The Morning Report 6.23.2015 | Mets Draft Signings, Collins on the Hot Seat, Why is Matt Reynolds being Overlooked?, Conforto Crushing.

Michael Baron | Just Mets-  The Mets announced they’ve signed 11 more players selected from the 2015 first-year player draft:

INF David Thompson (4th round)
OF Kevin Kaczmarski (9th round)
LHP Jake Simon (11th round)
RHP Joe Shaw (12th round)
LHP P.J. Conlon (13th round)
2B Vincent Siena (14th round)
RHP Dillon Becker (16th round)
RHP Jordan Humphreys (18th round)
RHP Thomas McIlraith (20th round)
OF Kenneth Bautista (23rd round)
C Anthony Dimino (28th round)

(Chris Soto: It's nice to see some of these high school arms signing. It's worth noting that many of the lower draft pick signing bonus have not been revealed. The slot value of every draft pick past the 10th round is $100,000 so anything above that will count against the Mets pool. With so many high school arms drafted, the club is unlikely to sign most of the rest of them but still....ya never know. Doesn't hurt to take a shot at someone with your late round picks. A good buddy of mine IMG Academy LHP Logan Allen, was dead set on pitching for the University of South Carolina. The Red Sox drafted him in the 8th round and offered an overslot bonus of $750k and next thing I knew he was wearing #26 for the GCL Red Sox. Things change quickly folks.)


Joe D. | Metsmerized Online- Since their 11-game winning streak in April, the Mets have gone 23-32. In that span they squandered a dozen excellent pitching performances that they should have won. The team has lost all semblance of the fundamentally sound team we saw in April, and players look lost at the plate either striking out or hitting lazy grounders and fly balls. The team was never good defensively, but lately its been exponentially worse. Despite all that, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports that organizational officials have insisted Terry Collins’ job as manager is not in any jeopardy. “Though Collins is unsigned beyond this season and would be an easy scapegoat, there is a “we’re all in it together” sense within the organization, according to a source, as the front office and manager work toward finding a solution to the team’s dreadful offensive production.”

(Chris Soto: No decision is going to be made on Terry Collins until Sandy Alderson finds some way to give him some legitimate offensive reinforcements. Right now this team's lack of wins falls on Sandy, not TC. However, as we have said before, it is still too early for major trades to happen as we are still not even at the halfway point in the season. As the trading season continues to slowly creep towards us, we should start getting a better sense of who is actually available and the price tags attached to them. For now though, come on Mets....hold on for dear life and keep the Nationals as close as possible. ) 


Mike Vorkunov | NJ Advance Media- The Mets are suffering offensively, worn down by injuries and offering little production. Over the last week they've scored six runs in five games. While the Mets consider the trade market, their internal options are limited. "We've had everybody from Triple-A here," manager Terry Collins said. One possible option still untried at Triple-A is shortstop Matt Reynolds. He is hitting .280 this season in Triple-A, with a .750 OPS, and can play multiple positions. One talent evaluator who has recently seen Reynolds play believes he is better than some bench options the Mets have used this year like Danny Muno and Eric Campbell, and that Reynolds while not better than Dilson Herrera is more major-league ready right now. "He's good enough to come up," the evaluator said.

(Chris Soto: I am a tad bit perplexed that Reynolds has not been tried at 3B yet over the ineffective trio of Muno, Campbell, and Tejada. His BABIP finally normalized this season and yet he's still hitting a reasonable .280 AVG. He's also showing a ton of gap to gap power as he's racked up 21 doubles in only 68 games, Yea, he's not going to have many HRs...but that's not his hitting style. The club could use his hitting style at the MLB right about now.)


Ben Berkon | The Beanball-  With the New York Mets’ below-average offense (ranks 20th with a 7.2 fWAR) incapable of providing necessary run support, however, even the most dominant of pitching efforts haven’t consistently resulted in wins. The front office could better evaluate the extent of their offensive needs by calling up top prospect Michael Conforto now. If Conforto could produce at a league-average or slightly above-league average rate, it would rightfully force the Mets to platoon Curtis Granderson with Michael Cuddyer. Any success at the major-league level would also take some pressure off David Wright returning too soon. In the event Conforto is over-matched in the proposed month-long audition, then the Mets can simply demote the future stud to Triple-A – perhaps recalling him again in September. No harm done.

(Chris Soto: As the Mets continue to struggle and Conforto continues to crush minor league pitching, your going to continue to hear this type of narrative over and over again. We have seen a number of promotions from AA straight to the MLB this season across the league. Most recently Twins and MLB #1 prospect Byron Buxton made the jump. For Conforto, if he's crushing AA pitching, there isn't much sense in sending him to a hitting happy Pacific Coast League. Lets give him about 2-3 more weeks in AA and if he hasn't cooled off by then....idk how you CAN'T call him up.)