Mack’s Morning News – 11-27-15 – Thanksgiving, Sandy Alderson, Daniel Murphy, Marcell Ozuna, Starlin Castro

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…