Mack’s Morning Report – 5-27-16 - David Wright, Tom Murphy, T.J. Rivera

Good morning –

David Wright on Matt Harvey –

“A lot of us don’t necessarily agree with what he did. but we take this game very personally. And when we don’t play at a level we’re accustomed to, sometimes we make decisions that we regret. ... You want to be known as an accountable player. You want to be a stand-up guy. And this is a little blip on the radar screen. Hopefully we all learn from it and don’t make the same mistake again.”

          Mack – Keith and Ron spent a fair amount of time on this subject during the Nats day game… it seems to wear a little thin on the other players and the unofficial rule around baseball includes a commitment to ‘man up’ with the beat press, especially after a bad game. Hopefully, this will all go away before his next outing.

A reader, named ‘anonymous’, chimes in on my search for a new catcher –

        “A catcher I would target is the Rockies Tom Murphy!”

        Murphy is a former third round draft pick, in 2012, by the Rockies. The 6-1 RHH has played his entire professional career for Colorado most of which has been in the minors.

        He played 11-G, 35-AM for the parent club last year, but has since returned to AAA where he is hitting .283 after 80-Abs.

        Murphy is 25-years old and is playing in an organization that already has, at catcher, Nick Hundley, Dustin Garneau, and Tony Wolters.

       

Julian McWilliams on T. J. Rivera –

        As baseball has entered the analytics phase, Rivera isn’t necessarily a sabermetric geek’s dream player. In 2166 at-bats in the minors, Rivera only has 29 homers, which might not play well if he were to step in for Duda at first base. Still, there is something to be said about .372 with an on-base percentage of .406 and an OPS of .957.

Certainly those numbers will drop, but Rivera could help weather the storm during Duda’s absence — and do it at a more consistent rate than the first baseman.

He just needs an opportunity,” said one scout. “This kid hits and keeps hitting.”

His chance will have to wait, but when he gets it he’ll be ready to hit like always.

Avi: Has Matz become the #4 best pitcher on the Mets or is he even higher?

Eno Sarris: Second or third best right now!

Goopy: What’s up with Granderson? I know he’s usually a slow starter but this is reallyyyyy slowwwww

Eno Sarris: He’s pretty old. I’m not holding too long.