Mack Ade – AM Report – 8-26-13 – Draft Order, Mike Scioscia, Nimmo/Cecchini/Smith, Detroit Tigers
2014 Draft Order – 1 – Houston 86, 2 – Miami 80, 3 – CWS 75, 4 – Cubs 75, 5 – Brewers 73, 6 – Toronto 73, 7 – Giants 72, 8 – Twins 72, 9 - Padres 71, 10 - Angels 71, 11 – Rockies 71, 12 – Phillies 71, 13 – Mets 70, 14 – Seattle 70
We’re back to the protected pick race. On a given night, 15 teams lose every night so it’s just not easy to climb this mountain, especially when there are 12 teams with more loses than you have at this point in the season. The good news… eight of them have three or less ‘more loses’ and are easily catchable in this race of losers. We’ll keep this up-to-date each morning in the report.
Jon Heyman on Mike Scioscia -
One baseball official with another team, who also is convinced one or the other will go, said he believed Scioscia's standing gives him an ever so slight edge, with the caveat that Scioscia is apt to go into an end-of-year meeting with "guns blazing" and not give a care about the repercussions. (An easier tact to take when you have five years to go at $5 mil per, of course.) Meanwhile, Scioscia's well-known "my way or the highway'' style has worn thin in trying times with some team officials, not just Dipoto. One Angels person said there is at least one high-ranking club executive who wanted Scioscia gone after last year. Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com reported two weeks ago that "tension persists" between Scioscia and Dipoto, and it isn't getting better. http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-heyman/23287160/while-dipoto-or-scioscia-will-lose-angels-blame-game-owner-is-far-from-clean
Michael Scannell asked – Re: Nimmo/Cecchini/Smith -
I'm really warming to the first two. I initially liked the Nimmo pick (didnt love it because I was disappointed that Springer didn’t fall to us) and hated Cecchini. Smith I thought was decent. With all three now performing well, any chance the Mets move them together so they become familiar with each other and build camaraderie as they move up?
Mack – Michael, right now, I agree with you that all three of these guys look like good picks, though none are showing the kind of pop one would hope for from a first round everyday player. Cecchini is a singles hitter, period. That’s what you get here and he will also shine defensively. Nimmo is not a home run hitter and his bat projects, at best, like another Daniel Murphy. I think there is a good chance that the two of these guys will play together in St. Lucie next spring, but you’re not going to see Smith make that kind of jump. In fact, he’s be lucky to play Savannah. There’s a bunch of bodies ahead of him (Oberste, Sanchez, Leroux, Mathieu), none of which project out as a prospect, but they are in the way and will come first.
I lost a day here with my computer problems so excuse me if I go back and bring up the Tigers. This three-game series is a perfect example of how far our team is away from being a viable contender. Now THAT’S a lineup… and do you notice that no one goes on camera and says they are getting tired? The Tigers are not in a race for the pennant… they are racing for the win in the World Series and they will all sleep the day after the last game they play. We’ve seen some nice additions on the Mets this year, but there is no way in hell can the current Mets compete with a team like this. And, if you think whatever moves Sandy Alderson does before the 2014 season will create parity with teams like the Dodgers and Tigers, well, you are sadly mistaken. We’ll get closer, but will still be far away until this team commits big bucks to big hitters (buy, what a stupid idea that is, right?). Somebody on ‘The War Room’ was saying that one of the Tigers looked so big and he probably was taking drugs. That’s funny, I thought three or four of them were that big, but it’s not drugs that got them that big. It’s just brute power backs by good contracts. What a novel concept. Yeah, don’t trade for Tulo… he costs too much and gets injured… yeah, why add 30-85 to the lineup every year. Folks, if you want to compete with teams like the Tigers, stock your roster with players like the Tigers. This isn’t rocket science.
My computer was down most of the day causing an abbreviated report this morning. My apologies.
