Question from Michael Scannell to
me:
Cory Vaughn seems to be
quietly hitting well at AA. Any chance
he sees Vegas this year?
Mack – Hey, Michael.
I wrote about Cory earlier. Yes, I think any Mets outfielder
that shows any ability to hit the ball has the potential to eventually get to
AAA ball. Vaughn looks like he will be the first out of AA. He definitely has
the talent to succeed in this game (was 2nd in HRs last year in the
Florida League), bu he’s just too dam streaky. Still, this year, his slow start
was only during the early part of the first month of the season.
There’s no one in front of him to get in his way/ Look for
an all-star break elevation
.
We seem to be getting closer to Shaun Marcum time. He threw 52 pitches over 5.0 innings in an extended spring training game yesterday. He then went to the pen and threw four more pitches just for grins. Target date remains Sunday.
Adam Rubin –
Outfield prospect Juan Lagares, who is tearing up the Pacific Coast
League, likely will join the Mets as soon as Tuesday, baseball sources told
ESPNNewYork.com. Lagares, 24, is hitting .346 with three homers and nine RBIs
through 78 at-bats with Triple-A Las Vegas. All 17 of his appearances with the
51s have been in center field. He also has experience in both corner outfield
spots. He already is a member of the Mets' 40-man roster.
Good for him. I watched Lagares play parts
of three seasons in Savannah and I thought he’d never get out of there no less
this far. He and Hector Pellot were the inside infield prospects in 2007 and it’s great
to see someone that can successfully make the conversion to the outfield. It
doesn’t matter if he hits .100 in Queens. He has already succeeded past anyone’s
expectations. Congrats Juan.
.
We seem to be getting closer to Shaun Marcum time. He threw 52 pitches over 5.0 innings in an extended spring training game yesterday. He then went to the pen and threw four more pitches just for grins. Target date remains Sunday.
We need to keep an eye on Savannah Sand Gnat's starter, Steven Matz. After three starts, he's holding down a
1.29 ERA and all signs are that his arm has finally healed. I had a chance on
the last home stand to sit right in front of his bullpen session and, though I
wasn't behind the catcher to check if there was any sink, I can tell you that
the fastball was both electric and accurate. I had mentioned in an earlier
report that I also talked with the catcher of that session, Jeff Glenn, who
raved about his pin point accuracy. I don't expect the Mets to rush Matz. Let's
see how the arm holds up in Savannah, probably for the entire season.
I heard from 2009 13th round draft pick, LHP Zach Dotson (Twitter: @_ZachDotson) who is in extended
camp. Dotson was a local boy out of the Savannah area here who sent signs out
that he was going to go to college. The Mets drafted him anyway and offered him
big time money to sign, which he did. Since then, all things went to hell and
Dotson has had a myriad amount of problems which many teams might have cut fish
with. The talent remains, but the game went to hell and any attempt to pitch
(2011: 54.00, 2012: 40.50) failed. Prior to that, in 2010, Dotson started four
games for the GCL Mets: 0-1, 3.31, 16.1-IP, 18-K. Keep this name in your head.
There’s a lot of pitching talent here if he can just translate it to the
catcher’s mitt.
Chris Blessing –
Four years after Steven Matz was drafted by the New York Mets in the
2009 draft, Matz made his full season debut Saturday for the Savannah Sand
Gnats in Rome. The road for the 21-year-old left hander has been rough, he has
battled a multitude of arm injuries throughout his career. He made his
professional debut last season in short-season ball with Kingsport and
dominated the opposition in six game starts before his season was cut short by
left shoulder tendonitis. In 29 innings with Kingsport, Matz struck out more
than 10 batters per 9 innings and gave up only 5 hits per 9 innings. However,
he showed a wild streak by walking 5 batters per 9 innings. link
Kevin Kernan –
After spending a baseball lifetime
in the minors, Scott Rice leads the Mets in
appearances this year with 10. The lefty’s ERA is 1.00 and yesterday he got out
of the biggest jam of his major league life when Jayson Werth grounded into an
eighth-inning double play on a 3-0 sinker with no outs and runners on first and
second following a single and a walk. link
Ken Rosenthal –
Rookie right-hander Matt Harvey is getting most of the attention in the
Mets’ rotation, thanks to his 0.93 ERA after four starts. But Mets officials
also believe that lefty Jonathan Niese has
turned a corner, and is now evolving into a top-of-the-rotation starter. Niese,
26, gained security by signing a five-year, $25.5195 million contract in April
2012. He then threw a career-high 190 1/3 innings, proving that he could stay
strong an entire season. And he got married in January, taking another step
toward maturing off the field. Johan Santana’s season-ending
shoulder injury left Niese as the leading veteran in the Mets’ rotation. The
newfound position of responsibility, club officials say, seems to suit him
well. link
Jim Callis –
Q - There recently has been
discussion among Mets fans that righthander Rainy Lara has
been underrated by the prospect community. He posted a 77-12 K-BB ratio in 68
innings at short-season Brooklyn in 2012 and has put up similar numbers in four
starts at low Class A Savannah this year. Why was he excluded from the Mets Top
30 Prospects list in the 2013 Prospect Handbook?
A - The strength of the Mets system
is righthanded pitching. Their No. 1 prospect is a righty (Zack Wheeler), as were seven members of our Mets Top
10 Prospects list and 13 members of our Top 30. Those lists were compiled
before the R.A. Dickey trade, which brought over
another blue-chip righthander in Noah Syndergaard.Lara
was the next righty listed on our Mets depth chart in the Handbook. Signed out
of the Dominican Republic in 2009, he stands out most for his command of his
89-92 mph sinker. Scouts aren’t as enthused about his secondary offerings,
however, and they aren’t in love with his long arm action. While Lara is a
prospect, New York has several more promising arms in its system. At the lower
levels of the minors, tools and stuff matter more than statistics, and his
stuff is fairly ordinary. He’s also old for low Class A at 22, and unless he
adds velocity or develops a quality second pitch, he’s looking at a ceiling as
a middle reliever.
Singer-songwriter Richie Havens died
yesterday at 72 years old. I used to go see him play at Gerdes Folk City in the
Village back in the 60s where he actually began as the janitor. His best friend
was the house singer there and got a gig one day to open for another group on a
tour. This friend’s old lady wouldn’t let him go on the road so he asked Havens
to ‘fill in’ for him since he knew all the song this dude wrote (“Handsome
Johnny”, etc.) plus he played guitar the same way. Havens said yes and the rest
was, as they say, history. Oh yeah… the house singer who wrote all those songs…
was Lou Gossett Jr.
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