John From Albany – Mets Breakfast Links 4/4/2020

Good morning.  Happy Birthday to Ronny Mauricio, Steven Matz donates to coronavirus relief, and Pete Alonso wants Mets Fans to shake the stadium when baseball returns. 

NY Post: Mets create coronavirus assistance fund for employees. The Mets are putting $1.2 million into the program to provide money to eligible season game day staff, employees that worked 15 days last season and anyone that has lost jobs after the MLB suspended the season March 12.

NY Post: Mets’ Steven Matz donates to coronavirus relief. On Friday, Matz announced on Twitter that he and his wife Taylor were donating $32,000 to through his Tru32 program. “The … first of three donations just went out to one of the hardest hit hospitals in NYC, Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, so close to Citi Field,’’ Matz wrote on twitter.

Danny Abriano SNY.TV:  New York Mets All-Time Team: The full 25-man roster. Some interesting choices – for example the starting rotation: Tom Seaver, Jacob deGrom, Dwight Gooden, Jerry Koosman, and Sid Fernandez. No David Cone or Jon Matlack (I’d would have to go with Matlack based on his 1973 Post Season).   Also he picked real bench players to make up the bench: Todd Pratt (catcher), Dave Magadan (first base), Juan Lagares (outfield), Luis Guillorme (infield) Rusty Staub (pinch-hitter).

Amazing Avenue had an excerpt from Brian Wright’s Book: “The New York Mets All-Time All-Stars” Excerpt: Dwight Gooden.

Gus Livaditis Mets 360.com: Scouting Jarred Kelenic against top pitching prospect Forrest Whitley. Gus has his own unique scouting report on Kelenic: “Kelenic does have good speed, a strong arm and navigates center field easily, but plays rather deep. Moving to the intangibles, I went to two games. Kelenic didn’t play in the first one but was on the top step of the dugout all game. Always greeting his teammates when they came back, moving over to talk to coaches who were close by and always in the game, he looks the part of a studious player. So glad Brodie Van Wagenen got rid of him; who wants players like that anyway?”

SNY.TV: Gary Cohen on David Wright and the Mets legend's last game.

SNY.TV: Keith Hernandez reflects on his mother and her influence on his life.

SNY.TV: Mets manager Luis Rojas on coronavirus stoppage: 'We're swimming in unfamiliar waters'.

SNY.TV: 'Pent up' Pete Alonso's message to Mets fans for when season starts: 'Shake the damn stadium!' Here is the full Twitter post.

12UP.com: Revisiting Arguably the Dumbest 3-Team Trade in MLB History Among the Mets, Mariners and Indians.  The Mets were tagged as the biggest loser in the J.J. Putz trade.

Metsmerized Online Mets One Year Wonders: Bernard Gilkey Goes Big.

Metsmerized Online: MMO 2020 Top 30 Prospects: No. 4 Matthew Allan, RHP.

Empire Sports Media: The Wonder of the 2016 Mets.

Tim Boyle Rising Apple: Mets Superstition: Rick Porcello is next line to win a World Series MVP. “It all comes to the number on the back of his jersey. The 22 he will wear in 2020 matches what Donn Clendenon wore in 1969 and Ray Knight had on his jersey for the 1986 season.” 

Tim Boyle Rising Apple: Mets 2003 Trade Deadline Review: Five trades with little return. Tim looked at the deadline sell-off deals of Roberto Alomar, Jeromy Burnitz, and Armando Benitez. 

Mets Video: Mets 2019 first round pick Brett Baty as he joins in dinner conversation with 2017 third round pick Quinn Brodey and 2017 fourth round pick Tony Dibrell.

Mets Videos: Amazin’ Walk-Offs. From Gary Carter’s Opening Day Home Run in 1985 to Robin Ventura’s Grand Slam Circle to Dom Smiths’ three run homer to end the 2019 season.

Mike’s Mets Pitching Questions (If We Actually Play Baseball This Year).

Masslive.com: When will MLB season start? Scott Boras proposes ‘functional isolation’ plan to end coronavirus stoppage (report).  In Boras’ proposal, teams would return to their spring training camps in Florida and Arizona, limit travel between designated team hotels and stadiums and not come into contact with anyone not in their traveling party, which would consist of around 60 people.

12up.com is skeptical on the Boras plan: Boras's blueprint would require players and staff to be tested for coronavirus daily, which would require thousands of tests per week at a time in which testing access for the general public is severely limited. It is also worth noting that if one of these tests came back positive, it would mean that countless players would have already been exposed and would need to be isolated for multiple weeks.

AP News: Big league vets with minor league deals get up to $50,000. About 370 players who were at big league spring training with minor league contracts will get advance payments of up to $50,000 each from the Major League Baseball Players Association.  Among the players eligible for payments from Friday’s allocation are Félix Hernández, Matt Kemp, Pablo Sandoval, Neil Walker, Derek Holland, Jerry Blevins, Edwin Jackson, Chris Iannetta, Brandon Morrow, Jonathan Lucroy and Trevor Cahill.

Albany Times Union: NY Penn League Valley Cats hope to start season on time, June 24^th.

