9/27/15

Mack’s Morning Report – 9-27-15 – Mets Win Division, Matt Williams, Yoenes Cespedes, Ruben Tejada, Minor League Team Ranking



Good morning.



The Mets clinched a playoff spot last night.

I’ve never typed that sentence before on Mack’s Mets. As you can see on the right column, my first posts went up on this version of this site in 2008. I did start writing an earlier version, called Mack’s Mets Notes, but lost the material when I attempted to convert it to a Go Daddy Site. I then wrote for the Flushing University site, which has since closed, and eventually returned here to my own site.

I don’t frankly remember how much I wrote about past playoff games because I concentrated 100% on the Mets minor league players. Guys like David Wright were still making the conversion.

Toby Hyde and I compared notes one day and agreed that we both started our version of our minor league Mets blog in 2005, one year prior to the infamous 2006 playoff games

I have no paper trail on 2006, but I sure remember the season and the players… Carlos Beltran’s 41 home runs… Carlos Delgado’s 38… the beginning of the decline of Cliff Floyd as age took over… the dreams of someday having both Lastings Milledge and F-Mart in the future outfield… and what we felt was going to be the future of Mets pitching, 25-year old John Maine, 24-year old Oliver Perez, and 22-year old Mike Pelfrey.

Mack’s Mets has had 18,108 posts, 32,559 comments, and 3,811,908 unique page views since the site began, not one involving a Mets playoff game.

This is a joyous time here at MM’s. It’s sort of like if the Pope came to New York and… err… done that.



Just ‘stuff ‘ being written late last night:

           Mike Vorkunov on Matt Harvey -


 Joe D with pictures from the victory party


 Zack Braziller on David Wright



 Mike Puma on Juan Uribe




Mike Vorkunov on Matt Williams -

          The future does not look good for Nationals manager Matt Williams.

He can't even get the dreaded stamp of support from his general manager anymore. Mike Rizzo, the Nationals GM, had been unwaveringly positive about Williams' job prospects this season. Even as Washington has floundered as the biggest disappointment in baseball and looks like it will be the runner-up to the Mets in the division.

Well, not anymore. Speaking during a weekly radio appearance on 106.7 The Fan in Washington, Rizzo offered this doozy about Williams' future.

Mack – Regardless of how lethargic the Mets have played lately, the Nats are a mess, even to the point that their starting ace, Max Scherzer, refused to give the ball to Williams when he came to the mound and ordered him back to the dugout.

It’s hard to imagine Williams surviving this.




Comment From Jack - Put your GM hat on…best guess where Cespedes, Greinke, and Price all end up?

Eno Sarris: Toronto gets a pitcher, Dodgers get a pitcher… Mets overpay.

Mack – I have no problem with this. As I’ve said a number of times. It’s not my money and Cespedes has been the glue that has created the playoff team called the New York Mets.


Let’s get this done early so the 2016 team can be built around the big guy.  


Bill asked –

        Among all NL SSs with over 400 PA, Ruben Tejada now leads the league in OBP, is 5th in BA and 5th in OPS. More remarkably, his 22 2Bs ranks 5th, and all those with more have AT LEAST 140 MORE AB. He trails Desmond by 4 2Bs for 2nd place, though Desmond has OVER 200 MORE AB. In the field, he's made 5 Es all year. So when will he get respect?

Mack – Gee, what makes me think this one is directed to Kaplan, not me.
I love what Flores has done with his bat this season, but I think his numbers are maxed out. He also plays infield like a duck.


As I’ve always said, I’ll take a Golden Glove shortstop- everything that hits .230. Defense is so important down the middle of the field


Fangraphs ranked the minor league systems statically...



HITPITALL #1ALL #2ALL #3AVG
31Tampa Bay2111
111Houston1332
72Texas4223
213Cleveland3444
69Boston5555
108New York Yankees7666
910Colorado9887
154LA Dodgers13978
418Philadelphia613119
146Atlanta1210910
193Milwaukee1571011
524Chicago Cubs8141512
167Kansas City16111213
1117Minnesota11151414
215Cincinnati17121315
827Pittsburgh10161616
1226New York Mets14171817
1322Oakland18181718
2414St. Louis23192019
1820Toronto19212220
2612Washington24201921
1721Arizona20222122
2219Seattle21232423
2516Detroit25242324
2029San Diego22262625
2715Chicago White Sox26252526
2823LA Angels28272727
2330Baltimore27292828
3025San Francisco29282929
2928Miami30303030

14 comments:

Ernest Dove said...

Mets probably will overpay for Cespedes, but I believe the days of 10yr ridiculous contracts may now be few and far between. Too many team regrets out there with those........
So overpaying for a current super star into maybe age 36 is not crazy.

Ernest Dove said...

With the one bad news coming out last night regarding Uribe, does anyone have thoughts on who now gets into playoff roster who was probably gonna be out prior to his injury?
SNY guys were talking Kirk being a possibility. Im also assuming EY Jr was already gonna be in before it.

Mack Ade said...

possibly Kirk?

Tom Brennan said...

ZERO. MY FAVORITE # THIS YEAR.

Congrats for hanging in there, Mack, thru thick and thin. Good things often come to those who wait.

Hard to picture that the Mets have only the 26th best minor league pitching rank now. Unerstandable slippage after all the trades, promos, and injuries, but I would have figured around a 20 rank, just as a guy reaction. And...

