Good
morning.
First of
all, I welcome you all back from your Thanksgiving festivities. We all had many
reasons to be thankful this past baseball season, one that almost saw our
previous New York Mets go all the way. One thing we can all agree on… they went
far further than any of us thought they would go before the season started.
A few
thoughts…
I think
Mack’s Mets has the most intelligent ‘comment’ section of any Mets blog in
existence. This of course translates into the fact that the site must also have
the most intelligent and informed Mets fans on the web.
The thing I
like the most about them is how everyone can come to the table each day and respectfully
state their point against opposing opinions. Sure, there have been some testy
exchanges, but other readers seem to police the site well and prevent anything
from going over the top.
By the way…
for those of you that ever wondered, Reese Kaplan and
Bill Metsiac are good friends that just differ
on their opinion of Terry Collins. They use this
site to air their thoughts on that subject, in an amusing and professional
manner.
I too have
had my moments and now try to leave most of my opinions to my three Morning
Reports on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Oh, I’ll still chime in when I read
something that gives me a jolt, or when I’m directly asked a question, but,
other than that, I now leave the majority of the comments section to ‘youze
guys’.
We’re all a
little frustrated right now with the lack of activing in the Met’s Hot Stove
season and some of us have different opinions on how the Mets are handling this
and the eventual outcome of the pre-season. I’ve been taking the high road,
pointing out the new found health of both David Wright and
Travis d’Arnaud, and the addition of Michael Conforto and Steven
Matz. Other have questioned the ability to project good health for both
Wright and d’Arnaud and question the Mets commitment of producing another winner
through the usage of proper payroll levels befitting a large market team. Good.
That’s what the comments section is for.
I’m going to
continue to take the high road right now. I haven’t always and I didn’t think
the Mets would make the playoffs last year as deep as halfway into the season,
but Sandy Alderson waved his wand and proved me
wrong. Nine second level pitching prospect later (jeez, was it really nine?) we
had a team that won the National League pennant.
I also don’t
expect him to add a huge payroll player like Yoenes
Cespedes.
What I do
expect, and I will be very upset if it doesn’t happen, is major help for the
middle infield and relief pen. I want the infield help to stress defense, but,
due to the fragile condition of Wright, bringing Daniel
Murphy back does all of a sudden have its upside.
With that,
let’s move on…
Let’s member
to send your Q and A to me at: macksmets@gmail.com.
I love answering the questions (in length) as part of one of my morning
reports.
Fangraphs http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/one-marcell-ozuna-for-sale/
had a real interesting article on the availability
of Marlins CF Marcell Ozuna -
Marcell Ozuna doesn’t have
to be complicated. What’s his deal? He hits the ball hard.
Really hard. He has 30-home-run
power, and if you’re being nice, he has 40-home-run power. Last year was a big
step back for him, but even then, on batted balls captured by Statcast, Ozuna
ranked 10th in baseball in average exit velocity among 152 players with at
least 250 batted balls tracked. One-hundredth of a mile per hour ahead of
Ozuna: Nelson Cruz. Two-hundredths behind him: Kendrys Morales. Ozuna tends to make real solid contact.
When he makes contact.
That’s the strength, and what
further separates Ozuna is that he’s also newly 25, and he plays a perfectly
fine center field. To re-state all that: Ozuna is a young center fielder who
could conceivably hit 30 dingers a year. He has four remaining seasons of team
control, and because of the games the Marlins played, Ozuna didn’t qualify for
Super Two. That was part of the problem between the parties in the first place,
and now someone else will probably get to benefit.
Mack – Normally, I
would rule out a divisional rival in a possible trade partner for someone as
talented as Ozuna, but we know that the Marlins owner would sell his mother if
he could rid his team of salary while, at the same time, secure team controlled
prospects.
Juan Lagares probably
doesn’t fit the profile here, but a package that included Brandon
Nimmo could be the trick. Lagares
could always be moved in a separate deal for someone to help the team.
Rafael Montero, and Amed Rosario could round
out a decent package for the full assumption of the Ozuna contract. Josh Smoker or Akeel Morris
could replace either.
Thoughts?
And
lastly…
Jason: People have been comparing
young Cub hitters to young Met pitchers for the last year but what 1 for 1
trade between the two teams would make sense to you?
Dave Cameron: I think
Castro/Wheeler is in the fair-ish range, because I'm not super high on Wheeler.
Mack – I’ve said a
number of times that I’d like to see the Mets keep the Fab 5 together for the
future, but I couldn’t help dropping the ‘C word’ again…
11 comments:
I don't know about others.
But I would like Alderson to make his offensive priority high avg and low strikeouts.
Mack, I agree with the high level of intelligence of Macks Mets participants, and am glad all are chiming in as they do.
As soon should we trade for the Marlin's Marcel? Ozuna we can. If not Zuna.
If they took Nimmo in a trade, would that make him Marlin Brando?
What fans don't know is you like Starlin Castro so much because you used to play stickball with Fidel. I get no Cuban cigar for that pun. Let's see if Sandy is a Wheeler Dealer this off season.
After all those puns, it is easy to see there is still turkey left after Thanksgiving. I not called Tom Turkey for nothing.
Bob -
I agree.
Kansas City taught me a lot. Just keep throwing good hitting at good pitching and, eventually, you will wear down the staff, especially in the late innings.
LOL Thomas. Wouldn't it be great if we could be the baseball version of the Patriots in avoiding the big onerous contracts and just draft and trade for avg./good talent and have a system that teaches the "Met way" of playing. The caveat of course is they have Brady but so do we with our fab five so maybe were on the right track. Of course time will tell.
I posted tomorrow's post (organizational catchers) at 8am today by mistake... I dropped it and it will repost tomorrow morning
Gary -
would Zobrist fill the bill in that thinking?
perhaps but I'm still in on Murph for what will probably be similar $$$ and years. I just sent you a trade proposal.
Gary -
I seem to be back in on Murphy more every day. He seems to fit the Bob Gregory mold.
Got an earful of "move on from Murph" from my brother at Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. If between him and Zobrist, I still prefer the younger Murph.
Part of me wants the draft pick compensation that would be gained if another team acquired Murphy.
But then I look at the Nimmo and Cecchini draft selections and feel that the talent value acquired from the draft pick might not be worth it.
Mack,
KC impressed me with their approach but let's remember that Syndergaard and Harvey were dominant with high K rates too. I do like the approach of 9 tough outs in the line up. And, our starters are also tough outs for pitchers, which is an advantage
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