Good
morning.
Learned on Twitter –
Steven Matz Will
Make First Rehab Start Saturday
Gavin Cecchini - (AA, age 21) - 454 PA, .320/.377/.448 (.825
OPS), 60 R, 24 2B, 4 3B, 7 HR, 51 RBI, 37 BB, 48 K - was 4-6 with two RBI last
night. Now 2nd in Eastern League with .320 average and 9th with 51 RBI this
year for Binghamton
Last year, Major League
Baseball saw gross revenues hit $9 billion, a staggering sum for any business,
and hardly the numbers of an industry “dying.” And that figure was a 13 percent
increase from 2013 when revenues hit $8 billion.
Nats had 4-1/2 game lead
in NL East after Fourth of July. Since then, they're 13-18 with third-fewest
runs scored in NL.
Mets are averaging 5.2
runs since July 24. Prior to that, it was 3.4.
Mets are 44-7 when
scoring 4 or more runs. That .863 winning pct is second-best in MLB.
Lucas Duda’s tight back/sore back (pick one)
seems to have a fair amount of Mets insiders worried for the pennant stretch.
The conservative approach would be to put him on the disabled list for a couple
of weeks and let his rest with while receiving therapy, but how do you do that
with the Nationals biting up your arse. Stayed tune to this one folks. It might
get ugly.
“I come here ready to
play every day. If I don’t play, I have to be ready to be in the game. I’ve
just tried to control what I can control. I work hard every day and when I have
the opportunity I try to take advantage. It’s a little hard, but we’ve been winning
a lot of games and that’s what matters,. I’ll just keep working hard.”
Mack – I really
have grown to love this guy, but I just don’t have a solution here. The Mets
are going to play Yoenis Cespedes every day and Curtis
Granderson is going to get the
lion share as well. This leaves Lagares to compete against Michael Conforto and Michael Cuddyer for play time.
I like Terry Collins’ recent policy of ‘the
hot bat plays’, but, if that is true, it would be Cespedes riding the bench
right now and that’s not going to happen.
Do any of you have an idea here?
Reyes still keeps a home
on Long Island and lives there in the off-season. Like any baseball fan with
New York roots, he follows the Mets from afar. He knows about their young,
dominant pitching. He still thinks about 2006, the year he was one victory away
from playing in the World Series. When he walks the streets of New York, people
shout at him: “Come back! Come back to the Mets!” He gets the same messages on
Twitter and Instagram, too. It all makes him smile.
“It’s not that easy,”
Reyes said Tuesday afternoon, after he had had some more time to reflect. “I’d
love to — not now, because I have two more years on my deal. But I’d love to
finish my career here in New York. I have some great memories here.”
Mack – This isn’t going to
happen.
There is no
one on earth that hated the fact that the Mets didn’t resign Reyes before he
left. Reyes and David Wright represented everything the Mets were in those
days, but I can speak first hand that neither the Mets or Reyes reached out to
get a deal done. They both deserved the loss.
Still,
Reyes never returned to an all-star team, after leaving the Mets.
“My
plan is simply to hit something hard. I’m not trying to hit home runs, or
anything like that. Home runs are actually mistakes that come from getting
under the ball a little bit. I’m trying to hit line drives, and if I can get
something on the barrel, that’s where I’m going to have the most velocity and
the most chance of having something fall. I want to be short and direct to the
ball.
“If you looked at video
of me from when I first got into pro ball, and compared it to now, you wouldn’t
see a whole lot of difference. I think I’m pretty much the same, outside of
strength. I’ve mostly been going with what feels comfortable, and what helps me
get to pitches.
“Our hitting philosophy
was drilled into me early on. It’s basically to get a good pitch to hit. A lot
of people misinterpret our hitting philosophy as wanting to draw a walk. That’s
not what it is. It’s to get a good pitch to hit and not be afraid to walk. It’s
never a bad thing to get on base.
Mack –
Fangraphs compared him to Miami’s Christian
Yelich.
I’ll take it.
31 comments:
Howdy, Mack.
Go, Matz, go. We need Matz to beef up our killer staff.
Great to see Gavin hitting .320. Especially when he slid below .280 in late June. I love that he avoids the common strikeout virus so well.
If Duda is sore, he should go on the DL. CUDDYER at 1B, and Lagares gets more playing time. Cespedes rocked that homer to right center last night, he ain't sitting. Murphy called him a freak in an interview, meaning a freak in terms of physical abilities, and we need to re-sign him.
Morning Tom -
Terry said that Duda will play tonight. We'll see.
I'm thinking that if David Wright is to be activated before Sept 1, a stint on the DL for Duda bridging the call-up date would maximize the pool of players available for PS play. (e.g.. Conforto would not have to be sent down or Kirk or one of the IF rentals released to make room for Wright).)
I like Lagares, too, but the plan is easy for me. He needs to sit, a lot. He can start against LHP and be a defensive replacement. For a variety of reasons, he's been an unproductive hitter, throwing ABs away all season.
Across 288 ABs against RHP, he's got an OPS under .600.
He's failed. So in that sense, this isn't a new problem. It's a solution to an old problem.
Hobie -
That is a very good idea.
Duda is a very important September piece and, if he needs some rest, give it to him now.
Anonymous -
You're probably right about my ex least favorite shortstop
Let Duda confound us by going deep twice today.
As a guy with back issues, I am not worried about Duda - I have had times where I tweak my back and it hurts like hell for a day and I am fine the next - and I don't have a professional training staff to take care of me.
