6/22/15

The Morning Report 6.22.2015 | Collins Pleading for Help, Flores Offense Not Covering Defense, Gee Placed on Outright Waivers, Wheeler on the Mend.



Michael Baron | Just Mets-  The sad truth for the New York Mets is there are no more players to call upon at Triple-A to even attempt to provide the Mets with any kind of boost. And Collins knows it. “We’ve had everybody from Triple-A here,” Collins explained. “One guy hitting .500, he’s here. Another guy hitting .375, he’s here. Another guy hitting .350, he’s here. I don’t know what you want me to tell you. We’ve done everything we can. We’ve brought all those guys up that are swinging the bats good. This is not the Pacific Coast League. You can make all the changes you want. When they come up here, they’ve got to get the job done.”

(Chris Soto: You almost have to start feeling bad for Terry Collins here. He is flat out pleading Sandy Alderson for help and yet nothing is happening yet. That's not to say that it's Alderson's fault either...currently it is still too early for trade markets to develop. In addition, the pieces that Alderson wants to trade, no one is biting on, whether he likes it or not, and much to potential fan disapproval, Sandy's going to have to trade one of his big arms in order to gain any sort of substantial bat that can help push the Mets towards the playoffs.)


Larry Smith | Mets 360- The dividing line between the Flores factions is the question of whether his bat is potent enough to make up for a questionable (to be kind) glove. Let’s generalize then and say that offensively Wilmer Flores is in the top third of shortstops offensively. More specifically we could say he is the bottom of the top third even though that’s splitting hairs. If he’s not the worst defensive shortstop in the game today I can’t see how he can not be in the bottom three. The 10th best offense (remember that in OPS he was 9th and weighted OPS 11th) and 28th best defense makes for the 19th best overall shortstop in the game. That is bad but not disgraceful.

(Chris Soto: Here we go again with Wilmer Flores...remember a few weeks ago when he had a week long struggle defensively and wasn't hitting at the same time? Well he's in another mini slump hitting .227 over the past 2 weeks with only 1 HR and because of it, he's not covering his defensive shortcomings which have flared up again. Hopefully he responds the same way he did last time, by utilizing a day off + and team off day to clear his head then come back and just starting raking for the next 2 weeks to bring those stats back up. For what it's worth, he is in the middle of a 21 game error-less streak, although errors committed don't take into account ALL misplays.) 


Mike Vorkunov | NJ Advance Media- The Mets have put Dillon Gee on waivers after being unable to trade the starter away. The Mets designated Gee for assignment Monday, giving them a seven day window to trade him before having to choose the next step. Sunday, the report says, Gee was outrighted. If he clears waivers, Gee will go to Triple-A.

(Chris Soto: Well...we've been saying this all along, you can't trade a guy that there is NO market for. This could go two ways now, with Gee on outright waivers, a rival club could place a free claim on him and add him to their roster while picking up the remaining ~$2.9M left on his contract. If Gee clears waivers then the next step here is a decision from Gee himself. He could accept the assignment and go to AAA, or, he can refuse the assignment and forfeit his remaining salary in hopes on signing on elsewhere as a SP.)


David Hong | MetsMerized Online- Right-hander Zack Wheeler stopped by and visited with his teammates in Atlanta on Friday as they  began a weekend series with the Braves. Wheeler, who is in the recovery phase of his return from Tommy John surgery, told reporters he expects to start throwing a baseball next month. For now he’s been doing a lot of running and conditioning exercises while he rehabs at the team’s complex in Port St. Lucie. “I’ve been basically just doing upper-body and lower-body lifts. That’s really about it. Just running, lifting. Same thing every day, so it’s starting to get kind of old. Hopefully, when I pick up a ball, it’ll start moving a little bit faster and change some things up every once in a while.” 

(Chris Soto: It's good to see Wheeler on the mend, that said, as we know all too well, Tommy John recovery is a LONG tedious process. Wheeler will likely not be ready to throw in a MLB game until June of 2016 but when you look around the league at other receipients of the operation, you don't feel good about it. Jarrod Parker, AJ Griffin, Kris Medlen, and Brandon Beachy are all guys still on the mend from last year and are not making good progress. Hopefully the Mets found a magical rehab program with Harvey that can help Wheeler come back 100%.)

21 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Gee has to take the money. AAA here he comes. Pitch well down there and a door will open. The good thing is he'll have actual hitters backing him up.

Zozo said...

Since they haven't been buyers so far this season, most likely in a month they might become sellers? If they have anything to sell?
Also can we be done with granderson batting leadoff? Put Lagares up there and bat Murphy or Darnaud second. With less at bats and batting mostly at the bottom of the order Lagares has scored just a bit less runs than Granderson has. I love a person or 2 at the top of the order that can steal some bases and maybe give our 3and 4 hitters a couple of more fastballs to hit.
Also if the pitcher is concentrating on the guy at first more often he will tend to not do so on the hitter as much. Yes Grandy gets on base but he just seems to clog them up.

Mack Ade said...

There really is no question what Gee will do.

Where would he get someone to pay him $2.9 million dollars doing anything else?

Tom Brennan said...

When the Mets signed Grandy, wasn't speed one of his considered positive attributes? Now he clogs bases. Good siging.

I wish the Mets would try to sign a guy like Grandy (if at all) to a shorter, higher bucks contract (2 yr, 40MM, rather than 4 yr, 60MM.) Any older guys should be on shorter contracts....or pass on them.

