1/10/20

John From Albany – Mets Breakfast Links 1/10/2020


Winter ball updates below featuring 7 shut-out innings from Jonathan Niese, and other ex-Mets Dario Alvarez, Carlos Gomez, and Tim Peterson in action.  Plus, the Mets announced their Non-Roster Spring Invitees.





Metsmerized said the Mets have yet to address backup catcher: Per John Sheridan “As the Mets embarked on the offseason, Brodie Van Wagenen specifically said the Mets were looking to upgrade over Tomas Nido as a backup catching option… Van Wagenen has walked back those remarks a bit to indicate he is now comfortable with Nido and Ali Sanchez in Triple-A as his catching depth. You could see his point if he was addressing other areas of the team, but he isn’t.”

Mike Lupica, now of MLB.com, said the Mets must answer 9 questions if they want to attend. The top 4 are: “1. Can the Mets' lockdown relievers actually lock it down? 2. What kind of manager will Beltrán be? 3. Can Alonso do it again? 4. How much does Canó have left in the tank?”

MLB.com projected what players on each current team’s roster will still be there in 2030?  For the Mets: “Pete Alonso, 1B, age 25: He’s a little older than everyone realizes -- he’ll be 36 in 2030. But the power will still be there.  For the Mariners? Jarred Kelenic, OF, age 20: If he reaches his potential, he is certain to haunt Mets fans well into the next decade.”  Excuse me, MLB.com, but I think Mets fans are already haunted by Kelenic.

Mets 360 details “What the 2020 Mets would look like with 2019-level luck of the Braves and Nats”.  Brain Joura makes some good points.  “..things went right for the Mets last year, for sure. Their SP enjoyed remarkable health. A rookie came up and hit 53 HR. A player who came up in 2018 and had success in half a season with a high BABIP put up a .337 mark over 567 PA. Their 31-year-old catcher set a career-high with 141 games. A bench bat forced into full-time duty responded with an .895 OPS.  It’s just that the list of things that went wrong for the Mets was over twice as long.” 



Reflections On Baseball says that JD Davis can make all the difference in an already potent Mets lineup. The writer, Steve Contursi, brought up this fact about JD that I also like to point to: “Also of interest is the liking J.D. Davis has taken to hitting at Citi Field. Davis batted .354 while hitting 16 of his 22 home runs with an OPS of 1.078 in a ballpark known as a pitcher’s paradise.”

NJ.com had “In bizarre lawsuit, Yankees’ failed prospect says Derek Jeter ruined his career. In the lawsuit, dismissed by a judge in May, Garrison Lassiter used letters, newspaper clippings and scouting reports to weave a strange tale of conspiracy that he said was launched against him “to protect the career of Derek Jeter.” He alleged that it was “blantanly (sic) obvious” that Jeter controlled the Yankees organization, and he insisted Yankees employees libeled and slandered him to other teams, preventing him from reaching the major leagues.”


USA Today said that Gary Sheffield's Cooperstown drive about to hit a higher gear.  Sheffield’s greatest calling card is a combination of Hall-worthy statistics – such as 509 home runs – mixed with periods of dominance that put to rest any notion he was merely a “compiler” of statistics.”

Cooperstown Cred asked in Manny Ramirez will ever be Manny in Cooperstown? The writer, Chris Bodig, does a great job with detailed analysis on these players.  Manny Ramirez…hit .312 with 555 home runs in 19 Major League Baseball seasons…it was perhaps inevitable that his Hall of Fame case would be controversial as well, thanks to two suspensions due to positive tests for Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) late in his career… received 22% of the vote in 2018 and 23% in 2019”

Cooperstown Cred also looked at Todd Helton: Another Coors Field Hall Of Fame Debate. “First of all, Helton had a career slash line of .316 BA/.414 OBP/.539 SLG with more walks (1,335) than strikeouts (1,175). For players with at least 9,000 plate appearances, there are just seven players in baseball history to post a slash line that good with more walks than K’s. Those seven are Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, Jimmie Foxx, Stan Musial and Helton. The first six are not just Hall of Famers but all-time greats.”







In the Dominican Republic last night, the Toros Del Este beat the Leones del Escogido 6-5 (box).  

Cesar Puello went 0 for 3 with a run scored and a strikeout.
Tim Peterson pitched a scoreless inning with one walk and one strikeout.

In the other game, the Aguilas Cibaenas beat the Tigres del Licey 6-0 (box).

Jonathan Niese threw 7 shutout innings for Aguilas Cibaenas giving up just 2 hits with 4 strikeouts and 1 walk on just 76 pitches.   

Another ex-Met, Dario Alvarez, pitched a scoreless inning in relief of Jonathan with no hits and 1 strikeout. 

Carlos Gomez played center field for the Aguilas Cibaenas and went 0 for 3, with an RBI on a sacrifice fly. 

In Puerto Rico, the Cangrejeros de Santurce beat the Atenienses de Manati 2-0 (box).

Just one ex-Met was in action as Juan Centeno caught and went 1 for 4. 
           

UltimateMets has the date in Mets History:

Born on this date:
Transactions:

New York Mets signed free agent Mike Bishop on January 10, 1983.

Houston Astros signed Bill Spiers of the New York Mets as a free agent on January 10, 1996.

Colorado Rockies signed Rick White of the New York Mets as a free agent on January 10, 2002.

New York Mets signed free agent Miguel Cairo of the New York Yankees on January 10, 2005.


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3 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Niece would be some comeback story if he makes it back to bigs after his last year in bigs was 2016.

He is hardly older than Tim Tebow...who knows?

Jaylen Palmer and Tebow both strike out an awful lot, so I am not sure why the other site has him as high as # 16. Strikeouts are a career killer if not fixed.

Mack Ade said...

You have to wonder what Tebow thinks of this charade.

Another lost spot for someone who deserve the honor of going to Big Boy Camp.

Tom Brennan said...

Mack, sadly, it is a business and Tebow is good for revenues and, hence, business.

However, if he hits as poorly as 2019, I think even he will be quick to see this is the Impossible Dream and hang up the spurs this spring and move on to other challenges.