Good
morning.
"I throw had when I want to throw hard." - Jeurys Familia
If we spend time this early in the season saying that one player could be peaking at this stage in their career (David Wright), we should spend equal time talking about what we saw yesterday from Noah Syndergaard and the places he could be taking us to over the length of his very young career. He gave up a triple in the first inning and then shut the game down for six innings, all centered around one of the most sick sliders I have ever seen in this game. We have a lot great pitchers on this team, but, in my opinion, here's your ace.
"I throw had when I want to throw hard." - Jeurys Familia
If we spend time this early in the season saying that one player could be peaking at this stage in their career (David Wright), we should spend equal time talking about what we saw yesterday from Noah Syndergaard and the places he could be taking us to over the length of his very young career. He gave up a triple in the first inning and then shut the game down for six innings, all centered around one of the most sick sliders I have ever seen in this game. We have a lot great pitchers on this team, but, in my opinion, here's your ace.
Jim Bowden
ranked the 30 pitching staffs is baseball and had the Mets at #1 –
Overall grade: A
Rotation: A
Bullpen: B+
Rotation: The New York Mets
have the best starting rotation in baseball, and it'll get even better when Zack Wheeler returns from Tommy John surgery around
midseason. This unit carries the overall staff to the highest grade.
Bullpen: The Mets have an impact
closer in Jeurys Familia, and Addison Reed should be solid in the eighth inning. Antonio Bastardo had a poor spring but should be a
solid contributor from the left-handed side, along with Sean Gilmartin. Veteran Jim Henderson
surprised some by making the team this spring, 25-year-old Hansel Robles should be better with a year of
development, and Jerry Blevins should prove
useful.
Mack – The Mets
win this ranking because of its depth in the rotation, not because of who is
their best pitcher. Right now, they actually have three SP1s and potentially
could have a fourth when Wheeler returns.
On paper, all
this team has to do is average 4-5 runs a game.
The Mets will have #12 biggest draft pool ($7,671,700) to spend
in the upcoming draft. The Cubs are last with $2,245,100
The Mets will have an International draft pool (ranked 24th)
of $2,138,200. The Cardinals are last with $2,027,300.
The Columbia roster –
Pitchers (13): Tyler Badamo, Tyler
Bashlor, Kevin Canelon, P.J. Conlon, Seth Davis, Witt Haggard, Chase Ingram,
Johnny Magliozzi, Thomas McIlraith, Craig Missigman, Christian Montgomery, Alex
Palsha, Joe Shaw
Catchers (4): Jose Garcia, Patrick
Mazeika, Tyler Moore, Natanael Ramos
Infielders (6): Jeffrey Diehl, Milton
Ramos, J.C. Rodriguez, Vincent Siena, David Thompson, Dash Winngham
Outfielders (5): Kevin Kaczmarski,
Vicente Lupo, Tucker Tharp, Joe Tuschak, Ivan Wilson.
Mack – A couple
of points…
I don’t think you’ll
ever see a game with four catchers activated. We’ll have to see which one hits
the phantom injury DL list first.
The 6-5 RHP Shaw
is a relatively new name. He was a 12th round 2015 pick out of
Dallas Baptist University and had a 10-5, 3.46 2015 record in 16 starts. He
then went on to Kingsport and came out of the pen for nine games (1-1, 3.29).
