Morning Report – May 12th – Weekend Stuff

        Coming Later Today –

                10 am - d'Whit - Checking in on a Couple of Other Possible PTBNL from the Ike Davis

                Noon - Craig Mitchell -- A Tonic for a Spoiled Mets Fan

                5 pm - Top 11 SS in 2014 MLB Draft - Updated 5-10-14

                8 pm - Brady Aiken, Jackson Reetz, Forest Griffin, Carlos Rodon, A.J. Reed

LSU Aaron Nola – 9.0-IP, CG, 0-R, 9-K. 116-P

Georgia Southern Sam Howard – 8.2-IP, 0-R, 10-K, 127-P

Evansville Kyle Freeland – 7.0-IP, 0-R, 5-K

Clemson Daniel Gossett – 9.0-IP, CG, 0-R, 11-K, 119-P

Zack Wheeler throws the 8th hardest FB on average (94.3 MPH) in the majors, according to PITCH/fx

Weekend stuff –

Many of the readers (and writers) here at Mack’s Mets got their way about demoting Josh Satin in favor for Eric Campbell. I fear we will never see the 29-year old Satin again. He probably sealed his fate going 0-5 on Friday night. I assume he will clear waivers and will be reassigned to Las Vegas… for now. The Mets originally had Campbell in the starting lineup on Saturday; however, I guess Lucas Duda got the shits under control and was put into the starting lineup at around 4pm that day.

Either way, the infield backup squad went from Quintanilla/Satin to Tejada/Campbell, which, on paper, looks like a big upgrade.

Regarding Q, nobody picked him up and the Mets decided to keep him around and reassigned him to Las Vegas. Why not, since Matt Reynolds (AA - .339), Phillip Evans (A+ - .297) and Gavin Cecchini (A - .286) are not ready to move up yet.

And then came the news from Adam Rubin that Terry Collins has met with Jenrry Mejia and his rotation spot is in serious jeopardy of being taken away and given to Rafael Montero, as early as the upcoming Yankees series.

Somehow, Mejia is pissed and translates this as bad news. Dude. You can’t get out of the 5^th inning! How is this anybody’s fault but your own?

The Mets could take the low road here and send Mejia back to replace Montero in the Las Vegas rotation, in hopes of him developing into a better starter. One problem that will still remain is the amount of pitches he has averaged during those five innings. 

This would only work if you could get his pitch count down to the 75 range through five innings. And, you still have the problem of him keeping the ball down.

No, the Mets need to sit him down with the people he trusts the most and get him to understand that the best way for him to be successful, and extend his career, is to be a relief pitcher.

Wilmer Flores on shortstop… Eric Campbell platooning first base… Montero in the rotation… Mejia in the pen.

The wheels of progress are finally starting to turn. Not all these decisions may pan out to be the right ones, but they are at least replacing ones that have already proven not to have worked.

And, in an ironic twist, the more the Mets keep losing these late inning, one run games, the more you are going to see changes and I would think the next would involve the elimination of 30+ stop gap relievers in late inning tied games.

Most of the games played in May were competitive and, though the Mets came up with multiple  ways to lose ballgames, the back-end of the bullpen seem to have been the weakest part of the overall effort.

Going into Sunday’s game, the Mets were 1-8 in May. Let’s look

        May 1 – Lost 7-4 to Colorado – trailed early (Colon), never had lead

        May 2 – Lost 10-3 to Colorado – technically had 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but trailed 4-1 by the end of that inning (Wheeler).

        May 3 – Lost 11-10 to Colorado – had 6-0 lead up to the 5^th inning and 10-9 going into the bottom of the 9^th.

        May 5 – Lost 4-3 to Miami – led 3-0 until bottom of eighth inning

        May 6 – Lost 3-0 to Miami – can’t have a lead if you don’t score a run

        May 7 – Lost 1-0 to Miami – 0-0 tie until the bottom of the ninth

        May 9 – Lost 3-2 to Philly – never had lead

        May 10 – Lost 5-4 to Philly – had 4-3 lead in 6^th inning

The Mejia move to the pen would be a nice first move; however, it won’t be enough.

First, it will take time for the Mets pitching wizards to convert his arm back to a reliever that can pitch two out of three days. But this is far less than is needed. The Mets pen needs at least one, maybe two more young, powerful arms that can take a lead and hold it.

Let’s face it, the Mets do not have the offensive power to consistently come back in games they are losing in the seventh inning, so the first order of business is to win the ones they were leading at the end of the same amount of innings.

Sunday's win was the exception to the rule. You're not going to see this that often from this team. It simply doesn't have the offensive talent to send home the runners that get on base.

This isn’t rocket science. 35-year old arms can’t be called in night after night. 23-year olds can.

This could be a critical week for Terry Collins. It’s only a matter of time before the fans and press turn on the manager. Another two weeks like the last two could be his last.



A real bullpen setback happened yesterday when Las Vegas Vic Black (1.23) was accredited with the loss of the suspended game from the night before.  He walked three batters in the 1.1-IP, a huge setback in his control issues.

Black would have been the obvious choice to join Montero in any multiple promotion before the Yankees home/home series.

I was; however, very impressed with Jeurys Familia on Sunday and the Mets might want to consider pairing him up with Mejia as an 8th/9th inning combo.