John From Albany – Mets Breakfast Links 12/27/2019

The NY Post named Jacob deGrom the NY Athlete of the Decade.  “With all the incredible athletes who played in New York over the last 10 years, it is Jacob deGrom who stands above everyone else on a list that includes Odell Beckham Jr., Henrik Lundqvist, David Wright, Derek Jeter, Aroldis Chapman, Eli Manning, Aaron Judge, Carmelo Anthony, Darrelle Revis, Victor Cruz and Mariano Rivera.”

Rising Apple compared the careers of Jeff McNeil and Jacob deGrom. “Though deGrom and McNeil are now indispensable to the Mets’ roster, their baseball careers both began in rather unassuming fashion.”   

Mets.com had the Mets top 10 homers from the 2010’s. With video clips included, David Wright’s homer in the 2015 World Series leads the list….and a walk off grand slam from Jordany Valdespin is included. 

MLB.com had each team’s best prospect success of the decade.  For the Mets it was Jacob deGrom.

Faith and Fear and Flushing said it is the times of the seasons. They look at the “Baseball Equinox”, their list of top 100 Mets players of this past decade, and more.

The NY Daily News listed the 7 best MLB Teams of the past decade that did not win a World Series.  2015 Mets, 2017 Yankees, 2015 Blue Jays, 2016 Indians, 2012 Tigers, 2011 Rangers, and the 2017 Dodgers.  On the Mets they included this: “Why did they lose? Terry Collins allowed Matt Harvey to play hero ball. It did not work. Also, the bats went totally quiet.”

The NY Daily News also said that Marcus Stroman will be instrumental to the Mets success in 2020. The article pointed out one flaw in that plan: “But there’s one glaring problem with the Mets’ reliance on Stroman to perform: He’s a contact pitcher with an utterly atrocious Mets defense attempting to gobble up routine ground balls behind him. The Mets finished second-to-last behind the Orioles with -93 DRS and ranked 24th in the league with -12.8 UZR last year. What’s more, with minimal changes in the team’s defensive alignment, those statistics are unlikely to improve without concentrated training from within the organization.”

Metsmerized says the Mets are drawing trade interest for Marcus Stroman and Steven Matz.

Mets 360 had a great article on the Mets 2019 draft and how they took guys over “slot level” in the first three rounds and made it up with guys “under slot level” in the next seven slots.  Two players they looked at in particular were Connor Wollersheim and Scott Ota.  On Ota: “Ota finished with an .875 OPS, compared to a Kingsport team average of .731 for the 19 hitters who played for the club last year. Only Anthony Dirocie finished with a higher OPS and that was produced in just 70 PA. Highly-touted Francisco Alvarez finished with an .820 OPS while first-round pick Baty put up a .775 mark for Kingsport.”

One of those players drafted by the Mets last year, Brooklyn Cyclones Center Fielder Jake Magnum was discussed in this Baseball America story: In it Jake “made an impassioned plea for more scholarships and to pass legislation approving a third full-time assistant coach for baseball… “’Come on, man. Go out there and watch that game. There’s 30,000 people in that stadium. A million people watching it. Come on. It’s time to change. It really is.’…Jake Mangum is one of the biggest stars in college baseball—he’s an All-American and finished his career No. 4 on the Division I all-time hits list. But he later said that he spent the last two years as a walk-on, as Mississippi State tried best to juggle its allotment of 11.7 scholarships.”

The NY Times made the case for Larry Walker to make the Baseball Hall of Fame.  “Walker ranks 12th on the career list for slugging percentage, ahead of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. Only six players can match him in batting average (.313), on-base percentage (.400) and slugging percentage (.565) — Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Hank Greenberg, Rogers Hornsby, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams.”

Reflections on Baseball said get to know new Mets Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner.

Complete Game Loss had a post that all stat heads will love looking at MLB pitchers with over 150 innings that gave up more Homers, Walks, while recording more strikeouts in 2019 over their 2019 season.  Syndergaard and deGrom both fell into that category.

Former Tampa Bay and San Francisco Pitcher Matt Moore has agreed to play in Japan with the SoftBank Hawks.

MLB Trade Rumors had the remaining offseason needs for every NL East team. For the Mets’ Brodie Van Wagenen “the club’s top baseball exec can’t afford to leave any stones unturned in his sophomore offseason. Installing a top-flight center fielder — Starling Marte looks like the best bet —It’s possible to imagine further improvements to the bench and bullpen mix, too. The Mets will be most keen to utilize blocked first baseman Dominic Smith as a trade chip — whether to bring back prospects, shed the Jed Lowrie contract, or deliver a different MLB piece — but younger big leaguers J.D. Davis and Steven Matz could also be dangled.”

MLB Trade Rumors had this about the new 26^th man rule: “…particularly given the additional regulations expected to limit teams to 13 pitchers per roster.  If a team wanted an extra hurler at its disposal, they could have a roster of 12 position players and a two-way player, with that two-way player being subject to criteria from the league before being officially designated as such.“

MLB Trade Rumors had the latest on Starling Marte including: “The Mets have been connected to Marte throughout the offseason, and though it doesn’t appear a trade is imminent…Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo did come up in their discussions with the Pirates, John Heyman tweets. However, the Pirates “may prefer prospects” to the soon-to-be 27-year-old Nimmo, who has arbitration eligibility for the next three seasons.”

Speaking of trade rumors…

Mack’s Mets blast from the past comes from December 2009: Mack comes up with a unique winter trade proposal: “Trade Bob Klapisch” and he doesn’t stop suggesting trades of other Mets beat writers to other teams.  Wait, does that include bloggers?

In the Puerto Rican Winter League last night:

Tomas Nido DH’d for Criollos de Caguas going 1 for 3 in the 6-0 Criollos loss (box). In 6 games this winter, Tomas is 5 for 21 for a .222 Avg, 2 RBIs, 5 Ks. 

No Games in the Dominican on Thursday but they will start up again today.

UltimateMets has this date in Mets History:

Born on this date:

• Bobby Klaus (1937)
• Pat Roessler (1959)
• Raul Gonzalez (1973)
• Jeff D'Amico (1975)
• David Aardsma (1981)
• Addison Reed (1988)

Transactions:

New York Mets traded Kevin Appier to the Anaheim Angels for Mo Vaughn on December 27, 2001.

New York Mets signed free agent Rey Sanchez of the Boston Red Sox on December 27, 2002.

New York Mets signed free agent Aaron Laffey of the Toronto Blue Jays on December 27, 2012.

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