6-3 RHP Ingram
has been converted to a starter and earned the opening day slot out of camp. He
pitchers 12 games for Kingsport last season (one start) and went 3.60/1.50,
27-K, 20.0-IP
The B-Mets roster -
Catchers (3) - Xorge Carrilo, Raywilly Gomez, Colton Plaia
Infield (6) - Dominic Smith, Jeff McNeill, L.J. Mazzilli, Matt Oberste, Niuman Romero, Derrick Gibson
Outfield (5) - Jared King, Maikis De La Cruz, Victor Cruzado, Kyle Johnson, Stafan Sabol
Pitchers (13) - Mickey Jannis, Logan Taylor, Robert Gsellman, Andrew Barbosa, Beck Wheeler, Akeel Morris, Kyle Regnault, Kelly Secret, Luis Mateo, Mike Hepple, David Roseboom, Rainy Lara, Tyler Pill
B-Mets manager Pedro Lopez met with the press gaggle yesterday… said he has no plans on hitting 1B Dominic Smith in the cleanup slot (sorry Ernest)… also said that LZ Mazzilli and Jeff McNeil will be used at both second and third base…
Catchers (3) - Xorge Carrilo, Raywilly Gomez, Colton Plaia
Infield (6) - Dominic Smith, Jeff McNeill, L.J. Mazzilli, Matt Oberste, Niuman Romero, Derrick Gibson
Outfield (5) - Jared King, Maikis De La Cruz, Victor Cruzado, Kyle Johnson, Stafan Sabol
Pitchers (13) - Mickey Jannis, Logan Taylor, Robert Gsellman, Andrew Barbosa, Beck Wheeler, Akeel Morris, Kyle Regnault, Kelly Secret, Luis Mateo, Mike Hepple, David Roseboom, Rainy Lara, Tyler Pill
B-Mets manager Pedro Lopez met with the press gaggle yesterday… said he has no plans on hitting 1B Dominic Smith in the cleanup slot (sorry Ernest)… also said that LZ Mazzilli and Jeff McNeil will be used at both second and third base…
The Mets signed catcher Rene Rivera. The 31-year old ex-2nd round (2001) pick by Seattle
was in the Mets system in 2009 (Buffalo: .233). I have no idea at this point
where he’ll play. The Mets, and all four full season affiliates, are stacked
full of catchers. We’ll report back when he gets assigned. Nice 3-fWAR in 2014.
The assumption online is he will backup d’Arnaud with Kevin Plawecki going to Las Vegas to get
major playtime.
The radar gun was screwed up again, showing the Noah Syndergaard slider coming in at 97. The top speed turned out to be 93.9 mph (PitchFX) and 93.2 (Statcast).
Ned Yost on Noah Syndergaard - "There's not a man on earth that I believe could hit any of those pitches."
The radar gun was screwed up again, showing the Noah Syndergaard slider coming in at 97. The top speed turned out to be 93.9 mph (PitchFX) and 93.2 (Statcast).
Ned Yost on Noah Syndergaard - "There's not a man on earth that I believe could hit any of those pitches."
Great rotation indeed. When Wheeler returns, we could have FIVE SP 1s. FIVE.
ReplyDeleteThor 2016 = Gooden 1985?
Returning to chilly Queens...no warm up seemingly in sight. I was watching News 12 this morning, it was 33 degrees at LaGuardia and TWELVE DEGREES in Westhampton Beach.
Let's hope the bats warm up - I was hoping they'd tee off on Young.
No worries Mack,
ReplyDeleteDom Smith is the Mets future #5 hitter anyway ;)
For one say at least Wright showed that the talks of his demise were greatly exaggerated - I think we will see ups and downs all year from him as he has good and bad days
ReplyDeleteThor is a true beast - easily will be the best of the lot
For one say at least Wright showed that the talks of his demise were greatly exaggerated - I think we will see ups and downs all year from him as he has good and bad days
ReplyDeleteThor is a true beast - easily will be the best of the lot
Mack your wrong about the lineup - he definitely said Dom's hitting cleanup! the lineup goes like:
ReplyDeleteMcNeil
Cruzado
Romero
Smith
Sabol....
Random thoughts with 2 days dead air:
ReplyDeleteAs pleasing as it was to watch Thor dominate, I gotta say I was just as excited about the inning Henderson threw. Harvey, Thor, deGrom, Matz, Wheeler....wow!
Looking forward to catching some Firefly games when I visit daughter in Charleston; Max, Dash, Diehl, Ramos, Thompson, Kacz, Ivan & Lupo (2-9) seem like an intriguing bunch.
I guess Rosario stays in PSL--was hoping he'd get pushed to Bingo.
Does Rene's arm trump Recker's occasional power? If Plawecki is really going get PT in Vegas, I don't see the advantage. Now if Plawecki stays in Queens and Recker was out of options, I get it.
Anonymous -
ReplyDeletetha's what he told the reporters
Pretty weak B Mets Outfield, offset by strong infield. Pill could play the outfield - might be the best OF hitter.
ReplyDeleteMorris still in AA - will he close? Pill in AA again is not a good sign for him?
Montgomery in Columbia and Mateo in Binghamton are two pen guys to watch closely, IMO.
