Mack’s Morning Report – 2-20-16 – Jacob deGrom, Top Starters in the Draft, Cuban Players, David Wright, Brandon Nimmo

 Good morning.

Mark Carig wrote a story on how Jacob deGrom is giving TJS advice to Zack Wheeler –

“I talked with deGrom in the early stages,” Wheeler said on Friday, before pitchers and catchers began their first official workout. “He tried to get his arm up, his elbow up a little sooner. It puts less stress on your elbow and I found doing that you get your hand on top of the ball also when you’re going to home plate. I think it will help my command out a little bit, take a little bit of the tailing off of it but it will still have movement.”

Mack – This is what teammates do to other teammates they enjoy playing with and being around. I think all five members of the projected July 2017 rotation understand the potential of producing the best rotation in the league, possibly the best ever in baseball. You’re going to see Wheeler joining their pre-game strut to the dugout.

This is a team within a team.

Some of you are already revving up for the next draft and it’s no big secret that the Mets lowered their prospect list by dealing off 11 pitchers last season.

Here’s the Top 15 starters that D1 Baseball (subscription needed) has listed. You might want to tuck this list into your lower inbox for Draft Day –

        RANK PLAYER, SCHOOL   2015 STATISTICS

1      Alex Lange, LSU     12-0,1.97,114,131-46

2      A.J. Puk, Florida     9-4, 3.81, 78, 104-35

3      Connor Jones, Virginia    7-3, 3.19, 115.2, 113-52

4      Mike Shawaryn, Maryland        13-2, 1.71, 116, 138-29

5      Brendan McKay, Louisville        9-3, 1.77, 96.2, 117-34

6      Dakota Hudson, Mississippi State       1-1, 4.32, 16.1, 26-11

7      Logan Shore, Florida       11-6, 2.72, 112.1, 84-24

8      Kyle Funkhouser, Louisville        8-5, 3.20, 112.1, 104-45

9      Daulton Jefferies, California      6-5, 2.92, 80, 74-17

10    Tanner Houck, Missouri  8-5, 3.49, 100.2, 91-12

11    Alec Hansen, Oklahoma  5-6, 3.95, 82, 94-44

12    Kyle Wright, Vanderbilt   6-1, 1.23, 58.2, 62-23

13    Anthony Kay, UConn       8-6, 2.07, 100, 95-26

14    Drew Rasmussen, Oregon State 7-4, 2.80, 106, 82-30

15    Eric Lauer, Kent State      5-4, 1.98, 86.1, 103-26

Disturbing news coming out of Cuba. International agent Bart Hernandez, who in the past repped players like Jose Abreu, Jorge Soler, Raisel Iglesias, and Yaisel Sierra, has been indicted on human- trafficking charges related to bring Leonys Martin in from Cuba. This strangely comes at the same time that President Obama will be making the first official Presidential visit to Cuba since Calvin Coolidge.

David Wright –

“I want to be out there as much as I can and I think it’s impossible to say ‘x’ amount of games. I think we’ve come up with a plan that will allow me to get ready for a season.”

Mack – What do reported expect Wright to say? “No, I plan on playing only 30 games… or let’s play 162!” I think the plan on paper is 130 which seems like a good plan right now, Let’s first get through spring training, then April and come back and ask me this question again.

Two things were removed for OF Brandon Nimmo. One, was the boot he had to wear after a partial tear in the tendon of his left foot. The other was his name in the Baseball America Top 100 Prospects list. Nimmo’s career continues to go in the wrong direction and more than ever he needs a big year in 2016.

There’s nobody pushing him as an outfield prospect but he sure could be used in Queens as the SP4 or SP5 in 2017.