Mack’s Morning Report – 5-14-16 – Mike Trout, Dominic Smith, Matt Oberste, Noah Syndergard

Good morning.

Gary Seagren asked –

Hi Mack, A few questions if I may.  In a post this week a mention was made of trading for Mike Trout and Harvey and Wheeler were mentioned as players to start the conversation with but in my mind if I'm the Angels any talks have to start with Syndergaard and knowing Thor isn't a FA until 2022 and at a bargain basement price but Trout is owed 144 million until 2021 when he's a free agent  I would think the Angels might be tempted....your thoughts.

Mack – Boy, I miss your questions. Most of the others that used to ask me questions (including my own writers) now ask other Mets blog editors one-third my age.

Ironically, I mentioned Trout yesterday. The last thing I want to do right now is to break up the majority of this team, but I only consider Noah Syndergaard and Michael Conforto as untouchable. Anyone else on this team could be either offered one-on-one for Trout, or packaged with another Met talent as well.

I want Trout but I would never trade Conforto or Syndergaard for him. Even a Cespedes for Trout even up is in my wheelhouse.

You posted the other day about Herrera, Rosario and Becerra and didn't mention Smith when referring to the OD 2018 lineup ..why not?

Mack – Gary, I’m not ready to turn first base over to someone that can’t hit the ball out of the ballpark. Lucas Duda has proven he can hit 30+ home runs in a season and that should be worth at least a qualifying offer in 2018. Additionally, there’s another first baseman in Binghamton, Matt Oberste, that can outslug Smith and has pushed him over to the DH slot for the majority of the games this season. Oberste is currently leading the team with a .305BA with an .843OPS (Smith has .288/.763).

Right now, I can’t project Smith to be any more successful than Matt Reynolds

BTW… Going into Friday’s game, Matt Oberste is 32 PA, 0.400/0.438/0.733, 5 R, 4 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 2 BB.

With the fragile nature of pitchers it would behoove SA and company to forgo any long term contracts for pitchers and instead go the one or two years from FA trade route. After seeing the haul the Braves got for Shelby Miller and the surprise return to competitiveness of the Phils and some of their wise moves it seems like a much smarter way to stay competitive going forward. Jeff Passan was talking about a book he wrote on FAN the other day called The Arm and concluded that a pitcher that has had TJS is far more likely to need surgery again than a pitcher who hasn't had it before and of course we all know only one of our fab five escaped.the surgery....so far ....so its at least food for thought. Hope all is well with you.

         

Michael Jacobs mijacobsmj@gmail.com to me  -

        Hi!

Big fan of your blog. We traveled to the Series last year from Miami and are huge Mets fans.

We are avid sports fans like yourself and we've created moments for fans on tee-shirts with some cool designs. We are reaching out to see if we can send you a Mets tee-shirt.

http://www.moment-tee.com/products/piazza-moment

If you like it, maybe you can give us a shout out?

Thank you. Best, Michael  954-205-4166

Mack – Michael, the least I can do is put up your information here on one of my Morning Reports and let my readers know of your work and how to get in touch with you. Good luck.

Jenrry Mejia invited me to play 8 Ball Pool on Facebook… I rest my case.

Great story (When Noah Syndergaard Frightened The Dodgers) on  Fangraphs -

After Syndergaard homered his first two times up, the Dodgers treated him like a real hitter the third time. And, by the way, Syndergaard batted a fourth time, against Joe Blanton. The bases weren’t loaded, but the Dodgers kept on taking care. They’d seen more than enough.

No more fastballs. No more pitches over the outer third. All of these were supposed to be down and in, and one of them missed, with Syndergaard fouling it off. Pitchers make mistakes all the time, and hitters miss mistakes all the time, but I’m sure, as that pitch left Joe Blanton’s hand, he momentarily held his breath. Because he knew what he’d just done, and because he recognized what Syndergaard could do. The Dodgers didn’t really recognize that at the start, but they learned quick. Not quick enough, but they won’t forget this lesson.

Noah Syndergaard gave the Dodgers a fright. In the span of two at-bats, they went from overlooking him to showing deep concern about his ability. As the game began, both sides had eight hitters and a pitcher, but by the end the Dodgers might’ve felt they were in the other league.

Mack – Going into Friday’s game, Mets pitchers are hitting .400 with 2 doubles, 3 homers and 7 RBI in the last 5 games.