6/21/15

Mack’s Morning Report – 6-21-15 – Random Thoughts



Good morning.

It’s becoming more evident every day that Sandy Alderson has relaxed his projected exile of relief specialist Jenrry Mejia and will allow him to return to the Mets bullpen in the first half of July. I’m sure the plan will be to add him to the mix with Bobby Parnell, as the seventh and eighth inning guys before Jeurys Familia comes in to mop up.

This will be the plan on all games the Mets are leading after six innings. From there, the rest of the pen will be used in blowouts, be them games the Mets are leading or losing.

The important thing here is to understand that the primary goal will be to limit the young starter arms to six innings. The year’s getting late guys and most of the Mets starters are under innings restrictions. This whole playoff race isn’t going to go anywhere without a winning bullpen plan and whether or not Mejia is available for the playoffs doesn’t really matter.

The Mets, if they got past the one game wild card game, would frankly only be using three starters in the next series anyway. There would be plenty of innings to go around for two of the starters, Bartolo Colon and pick one of Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, or Steven Matz.

As for Dillon Gee, I see no action at the end of the 10 days it takes to close on a deal for Gee and the Mets will most probably send him down to Vegas (even though they took his number away) to work on his game. Frankly, this would be a perfect chance to convert him to a long man that would be needed come August and into the playoffs.

This leaves Jonathan Niese, who the Mets will continue to try and move rather than embarrass him with a demotion to the pen.


The sad part here is there seems to be plenty of pitching to get where the Mets want to go. There just isn’t anyone that wants to be in the bullpen.


Mack Ade 

It seems to me that the Mets have forgot how to win baseball games on the road. Maybe it's the mindset. Some teams just get their fur up more when they are playing on their own turf.

Everything turns bad when you haven't had a hit in the first four innings. You start playing your position completely different than you would if you had a, oh, let's say a 5-0 lead.

One error seldom costs a team a game, unless it is 0-0 in the 6th inning and you botch a double play that leads to a two-run home run.

We've gotten used to Wilmer Flores making his share of errors... it's still far from one of the leaders in the league... but the botch by Dilson Herrera the other night was just one of those things that happens. Replay show that the ball came off the pitchers glove and bounced funny. It easily could have been called a hit, but it still created a bad situation because... wait for it... the Mets were both run-less and hitless at this point in the game.

I remember a few years ago when the Mets used to come out of the box in the first innings with offense. I miss those days.

I hope SA and TC slot Daniel Murphy up second, followed by d'Arnaud and Duda.

I want to get back to having a lead in the first inning.


ESPN 


There are reports coming out of New York that Matt Harvey is even getting more surly as his New York Mets career continues. 

Supposedly, he's had it with the New York beat press, who have one job and one job only... come up with a question that will generate an interesting answer that will help sell newspapers.

The latest was when one of them asked him, after his superb outing against Toronto, if he felt he was at a crisis point in his career. Harvey called it a 'bullshit question', refused to answer it, and ended the gathering right then and there.

Just so all of you know... the Mets can't determine who works at what newspaper, nor can they prevent them from coming into the clubhouse and representing that newspaper. This is a union issue. If you have a union card, you're in the clubhouse.

The Mets have tried to have certain reporters removed in the past (cough... Rubin... cough) and it just doesn't work that way.

What the Mets could do is get a press secretary that is under 100 years old that could control this situation a little better than it's being done right now.

Harvey is a handful and will be a handful until well after he someday becomes a New York Yankee. The New York press need to learn to stay out of the way of this guy.


Mack Ade

I'm still having a real hard time with the Mets giving away Dillon Gee's number while, technically, he is still a part of this organization. What a cold friggin move against a guy that busted his ass for parts of six seasons and produced a 40-37 record.

A really un-class move Sandy.

The picture i have here was one I took with Gee's original number. He always was a class act that came from a class act family. Both he and his father always treated me and this web site with respect.

I wish him well and I hope he finds a team that will treat him like the gentleman he is.

Thank you Dillon for your hard work as a member of the New York Mets. I look forward to you coming back and beating the hell out of them on the mound.


ESPN 
It was great to see Zack Wheeler stop by in the clubhouse before Friday's game against Atlanta and give his spin on his rehab program. He said everything is on schedule and he should begin a throwing program in 'about a month'.

Folks, there's going to close to a two year period between starts and that's if everything goes okay here. Trust me, think conservative here and pencil him for opening day 2017. Anything earlier will be bonus time.


