Mack Ade – Mack’s Mets News – Cornish, Thole, Montgomery, Carlyle, Henderson

Good morning.

First, some internal stuff –

I want to remind everyone reading this that we are always in need of Mack’s Mets writers. The process is simple… we let you into the site, you write what you want to write (we do not control content), you let me know when it is ready, and I schedule it. If you are interested, email me at: macksmets@gmail.com and we’ll go from there. We can then hook up on the telephone (if necessary) to discuss any details. The more writers we have, with different opinions regarding this team, just makes for a better site.


One of the original writers here at Mack's Mets has returned! Jack Flynn has re-signed and you'll see his first thoughts on the upcoming Addison Reed post next week.

I ask all of you to say some prayers for one of my friends, and fellow Mets blogger, John Delcos (http://www.newyorkmetsreport.com/), who has been going through various medical procedures that have resulted since the horrific home based accident he went through in March 2104, that have left him in a wheelchair. I kid John that, since then, I have now become the second most screwed up Mets writer on the web. Please light a candle and say a prayer for my good friend.

Some ‘minor’ news this month –

Brooklyn Cyclone relief pitcher, Gary Cornish, was busted for amphetamine usage and was suspended for 50 games. Cornish was a 2016 19^th round pick out of the University of San Diego, where he started 18 games last season (5-3, 4.57, 1.33, 8.93-K/9). Nothing really special, right? Well, then he got to Brooklyn and pitched out of the pen for 14 more games and produced an incredible stat line of 0-0, 2.16, 1.08, and a Jack Leatherich-ish 15.84 K/9. You would think this kid was on drugs, right?

I asked 'Brooklyn Cowbell Guy', a mainstay at Cyclones home games about Cornish and he told me - 

    "It was hard to observe him this year. The Mets had him on a limit as
    to how many pitches he would throw. He did seem consistent in his roles
    out of the pen."

Picture by Mack Ade 

Ex-Mets catcher Josh Thole signed a minor league deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks. His ability to catch and control a knuckleball made him the catcher of choice whenever the Mets or Toronto pitched R.A. Dickey, but that all went away when Dickey inked a deal with the Braves and exposed Thole’s .180/.253/.228 stat line over the past two seasons.

The Mets announced that they released once projected star starter and now fallen reliever, Christian Montgomery. Montgomery was not expected to sign coming out of high school, but changed his mind and inked a deal with the Mets. I thought this would pay off in spades, but, once again, I was wrong. The Baseball Draft Report https://baseballdraftreport.com/tag/christian-montgomery/ had their first warning about Montgomery back in December 2011 –

Lawrence HS (IN) RHP Christian Montgomery (Round 11) formed a darn good one-two punch with incoming Louisville freshman RHP Jared Ruxer in high school. With Montgomery it all comes down to which version of the hefty righthander you’re going to get. The Mets are obviously banking on the showcase circuit version of Montgomery showing up to instructs (see below to read what his stuff was like then) next season. If his stuff stays down, then we might have to acknowledge the reality that pitchers don’t always follow a typical developmental path; sometimes guys peak as high school juniors, hard as it is to admit.

Simply put, Montgomery just couldn’t stay away from recreational drugs, which is a big no-no in the Alderson organization. He had two ‘incidents’ before finally putting up some decent numbers last year for A-Columbia (19-G, 1-1, 3.34, 13.65-K/9), but something else must have happened to finally pull the plug here.

The Los Angeles Angels announced that former Mets pitcher, Buddy Carlyle, will be their AA pitching coach. Carlyle pitched part of nine seasons in the majors, beginning with the San Diego Padres in 199. His last stint, in 2015, was with the Mets In between, a ton of minor league assignments and two trips to Japan, but the remarkable thing was the fact that this guy survived this long in the majors… 150-G, 27-starts… with a career 5.15-ERA.

Former Mets relief pitcher, Jim Henderson, signed a minor league deal with the Cubs. Henderson pitched in 44 games last season for the Mets and produced a 4.37-ERA. The Mets had no plans on keeping him for next season so he looked for work elsewhere. His 4-year major league stat line is 155-G, 10-11, 3.68, 1.27.