2-14-13 – Bobby Parnell, Mike Carp, Mets Young Pitchers, Johan Santana, Dustin Lawley

Rotoworld: - Terry Collins wants Bobby Parnell to be Mets' closer. I also read somewhere that Parnell said he always wanted to be a closer. That’s funny, I remember when all he wanted to be was a starter. I don’t like Parnell as a closer because he’s incapable of throwing a fast ball that has any late sink. It’s no big thing in the major leagues hitting a fast straight ball. Hopefully, John Buck can get Parnell to be more comfortable with his other pitches and he can mix them up better. The problem in the past is you just knew when Parnell was going to throw it as hard as he could. That’s not good enough. Still, 2012 were decent stats: 5-4, 2.49, 1.24, 74-games, 7-saves, 23 –GF

Kevin Burkhardt - ‏@KBurkhardtSNY

If Parnell is the future closer of the @Mets, Jason Isringhausen gets a huge assist.Teaching Bobby the knuckle-curve took him to a new level

The Seattle Mariners DFA’s ex-Met OF-1B Mike Carp. Bats left. Big Mets year was 2008-Binghamton (22-yrs old) - .299, 17-HR, 72-RBI… On December 10, 2008, Carp was traded to the Seattle Mariners in a three-team trade which also included RHP J.J. Putz, RHP Sean Green and OF Jeremy Reed from the Mariners for RHP Aaron Heilman, OF Endy Chávez, LHP Jason Vargas, OF Ezequiel Carrera and RHP Maikel Cleto and sent RHP Joe Smith to the Indians. (gee… I forgot the Mets had Vargas in 2007… 2012-Seattle - 14-11, 3.85, 1.18.

Tampa Bay VP of baseball operations Andrew Friedman on Mets pitching:

“The Mets have a tremendous amount of young talent. I   think those guys have done a tremendous job of acquiring some high-end young players that they can grow with, and I think that [front office] is extremely good at supplementing around those guys and also having enough good young depth. The one thing about young players is that they have tremendous upside but they also have tremendous downside. There is far from certainty from these players. For us, it’s our only way of doing business. It’s not a choice. It’s a survival mechanism.”

 Jared Diamond - Assuming Santana stays healthy, the Mets will spend the next six months trying to figure out how to handle the trade deadline. They went through a similar situation in 2011 with outfielder Carlos Beltran, and then managed to swing him to the San Francisco Giants for right-hander Zack Wheeler, a top pitching prospect. Considering the current state of the Mets' outfield—both in the majors and minors—they probably could use some reinforcements. Of course, if the Mets make a surprise run at the postseason, they could benefit from a healthy ace.

Here’s the difficulty here. You can’t limit your choice of a trade partner to one of your immediate needs. Remember, the team you would be trading Santana to will be better that the Mets (and closer to the playoff). They are going to want to keep their parent club talent on the field for the pennant race. No, this is another classic trade situation for a prospect, and nothing more.  

The real ballsy move will be trading for a top prospect that plays a position you don’t need, like C, 3B, or 1B. Uneducated Mets fans would go bonkers but Sandy Alderson know if it’s the right person, you can find another home for them for the right positional prospect you will want in the off season.

Mack - Love all the work you do. I know it is a labor of love and you probably feel unappreciated  , but there are many of us out here that check your website first every morning. Before someone jumps on you I just wanted to point out that when you were forecasting the minor league outfield this morning you omitted Dustin Lawley from PSL. That is unless you project him at 3B. My projections are dead on with yours except have Zapata staying at AA and Pron moving up to PSL with Thurber repeating Savannah. Thanks again and I enjoy your work. Your views  make a difference as to how many of us look at the organization that we love. – Marty

          Marty, you are spot on about Lawley, who I keep thinking as a third baseman. As of right now, he has played 102-professional games in the outfield, while only 72 at third. Lawley repeated Savannah last year at 23-years old (.261/.333/.434/.767, 14-HR, 66-RBI), so he really needs to giddy-up to St. Lucie (which may not happen until Darrell Ceciliani is promoted). 

