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2/4/16

Mack’s Morning Report – 2-4-16 – Achilles’ Heel, Alejandro De Aza, Astrubel Cabrera, Raywilly Gomez




Good morning.


 Patrick Brewer writes about what he feels could be the Mets achilles’ heel in 2016 –

Despite all the goodwill flowing out of New York, and the fan support of the front office, the Mets still have a glaring Achilles’ heel that has gone unaddressed, and really, blatantly ignored so far this offseason.

For all the talk of the Mets great young pitchers, and their improved bullpen and the impact Yoenis Cespedes will once again have on the team’s offense, there is still one glaring area of concern.

In 2015, the Mets team defense wasn’t great.

Mack – Gee… who was that guy that kept saying that the Mets needed to improve their defense, especially down the middle of the field where most plays are made? What was his name? Mack somebody…

There’s one factor here that is hard to translate into stats.

Having a 5-man rotation that will either strike out batters, or create routine grounders or fly balls, will make this team look a lot better on paper.



 Skyler Steckler writes about the Mets outfield, in general, and Alejandro de Aza, in particular –

That leaves the final option: trading Alejandro De Aza before he even puts on a Mets uniform. It seems clear that the Mets didn’t think they’d end up re-signing Cespedes, or they likely wouldn’t have much such an effort to sign De Aza. To be fair, De Aza is a lot better than some of their options last year, so the signing isn’t inherently bad; he’s a career .267 hitter with a career .736 OPS and has a little bit of speed. The Mets simply aren’t a team that one would expect to be paying their 5th outfielder almost $6 million.

Mack – I don’t think many Mets fans reacted badly when the Mets signed de Aza. He seemed like a ‘diet-Cespedes’, especially if Yo wasn’t coming back.

Now, $6mil is a lot for someone that is going into spring training as the 5th outfield

As I’ve said on a previous comment, I’m happy with the current roster, but I would have no problem with trading de Aja for a future chip and then resigning Darrell Ceciliani if he’s still out there.



Jonathan Webb wrote a specific piece on Astrubel Cabrera and middle infield defense in general -

It will be interesting to see how Cabrera and Walker play the middle, how their double plays look, the range they bring to balls hit up the middle. We have some high strikeout pitchers, which should help lessen the number of opportunities for sure, but the middle infield still needs to make plays on a consistent basis. How many innings last year were extended because a double play was not turned? How many extra pitches were thrown because of an error? That is all certainly part of the game but if the Mets can end innings with lower pitch counts for their pitchers, it only extends their starts and keeps the bullpen fresh and healthy.



Michael Baron ‏@michaelgbaron  - Official: #Mets sign C Raywilly Gomez to a minors deal. Raywilly will be invited to big league camp.

Mack – Remember… you can’t have a successful pre-spring training unless you have a ton of catchers in your clubhouse to eventually work with all the pitchers you have invited to camp.

The Mets, like all the other teams, gather up as many catchers as they can find before ‘pitchers and catchers’ report, and Gomez will be one of them.

Normally they go away as quick as they arrive, but Gomez may stick somewhere. He’s only 25 and he did hit .291 in AA ball last season.

12 comments:

  1. Hey Mack

    You called the defense deficiency. I prefer more hitting to more defense if I had to choose between the two.

    I think Cespedes focuses on his fielding and we see an above average defensive CF. That will help our defense. Leaders address their qdeficiencies.

    Ceciliani went somewhere else for cash, so he is not an option.

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  2. Mack, did you say you don't think Mets fans reacted badly when we signed de aza?? I must be on some alien site because mets fans were about to riot in the streets when we signed him cause we all thought that was it! I don't even think we considered de aza Lagares lite let alone cespedes lite!

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    1. I agree with a Frank. On this site anyways we were mostly against signing someone who was DFA'd twice last year at almost $6 million dollar contract. I would have rather have kept Capt Kirk and his defense for less $$$.

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  3. Since im trying to stay positive. ............

    The payroll is at its highest in years. Perhaps they tried to acquire guys with both solid offense and defense up the middle and settled on two good veterans who can project out 10-15 homers, make all the routine plays and not pull a murph. ..................

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  4. Thomas -

    I too see a better defensive effort by Cespedes in CF in 2016 because of both healing of injuries and, frankly, a better attitude to excel.

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  5. Frank - Just trying to be nice about that signing

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    1. I wasn't trying to be harsh or disrespectful, I understand you point in the article :). I love where the team is at right now but I truly feel getting Ces back was more luck on sandy's part than skill. It got to a point that he almost had no choice but to get Ces back

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  6. Zozo, maybe Kirk breaks out this year, but he just struck out far too much for my tastes. De Aza is better, and if he gets us 2 more wins than Kirk would, that is very much worth it to me. We got into the playoffs last year almost miraculously, and I'd prefer quality in all 25 spots starting in 2016 so when we win, we can say the team structure made total sense in retrospect.

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  7. De Aza as the 5th outfielder is a HUGE step forward than what the Mets were filling the roster out with over the past few years.

    I'm thankful.

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  8. Tom,
    My understanding is that Kirk was dealt to the Brewers. That was before Ceciliani was dealt to the Blue Jays. With Den Dekker dealt for Blevins the year before, the Mets have depleted their LH/defensive 5th OF options that can play CF. Nimmo needs AAA ABs and according to reports is not the CF glove that the other three were. So, de Aza is somewhat of a necessity now, at least from the get go. In retrospect, I would rather have spent that $6 million on Tyler Clippard, but at the end of the day de Aza was an insurance policy in case Cespedes signed elsewhere. As Mack has said repeatedly, it's not our money, Who cares what they spend on a 5th OF.

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    1. True. Lefty marginal OFS are depleted. Maybe they still get Clippard relatively cheaply. The lure of a World Series Ring can cause a guy to give a discount.

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    2. True. Lefty marginal OFS are depleted. Maybe they still get Clippard relatively cheaply. The lure of a World Series Ring can cause a guy to give a discount.

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