We'd have higher than a 12 rank offensively if Nimmo had not been so disappointing in 2016.

I would prefer a 25 man without Kirk or EY.

Lastly, I was wrong on Ruben. I like to be wrong by thinking a guy can't do as well as he just has. Way to go, Ruben. I do not think Wilmer has plateaued at all. He will be 24 most of next year and has hit .300 for the better part of 3 months. I bet if he played 150 games next year, he produces 80-100 RBIs.

Unknown said...

Congratulations Mack on your longevity and now we can all exhale a bit having finally wrapped this up. It's especially nice to see the Nats crash and burn after the beatings they put on us the last few years and hopefully we have heard the last of "inning's limits" at least till next season. As far as YC how can we not sign him? We've waited along time to get were we are and he definitely was the one who put us over the top. Major kudo's to the front office for their deadline deals but it does show you just now much luck plays a part here......if Gomez passes his physical we're would be right now? Anyway LETS GO METS!!!!!

bgreg98180 said...

What was the "doozy about Williams' future"?

Tejada has done this well because he hasn't been the every day shortstop. His performance declines when he plays for extended lengths.
He is a very good backup or platoon player.

Mack Ade said...

Wow - I expected today to be a big comment day

S. Finch said...

Never understood whole "it's not my money" position regarding free agents. Sure it's not your or my money, but big contracts, risky contracts, do affect the team dramatically down the line. Seems like an easy cop out, and the traditional route of the Yankees. If we signed cespedes to a 7 year deal and he becomes Jason bay after 2, no its not your money, but it's your team that's going to be hamstrung for 5 years.

That Adam Smith said...

Congrats to you, Mack for getting to the promised land. Congrats to all of us, and to this team. 2015 Eastern Division Champs. Nine years in the desert is long enough.

Ruben has been terrific this year. I remember following his DSL stats thinking, who is this kid SS with the nearly .500 OBP, who doesn't strike out at 16 or 17 years old? Can we see him stateside? In the years since he made The Show, my opinion of him has been all over the place, as he's gone from very promising to very disappointing to now, a more than solid ML SS. That said, I am actually good with an IF that features both he and Flores getting time at SS and elsewhere. I don't think for a minute that Flores' bat has maxed out. He's 23, has just 835 career AB's, and over the last 200 of them he's hit very well. He's no gold glover, and his range is limited, but he's making the plays, has really good hands and a strong arm. I don't have to squint too much to see .290 with 20+ HR and 80 RBI. Who wouldn't want that getting 400-500 AB's at SS and all around the IF? I think he'd actually be terrific defensively at 1B if they wanted to give him some games over there as well. Also, for as good as Tejada's been, I'd love to only use him for 3-400 AB's, unless injury or someone's poor performance forces him onto the field every day. Gimme more of the same IF next season, with as much of DW as his health allows, Duda at 1B for 140 games, and any combination of Murph (If by some chance he's back) Herrera, Flores and Tejada. I think Flores improves, and I believe we can win with that.

Now, let's get home field.

Tom Brennan said...

Good game plan, Adam Smith.

I still like Murph at 1B, I love his attitude, trade Duda for big value, sign Cespedes, bring up Herrera to play 2B, plenty of ABs for Ruben as a back up if he will not be too expensive in 2016, with Cecchini to replace him in 2017.

I'd not mind Duda being re-signed too but payroll will start to strain, and I just like Murphy's attitude and the fact that he has struck out 90 less times than Duda. Now if Duda could show the aggressiveness he's shown this week (not talking about results, just aggressiveness, as I believe if he is aggressive early in counts, he could be great and strike out a lot less), then I want him to stay and the rest will have to sort itself out for 2016.

I mean, wouldn't it be cool to have an aggressive Duda and Cespedes both hit 45 homers next year?

Tom Brennan said...

I also looked at dodgers. Neutralize Grienke and Kershaw and we could easily win the next series. We're just a better team. We have a 100 win team as constructed, and had it been the team all year, we would have won at least 100. NO TEAM IS BETTER.

TP said...

Mack,
3 million hits? Wow, what a run! As is human nature, I'll be most of them were bemoaning one thing or another (I know most of mine were).

It's been fun for me, so thanks or your efforts. Yesterday was fun and rewarding to see a nice celebration for a group that has earned it, and for players that have not had the experience prior. It's not the World Series, but it's the first title in any way for nine years, so celebration is merited.

I wish you at least another nine years here, ones with more joy and fun in Metsville.

bgreg98180 said...

To be fair.
The Darn Yankees have done pretty well with their approach.
Heck even this year when they were supposed to feel the effects of their big spending and aging players......they are going to the playoffs.
And...
They have a couple young cheap players that have made strong impacts.

Unknown said...

I've said it before and I'll say it again WE HAVE TO SIGN YC! Our window is 3/4 more years and we're already going to be w/o Murph but with Herrera and a full season of Conforto and Travis we should be fine. I'm not a big Duda fan because he's cold much longer than his hot streaks and way to many K's. Give him next year while Smith progresses probably doing Bingo/Vegas then we have another year of arb so his trade value should be strong. Mack do you agree that we should sign YC even if it's a 7 year so we can best compete with the window we will have till 18' or 19' or put another way: What are multiple playoff berths worth?