9/6/15

Mack’s Morning Report – 9-6-15 – Sand Gnats, Matt Harvey


Good morning.

Nathan Dominitz of the Savannah Morning News wrote a great story of the Sand Gnats and Mack’s Mets writer and contributor Wally Murphy and Lon Forbes

          The Sand Gnats’ next game in Savannah could be their last.

Lon Forbes, a dedicated Gnats fan, would like Savannahians to come out in force to show their support when the minor-league baseball team hosts a playoff game next Friday at Grayson Stadium.

“We ought to get a record attendance,” Forbes said. “I’d like to think we’d have at least 2,500.”

That would an improvement. The team has averaged 1,962 a game in drawing 125,587 total for 64 home dates, not including Wednesday night, when the final regular-season home game was canceled because the field was unplayable after rainy conditions and two doubleheaders in two days.

Mack – This is the first year since 2007 that I didn’t attend at least one game with these guys. I will miss them greatly.




Michael asks –

        This entire situation is just getting my blood up and I'm really starting to think the Mets would be better off trading Harvey at some point.  Boras is poison to the relationship btw Harvey and the organization.

With Wright's health still up in the air long term, would you deal Harvey for Arenado +?  This would be at a future date, when we have a clearer picture of Wright's health but before an extension has to be negotiated w/ Boras.  This way, we'd lock down 3B with one of the young stars in baseball and the Rockies could get the pitching they need so badly.  It would also serve as a warning to Boras to not screw with this team.  Harvey goes to COL and watches his numbers drop.  Buh-bye $200M contract.

I'd hate to lose him and I want Harvey to be a Met for his career, but I feel like I'm watching a train wreck in slow motion and I'd rather deal with it before the inevitable crash

Mack – Matt Harvey and Scott Boras remain a hot topic on Mack’s Mets. Sadly, what every member of this extended family needs to do right now in September is to worry about this season.

I don’t know what Boras’ motives are all the time. He’s a lot like Donald Trump. In this case, he’s the only agent we ever hear from, standing behind a microphone.

I said yesterday that I like the idea of trading Harvey if I get the proper return. One player wouldn’t be enough for me.

Arenado would be perfect in a deal… 35-HR, 103-RBI, .288/.321/.576/897… but then the Mets would have to do something with David Wright.

I don’t know… like I said yesterday… trade him for at least two players… either a power outfielder, a leadoff speedster, an established successful shortstop, an A+ reliever, or an SP5… pick two.



And  Buster Olney has the last word (at least here on Mack’s Mets) on Matt Harvey –

Agent Scott Boras has spoken, and so have the New York Mets. But the only opinion that really matters regarding how many innings Matt Harvey will pitch is Harvey's opinion, and so far, he's not talking.

Maybe he's uncertain, facing conflicting forces. The safe play for his career and his future earnings is to defer to his doctors' guidelines. A more immediate pressure, however, comes from within the Mets' clubhouse, where his teammates are devoted daily to doing what they can to win the National League East and play deep into October. And if Harvey is going to play a major role in that pursuit, he will need to throw a lot more innings than what his doctors recommend.

He bears full responsibility for what happens moving forward, because the real power over the situation is his.

Mack – We’re spending far too much time here on Mack’s Mets on ‘the future’ of Harvey rather than targeting on what’s he’s doing this season.

Right now, I’m concerned.


The starters aren’t dominant, the relievers can’t do anything in the seventh inning, and Washington seems to have gotten their shit together.

16 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

The Gnats have given Savannah a superb season. A playoff championship would be icing on the cake.

Up to Harvey...absolutely. So far in his career, he's made $2 million. Will he jeopardize the next $200 million?

Anonymous said...

Here is a Harvey deal, put him in the pen as the 8th inning guy! Let Clippard pitch in the 7th! I do like your idea about trading him to Colorado, screw you Borass.

Tom Brennan said...

My brother tested me a Correia For Harvey deal with the Astros. Thoughts?

Ernest Dove said...

Hey remember last off-season when I wrote that post about putting Harvey in the bullpen to start 2015 ;)

How bout have him pitch 6 innings next start. .....if needed another 6 innings final series against Nats. ...then do what I believe mack said yesterday and make him a damn ROOGY lol.... since they believe in this silly innings number he can pitch to one batter at a time until he hits 180.

Long live the deGrom Matz Thor playoff rotation !!!!!!!

Dallas said...

I think we can safely say Harvey has made a lot more than 2 million so far. He had his signing bonus, his minimum league wage plus endorsements. However endorsements are about to dry up pretty quick depending on how this plays out. I'm not sure who Harveys PR guy is but he either needs to get one or get a new one. Now matter how this plays out Monday this was a pretty poorly thought out move on the Harvey / Boras front. The NY papers have his picture as two-face on their front covers, and it might only get worse.

How about the lineup TC marched out there last night? It happened to work out that the Mets scored 7 runs but is that the chance you take by playing your scrubs with the Nationals still on your tail? Campbell and Eric Young starting, really? Yes the Nats have their act together and play very terrible teams not named the Mets for the rest of the way. We still have the Yankees on our docket.

