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.

As Mack’s Mets had yesterday, the Mets announced 15 non-roster players that will be invited to Spring Training this year.  Most notable names include Tim Tebow, Left-handed pitcher David Peterson, Left-handed pitcher Kevin Smith, Matt Blackham, Ryley Gilliam, and catcher Patrick Mazeika.

The NY Post noted that “Not many prospects who bat .163 at Triple-A get invited to spring training, but not many of them are named Tim Tebow, either.”

Lindsay Kramer of Syracuse.com noted: “Tebow, 32, finished the year hitting .163 with four homers, 19 RBIs and 98 strikeouts in 264 plate appearances spanning 77 games. He did not have enough at-bats to place among the qualifiers, but if he did his batting average, slugging percentage (.255), on-base percentage (.240) and OPS (.495) all would have placed him at the bottom of the International League by far in each category.”

Amazing Avenue continued with their top Mets 25 prospects.  #16 Jaylen Palmer.

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.” 

Faith and Fear in Flushing detailed every player that debuted as a Met in 2019.   

Rising Apple proposed a trade between the Mets and the Angels: Steven Matz and Corey Oswalt for Relief Pitcher Cam Bedrosian, Infielder David Fletcher, and back-up catcher Anthony Bemboom.

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.”

MLB Trade Rumors had a big trade between the Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Rays: The Rays have acquired first baseman/outfielder Jose Martinez, outfielder Randy Arozarena, and the Cardinals’ Competitive Balance Round A draft pick in exchange for left-handed pitching prospect Matthew Liberatore, the Rays’ pick in Competitive Balance Round B, and a catching prospect from the lower levels of the minors, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reports.  Edgardo Rodriguez is the catcher going to the Cardinals.

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.”

The Big Lead.com had 5 potential landing places for Nolan Arenado – Braves, Cardinals, Cubs, Nationals, Yankees. 

Jays Journal talked about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and his struggles with his defense.

Call to the Pen discussed how the Tigers sent their top home run hitter last season, Brandon Dixon (who hit 15 HRs), to AAA.

From TMZ Sports: Pete Rose Poo Poos MLB'S sign stealing scandal…It’s no big deall!!!

Wild Baseball Brawl in Venezuela Wednesday night as former MLB player, Alex Romero, attacks Cather with bat.

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. 

           

Mack’s Blast From The Past comes from January 2012: Mack had an MLB Insider report on the upcoming 2012 draft that included current Met Pitcher, Michael Wacha.  

UltimateMets has the date in Mets History:

Born on this date:

• Kelvin Torve (1960)
• Mario Diaz (1962)
• Jim Lindeman (1962)
• Kevin Baez (1967)

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.

Want more?  Check out https://sportspyder.com/mlb/new-york-mets/news. 

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