Mack – Stuff – Mack’s Mets Writers, Drew Smyly, International Draft, Tim Tebow, 1st Base

Good morning.

We are trying to build a new staff of writers here for the ‘2017 season’ and I’m thrilled to announce that four of our longtime readers and comment makers, Eddie Corona, Will Kay, Eddie Mendieta, and Richard Jones, have joined Thomas Brennen, Reese Kaplan, and myself as active writers.

I have returned for a few posts a month and we’re not going to hold either Eddie, Will, Eddie-2 or Richard’s feet to the fire regarding how much they write. They’ll get started when they get started.

The Mets are reported to be working on a trade to ship catcher Travis d’Arnaud and LF Michael Conforto to Tampa Bay for services of pitcher Drew Smyly. Smyly was paid $3.75mil last season in his 2^nd arbitration year and iit would probably take the Rays $6mil+ to lock him up in 2016. This is a team that had a combined 2016 team salary of less than $71mil ($9mil of which went to James Loney). Conforto and d’Arnaud would be far more in line with their bottom line. The 27-year old Smyly had 30-starts last season, and went 7-12, 4..88, 167-K, 175.1-IP. Having the Mets trade for another starter doesn’t seem to make much sense, but let’s remember that this guy had 63 relief appearances in 2013 where he went 6-0, 2.37, 1.04, 76-IP, 81-K.

Both the players in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela scheduled for the 2017 International baseball draft are in the planning stage of boycotting any association with major league baseball if they decide to the can the current ‘non’ draft where players as young as 16 can sign with any team they want. Details of the new collective bargaining agreement regarding the international market would be:

“Under the terms of MLB's initial concept, the new international draft system would start in March of 2018, with a 10-round draft held over two days. As the new structure evolved, with terms grandfathered into the process, the minimum age for draft-eligible players would be 18 years old by 2021.

As part of baseball's proposal, MLB would operate facilities in the Dominican Republic, where international draft prospects would be invited to live to develop their skills and education before becoming eligible. This would also give MLB much greater control over a process which has often been viewed by baseball executives as a wild, wild West of player procurement.”

The Dominican kids started this out yesterday, boycotting the Showcase event that was scheduling.

Trust me, big business always wins in things like this.

How this would affect the Mets is hard to determine since they have spent very little time and money investing in quality talent (especially pitching) in this market.

I saw that Tim Tebow was a guest on FOX News. What the hell is that all about? I know he has an arrangement to do some TV work in college baseball, but FOX News? You’re kidding me.

Do you think Sandy and Company would make this exception for some other minor league A+ player?