Mets: D.J. Carrasco, Dickey and Jeff, Ike Davis, Mike Carp

Unfortunately, D.J. Carrasco is still likely to get a shot in the bullpen to start the 2012 season. The Mets do have plenty of better relief pitchers, but if there’s any silver lining from 2011, it’s that even a full season of data from a relief pitcher is still a small sample. It's tough to look at his numbers and chalk them up to bad luck and poor defensive support, but at least some portion of his BABIP should probably be attributed to each. Given the fact that he'll turn 35 in April, it seems highly unlikely that he'll be very good this year, but a return to a season resembling his career norms wouldn't be shocking. http://www.amazinavenue.com/2012/1/19/2717538/2012-mets-player-profile-d-j-carrasco

Dickey said the group surpassed their goal of $100,000 with the help of a gift from Jeff Wilpon, the chief operating officer of the Mets. Before the climb, Wilpon and the Mets had publicly objected to the endeavor out of fear that Dickey might be injured.  After he made it safely down, Dickey said one of the first texts he received was from Wilpon. “He offered his congratulations and made a generous contribution,” Dickey said. “I understood their concerns, and I thought it was a great gesture on their part to help out in the end.” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/sports/baseball/after-kilimanjaro-familiar-ground-for-mets-dickey.html?_r=1&ref=sports

Ike Davis, New York Mets – Mets first baseman Ike Davis finished an injury plagued 2011 season with seven homers, 25 RBIs, 20 runs scored and .302 batting average in just 149 at bats.  That’s coming off of a rookie season in 2010 where he smacked 19 homers and 71 RBI.  Davis didn’t play after May 10 last year due to an ankle injury and then a series of unfortunate medical mistakes by his doctors.  The Mets are moving in the fences at Citi Field.  That can only help a 6′ 4″, 230 pound power hitter like Davis http://www.fantasybaseballdugout.com/2012/01/20/sleepers-first-base-2012/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Mike Carp, Seattle Mariners — No, Carp is not going to start in front of Justin Smoak, but he does qualify at first base.  Carp finished the 2011 season with 12 homers, 46 RBIs, 27 runs scored and a .276 batting average in just 290 at-bats.  On a team that is desperate for offense, expect Carp to be a regular outfielder in 2012. http://www.fantasybaseballdugout.com/2012/01/20/sleepers-first-base-2012/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Robin Ventura, Albert Cordero, Mike Baxter, Kyle Allen, Mike Carp

Robin Ventura:


One third baseman that deserves more credit for his accomplishments as a Met than he has gotten is Robin Ventura. Before signing with the Mets, Ventura had spent a decade with the White Sox from 1989-1998. During his time there, he won five Gold Glove Awards and made the All-Star team in 1992. In one memorable moment in 1993, Ventura got hit by a pitch from the legendary Nolan Ryan and charged the mound. However, it was Ryan that punched Ventura six times in the head before the two were separated. - http://bleacherreport.com/articles/770405-new-york-mets-top-10-third-basemen-in-team-history#/articles/770405-new-york-mets-top-10-third-basemen-in-team-history/page/8  


Albert Cordero:


7-24-11: - http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110724&content_id=22219694&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb#&tcid=tw_share - After struggling for the first three months of the season, Albert Cordero continued his solid start to the second half of the season Saturday. The Mets catching prospect went 4-for-5 with a homer and a career-high six RBIs as the Class A Savannah Sand Gnats rallied for a 7-6 victory over the Lexington Legends. Cordero, who signed as a non-drafted free agent in 2008, had never recorded more than three RBIs and had plated only six runs in his previous 29 games with the Mets' South Atlantic League affiliate.


Mike Baxter:


OF Mike Baxter: 3-4, 2B, R, 2 RBI, BB; Baxter was a nice waiver steal by the Mets on Friday when they nabbed him from SD, no doubt another player DePo kept an eye on. The 26-yr old Queens native was originally drafted in the fourth round in '05 after playing at Columbia and Vanderbilt. He's no stud -- as evidenced by a career .278 average in the minors -- but he had an excellent .301/382/.517 year at Triple-A in 2010 with 18 hrs and 22 sb's. He's got a nice power/speed game, he doesn't strike out much and best of all he's got outstanding plate discipline from the left side. He was also added to the 40-man so look for him to log lots of innings with Buffalo and, probably at some point in 2012, battle for the 4th-5th OF role. - http://www.amazinavenue.com/2011/7/24/2290654/new-york-mets-daily-farm-system-report-7-24-11-lagares-to-double-a


Kyle Allen:


