One of the first things that the New York Mets need to
address during the off-season is to find a starter to fill the fifth rotation
spot. They might do that via free agency by possibly signing Dallas Keuchel
which will not be that expensive.
They might possibly promote from within and perhaps give Tom
Szapucki or Corey Oswalt a chance. Oswalt has some experience pitching with the
parent club so he might be the favorite to win the job among the two pitchers. I think the battle between these two pitchers
would be interesting.
There is talk of moving relievers Seth Lugo or Robert
Gsellman to the starting rotation, but in my opinion that would be a mistake,
because I feel they would be better off to remain in the bullpen where they
would be more effective especially Lugo, who has been reliable in relief the
last few years.
In other Mets news, Jacob deGrom won his second straight
National League Cy Young Award with 29 first-place votes and one second-place
vote for a total of 207 points. His 1.44 earned run average in 92 innings
during the second half of the season put him in position to win the award
again. Hyun-Jin Ryu of the Los Angeles Dodgers finished in second place with one
first-place vote.
Also, former New York Yankee pitcher Steve Karsay, who has
pitching coach experience is one of the candidates who will interview for the Mets
pitching coach job.
He played in the major leagues in eleven separate seasons.
He played for the Yankees in 2002 and 2004-05.
Karsay, was hired to be the bullpen coach of the Milwaukee
Brewers back in November of 2018. He spent the entire 2019 season as bullpen
coach.
He previously was the pitching coach of the Columbus Clippers, the class
– AAA affiliate of the Cleveland Indians.
In other baseball news, the Houston Astros reportedly asked
scouts to steal signs back in 2017. A member of the Astros’ front office
e-mailed team scouts a month before the 2017 Major League Baseball post-season
asking them to try to steal opponents’ signs by using cameras.
The Astros had a center-field camera that was focused on the
opponent’s catcher and then, they fed the video to a television monitor mounted
on a wall in the runway behind the home-plate dugout. The signs could then be
relayed to hitters before the pitch.
This will not be tolerated and if the team
is found guilty the Commissioner will handout penalties such as loss of draft
picks, international pool money, fines and suspensions.
9 comments:
Tom Szapucki has a ton to prove before he could be a Mets starter. Short of an injury emergency, I'd be surprised to see him starting for the Mets any earlier than OD 2021.
Oswalt is at the back edge of do or die time, after his previous Mets stint failures. He has to find his inner Seth Lugo and show he can handle big league hitters. Contending teams need contending caliber pitchers.
I feel kind of bad for both Corey Oswalt and Chris FLexen as they have had their moments in the minors but when they didn't turn in stellar outings were banished back to AAA. Some pitchers (and hitters) need regular playing time to hit their strides.
That being said, I agree about wanting Lugo in the pen. Gsellman is a non-entity to me. He had some flash of brilliance a few years ago and never returned to that leve.
I still think they will pursue bullpen options first and reserve the right to audition Lugo, Gsellman or minor leaguers for the 5th starter role as it would be cheaper to go that route.
I still vote for Lugo... At least until either H. Gonzalez or D. Peterson is ready
Dillon Gee, put that mitt back on.
Lugo to the rotation is fine, but once he is there, he is there. Then, getting 2 strong pen arms is a must.
I don't usually disagree with Mack, but in the case of Lugo I strenuously do. If you look sat Lugo's splits, he has never been the least effective in a starters role in the majors. His success in the pen makes him much too valuable there to take the chance of losing a stellar reliever.
I am going to go out on a limb and say that Brodie should make every effort to sign Josh Lindblom and Alex Wood, and let them compete with Gsellman for the #5 SP job in spring training. The 2 losers go to the pen.
I don't think David Peterson would make the starting rotation, because of a few other minor league pitchers he would have to compete against.
On Mack's recent article.
To me Mack, baseball is now beginning to show the true signs of being in trouble financially speaking. It doesn't advertise well with the younger generations (except maybe in Beantown). Most younger generation people find the game too slow for their lifestyles and attention spans. And for them it probably lacks "Call of Duty" type video violence, I suppose. NBA Basketball now has the total playground look to it, little defense and all up and down the court running and not normally setting anything up, usually culminating with a missed three point jumper with no teammate underneath for a rebound not ever. Playground.
NFL Football is kind of getting to be all about "ego-bling and sadly beating their women" as we all know men should do (yeah sure right). All of which somehow sadly appeals to these newer generations, who watch way too many Hollywood slasher movies with the similar sad ass themes. The plays are the same, the players yes are larger since Fast Food steroids grew them up, with several NFL insiders quietly saying that the NFL as a whole has maybe just ten years remaining before their bubble goes pop and oblivion rings their front door. I for one hope not though, even though my favorite NY Giants are crappy right now at not only their scouting but evidently their coaching as well. I for one would miss all the crushing paid violence every Sunday and Thursday night.
Possible Solution
The NBA has a new lower level D League now, it's called paying college players over the table and out in the open. What a novel idea. Why then, can't MLB do the same thing? The salaries of MLB players are normally longer in duration than those other two sports above, and higher in salary per and in overall net worth over a career. It should also bring in more kids from areas of the country, who otherwise might not be able to afford going to college. Maybe cut the game down to just seven innings, and have strippers come out halfway thru the games. Who knows.
We need to admit here, that the genie is well out of the sports in America bottle now, and it ain't Barbara Eden. Trust me here. (LGM Anon)
Is minor league attendance dropping? I recall watching some mighty empty Binghamton games on MILB.
But it appears strong: https://www.milb.com/milb/news/minor-league-baseball-posts-attendance-increase-of-over-one-million-fans-in-2019/c-310645838
Warning Issued by Lil' Stupid Anon
I cannot say this enough (evidently). Playing with these lame goofy ideas of moving overall successful pitchers and players out of their natural positions (as we have now seen them) is kind of like having a pool party without first realizing that hey we forgot to fill the pool with water. (It's the best analogy I could come up with right now, sorry.)
For fricken' sakes alive man (can't you still see Chris Farley of SNL saying that), leave Lugo and Gsellman in the bullpen. They were only kind of well so-so starting, kind of inconsistent like too. But in the pen they are Greek gods already. To me, they are two of the five relievers I am already really counting on now from 2019, for the 2020 new season. The others of course being Carmen Diaz, Mi Familia, Mr. Wilson, and maybe too here Brad Brach's Candies with the fancy Asian turn windup thing going on that does seem to baffle somewhat opposing team's batters I have noticed. If not Brad then maybe righty long hairman reliever Matt Blackham. All this team really needs for balance (of two bullpen units) is just one more really outstanding lefty late inning fastball reliever artist. That's it. How hard can that be? And then someone like a LRP Kevin "James" Smith to be the "come into any game situation guy" that needs him to, and get'rdone.
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