Mack Ade – Morning Report – 4-22-13

Gee, that was a nice outing!

Wouldn't it be nice that this team actually had three SPs?

A Gee win, a Buck bang, and three great pen appearances. Wow!

It’s been a tough April for the entire Mets system, but certain prospects continue to produce and stay healthy at the same time. Some are:

                Binghamton RHSP Rafael Montero, who basically has never had a bad professional outing, is now 4-G, 3-0, 1.59, 22.2-IP, 27-K, 1-BB. This is about perfect as a pitcher can be, at a level that the men are separated from the boys. It’s a small sample, but my guess is 10 games would be the AA limit here and we could then expect Montero to move on to Las Vegas, raising the bar to an opening day 2014 readiness. 

                We’re dealing with a very small sample here (19-G), but Binghamton catcher Blake Forsythe is playing like he did when he was a sophomore in college at Tennessee. The Travis d-Arnaud injury has moved Juan Centeno to Vegas, leaving Forsythe to compete with Francisco Pena (,231). Forsyhe’s stat line is phenomenal: .368/.429/.737/1.165. I want to see around 100 at-bats before I get excited about him again. I was thrilled with the draft pick, but his bat has been quiet ever since this season. We’ll see.

                This has to be worth something. The Mets are 7-1 when Jon Niese and Matt Harvey take the mound, 1-7 when anyone else pitches. You know I’m not a big fan of rushing anyone, but Aaron Laffey and Jeremy Hefner are not the answer. And frankly, I'll believe Shaun Marcum when I see him. I’ll give Dillon Gee a month to get past the bump in the road, but the Mets need to call up two new starters to support the offense and the two above mentioned pitchers. My suggestions are Collin McHugh (3-G, 2-0, 0.50, 1.06, 18.0-IP, 15-K, 4-BB) and Greg Peavey (7-G, 1-0, 0.71, 1.26, 12.2-IP, 6-K, 7-BB). Peavey has been a starter all his career and can easily be stretched back beginning with his first 60-pitch outing. McHugh has earned another shop. Regarding Zack Wheeler, he’s not ready (18.1-IP, 21-K, 12-BB). The control and consistency just hasn’t been there so far this season. Leave him in Vegas and let him mature. He can be used as the third wave.

                Now, what do you do with Laffey and Hefner. The easy decision would be to send them to Vegas, but, before you do, you might want to consider placing Montero as SP2 behind Wheeler and also promoting Logan Verrett (AA: 3-G, 2-0, 2.75, 1.07, 19.2-IP, 11-K, 6-BB). Other teams move players this way, why not the Mets?

That would be quite the plane ride if they both arrived the same day in July or August.

                For some reason the Mets signed 1B Rhyne Hughes and sent him to Binghamton with the obvious assignment to replace Alan Dykstra. Why I have no idea. Sure, Dykstra hasn’t turned out to be the first round pick everyone had hoped for, but he didn’t suck up the place either. Well, Hughes does. As of Saturday night, Hughes was hitting .190 (42-AB) and it was time to give the base back to Dykstra (.316, 19-AB)… however, here’s also 3B Richard Lucas (.270, 37-AB) who can play first.

              

               Streaky OF Cory Vaughn is streaking again. He started the season very slowing but has hit .333 in his past 10 games (as of Saturday night). He also has hit three home runs and knocked in 11 during that span, creating a 10-game stat line of: .333/.385/.639/1.024.. Then, on Sunday, he went 3-6, raising his average to .298.