Mack Ade – Morning Report – 5-11-13

Michael Scannell asked about Logan Verrett yesterday. Verrett would be considered a top pitching prospect for organizations; however, since the Mets are currently so deep in prospect starters, you simply don’t hear that much about him. Another thing is the fact that there just isn’t anything that jumps out at you here. This is just a good old fashioned control pitcher that I place having the potential to become someone between Dillon Gee and Tom Glavine. Yeah, I did use the ‘G’ word. Verrett was Mr. Baylor for three seasons (2009-11, 19-10) and was drafted by the Mets in the third round of the 2011 draft. He was part of that four college pitcher run (rounds 2-5) that produced Cory Mazzoni, Tyler Pill, and Jack Leathersich. So far, very little has either gone bad or gone noticed. His combined pro stat line is 24-starts (Savannah-St. Lucie-Binghamton), 10-3, 2.80, 0.97, 151-IP, 123-K, 24-BB. A 0.97 WHIP and only 24 walks in 151 innings? You got to be kidding me! Why aren’t we talking about this guy?

At some point this team is going to have to try and figure out what the future rotation is going to be. Let’s assume that Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler are part of it.

Word is Jenrry Mejia will start a rehab game this weekend for St. Lucie. We could easily see him in the Las Vegas rotation and be ready for Queens OD 2014.

But, so could Rafael Montero who is mastering AA and will probably finish the season in Vegas.

So, OD 2014 Queens would be Harvey, Wheeler, Niese,Gee, Mejia, and Montero?

Let’s do some more assumptions… Verrett  pitches Vegas in 2014 and is ready OD 2015… Noah Syndergaard finishes this year with St. Lucie, pitches Binghamton in 2014, and Vegas in 2015… and lastly, Domingo Tapia comes of age and joins Synder on the 2016 track.

What do we have now?

OD 2015 – Harvey, Wheeler, Niese, Mejia, Montero, Gee, Verrett

OD 2016 - Harvey, Wheeler, Niese, Mejia, Montero, Gee, Verrett, Syndergaard, Tapia.

(And, we haven’t even mentioned Michael Fulmer, Mazzoni, or Luis Mateo)

So… to answer Michael…  my guess is Verrett becomes part of a future trade to fill in a Mets batting hole, but, I have to tell you, the more I look at this projected SP sheet, the more I like the chances of trading Niese for a real outfielder, instead of a prospect.

I’m just saying…

Nick (NJ): Why would the Mets take DJ Peterson with #11 pick when a power hitting OF like Stanford Austin Wilson is still available and they need?

 Jim Callis:  Because Peterson is a better hitter and might wind up with more usable power in the long run. Wilson fills out a uniform better, but give me Peterson.

Boy, nothing against Peterson, but I have a real problem with this one. Wilson represents everything I would want for a major league outfielder and I can’t think of anyone I want more to play next to Brandon Nimmo next season in St. Lucie. Also, Peterson could still be around at #48.

I had a quick conversation yesterday with Savannah catcher Jeff Glenn (.231) and outfielder Stefan Sabol (.189). These are the kind of players that never seem to get enough at bats to prove they are worthy being professional baseball players. Glenn has 78 at bats and has to play being the guy that leads the league in hitting (Kevin Plawecki). Sabol had to fight for bat time with Greg Pron (.176) which may change now since Brandon Nimmo (.322) is on the DL. I feel for players like this (this is where Toby Hyde says I’m too soft). Am I wrong to feel this way or do they just suck (this is where Joe D says I’m too hard). Glenn had a killer career at Winter Haven (FL) High School and Sabol was a star at Orange Coast College and went on to the University of Oregon. They’ve both been in the Mets system for a few years now and it doesn’t look like they will ever get a chance to be a starter. This is  the part of baseball I hate. I asked Glenn how he is doing and he just looked at me. No words were needed.

Lastly, a good example of what the Mets blog world is all about happened yesterday. I happened to be in the broadcast booth, at Grayson Stadium, when the printed roster came off the printer. I was handed a copy and then became the first member of the Mets community to know that Brandon Nimmo went on the DL and it was retroactive to a date printed on that roster. I reported the information on my web site, then went on twitter, and alerted three active members of the Mets blogging community what was going on. I didn’t make them go to my site to earn a worthless hit. I just told them the info from one writer to another.

All these guys are good people. They just take this Mets shit too serious.

Two things happened worth pointing out. For a short time there was a genuine concern over who reported this information first. I think one of those three reported it to his followers rather than re-tweet my tweet and one of the other three gave him credit for the exclusive. Tweets went back and forth between them and eventually everybody gave me credit.

The point is… why does anyone care who’s first?  All I care is that the information we pass down to friends is accurate. There seems to be too much emphasis on the early bird rather than the person that owns the worm factory.

And that brings us to point number two. One of the blogging sites went out of their way to point out that the date that the retroactive DL stared was wrong “as reported”, rather than wrong “as received by the team. Folks, I just pass this information on and there is nothing in this for me to be wrong.

I’m told to stay off of Twitter. They say I don’t understand it and I don’t play well with others. How can I understand both young men and some as old as 60 all worrying more about whether they are the greatest blog since the Internet came to be? There is a profound reason I don’t read any of them because their content does hurt me. I know this will leave me open today to another response for me to ‘man up’ and stop with my ‘pity party’. Trust me, nothing would make me happier if I could handle this man to man.