Mack’s Morning Report – 2-26-16 – Joe D, Yoenis Cespedes, Noah Syndergaard, Luis Carpio, Raphael Ramirez

Good morning.

I try to give you five Mets subjects to mull on each day, built around various press articles that had come out in the past 24 hours. I then add my opinions and I let you guys take it from there.

The off-season is tough because there isn’t much happening and everybody seems to be writing about the same subjects. These few weeks before spring training has started are particularly painful, especially in a year like this when everything coming out of the Mets clubhouse is in perfect harmony.

I’ve never seen a Mets team more on the same page than this one.

Everybody wants to play for this team. Everybody.

A tip of the Mack’s hat to Joe D over at Metsmerized for securing pregame videos from his new partner, The Sporting News. Joe is as old as I am doing this yet he still seems to be coming up with ways of building his site and putting some ching in his pocket. I wish I had his strength and will.

Noah Syndergaard threw live batting practice on Thursday morning. Mets minor leaguers that were served up were Kyle Johnson, Stefan Sabol, and Victor Cruzado. Terry Collins said ‘that ball is moving two feet. That’s pretty good shit.’ Pitching coach Dan Warthan said ‘that’s mid season… he has something to prove… he wants to win a World Series’.

Mack – It’s always great to get past the first live BP session. All you want to look for at this stage of the game is no muscle pulls, strains, or, even worse.

(Rafael Montero and Steven Matz also threw live BP)

Ride #4 for Yoenis Cespedes on Thursday was an Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione which followed a tricked out Ford F-250, a Polaris Slingshot, and a Lamborghini Aventador. I gotta think that Terry Collins would love have a few choice words about this show boating, but frankly, it’s a breath of fresh air in a basically boring spring training so far. I’m sure even Yo will run out of cars by the end of the month.

Is he done tomorrow? Well, here’s a Twitter post from Cespedes himself –

Yoenis Cespedes ‏@ynscspds  - I'm pulling up BIG to practice tomorrow with the man who builds all my rides #AlexVega @TheAutoFirm #AvorzaMovement

The Mets draft picks in the first/comp round are #20 and #31.

IF Juan Uribe has signed with the Cleveland Indians

This is the time of the year that everybody seems to have their own Top 10 Prospects list. So does Baseball Prospectus who came out with the Mets list this week.

I found two things interesting –

1.  They listed SS Luis Carpio as the #3 prospect in the system –

Given the polished profile at such a young age, and the organization he plays for, the obvious comp for Carpio is Ruben Tejada. Admittedly it’s not that sexy a look through a 2016 lens, but consider that Tejada has graded out as a league-average player in four of his past five seasons in the majors by WARP, despite never playing 120 games in a season. And even if Carpio doesn't reach his power ceiling, he should still show more pop than Tejada. This is a potential top-100 guy in a year, especially if he ends up in the South Atlantic League as an 18-year-old and continues to hit. And there is no reason to think he can't handle that tough assignment with the same aplomb he did 2015's.

      Mack – Let’s review this one more time…

In my book, the Mets have the following shortstop prospects:

Gavin Cecchini – 1^st round/2012 – 21/yrs - .317/AA

Amed Rosario – $1.75mil bonus – 19/yrs - .257/A+

Luis Guillorme – 10^th round/2013 – 20/yrs - .318/A

Yeffry De Aza – $475K bonus – 19/yrs - .313/GCL

Edgardo Fermin – $250K bonus – 17/yrs - .262/DSL

Hansel Moreno – $50K bonus – 18/yrs - .210/DSL

Gregory Guerrero – $1.5mil bonus – awaiting assignment

Andres Giminez – $1.2mil bonus – awaiting assignment

Kenny Hernandez – $1mil bonus – 16/yrs - .196/DSL

Yoel Romero - $300K bonus – 18/yrs - .194/DSL

The face of the Mets shortstop could change many times in the next decade.

2.  They listed the relatively unknown OF Raphael Ramirez as someone to keep an eye on –

Raphael Ramirez, CF - Signing Ramirez out of the 2014 draft class was a bit of a coup for Paul DePodesta and Tommy Tanous. Expected to go to NC State, he instead signed with the Mets for $150,000. Ramirez has some of the best athletic tools in the system, he is a no-doubt center fielder and a true burner. Despite his small frame, he gets better power than you'd think out of a pretty, rotational swing that calls to mind a young Curtis Granderson (the high socks help here as well). Now the reason he is here, rather than above. Ramirez struggles with spin, and especially spin from the left side. He just hasn't looked comfortable against left-handers so far in his professional career. The clock is hardly ticking though, and he is only a bit of refinement away from joining a couple of his Kingsport team on the top section of this page in 2017.

Mack – There’s no room for Ramirez in Columbia this spring. On paper, Desmond Lindsay, Emmanuel Zabata, Vincente Lupo, Michael Bernal, Hengelbert Rojas, and Tucker Tharp will all be fighting it out for the five Firefly outfield slots.