Man the hate shoveled on Wright after one game was ridiculous. From here and local and national beat writers all calling him done after just one game. Well I enjoyed SBNations Amazin Avenues article yesterday for taking all the haters to task. Then I enjoyed it more when Wright got on base multiple times and stole two bases. Lets wait until there is a pro-longed periods of ineffectiveness before burying our captain.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazinavenue.com/2016/4/5/11366254/new-york-mets-david-wright-spinal-stenosis-rip-injury-career-retire
Would anyone be surprised if Thor's season looked like 21-4, 1.82 with 225 K's? Can you imagine teams being thankful when they only have to face Harvey and deGrom? Also, with 18 games each against the Braves and Phils, what's the over/under on total runs those teams score over 36 games vs this staff? 80?
ReplyDeleteLast night felt like an important game, and odd as it sounds, the first inning felt like a bit of a turning point in the season. With two days off, Thor and this team made a statement. No one owns us, and we're just as good as the best team in baseball. I know that there's little evidence for momentum in baseball (though our run last year seemed to contradict that) but I have a feeling that the Mets left KC last night feeling like they began exorcising a demon, and may well start the "real" season on a tear starting Saturday.
Dallas -
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what anyone else write on Wright. I just watched him play his first game and wrote my mind. No one wants to be more wrong about this guy than me.
All I said was we should keep an eye on our '2 hitter'
Current BA: .143
Even if Wright were to have similar health and performance as he has demonstrated over the past few years, I would say that he is an inappropriate fit in the 2nd spot of the lineup.
ReplyDeleteTo me, contact is important in that 2nd spot of the lineup. Wright has just shown too much of a tendency of striking out.
In my opinion, for Wright to be able to fit into that 2nd spot of the lineup even if there were no back issues, he would need to focus more on contact and less on power.
The future has yet to be written, obviously, but do you think the Jays would like a "do over" on the Dickey trade?
ReplyDeleteExcellent job by Sandy and the front office to pry Noah away from Toronto (never mind Travis and the long view of Becerra).
Mike
Here is a sampling, I believe Fox Sports had one as well. His BA is .143 but its two games :) small sample sizes! He has reached base 3-4 times. Yes if the Mets leave him in the 2 hole and he declines like Jeter then we have a problem.
ReplyDeletehttp://nypost.com/2016/04/04/david-wrights-failures-clouded-by-nostalgia-and-87-million/
http://espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/insider/post?id=12591
Dallas -
ReplyDeleteAgain, just my opinion...
Keep an eye on him and make sure his hitting in the #2 slot isn't costing the team RISP...
Only 2 games in, but this staff needs to have more hits/runs behind them
Lastly... this is no one else to play third (whatever we call) full time this year. I'm a critical, but positive supported of The Captain, but I chose to write about him.
Our best spring training hitters were mostly minor leaguers...and we were close to last in spring hitting. They should be much better. Time to wake up.
DeleteOur best spring training hitters were mostly minor leaguers...and we were close to last in spring hitting. They should be much better. Time to wake up.
DeleteThere are two keys to David Wright this year:
ReplyDelete1) Defense. It's got to be there, and I have my doubts that he can throw effectively. Would it be fair to say that he has the worst arm of any 3B in baseball?
2) Walks, which drive his OBP. He has always been a high OBP guy, and to me that is a huge factor in a #2 hitter. Bob Gregory talks about strikeouts, but I'm less concerned about how the outs are made, and not really a big believer in "productive outs." Hell, if I believed in that, I'd have him bunt guys over. David's OBP is directly tied to his ability to walk. My belief is that astute pitchers will begin to walk him less and less as the season goes by and we'll see a diminished OBP from Wright.
That said: I have a more modern take on the #2 hitter. I like a very good, dangerous bat in that spot. I am completely over the old-fashioned idea of a slap-hitting, speedy second baseman who can "handle the bat." I want a hitter, a guy who can do damage. Consider that DW hits in front of Cespedes; he is protected by Cespedes, and should get good pitches to hit. What does that translate to? Fastballs. Unfortunately, that plays into how pitchers are going after DW now and in the future. The bat is sloooow. He can't get around on fastballs with regularity. And once he starts guessing, he becomes an easy victim to the slider off the plate. To me, the guy hitting in front of Cespedes has a huge opportunity to rake. In that respect, I think giving that slot to Wright is a waste. I'd love to see d'Arnaud in that slot.
Yes, he will have good days and bad days. But the decline is evident. Yet he has earned April, and maybe May, so it's not like I would do anything different in the short-term. Let's play the Captain and see what happens. My gut tells me there will be some ugly, unproductive stretches.
Is it to early to declare Syndergaard as the Mets ace?
ReplyDeleteNot bad having Harvey and deGrom as your 2 & 3. Matz and Wheeler 4 & 5.