1/7/16

The Morning Report 1.7.2016 | Mike Piazza Elected to the Hall of Fame, Tommy Tanous to Replace Paul DePodesta, Cespedes Playing 2nd Fiddle to Justin Upton



Michael Papandrea Empire Writes BackLong time New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza has been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame by accumulating 83 percent of the vote from the Baseball Writers Association of America. His offensive stats alone were probably good enough to get him into the Hall. He had 427 career home runs and a .308 career batting average. As for his defense, people often overly criticize him on how poor he was, but realistically, he was a fine catcher. In terms of throwing base runners out, he was one of the worst, however, his strong suit behind the plate was blocking balls and framing pitches.

(Chris Soto: Congrats to Mike Piazza on his overdo election into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is likely to be enshrined as a New York Met making him only the 2nd Met, besides Tom Seaver, in the HOF. It's too bad that him and Griffey Jr. were the only ones elected this year; I thought for sure we were going to have 4 with Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines joining them but they lost too much ground at the end.)


Michael Baron Just Mets- The Mets appear inclined to promote DePodesta’s replacement from within as the Mets are likely to promote Tommy Tanous, their current scouting director, to the head of player development and amateur scouting. This is probably the most logical move the Mets can make, and certainly going with someone in-house who knows the system that’s in place and the people involved in that system is wise as well.

(Chris Soto: Tommy Tanous was basically Depodesta's right hand man. Anywhere Depo went, Tanous was right there with him as his shadow. He probably know just as much about the organizational plan and structure as Depodesta did so the pain felt from losing Depo shouldn't be that significant. One big difference is that Tanous did more physical scouting then Depo did so, in all honesty, Tanous might actually have a leg up on Depo when it comes to who he thinks the best players in the 2016 Draft class are.)


HOT STOVE REPORT (courtesy of mlbtraderumor.com)
  • Per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, The Miami Marlins are in heavy negotiations with the Texas Rangers about a trade surrounding OF Marcell Ozuna and either SP Chi Chi Gonzalez or SP Nick Martinez.
  • With OF Alex Gordon off the Free Agent market, interest in fellow OF'ers Justin Upton and Yeonis Cespedes seems to be picking up. However, most of the chatter from organizations continues to be more about Upton than Cespedes leaving most to believing that Cespedes is now going to have to wait for Upton to sign before getting legitimate offers. The Alex Gordon 4yr/$72M deal is believed to have depressed the value for both players.

15 comments:

Mack Ade said...

Conrats to Mike Piazza who I truly believe belongs in the HOF, back hair and all. We all had out doubts here at one point, but I believe he deserves the entry.

bgreg98180 said...

Without a doubt, Mike Piazza is and has always been a Hall of Fame caliber player.

The only question should be, how could he not have been voted in earlier?

Herb G said...

I join in congratulations to Mike, clearly a HOFer. IMO the greatest offensive catcher of all time, with a tip of the hat to Johnny B, Campy and Yogi. Interesting to hear Mike talk of his strained departure from LA and his love for NYC. Here's hoping they honor his wish and give him the Mets cap on his plaque. Bob - the rumors of PEDs linked to Mike swayed too many voters in past years. Thankfully, all that is irrelevant now.

I love the expected promotion of Tommy Tanous. He should be a great asset come draft day.

I don't mean to rekindle all the furor over Yoenis, but I keep wondering, the longer Cespedes goes without substantive offers, could his price come back to where Alderson would sign him. If he loved NY and playing for the Mets as much as he says he did, he should accept Sandy's 3 year offer over other clubs 3 year offers. I personally feel that an offer of 4 years/$84 million, with an opt out after the 3rd year, and a $4 million buyout of a 5th year option, should be enough to get him.

Tom Brennan said...

Great for Piazza, sad for Bagwell. Had Bags not had his 1994 season truncated at 110 games, he'd have made the Hall this time around IMO.

If his 110 games in 1994 had been 160 that year, his #s would have been .368, 46 doubles, 56 homers, 151 runs scored, 168 RBIs. .450 on base, .750 slug. Plus 21 steals. Ruthian.

What a selling point for the Hall that would have been for Bags.

Tom Brennan said...

Herb, you can rekindle Cespedes every day - I hope against hope he comes back. Besides the pitchers, he is the one who electrified 2015 for Mets fans.

Mack Ade said...

Tanous seems like the obvious choice. He knows the system and the system isn't going to change.

Zozo said...

Congrats Mike Piazza!!! Anyone else going to Cooperstown to see the induction? Maybe we can all meetup for a drink?

Also have Mets forgotten this https://vine.co/v/eDt5EHMQK2g

Christopher Soto said...

@Zozo

I live up in the Cooperstown area so I'll be down for a drink at my local pub. May be meeting up with Metsmerized Online's Michael Mayer as well. Could be a grand ole time.

bgreg98180 said...

I wonder if the real reason for the Mets lack of interest in Cespedes and in Murphy this off season is due to the organizations hitting philosophy.

Clearly neither is an example of the looking for walks approach Alderson has championed.

The funny thing is that both Murphy and Cespedes approaches have led them to very good production offensively.

Reese Kaplan said...

I had championed Marcell Ozuna awhile back and suggested the Marlins wanted to part ways. Now I see he's in the trade rumors with the Rangers. Once again I have to wonder what the Mets front office is doing while other teams improve.

Tom Brennan said...

Reese, everyone is forgetting we got de Aza. So...don't worry, be happy.

What could be better than a mediocre, grind it out, low key offense. Most fans go for the hot dogs, anyway...the ones at the concession stands.

Ernest Dove said...

The Mets just played in the world series. The April 2016 roster is set to be an upgrade over the April 2015 roster.
Cuddyer didn't do much offensively but he was a leader and lead by example with his hustle and if even one other guy in the 25man modeled that hustle and made him better it was probably worth his $9.5mil because THEY PLAYED IN THE WORLD SERIES.
Im also still quitely guessing the Mets can and will pull the trigger as needed before next trade deadline to make the playoffs and they can dangle plenty of 'redundant' prospects at positions full throughout system like shortstop.
There's also a chance they end up with two picks before start of 2nd round in both 2016 and 2017 (depending on that theory regarding walker next year).
Im looking forward to 2016.

Tom Brennan said...

Aside from all my recent belly aching, I'm looking fwd to 2016 too, Ernest. We certainly should have a strong team overall.

Tom Brennan said...

Aside from all my recent belly aching, I'm looking fwd to 2016 too, Ernest. We certainly should have a strong team overall.

Hobie said...

Tommy Tanous sounds like a made up name.