Mack Ade - @JohnMackinAde
@cam_maron - how is Erik Goeddel? Surgery?
Cam Maron - @cam_maron
he's doing all right, I'm not sure about
surgery or anything
“My fastball is pretty good. I have both a two- and a
four-seamer. I think everybody does. The hitter dictates which one I throw, as
does the count. I like to throw my two to the right side of the plate most of
the time, but it doesn‘t really matter. They’re both hard and both move. I’d
say they’re pretty equal. I’ve developed my off-speed pitches. What I’ve really
concentrated on is throwing them for strikes, so I can get ahead of hitters and
put them away later. I’m happy with both my curveball and slider right now. My
changeup has gotten better as the season has gone on. It started out as a circle
change, but then I moved my hand up on the ball a little bit to put more
pressure on it. That was to make it move a little more, as well as take some
speed off of it. The pressure is more on the pinky, underneath the ball. I’m
trying to get that little bite. When it releases out of my hand, there is also
speed taken off of it. I accept being labeled a power pitcher. It’s part of who
I am. I throw hard. But I also work with it. I try to control my pitches well,
and with a few little fixes, that should get better. Most of the year my walks
were down — my strikeouts have been the same as usual — but that has started to
break down a little bit lately. I don’t mean it to be an excuse, but late in
the season you have to kind of just push through. Mechanically, you can break
down a little bit, but that’s just baseball. It’s pitching. Every once in a while
you can lose your mechanics and not have a good feel for your pitches. I’ll get
it back. I think my mechanics are usually pretty fluid. I’ve worked hard on
them the past few years. I don’t know if I’d describe my delivery as
drop-and-drive, but it’s probably something like that. My arm angle is
three-quarters, I guess. I don’t really pay too much attention to stuff like
that. How close I am to the big leagues isn’t up to me. That’s up to the Mets.
But I feel like I’m getting close. A couple more adjustments and I’ll be
ready.”
This is some
good stuff out of the mouth of Wheeler.
This
whole incident seems like a classic overreaction which, I guess, is a good
thing right now. Players seem to dropping like flies this past week and the
last thing the Mets want to do is to push this kid in the wrong direction. It
hasn’t been the best of camps so far (I’m writing a separate post on this
tonight which will lost up later today) and one of the real highlights has been
Wheeler. Me? I’ll send him back to the minors side of the field and let him
work out with his soon-to-be Las Vegas teammates, but, that’s just me.
Sandy Alderson: The outfield is definitely a question mark, collectively. I
think we’ve like what we’ve seen from Cowgill, but I don’t think Brown or
Hoffman have had much of an opportunity to play at this point. Nieuwenhuis and
den Dekker have some work to do offensively. Marlon
Byrd is what he is. Mike Baxter is
certainly in that mix, and I expect him to be on the team.The classic outfield
offensive player, we don’t have. We think Lucas Duda will
be fine, offensively. But his defense is a question mark, so the balance is
difficult to maintain. He’ll have to really produce offensively. Center and
right, we will have to see. I wouldn’t eliminate Jordany
Valdespin as a candidate either. That’s how open things are.
I’m not a member of the blog elite that gets to participate in
these conference calls. If I was, I too would have asked a question about the
glaring omission of a decent outfield. Alderson sounded like he was fishing
here which is bad for a General Manager. I’m sure this subject is a very embarrassing
one for him.
Look, we will never know how close the Mets got to a deal for
either Upton or Bourn, but what we do know now is that Alderson was confident
that at least one of them would transpire. It didn’t and we all now have to
live with the fact that the team needs three start outfielders, not the two
they stil would have needed if Bourn or Upton were signed.
There’s nothing
legally or ethically wrong about this, but it does have that “John’s Bargain
Store” feel to it. Maybe the owners of two companies are good friends, but it
seems to me that this space could have been leased out to a more high-end
tenant. And selling “vitamins, dietary supplements, energy drinks” from a storefront at
a baseball stadium… doesn’t this have a little Balco-ish odor to it? I’m just
saying…
(BTW… kudos to Howard Megdal for the WSJ link)
Noah Syndergaard is one of my very favorite prospects. A supplemental first
round pick in 2010 from high school in Texas, he’s thrived thus far in pro
ball, generating very enthusiastic scouting reports to go along with excellent
statistics. Syndergaard has a 92-98 MPH sinking fastball that gets on top of
hitters quickly. He picks up a lot of grounders (2.16 GO/AO), while maintaining
a strong strikeout rate (122/31 K/BB in 104 innings in Low-A, just 81 hits).
He’s developed a very good changeup, and I think his curveball is underrated.
He commands all three pitches well, shows positive mound presence, and seems
like he will be durable. The Blue Jays have managed his workload well. Assuming
no injuries or weird command slippages, Syndergaard can develop into a number
two starter. I really like him. He was traded to the Mets in the R.A. Dickey deal. Grade A-.
There’s a fair amount of debate going around where Syndergaard will
start the 2013 season. Remember, this was a system that was chock full of lower
level pitching talent before he joined the organization.
In 2012 the pitching staffs of Brooklyn, Savannah, and St. Lucie, all
had the lowest ERA and WHIP in their league. That’s close to a one time stat
ever.
Syndergaard pitched A-ball in 2012 (27-games, 19-starts) and others
have skipped A+ before, but he will be only 20-years old and teams tend to take
their time with their best arms. His slot in St. Lucie has a lot to do with
whether or not Luis Mateo makes the jump from Brooklyn. We’ll just have to wait
and see.
NY Mets catcher Landon Powell reveals how
rare disease, Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis
, or HLH, led to death of infant
daughter Izzy
The important thing here is not the player. It’s the awareness of
the disease that could easily knock on your door someday. Please read this one.
4 comments:
Mack,
Alderson's miscalculation with the OF cannot be overlooked. Yes, he got a good return for Dickey, as he did for Beltran, but that is not so much a function of his abilities as it is a function of another GM to ante up. He also looks bad with all this talk about being "close" or "in the mix". How would he feel if his manager said that in the post game interview after every loss "oh, we lost, but we were right there". This is MLB, in NYC, and its about wins and losses, both on the field in in the acquisition of players. The message from him, along with Freddie's comments, still isn't credible, and won't be until their actions are that of a team looking to compete. I am all for the youth movement, but when they walk away from guys that won't cost any picks, and won't command money beyond 2013, as they are doing right now in the bullpen, and pass up on guys like Courtney Hawkins on the draft/development side, the message is still ringing hollow, at least to me.
I like Alderson and where, I think, this team is heading. I just feel like Alderson has total job security and is in no rush. He's going to build the team the way he thinks is best. Doesn't care about what the media or the fans think about it... ya know, since the Wilpons would probably need Selig's blessing to fire him before the calender hits 2016
Michael, you might be right.
Spot on Mike,
And you know what? Im fine with it. Alderson is building franchise that will be playoff worthy for years to come.
Forget the fans and the media...they don't know jack shit about building a perennial winner. Its what Alderson was brought in to do...and that's what he is doing.
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