If Duda plays, I think it is a sign he was just stiff
As far as rest - I think with our new additions, Duda and get spelled by Cuddy once a week or so - not too worried.
How long has it been since we could see a line up with bench players and not be worried? Nice position to be in
RE Cecchini - can I sprain my shoulder patting my back? I remember coming to his defense when you guys ranked him low coming into the season - I predicted a break out.
If only I could picks stocks or make bets that well!
It's not like you don't have options. Cuddyer can play 1B. Murphy can play 1B. They even tried Recker there once (though why he's back over Monell I'll never understand).
Duda is the real power threat in the lineup. Losing him for two weeks would not be a good thing. Not a loss that I'd take lightly.
James Preller
Mets need Lagares and Duda on the active roster ongoing. ......for totally different reasons, but both needed.
Good note about the Nats offense here recently.
Instead of platooning Conforto against LHP, they should do that with Cespedes.
Granny starts 9 out of every 10 games in RF, Cuddyer gets the other
Cespedes and Lagares platoon in CF
Conforto gets the majority of starts in LF, while looking to get starts there for Cuddyer when they're home at Citi Field.
Brian -
You would have no chance of resigning Cespedes in the off season if you platoon him during the season.
Reese, Recker was 2-28 with 14 Ks in his last 10 AAA games. I guess the Mets assume he is due for a hot streak.
Ha....
Maybe we have no idea how truly valuable they see Recker. ....as Bart's personal catcher. ....
Although technically Kirk was stinking up the joint in vegas right before his call up and he had a nice offensive spurt......
Lets hope recker does that.... at least until august 31 when they hopefully recall Plawecki
Tom -
The Recker move was made to get Plawecki more day to day work
BTW - Duda is NOT in the lineup today again
Also, Recker is a huge defensive and receiving upgrade over Monell. It's not even close.
This
This
No chance platooning Cespedes.
That is a decision that would get people fired.
Its crazy how dominant our pitching has been. Seeing starting pitchers only give up 2-5 hits seems to just be normal and thats insane. DeGrom is lowering his ERA because he has better defense (how many times were errors considered "hits") and TC is letting him get out of his own jams instead of having Carlos Torres let in his inherited runners. Think of all the extra outs our SP were making earlier this year not reflected in their ERA.
2016:
-Full year of Thor with more experience
-Sharp Harvey from the start, another year removed from TJS
-DeGrom being DeGrom
-Full year of Matz
-Maybe most importantly, no Colon.
-Some combination of Wheeler/Montero/Niese
If no one gets hurt, it could maybe rival any of the best rotations of all time?
Be interesting to see Wheelers progress and if he will ever start making it through the 7th inning on a regular basis like the other 4.
On Reyes... You may certainly have more information on the subject than I do. But, following it in the papers at the time (and since), it was obvious to me that Reyes had no intention or desire to stay with the Mets. He started by demanding $100 million. Then Sandy says (not officially...I understand that) that the Mets would be willing to pay him $100 million. Next thing you see is Reyes demanding $105 million. So, from everything I saw at the time and since, Reyes was the one "negotiating" in bad faith. After his figure was met (I know, I know...nothing official), he raised his price. That's not something you do if you ever had the slightest intention of staying. Me, personally, I don't want him back. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
We're definitely getting spoiled but I consider it a good thing. Set the bar high and keep expectations up.
Jose Reyes as rubbish? Why, because he took the highest bidder?
I thought he was a fabulous NY Met, and maybe the most exciting player to ever wear the uniform.
James Preller
What I saw of Jose Reyes was a guy with immense talent who never gave 100% and didn't want to be here any more than Richie Hebner did. We just had a whole discussion pro-Wheeler because he WANTS to be here. Jose never did. Yeah, now that the team is turning the corner, suddenly he's interested (or says he is). I didn't care that he took the highest bid; I cared that he set a price and when that price was met, raised it. That's not good faith bargaining. Then he bad mouthed us the rest of the way. Since most Mets fans already hated the Wilpons, they took his side. If you don't want to play for the Mets, just say so and don't play games. He could have said nothing and taken Toronto's offer and no one would have thought anything more about it. Instead, he was out there talking about himself in the third person and talking trash about the Mets. That's not a team player, and not somebody I want on my squad.
"Most exciting player to ever wear the uniform"? Well, that's pretty subjective. I never saw anyone more electrifying than Doc Gooden, myself. But I think, personally, I'd even say Rod Kanehl was more exciting as a Met. He certainly played harder.
I have to agree with James.
Reyes was an outstanding member of the Mets organization.
As far as the rumors of Alderson willing to give Reyes a $100 million contract?
It's hard to believe given how the organization was operated during those dark ages.
Stubby,
For someone who remembers the situation so well, it was Miami's offer he took. I didn't hear anything about Reyes rejecting our offer. I don't know how you know that. If you choose to believe you that, you have only your own prejudices (re: Reyes) off of which to base that belief, anyway.
Nick -
Re: Reyes
The Mets never made an offer.
And Reyes didn't leave the Mets because he didn't like playing for them. I was there, in the clubhouse, when all this went down. And I had a long off the record talk with Reyes cousin about all this.
Reyes had hoped to receive a decent offer from the Mets but it never came. He left for the money for his family's sake back home so he could take care of them. He never thought he would ever see this kind of money again and he felt this contract would give him the opportunity to take multiple members of his family out of the poverty they came from in the D.R.
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