From Fangraphs - The pathetic state of Mets first basemen - 

       2016 End of Season Fantasy First Base Rankings

Rank	Name	G	PA	HR	R	RBI	SB	AVG	$$
1	Paul Goldschmidt	158	705	24	106	95	32	0.297	$28.70
2	Joey Votto	158	677	29	101	97	8	0.326	$26.40
3	Miguel Cabrera	158	679	38	92	108	0	0.316	$26.40
4	Edwin Encarnacion	160	702	42	99	127	2	0.263	$25.10
5	Freddie Freeman	158	693	34	102	91	6	0.302	$24.00
6	Wil Myers	157	676	28	99	94	28	0.259	$22.50
7	Anthony Rizzo	155	676	32	94	109	3	0.292	$22.40
8	Hanley Ramirez	147	620	30	81	111	9	0.286	$21.00
9	Mike Napoli	150	645	34	92	101	5	0.239	$15.50
10	Carlos Santana	158	688	34	89	87	5	0.259	$15.40
11	Eric Hosmer	158	667	25	80	104	5	0.266	$14.40
12	Jose Abreu	159	695	25	67	100	0	0.293	$14.20
13	Chris Carter	160	644	41	84	94	3	0.222	$12.90
14	Chris Davis	157	665	38	99	84	1	0.221	$11.80
15	Adrian Gonzalez	156	633	18	69	90	0	0.285	$9.40
16	Brad Miller	152	601	30	73	81	6	0.243	$8.20
17	Brandon Belt	156	655	17	77	82	0	0.275	$7.80
18	Matt Carpenter	129	566	21	81	68	0	0.271	$7.20
19	Brandon Moss	128	464	28	66	67	1	0.225	$3.10
20	C.J. Cron	116	445	16	51	69	2	0.278	$2.40
21	Travis Shaw	145	530	16	63	71	5	0.242	$1.00
22	Mark Reynolds	118	441	14	61	53	1	0.282	$1.00
23	Sean Rodriguez	140	342	18	49	56	2	0.27	-$0.70
24	David Freese	141	492	13	63	55	0	0.27	-$0.70
25	Marwin Gonzalez	141	518	13	55	51	12	0.254	-$1.20
26	Joe Mauer	134	576	11	68	49	2	0.261	-$1.40
27	Tommy Joseph	107	347	21	47	47	1	0.257	-$1.70
28	Mitch Moreland	147	503	22	49	60	1	0.233	-$2.30
29	Adam Lind	126	430	20	48	58	0	0.239	-$2.50
30	Justin Bour	90	321	15	35	51	0	0.264	-$4.60
31	Matt Adams	118	327	16	37	54	0	0.249	-$4.60
32	Wilmer Flores	103	335	16	38	49	1	0.267	-$4.60
33	Yonder Alonso	156	532	7	52	56	3	0.253	-$5.20
34	Ryan Zimmerman	115	467	15	60	46	4	0.218	-$5.20
35	Ryan Howard	112	362	25	35	59	0	0.196	-$5.40
36	Logan Morrison	107	398	14	45	43	4	0.238	-$5.70
37	Jefry Marte	88	284	15	38	44	2	0.252	-$5.90
38	Steve Pearce	85	302	13	35	35	0	0.288	-$6.20
39	Dae-Ho Lee	104	317	14	33	49	0	0.253	-$6.30
40	John Jaso	132	432	8	45	42	0	0.268	-$6.60
41	Ryan Rua	99	269	8	40	22	9	0.258	-$8.10
42	Mark Teixeira	116	438	15	43	44	2	0.204	-$9.30
43	James Loney	100	366	9	30	34	0	0.265	-$10.00
44	Billy Butler	97	274	5	27	35	0	0.284	-$10.40
45	Justin Smoak	126	341	14	33	34	1	0.217	-$10.70
46	Kennys Vargas	47	177	10	27	20	0	0.23	-$13.00
47	Byung-ho Park	62	244	12	28	24	1	0.191	-$13.80
48	Tyler White	86	276	8	24	28	1	0.217	-$14.40
49	Andres Blanco	90	209	4	26	21	2	0.253	-$14.70
50	Lucas Duda	47	172	7	20	23	0	0.229	-$14.70
51	Josh Bell	45	152	3	18	19	0	0.273	-$15.40
52	Clint Robinson	104	225	5	16	26	0	0.234	-$15.70
53	Rob Refsnyder	58	175	0	25	12	2	0.25	-$16.50
54	Miguel Rojas	123	214	1	27	14	2	0.247	-$16.80
55	Chris Johnson	113	264	5	20	24	0	0.222	-$17.00
56	Tyler Austin	31	90	5	7	12	1	0.241	-$17.80
57	Brett Wallace	119	256	6	19	20	0	0.189	-$18.80
58	Brandon Snyder	37	47	4	8	9	0	0.239	-$18.90
59	Ji-Man Choi	54	129	5	9	12	2	0.17	-$19.20
60	Rob Segedin	40	83	2	9	12	0	0.233	-$19.30
61	Chris Parmelee	6	8	2	4	4	0	0.5	-$19.60
62	Darin Ruf	43	89	3	8	9	0	0.205	-$19.70
63	Ben Paulsen	39	97	1	8	11	0	0.217	-$19.90
64	Stephen Cardullo	27	59	2	5	6	0	0.214	-$20.40
65	Richie Shaffer	20	54	1	5	4	0	0.25	-$20.50
66	Eric Campbell	40	88	1	9	9	1	0.173	-$20.80