Christopher Soto said...

That's exactly what they did with Cuddyer and fans are screaming about that too.

Reese Kaplan said...

You mean the colossal stupidity of giving an oft-injured defensive liability two years while giving up your top draft pick? He he delivered an even average Cuddyer year no one would say "boo" about it, but he's Granderson-like in his ineptitude.

Christopher Soto said...

Say what you want about Granderson.....but his OBP is higher than anyone else on the team not named Lucas Duda, he's on pace for another 20 HR season, and he's 2nd on the team in SB's, which is pretty pathetic considering he only has 4.

The whole being a clog on the bases is so false.....Granderson is not at fault for not stealing more bases...that's Terry Collins failure to push the envelope on the basepaths. The entire team is near the bottom in that category.

Fine....you don't like the contract...I get it....but there are far bigger problems than Granderson. Dilson is flat out overmatched at the MLB, Flores and Lucas Duda are ice cold right now. Lagares is playing with a torn UCL and his primary value add (his defense) is suffering because of it.

Mack Ade said...

Chris -

Then fine... if it's that bad, shut it down and stop embarrassing themselves.

Put Lagares under the knife, make sure your young guns are restricted, innings wise, sell off Colon and what you can get for Murphy, let Herrera and Flores work their kinks out in the middle infield, play DC every day in center...

At least this kind of an effort is an effort.

What's going on in the field right now is an embarrassment.

Zozo said...

All I know is that Lagares stole about 9 bases last September and showed that he deserved to hit leadoff to start the season. Grandy goes bases to base and with the whole season of getting better people hitting behind him, he has not scored that many more runs than Lagares has.
All I know is that it can't hurt to change this lineup around because what we got is not working.

Zozo said...

I agree 100%

Christopher Soto said...

@Mack

I agree 100%, an injured Juan Lagares is more of a detriment then a value to this team. Even at his career high OPS of .703, Lagares is still a below average contributor offensively. The goal with him was to come in at even par in terms of offensive WAR and let his superb defensive WAR contributions turn him into a +3.0 win player.

He's getting the offense part right with a +0.4 offense WAR (baseball reference) but the defense part is stuck at +/- 0.0 WAR after posting +3.4 and +3.3 in back to back years.

The longer the Mets string him out, the later his recovery pushes into 2016. At this point, if your going to get neutral defensive value from CF, I say screw it....put him on the DL, slide Granderson to CF where his offensive value will be worth a little more and promote Michael Conforto up to the MLB.

Christopher Soto said...

@Zozo

Lagares has shown me nothing to suggest he should be hitting higher than 7th in this line-up. Speed is only valuable if your able to get on base and I'm sorry....but I don't want a career .301 OBP guy hitting at the top of my line-up.

Look....we have 2 pretty significant sample sizes for Lagares.

As a lead-off hitter....

In 220 Plate Appearances, he hit .250 with a .307 OBP and a .340 SLG

As the 7th guy in the line-up.....

In 252 Plate Appearances, he hit .342 with a .367 OBP, and a .464 SLG

7th in the order is where this guy belongs....not 1st, 2nd, or 6th.

Mack Ade said...

Chris -

Baseball fans are not stupid people. They all know the Mets in first place this season was an early mirage.

The team is built all wrong, but there are some good pieces like Lagares. They could really screw this guy up with this macho effort he's giving out there.

Get his out of the game.

Regarding Conforto, TC is right, He has used everyone in AAA. Now, try AA.

Zozo said...

The only stat we should care about is runs scored between these 2 guys and I believe Granderson has scored 8 more runs than Lagares so far. I believe it is in 16 more at bats for Grandy as well. But when u have your 8th and 9th batter hitting behind you it should be a whole lot harder to score, but Grandy has had the benefit of hitting in front of 2-5 in the order.
So I feel it is time to shake things up and put our only base stealing threat in that position. Do I wish we had a Reyes type speed demon to bat leadoff, oh yeah I do.

Mack Ade said...

Zozo -

Lagares is playing at 60-65% and could permanently damage himself right now...

Shut him down

Zozo said...

If you shut him down with no replacement then we are giving up on this season, which I have no problem with. But if they are going to play him at least use him for his speed and see what you have.

Christopher Soto said...

@Zozo

I don't believe that's necessarily true....

If you DL current form Lagares....you can slide over Granderson and get equal value in terms of defense, and you get a massive offensive upgrade if you use Lagares' roster spot to bring up Conforto.

If anything this kind of move would tell me the club is serious about competing this season

Tom Brennan said...

Do we really think Conforto is ready to hit big league pitching? I love moving guys up fast, but he has under 100 PAs in AA.

Crazy to suggest it because I have never been ha Kirk fan, but might it make sense to put Kirk in there for a month, and let Conforto run in AA That much longer? 9 for 21, 6 extra base hits, 2 Ks in Vegas. Bring him up and give Cuddyer a week off?

Tom Brennan said...

Not to jinx anything, but the GCL Mets open today. 3 notable things:

1) Jeff Walters tossed a hitless first inning.

2) 7 no-hit innings so far. In fact, I think perfect thru 7.

3) Brandon Brosher STOLE HOME for game-s only run so far!

Tom Brennan said...

So much for the no-no. 2 run smack in 8th for Marlin GCL.

Steve from Norfolk said...

Mack,

Please read this article. This looks like the treatment for Lagares (second section).

http://www.drdavidgeier.com/tommy-john-surgery-ucl-sleeve-new-surgery/