7-24-11: - http://scoutingthesally.com/sally-stock-watch-kyle-allen-slade-heathcott-will-middlebrooks-matt-thompson - Kyle Allen, P, New York Mets – Back in 2009, I was extremely bullish on Mets farmhand Kyle Allen as an example of the type of player the organization should be drafting instead of the low ceiling, small college pitchers they had developed a reputation for. Injuries derailed his 2010 season and he is currently assigned to Port St. Lucie working to regain the form which once earned him placement as one of the Mets top-10 prospects. Since 2009, Allen has averaged just a shade under five walks per nine innings. However, his last start was the best of his young career as Allen tossed eight scoreless innings allowing no walks, no runs and six strikeouts. Additionally, his GO/AO is once again more than 2.0 and his strikeout totals have crept back above 6.5 per nine innings.


Mike Carp:


Mike Carp homered in a second consecutive game Saturday but the Mariners fell to the Red Sox. Carp smacked a three-run homer off Red Sox reliever Franklin Morales on Friday night and took Josh Beckett deep on Saturday. The promising young outfielder was promoted from Triple-A Tacoma in mid-July and should continue seeing more playing time. Seattle, however, has now lost 14 straight games. - http://www.rotoworld.com/headlines/mlb/334268/baseball-headlines?r=1

Over Slot Picks, Don Ruff, Johan Santana, Mike Carp, Kingsport Roster

Over Slot Picks:


I’ve said earlier that it is one thing to draft high school projected prospects and it’s another thing to sign them. Mike Diaz over at http://www.metsminorleagueblog.com/mets-draftees-mulling-over-options has printed some of the comments some of these kids have said about being drafted by the Mets and I don’t hear a lot of excitement from 7th round- Cole Frenzel,1B, U. of Arizona, 12th round- Kenny Matthews, LHP, Diamond Bar (Calif.) HS, 16th round- Brad Marquez, OF, Odessa (TX) HS, 18th round- Travis Taijeron, OF, Cal Poly Pomona, 20th round- Mason Robbins, OF, George County HS (MS), 28th round- Jharel Cotton, RHP, Miami-Dade CC (FL), 29th round- Josh Ake, SS, Hunterdon Central HS (NJ), 45th round- Andrew Marra, SS, St. Thomas of Villanova SS (Ontario), or 49th round- Sean Buckle, LHP, Wilson HS (CA)


Don Ruff:


Earlier this week, 2007 Notre Dame alum Rich Ruff was scheduled to fly to Florida, but could have saved money on airfare. That’s because he was floating on a cloud. A 46th-round draft pick of the New York Mets in last week’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, Ruff was to begin workouts at the team’s Port St. Lucie training complex on Wednesday. The right-handed pitcher expects to spend the remainder of the summer playing for one of the organization’s short-season Class A affiliates, which are located in Port St. Lucie, Kingston, Tenn., and Brooklyn, N.Y.- http://niles.suntimes.com/sports/5940499-419/former-don-ruff-drafted-by-mets-as-pitcher.html


Johan Santana:


I see that Santana stopped throwing around ten days ago when he experienced some soreness in his surgically repaired left shoulder, after trying to pump up the volume. This is normal… for a shoulder that isn’t healed yet. Sandy Alderson followed this news with a comment that he will be “prudent” with Santana this season. Prudent means, hola Johan, hasta la vista until April.


Mike Carp:


The Seattle Mariners recalled ex-Met Mike Carp. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=14236 - This season, Carp has seemingly managed to unite superior power and on-base ability in a single stat line, producing a whopping .348/.409/.661 performance that earned him an invitation to Seattle. For the first time in his career, the lefty has forsaken first base entirely this season, spending most of his defensive innings in left field. That position switch is no accident; the arrival of Justin Smoak closed Carp’s window as a first baseman in the organization, but left field has been an unproductive abyss for the Mariners since Raul Ibanez’s last tour of duty in the Pacific Northwest in 2008.


Kingsport Roster:


We’re starting to get some information on the upcoming K-Port roster. Good news is ex-DSL prospect outfielder Eudy Pena (2010: .310) will play in Tennessee this season. Draftee SS Chad Zurcher will also be assigned to K-Port, joining another hot ex-DSL prospect, SP Carlos Gomez (2010: 7-2, 1.47).