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12/7/17

Mack’s Apple’s – Matt Harvey, Doc Gooden, Baseball Statistician, Braves Scandal, Josh Breaux



Good morning.



Mets tender contracts to 9, including Matt Harvey -

- It may be impossible to predict what Matt Harvey will do in 2018, save for this: whatever he does, Harvey will do it for the Mets. The club tendered all nine of its arbitration-eligible players contracts on Friday, including Harvey, who is coming off his worst season as a professional.

The Mets also tendered contracts to starting pitchers Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler, relievers Jeurys Familia, AJ Ramos and Hansel Robles, catcher Travis d'Arnaud and infielder Wilmer Flores. Combined, those players are projected to make more than $51 million through arbitration, according to MLB Trade Rumors, or more than a third of the club's payroll. Harvey alone is projected to make $5.9 million.

I have no problem with the Harvey decision. I’m sure he will leave the Mets after the 2018 season (via free agency), but we’ve had too much invested in this guy to not see what he can deliver between now and the next all-star break. Past that, the Mets control his destiny.

What I did have a problem is was the Robles decision. I liked him early on but I find him far too unpredictable for a pen that needs stability. I would have passed on this guy and either protected one of the guys left naked to the upcoming Rule 5 Draft, or open to another team’s rejected pieces.


Former Mets, Yankees pitcher Doc Gooden to play Santa Claus at  NYC strip club -

            
Leave it to Doc Gooden to play Santa Claus getting a lap dance.
The oft-troubled former Mets and Yankees pitcher will be dressed in full Santa attire while having strippers from Vivid Cabaret NYC seated on his lap on Tuesday night — asking them if they’ve been naughty or nice, apparently — according to a release from the Midtown club.

    Jeez, this guy has become the black Pete Rose

 Baseball statisticians are fighting over what makes a player valuable –

WAR is not a perfect metric for measuring player performance, but it’s a strong one. Maybe the strongest we have. As FanGraphs managing editor and writer Dave Cameron points, WAR does a good job isolating the aspects of a player’s game outcomes that are under his control from those that at the mercy of luck. For example, if a player hits 10 home runs with no one was on base, and a second player hits 10 home runs with a runner on base every time, the former shouldn’t be penalized for hitting home runs in a less contextually “valuable” situation. It’s not under his control if the player before him gets on base.


Blakeley to meet with  Braves ownership o discuss who else knew –
                       
Former Braves special assistant and international scouting chief Gordon Blakeley is not going down quietly, which might be the last thing the Braves want to hear as they try to turn the page on an ugly chapter in franchise history.

Blakeley, who was forced to resign Oct. 2 and last week got hit with a one-year suspension from baseball for his part in violations that drew severe penalties for the Braves from Major League Baseball, said he’ll meet Dec. 14 with officials from Liberty Media (Braves ownership) to discuss what high-ranking team officials knew about the rule-breaking – including officials who’ve so far avoided MLB discipline.

            Where will this end?

If every Braves suit knew something about this, will there be anyone left in the home office… and… will there be any international prospects signed in the past, oh, let’s say, five years, left on this team?
Unbelievable.


MCC's  Josh Breaux named top juco baseball prospect for MLB draft –                                        


McLennan Community College standout Josh Breaux has been selected as the top-rated JUCO prospect in the 2018 Major League Baseball draft.

The pitcher and catcher batted .401 with 19 home runs and 82 RBIs last season. The righty also appeared in 14 games on the mound for the Highlanders, striking out 22 in 13.1 innings. Breaux was selected in the 36th round of the draft a year ago and has signed a National Letter of Intent to play for Arkansas in 2019.

10 comments:

  1. Maxine Waters has demanded that Blakely be impeached.

    May Harvey be the next Ponce Deleon. Drink from the fountain and return to 2013 form.

    Bro', I'd be happy if we drafted Breaux.

    I think the guy who homers mostly with men on base is more valuable.

    Doc Gooden will have the high hard one, once again - kidding aside, a sad tale - but they can't be all happy ones. My guess is he is down on his bucks, and it is a pay day. The team he threw a no hitter for (the one with all the money, whose name starts with a Y) should help him out.

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  2. Why should we assume that Harvey will be lost to us after the season? Isn't there a chance that he will re-sign here if both sides find it beneficial?

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  3. What the club sorely needs is that hardened old veteran, like Papa Grande and LaTroy Hawkins from a few years ago, to come in and help these young high octane arms, like Robles, harness their stuff to be more effective in the bullpen.

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  4. @Metsiac

    I think its a fairly safe thing to say.

    If Harvey bounces back and is superb....he will 100% test the free agent markets (considering Scott Boras is his agent) and have $100M+ thrown at him.

    If Harvey is never to be the same again...the Mets will have no interest in keeping him.

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  5. I agree with Chris, and by 2019, hopefully Oswalt, Molina, and/or Flexen will be quality enough to be legit major league starters a lot cheaper than Harvey.

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  6. Bill -

    There always is a chance that Harvey will both have a ++ year with the Mets in 2018... and resign with them after the 2018 season.

    There also is a chance I will flap my ears and fly to the moon.

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  7. If Harvey can pitch to All-Star form and is dangled at the trade deadline as a rental, you can probably net back something more valuable than a supplemental draft pick (which would not be forthcoming unless the Mets offered and he turned down a QO). It's the smart play. Just as there is discussion of reunions with now free agents Addison Reed, Jay Bruce, Neil Walker and Jose Reyes, there is no reason to believe a reunion couldn't happen if he was traded by July 31st. It's simply good business to get what you can for him at that time.

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  8. Why focus only on the negative and disregard the possible positives?

    If he returns to All-Star form, and our other pitchers are healthy and pitching well, we could be contending at the deadline. Remember, this is a team that was picked by many "experts" at the start of last season to be clear candidates for the post-season. Why do you assume (there's that word again) that we'll be so far out of the race in July that we'll be sellers?

    I'm not saying it's not possible, but why rule it out before we even get to ST?

    Negativity rules again here. 😧

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