Morning Report – 3-11-14 – Brandon Allen, Phillip Humber, Aledmys Diaz, Grandy, Game Notes

Coming Up –

          10 am –

12 noon – SB Nation - Mock

 2 pm –  Mets - Strength Of Schedule

4 pm -   FANGRAPHS - Top 10 Prospects - Washington Nationals

6 pm -   Sam Travis, Foster Griffin, Jeren Kendall, Jake Jarvis

8 pm – A Quick Look - LHP - Kyle Freeland - Evansville

Jed Weisberger ‏@jedleyq  - Syndergaard will be a terrific #Mets pitcher for many years, but Saturday's outing again pointed out why he needs a solid third pitch.

Mack's Mets ‏@JohnMackinAde - Does daylight saving mean we have one less hour without a 1B/SS ???

Origin of word ‘Thor’ for Noah Syndergaard – Mack’s Mets Christopher Soto

Origin of ‘Thorsday for when Thor pitches – Tej from MetsProspectHub

I’m not sure how much I should read into this but the Mets have posted that they are looking to hire a new head of Communications (with at least 10-years’ experience with a baseball team). I don’t know if this means that Jay Horwitz would be reporting to this person, or would be retiring.

The closer we get to opening day, the closer we seem to get to playing this game without a first baseman. You need to learn a little more about the two guys that seem to be getting all the at-bats lately:

Brandon Allen – bats left – 2-12-86 – 6.2/235 – 5^th round CWS draft pick in 2004 – has played for five organizations before the Mets – played AAA-Tucson in 2013 (17-HR, 76-RBI)

Matt Clark – bats left – 12-10-86 – 6.5/215 – 28^th round Pirates draft pick 2007 – played five years in San Diego org. – played 2013 in Japan (25-HR/70-RBI).

IMO, there’s nothing here to get excited about, but one of these guys just might be the one platooning with Josh Satin when this season starts

Top 2004 Draft Picks –

          3. Mets: Philip Humber, RHP - Rice (’06-07, Mets; ’08-09, Minnesota; ’10, Kansas City; ’11-12, Chicago White Sox; ’13, Houston) - Despite having collected only 16 wins during his eight-year major-league career, Humber is well known for the perfect game he threw for the ChiSox on April 21, 2012, against Seattle. Humber struggled with elbow problems during his minor-league career and had Tommy John surgery. Humber bounced between the big leagues and minors from 2006-10 and appeared in only 26 games, but he became a full-time starter with the White Sox in 2011 and went 9–9. After posting a 5–5 mark in 26 total appearances in 2012, Humber slid to 0–8 with the Astros in ’13.-  http://athlonsports.com/mlb/what-happened-top-players-2004-mlb-draft#sthash.eLOXFuCg.dpuf

Cards announce they've signed Cuban SS Aledmys Diaz…I’m confused… didn’t they just sign Jhonny Peralta to a deal through 2017?

So, with that in mind, what sort of trades are we looking at that could have implications in the upcoming baseball betting season?Well, first and foremost, one has to wonder where Ike Davis will end up. There has been discussion for some time now that the Pittsburgh Pirates have major interest in the New York Met. Will it be a major upgrade? I argue it will be. The Pirates currently have Gaby Sanchez in that spot. And, remember folks: Sanchez batted in a astronomical 36 runs over 136 games last year. And, yes, that was incredibly heavy sarcasm in that last sentence.  http://throughthefencebaseball.com/baseball-betting-trade-rumors-run-amok/41682#mbvl33eQyKUoLeSy.99

Curtis Granderson - Mets - One thing is for sure: Granderson is going to have to rework his approach some in Citi Field after spending the last few years taking aim at the short porch in Yankee Stadium. In 2012 and his abbreviated 2013, he struck out more than ever before (28 percent of the time) and hit just .230. I'm not writing him off, but I can't see projecting him to hit any better than .240, particularly with all of the strong pitching in the NL East. Right now, he's exiting the board as the No. 34 outfielder in ESPN leagues. I have him 10 spots lower. While I do have him down for 26 homers and 86 RBI, a big rebound in steals seems unlikely and he doesn't figure to be an asset in runs scored batting cleanup for the Mets.

Chris Young - Mets - Young had to deal with that league switch last year. Worse, he did so as a part-time player in a far worse ballpark for offense in Oakland. The end result was a pretty disastrous season in which he hit just .200. On the other hand, prorating his stats to 550 at-bats would have given him 20 homers (even though he was robbed of a couple by terrific catches) and 16 steals. Now he's returning to the league he's more familiar with, and while Citi Field still has a rep as a pitcher's park, it's playing much more favorable to right-handed hitters after the changes made two years ago. Not only is he penciled in as a full-time player for the Mets, but he'll even get to lead off if Juan Lagares beats out Eric Young Jr. for a starting job. He won't hit for average, but he could produce similar value to Granderson for a fraction of the price.

 http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/mlb/46440/2/2014-breakdowns-outfield

Monday game notes –

          Once again, it was all about pitching in the ‘B’ game. Dillon Gee (4.0-IP, 2-H, 0-R, 0-BB, 3-K, 45-P, 32-strikes), Jenrry Mejia (2.0-IP, 0-H, 0-R, 0-BB, 3-K, 24-P, 17-strikes), and Jeurys Familia (1.0-IP, 0-H/R/BB, 1-K, 12-P, 7-strikes).

          Returned to minor league camp… Steven Matz, Erik Goeddel, Adam Kolarek, Josh Edgin,  Wilfredo Tovar, Logan Verrett, Chasen Bradford,  Kevin Plawecki,Danny Muno, Dustin Lawley, Brandon Nimmo, John Church, Jack Leathersich, and Cory Vaughn.

(I’m more surprised here at Tovar than Edgin. It’s not like this team is full of shortstops right now)

          Bartolo Colon pitched well for the first three innings (he obviously put in some work in’B’ games which allowed him to pitch into the 4^th…), but things went to hell after that. It’s always those 2-year contracts, isn’t it?

          A couple of nice inning by Cory Mazzoni (21.00) and John Church (9.00), but Jack Leathersich continued down a bad road.