1/14/16

The Mack’s Morning Report – 1-14-16 –



 Good morning.


Mets Fan: Hi Jeff. With Denard Span getting scooped up by the Giants, the Mets don't have too many CF options in the FA market. I was hoping they'd sign Fowler...how likely is this now?

Jeff Sullivan: They seem to have their outfielders already. Always some chance they surprise, but I don't think they're ready to quit on Lagares.

Mack – I think the Mets made a big mistake not signing Span (I understand he desired to be a Met), but ‘that’s just me’. Potential injuries aside, he would have given the Mets a legitimate leadoff hitter, allowing Curtis Granderson to return to the 3-4-5 hole.

As for Lagares, others have written about him (Dove) and I expressed my opinion about him there. I expect de Aza will give Lagares the proper amount of push to turn him into a successful every day centerfielder. I also expect his defense will be the difference here and will balance off with Michael Conforto’s huge offensive season. Watch for another Gold Glove here.


 John Harper had a story last Sunday on Sandy Alderson’s content with going without Denard Span or Yoenes Cespeces this upcoming season. His thoughts on CF  –

In addition, the Mets believe De Aza will be productive against righthanded pitching — he had an .800 OPS vs. righties last season — and they seem convinced he can still play an adequate center field, even though he’s played there sparingly the last two seasons.
They also feel strongly that Juan Lagares will return to Gold Glove defensive form in center, figuring he’ll replace De Aza in late innings against righthanded pitching, and they have high hopes he will still blossom offensively.

Mack – The Mets beat press is not going to let Sandy Alderson off the hook on his early projection that the 2016 Mets salary would come in at ‘around $115mil’. Right now, it’s $109mil.
Frankly, I no longer can figure out the plan for the fifth outfielder. Maybe it’s ‘punt time’ and just promoted someone like LHH Darrell Cecilliani.



Greg B asked –
        With spring training about a month away I'd like to know who are some of you guys sleepers in the Mets farm system that all of us will hear about this year.

                 Mack - Sleepers?

                 I don't know Greg. We have prtety much identified most of the usual subjects (Flexen, Sewald, Morris, Smoker, Mazeika, Smith, Herrera, Rosario, Guillorme, Beccera, Kaczmarski, Lindsay). Tom and the other guys may have a couple of new names like Max Wotell, but I'll go with the list of names I listed above. 

          Basically no surprises. 


I didn’t need to be a subscriber of the  Buster Olney column where he ranked the top ten pitching rotations in baseball. They only showed the top #1 ranked staff before having to register –

1. New York Mets - Rotation candidates: Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, Bartolo Colon, Zack Wheeler
Of the National League's top five hardest-throwing starters with at least 140 big league innings in 2015, the Mets have three of them: Syndergaard, whose fastball averaged 97.1 mph; Harvey at 95.9 mph; and deGrom at 95 mph. No. 4 starter Steven Matz, who has less time in the majors and is the least developed of the New York starters, generally checks in at 94-96 mph as well.

There are a ton of relievers who throw this hard these days, but few starting pitchers can maintain high-end velocity three times through a lineup, and the Mets are lined up to have four guys who can do that, with Zack Wheeler, MLB's fifth-hardest throwing starter in 2014, expected back sometime in 2016 after he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
But as the Mets' starters demonstrated on their journey to the World Series last fall, their excellence is rooted not only in how hard they throw, but in the quality of their secondary stuff and their ability to command those pitches. DeGrom, Syndergaard and Harvey ranked 9th, 10th and 12th, respectively, in the majors in strikeout-to-walk ratio.


They're all young, in the early years of their respective careers and may be together for at least three more seasons, and seemingly have a chance to be remembered as one of the best rotations of this generation. The Mets have the best rotation in baseball now, and there really isn't a close second.

14 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Chris has been doing a great job. I'd like to see Herb write once a week. He has had some great posts lately.

Wotell as a sleeper is a pure gut call. Gut rhymes with butt, so hopefully I don't look like the latter on my call there.

I look forward to seeing the Lethal 5 in the same rotation when Wheeler returns. Fast and Furious.

Lagares had a bad year in AA the year before he made the Mets, making quite a turnaround. I feel another bounce back year is Juan's MO for 2016.

Mack Ade said...

Tom -

As I've mentioned a number of times, Lagares played with pure emotion, both positive and negative. I expect recent events to generate the proper motivation for him in 2016.

Tom Brennan said...

I was encouraged that Juan threw well in winter ball. I think having his full defensive swagger will jumpstart his offense.

A little over a month to pitchers and catchers.

Watched Cuomo's State of NYs address yesterday. Katz and Grandy had brief lines in a video montage...pretty cool. Don't recall what they said but it was touting NYS, not the Mets. Collins and Wilpon were in the audience. Got a big hand.

Unknown said...

Mack I agree with you about Span but also would have loved to get Chapman to have a shut down pen. I just don't think we can count on just Familia after the super season he had because regression is more possible than a repeat of last season and like the NFL with running backs we should have more than one closer. But we ALL know were still shopping in the discount aisle.

Mack Ade said...

Tom -

It amazes me sometimes that the biggest critics of the Mets are Mets fans themselves. We forget sometimes what this team accomplished this year.

Just think if baseball was a fast pitched softball league and every game was 7 innings...

Mack Ade said...

Gary -

I say this with the assumption that the roster is finished...

I assume that 'the plan' is to get to the point where Jenrry Mejia is reinstated and slot him in the 8th inning role between Reed and Familia.

(I also still think that Montero is going to be a major factor in the 2016 pen)

Anonymous said...

Re: payroll. There is about $6M in deferred money being paid out this year and is always included in the top line number for lux tax purposes, so he might be pulling a little sleight of hand here. The actual number is just a little short of $115M
Anon Joe F

Tom Brennan said...

Mack, forget the pitching, I want to see Matz, Thor, and deGrom HIT this year.

Mack Ade said...

Somebody altered the title of this post - my apologies for the confusion.

Christopher Soto said...

Hello everyone.....my apologies for not being able to post today.

Sadly my cat needed to be hospitalized this morning for Kidney problems so I've been dealing with that all morning.

I will have a morning report to replace Mack's usual Friday Morning Post.

Metsiac said...

What about BART??? ��

Tom Brennan said...

Bart and Harvey too. 5 starters, 5 sluggers

bgreg98180 said...

Orioles reportedly offered Cespedes
$75-90 million over 5 yrs.

Great value.

Mack Ade said...

Bob -

and would you do this warts and all?