGehee is struggling at the plate, hitting just .164 with one home run. San Francisco also has big problems in its starting rotation as Tim Lincecum and Ryan Vogelsong have struggled early this season. Matt Cain and Jake Peavy have landed on the disabled list with injuries, as well. The Mets have two top prospects at Triple-A Las Vegas ready to jump to the majors very soon in Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz, which could make Dillon Gee and Jon Niese available.

(Chris Soto: This CANNOT be a coincidence. Eric Campbell was filling in pretty admirably at 3B before he went cold in the Miami series. You honestly had to have been very happy with what Campbell was providing while Wright sat on the DL. I found it very odd that he received such a quick hook from the position when Murphy was moved there but NOW it makes sense. The club feels that Herrera is ready for the MLB after he OPS'd .908 in 20 AAA games. The Giants bullpen is probably the strongest aspect of the team right now so perhaps we may see a swap of Murphy for former closer Sergio Romo?)


James Newman | Mets360- Although it has only been one month, and a very small sample size, Syndergaard is hitting his stride in Las Vegas. As of now, Syndergaard is 2-0 with a 1.66 ERA, 26 strikeouts, and 8 walks in 21.2 innings. His past two starts have symbolized what the Mets organization wants in their young pitcher, as he has pitched seven innings of shutout baseball. He struck out nine batters in his third start, and in his last start he struck out 10 hitters. The two walks in his past 14 innings also show how dominant he can be if he locates his pitches. This is the kind of stuff that has been expected of the 22-year-old pitcher.

(Chris Soto: With Rafael Montero now on the disabled list, the club is now looking for a replacement to fill the regular "spot starter" role that they have created to give the rest of the rotation extra rest during stretches of no off days. I initially thought that Bowman may get the first shot to fill the role but he just went onto the AAA disabled list. This leaves only Thor and Matz left and since Matz only has 29 IP above AA under his belt, logic dictates that Syndergaard is next up. After this short 2 game series with Baltimore, the Mets go on a 20 games in 20 days stretch that will require 4 turns through the rotation. Look for Syndergaard to squeeze in a start or two there to take some of the wear and tear off.)

15 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Over his career, I think Matz has been the more consistent between him and Thor. I think Matz should get the next shot.

Gee has done really well after having the good fortune of coming along at the right time in 2010. Less competition then got him his shot, and he took full advantage. With Matz and Thor dominating as they are, something may have to give soon. Maybe mid June. Gee will have a tough time staying in the rotation if Matz and Thor keep dominating.

Mack Ade said...

one thing about the weekend... you have to do a lot of thins RIGHT to give up only 2 runs over 18 innings

hang in there, guys


Dallas said...

Boy do the Mets miss Wright and d'Arnaud. Nats have great pitching but I have to think having them in our lineup we would have prevailed on at least one of those 0-1 games. Andres Torres definitely saved Gee big time yesterday from a really ugly looking line in the box score. Trade Gee and accept you won't get much of a return for him and bring up one of the studs.

Kirk/Tejada/Mayberry have all been really really bad off the bench, that has to turn around right?

Fun watching Lagares, he is on quite the hot streak right now.

Christopher Soto said...

@Dallas

Unfortunately, I think Mayberry is the only one capable of turning it around at this point.

Kirk is what he is...a AAA OF who's 30%+ K rate in the MLB is ill-suited for a bench role.

The only reason he is on this team is because Matt Den Dekker had more trade value and was able to net us Jerry Blevins who was a BEAST against lefties before having a line-drive break his forearm.

Christopher Soto said...

THIS JUST IN....

Logan Verrett has cleared waivers and will be returned to the Mets organization!

Anonymous said...

You forgot Friday night, Mack. It's 2 runs in at least TWENTY-SEVEN innings.

Two great staffs living up to expectations. Either team could've swept the last 3 games.

Anonymous said...

The Mets miss David, Dallas, but Plawecki is doing a fine job on both sides of the plate

Dallas said...

Anon, small sample size, but d'Arnaud was slashing .317/.356/.537/.892. Plawecki: .243/.263/.378/.642 with only 4 fewer at bats. Again 11 games is hard to compare with but d'Arnaud was hot when he got hurt. Then again almost every Met not named Lagares has been terrible over the last 11.

Steve from Norfolk said...

Brewers are supposedly on the verge of starting to dump players. They need pitching BAD, and their 2B is also their backup SS. Suppose we package Murphy, Gee, and Tejada or a pitching prospect. Segura would be a nice pickup, and a team that's dumping players might be the only way we get a decent SS. Anyone else will hold out for Syndegaard or Matz.

Christopher Soto said...

@SFN

Segura would be an awful pick up. He is a low OBP guy with no power and carries below average defensive metrics.

His probably a little better defensively than Flores but Flores would blow him out of the water offensively.

Christopher Soto said...

THIS JUST IN...

C Johnny Monell has been called up by the Mets.

No corresponding move yet.

eraff said...

Doubtless, Recker (.083anthony) is waivered

Stubby said...

My guess, Recker stays and keeps backup role. Monell is being brought in to pinch hit. Either Soup or Capt. Kirk get dropped.

ZachBoyer said...

Liked the article. I think Gee pitched fantastic Sun., as did Neise on Sat. … but I have to say it's a smidge odd that they both got betrayed by their defense a little when Flores WASN'T in the lineup—I find that a little discouraging. And I'm neither anti- nor pro-Flores … I'm just saying.

But really, much more than that, they were both betrayed by their offenses!

eraff said...

The Mets were not an offensive steamroller during the winning streak. They played in very good fortune and their opponents played poorly...and they pitched extremely well.

This is what they are, especially missiing two of their more solid offensive weapons, Wright and d'Arnaud.

They remain Competitive---best of all, they can improve internally and via trade.