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4/4/20

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: MetsSteven 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).


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




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.” 


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.


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.




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.






  






Born on this date:
Died on this date:
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


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.



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

9 comments:

  1. Great for Matz and Mets to step up financially.

    Many players on minor league contracts getting $50,000 are presumably very wealthy from past playing days, like a Matt Kemp. Say thank you...then donate it to food pantries. They actually need the resources.

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  2. Gilkey and Ed Kranepool bot had 118 career homers. Trivia no one cares about, even me!

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  3. Tom, I look at those career totals all the time. For example, deGrom just cracked top ten Mets winning list.

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  4. Who among us thought that Rafael Montero would be a dud?

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  5. I was fooled. And he was a much higher rated prospect than deGrom. At least he had a good year last year 2-0 with a 2.48 ERA 29 innings in relief 34 Ks.

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  6. John, I thought Mack gave you the weekends off? Here is an article that came out after your links were ready, and Darling makes a good point. What if someone on a team tests positive? Close down that team for testing, quarantine? Then what? Boras has tried way too hard on this topic.

    https://nypost.com/2020/04/04/ron-darling-mlb-season-looking-more-doubtful-by-the-day/


    Also John, thank you for mentioning the article. Hope you liked it.

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  7. Texas Gus, Mack has just given me off Sundays. I am hoping to pick them back up once the season starts.

    Loved your quote about Kelenic and great scouting report.

    I am ok with Boras trying. I sure hope they figure something out.

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  8. Thank you John. Check out the videos at the end of the piece. Whitley’s curve is amazing.

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  9. Gus - I looked at the videos. I felt the most impressive thing about Whitley was how he moved the ball around and like you said "played with the hitters". I thought Kelenic hung in there well though he struck out twice. That second strike out. Whitley set him up by busting him inside and then went back outside. I think Kelenic will look outside after getting busted in the next time around. If not, then maybe it won't be a big loss after all. Thanks for posting the videos.

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