10 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO MACKAND ALL THE POPPAS OUT THERE.

Well, Sandy took Gee's #. Well, we've got Sandy's # for that one: # 2

UGGH. The continued struggles of the offense (OK, an offensive explosion of 4 runs, while Yanks flex BRONX BOMBER muscles and go double digits, including another A Bomb by you know who). Nothing more one can say.

Oh, I forgot the injury to d'Arnaud - so let me close with:

"An injury a day keeps the playoffs away."

Ernest Dove said...

I was always a Dillon Gee fan. He pitched a ton of 'quality starts' for this organization. He often gave this team a chance to win, which shows in his overall record. Noah and Matz deserve to be the future/present of this team. But the Mets should have simply traded Gee away, even if basically for anyone willing to take his contract, plus some kind of teenage prospect or whatever and wish him well.

Tom Brennan said...

I hope d'Arnuad is not hurt. But it is wonderful that Plawecki is 4 for his last 4, raising his average from .205 to .233. If we need him to start again, that is a plus.

That Adam Smith said...

Giving Gee's number away like that was a classless move. That's not something that happens by accident. I have no doubt that it was punishment for his comments, first the thing about apologizing to the gun nuts for appearing in the team's anti-gun violence spot ("I thought it was about gun safety") and then for his "don't care anymore" comment. Regardless of how the FO (ownership?) felt about these, the fact remains that the guy busted his ass - and won more often than not - for you for years while you knowingly put an inferior lineup on the field. Embarrassing him publicly like that was childish and unnecessary. And don't think that his teammates, and other players around the league didn't take notice. This organization never misses an opportunity to make it tough to root for them.

Mack Ade said...

Adam -

I did check in a few minutes ago to check the site and saw your comment.

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT -

For years, when I was active and sitting with the scouts behind home plate, I was told that a majority of both players and their agents simply didn't want to play for this organization for a myriad amount of reasons, one being how the ownership and front office manage and pay their players.

They aren't big fans of the NY press either, nor the pressure cooker that NYC can be to excel, but incidents like taking Gee's number away (in today's electronic world) flash around the Internet, player to player, through private messages.

This especially affects the free agent market where a player is trying to sign his last great contract and find a home for their family for the remainder of their career.

This was such a bad move that will create negative situations that will never come out in the public.

Happy Father's Day, all.

That Adam Smith said...

Hi Mack. Hope you're feeling well this morning. It should be noted that this comes the same week as the passing of Nelson Doubleday, a man whose ownership coincided (not coincidentally, by the way) with the longest period of sustained success in franchise history. Note too that whatever the true birthing story of the game might be, the Doubleday name is forever linked to the invention of the game itself! Was the flag at the stadium lowered to half-mast? Will there be a patch, or black armband added to the uniform (traditional, in baseball in cases like these)? Will there be a plaque, or a statue placed in the stadium in Mr. Double day's honor? No, there will be a brief moment of silence (broken only by the sound of maniacal cackling emanating from the owners' box) and that's it. This is a classless organization owned by dishonest, mysogynistic, low-life pieces of shit who are not only bad baseball people, but utterly contemptible human beings who should have long ago been forced to sell and shown the door in the best interests of Abner Doubleday's beloved game.

Mack Ade said...

Adam -

Nobody had a worse relationship than the Wilpons and Doubleday. Brian Mangan on The Red Zone had a wonderful recap yesterday on how the Wilpons stole the Mets away from Doubleday.

He probably should consider himself lucky to get a moment of silence from these guys.

Anonymous said...

Two things:

1) I really appreciate your thoughts on Dillon Gee, Mack. I hated to see how he became villified by some fans. He was put in a position to fail from the outset. Moreover, he's been a winning pitcher on bad teams for years. The club, under Alderson, has a history of bad-mouthing departing players. They lack class.

2) Yes, yes, yes on the Wilpons. They have destroyed the franchise and they are disgusting human beings. Loved Doubleday.

James Preller

Mack Ade said...

BTW James -

Dillon isn't going to throw away the money.

He'll report to Vegas and be the company man until he can declare free agency and rid himself of this family nightmare

bgreg98180 said...

The Gee situation perfectly reflects how the organization's actions & non-actions are creating lessons for the current players.
Good guy Gee + terrible experience/learning opportunities from the organization = good guy making bad decisions.
Unfortunately Gee pays a price.

What lessons have the rest of the players in the Met organization learned from the Wilpons & Alderson?