Mack Ade – Morning Report – 6-22-13

Let’s face it. The Cubs will begin to dump salary soon. Don’t they always?

 Cot has them at a 2013 payroll of $106,837,810, of which $42.25mil are three players, OF Alfonso Soriano, RHP Edwin Jackson, and RHP Matt Garza. Garza is a free agent after this season, Soriano has the 2014 season locked up at $19mil, and Jackson is being paid $13mil/yr. through 2017.

Is there anything here? We seem to talk about Soriano every year. Garza would only be a great acquisition if the Mets had some kind of handshake on a future deal. And Jackson, hell, he’s pitched for seven major league teams in the past eight years. Does this guy unpack his suitcase?

The only other long term contracts are 1B Anthony Rizzo ($41mil thru 2019), OF Jorge Soler ($30mil thru 2020) and SS Starlin Castro (7/yr.  $60mil thru 2019).

The 23-year old Castro is having a miserable year (.235), which could help the Mets. Alderson has plenty of money to absorb this contract, throw in Ruben Tejada and a Grade-B pitching prospect, and start over here with a budding star of the game.

I also love Garza for a 2014-2015 deal, but he’s already being paid over $10mil a year and the Mets are on course rotation wise.

Lastly, Soler is only playing at the A+ level (.281, 8-HR) and, though he looks for real, is years away.

No, it’s Castro or nothing here.

Jayce Boyd –

“I’ve been trying to stay consistent through the year, Knowing that I’ve been able to do that so far is definitely a relief to myself, and it shows me that I can still play at this level as I move up. It’s a gratifying feeling inside, knowing I can do it. I don’t even know what happened this last week. I’m still floating on cloud nine. I put in a lot of work this offseason and stayed within the approach and the plan that our organization laid out and that’s been extremely successfully so far.” LINK

Rafael Montero Thursday: 5.0-IP, 95-pitches, 64-strikes, 8-H, 3-ER, 7-K, 2-BB, 3.18

I have no problem with an outing like this in that part of the country. I love the K/IP ratio there and his job for the rest of the season is to just keep working on pounding the zone with his arsenal of pitchers. I know it in my heart that he will start next season as the SP5 behind Dillon Gee.

Jack Leathersich’s 7.20 AAA ERA –

OK, we are talking about a small sample here (4-games, 5.0-IP), but we have never seen this kind of non-performance out of the Leatherman before. Granted, there are still 9-Ks, but you’re not going to get away with pitchers outside the zone in this seasoned league. Leathersich needs to pound the zone here before he will get any chance to show off in Queens. It doesn’t take much for a reliever. Five more scoreless innings and the ERA is 3.60.

Michael Scannell -  

I know we've talked about Duda having trade value to teams looking for a DH.  Do you think he has trade value as a 1B?

Oh yeah, definitely. Even more so, his versatility. You have a serviceable leftfielder that plays a more than average first base, and hits .250, 30-HR, 75-RBI. There’s room for a guy like this on many rosters.

You want to light a candle every night that Ike Davis returns to whatever normal is for him (2-HRs on Thursday night). The quicker he returns to Queens, the quicker the Mets can market Duda. For a real outfielder.