Fangraphs: The Pandemic Has Interrupted Our Sign-Stealing Scandal Outrage.

NY Post: Judge rips Astros, Red Sox but dismisses suit by DraftKings gamblers.

Fangraphs: COVID-19 Roundup: (Some) Teams Address (Some) Workers’ Needs. “The Giants recently announced an additional $700,000 has been put aside for their workers. The Yankees announced a $1.4 million distress fund for their day-of-game workers, though they have to demonstrate need. The Red Sox have increased their payout to $1.5 million in order to include workers employed by Aramark.  But not every team has shown equal support for their lowest-paid workers. The Nationals have yet to commit to concession workers employed by their partner, Levy Restaurants. The Rockies appear to be paying concession workers employed by Event Services but not those with Argus or Aramark.”

Jballallen.com: Darvish provides 2nd opinion. Two days after Masahiro Tanaka revealed that “incidents in Florida aside from the coronavirus threat” made him fear for his personal safety, Yu Darvish, said on Youtube Saturday that he was aware of an increase in racial harassment against Asians since the coronavirus outbreak although he hadn’t been the target of any in Arizona.

MLB Trade Rumors:

Rebound Candidate: Edwin Diaz.

How To Get A Job In Baseball, According To GMs.

Rangers Executives Take Temporary Pay Cuts.

Examining Rockies’ Ineffective Free-Agent Spending.

MLBPA Approves Assistance Program For Non-Roster Players With Prior MLB Service.

  

Yesterday at Mack’s Mets:

Reese Kaplan -- Mets History, First Base Edition.

Tom Brennan - WHO ARE YOUR TOP 10 ALL TIME METS RELIEVERS.

Mack – FWIW – Coronavirus Edition - Daily Thoughts 4-3.

Mack’s Blast From The Past comes from April 4, 2013. B-Mets Announce 2013 Opening Day Roster. This includes Rafael Montero, Cory Mazzoni, Logan Verrett, Tyler Pill and Erik Goeddel.

Today in Mets History Per Ultimatemets.com:

Born on this date:

• Gil Hodges (1924)
• Ron Locke (1942)
• Jim Fregosi (1942)
• Tom Herr (1956)
• Eric Valent (1977)
• Ronny Mauricio (2001)

Died on this date:

• George Bamberger (2004)

Transactions:

New York Mets traded Joe Nolan to the Atlanta Braves for Leo Foster on April 4, 1975.

New York Mets signed free agent Wayne Twitchell on April 4, 1979.

Atlanta Braves claimed Phil Lombardi of the New York Mets on waivers on April 4, 1990.

New York Mets signed free agent Jenrry Mejia on April 4, 2007.

Milwaukee Brewers claimed Josh Stinson of the New York Mets on waivers on April 4, 2012

 National Pastime.com:

1966	On the nationally-televised Hullabaloo, a program which showcases rock and roll groups, host Soupy Sales is joined by his two sons, Tony and Hunt, to perform Meet the Mets, with the unlikely tune also accompanied by the show's go-go dancers halfway through the song (Video link here). The Sales' children were on the program as guests musicians, featuring their rock and roll band, Tony and the Tigers.
1988	In a 10-6 victory over the Expos, Kevin McReynolds and Darryl Strawberry each hit a pair of home runs, helping the Mets to establish an Opening Day record with six homers. The 'Strawman's' second shot, estimated at 525 feet, hits above the dome's light rim and is believed to be the longest dinger ever stroked at Olympic Stadium.
1994	On Opening Day at Wrigley Field in the Cubs' 12-8 loss to New York, Tuffy Rhodes, who has hit only five round-trippers in his first 280 major league at-bats, becomes the first player to homer in his first three at-bats of the season. The three solo home runs, all off Mets right-hander Dwight Gooden, will account for nearly half of the outfielder's total for the year when he finishes the campaign with only eight round-trippers.

1994

Before the Cubs' 12-8 Opening Day loss to the Mets at Wrigley Field, Hillary Clinton becomes the second first lady to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the baseball season. Bill's wife then joins Harry Caray in the broadcast booth and sings "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" with the beloved announcer during the seventh inning stretch.

2003

The Coneheads stage a reunion at Shea Stadium as David Cone returns to the mound after taking a year off and hurls an impressive five innings of shutout ball in the Mets' 4-0 victory over the Expos. In memory of one of the founders of this unique idea which started in 1988, the group hangs a banner featuring a picture of Scott Saber, who was killed during the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, smiling in his Conehead.

Baseball Reference:

2018 - Major League Baseball experiments with a new medium as today's game between the Phillies and Mets is broadcast live exclusively on "Facebook Watch", a new application recently launched by the social media giant. Reviews are mixed, as viewers complain about the size of the graphics relative to that of most laptop or tablet screens and the invasive nature of streaming comments by users (which can be turned off, although this possibility is not readily apparent to many viewers, it seems). This is clearly an attempt to interest some younger viewers who have tuned out traditional media in watching a live game. But some of the kinks will need to be worked out before it can dethrone the well-regarded MLB.TV, which already provides live and delayed game coverage on a huge variety of connected devices.

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

Want something else tracked here each day?  Please leave a comment below.