Whenever I say something bad about Colon he puts together a string of starts like he has, he seeming then implodes shortly after. I sure hope he can harness whatever he has going for another 6 weeks.

Ernest Dove said...

Oh by the way there's tentative plans for me and the family to head to Miami today.....LETS GO MATZ !!!!

Mack Ade said...

Morning guys -

We all should be spending so much time on the excitement of this season.

Instead, Scott Boras spits out his usual crap and Harvey plays cutesy with the press about his future this year and how the Mets have treated him.

Do you know what the Mets have done?

They drafted him... they gave him a five figure bonus... they now pay him over $500K a year... and they paid for his operation and rehab. What a lousy boss.

You know know much I wanted to see 'The Big 5" pitch together. I've been writing about it for years. Well... it just isn't going to happen.

SA is sitting down with Harvey prior to his start against Washington. Hopefully, he can convince him to zipper the lip on this issue ( he also needs to tell Jay Horvitz to keep the beat reporters away from him).

Shut him down for his next scheduled start but have him keep doing side sessions.

That will take you up to around the Yankees series on 9-18 - 9-20 and everything can be reevaluated then when hopefully this issue calms down a little.


Tom Brennan said...

Go, Ernest, go. A must-win for the Matz Man. We need his bat.

Anonymous said...

Boras is over stepping the line. This is a serious conflict of interest and Baseball needs to do something about this. The Nationals work well with Boras. They have 7 of his clients. More than any other team. The Mets do not work with Boras. They have only two, both whom they obtained by the draft.
Boras is sending a message. You work with me and my players will work for you. You don't work with me and I'll shut them down when you need them most.
I don't know if that is exactly what is going on but articles like "Why are we talking about inning counts" demonstrate that Harvey is not being overworked when you take a little time to dig a little deeper into the numbers. Boras knows numbers very well. This is not about Harvey's injury.
Richard Jones

Michael S. said...

We do need to focus on this season as the playoffs are hardly in the bag. But, it's tough to watch this Harvey episode and not think about the long-term implications.

Addendum/convoluted solution: Get Arenado and additional pieces from Colorado to send to Detroit and bring back Fulmer. Have Arenado (or Wright) play OF until Wright's back eventually leads him to early retirement.

- Add a young power hitter to Conforto and d'Arnaud
- Bring back Fulmer
- Screw Harvey/Boras

Unknown said...

Harveys been good to very good this year 15 months after TJ surgery and everyone's expecting him to return to his 2013 form next year.....but what if he doesn't? His value will NEVER be higher than this off season so it behooves management to use this very valuable chip this winter. Like Branch Rickey once said its better to trade em one year early than one year to late. By the way...LETS GO METS!

Herb G said...

I hate to say it, but Boras was right to speak up. If Andrews recommended a hard limit of 180 innings, it needs to be reexamined. While Alderson is correct saying there is no medical evidence on the subject the low risk alternative is some innings limit. If the Mets ignore it and Harvey goes lame there would be hell to pay. Some sort of compromise agreement, acceptable to all parties must be reached.

Michael S. said...

Are we sure Andrews reco'd it? It seems the story is being altered now after the fact. I would never advocate a player jeopardizing his health but this screams of shenanigans.

Anonymous said...

Herb, Harvey has been fighting the Mets all year long when they limited his innings. Six man rotation, Harvey wines. Pull him from a game after X number of innings when he is pitching well, more public wining.

Any innings limit should be a soft figure. Once you near that figure dig a little deeper and look at pitch count and the many other factors that come into play. 180 innings of 40 pitches each inning would be way to many innings. 180 innings of 10 pitches per inning, that's a whole different story.
Richard Jones

Steve from Norfolk said...

Jim Rosenthal quote from Twitter;


Ken Rosenthal
✔ ‎@Ken_Rosenthal
Three rival GMs say Dr. Andrews does not prescribe set limits post-Tommy John. “He always says to watch and go on a case by case,” one says.


10:14 AM - 5 Sep 2015


Boras is lying AGAIN by expressing his opinion as doctor's orders. Question is, who told Harvey he had a hard innings limit?

Stubby said...

Thomas, I assume you mean Correa, the shortstop. I'm not in the pissed off, trade him for a bucket of balls, hate Harvey movement that's been on display the last couple of days (guys, the kid neither did nor said anything wrong; all he really said was "it's not my call, its between the Mets and my doctor" and, really, what else would you say there? And they will work it out, you know they will. The press is playing you because they know you go into withdrawl if you don't have a villain on your squad for ten seconds. And, in playing you, it is the press, not Harvey, that is doing damage to our team in the stretch drive), but I'd trade Harvey for Correa in a heartbeat. Straight up. Shortstop problem solved for a decade. But the Astros would never do that. Correa is THEIR shortstop for the decade (or 4 years or so, anyway) and they have plenty of their own stud pitchers just now graduating to big league ball. They have no need for Harvey. Certainly not enough of a need to part with a stud shortstop.