Morning Report – June 3rd – The Outfield, Noah Syndergaard

                                                                                             

Coming Later Today –    

                                                         

        9 30 am – Herb G – Minor League Report  

 

11 am –   Stephen Guilbert - Top of the 2014 MLB Draft Still Uncertain

12 30 pm –  Stephen Guilbert - Blue Jays Dictate Mets' Fate in '14 Draft

2 pm - Cubs Den - Mock

4 pm – 2015 Draft Profile - SS/2B  -  Alex Bregman  -  LSU

        6 pm –  Luke Bonfield, Tyler Kolek, Brady Aiken, Max Pentecost , Gareth Morgan, Chase Vallot

So, does TC sit Flores now? I hate to start sounding like Chris 'Maddog' Russo now, but HOW DO YOO SIT FLORES NOW? You asked the kid to do everthing you wanted him to do and he became the best hitter at AAA, He also did that as the younger player in AAA, SO HOW DO YOU SIT HIM NOW? You call him up to the majors and you tell him he's the starting shortstop only to then let him sit on the bench for the next 18 years. Now he hits you a grand slam and the Philly announcer is comparing him to Jhonny Peralta. Would you sit Johnny Peralta down?

Look, everything's not perfect on this team this year, but for right now, this week, this season, HOW DO YOU SIT DOWN WILMER FLORES, LUCAS DUDA AND BOBBY ABREAU? You then surround then with David Wright  Curtis Granderson, and Daniel Murphy and the two best defensive players down the middle of the field, Travis d'Arnaud and Matt den Dekker to the next six games played in Chicago and San Francisco.

And call these guys in a room and let them know that they don't have to go check on a lineup card again until they get back to Queens.

Let's see what our current best team can do WITH OUR BEST SHORTSTOP in the lineup.



Richard Jones said –

The outfield - I think Lagares is showing that he is going to hit. He is a long term solution to centerfield. Granderson is going to be here for a few more years and along with Nimo they should cover the 2nd outfield position for a while. They might overlap for at most a year. That leaves another outfield spot which the Mets have no current or foreseeable future solution to. I don’t think this is something the Mets should try to address through the draft. They can’t wait. I think they should target prospects like Joc Pederson and Gregory Polanco. Could deGrom, Gee, Neise or Wheeler get one of those?

Shortstop - This is a need but it is not as large as the outfield since it isn’t as big an offensive position as leftfield. Tejeda is coming around. Flores seemed to make all the routine plays

        Mack – Richard, a few things.

Don’t mistake the past few games with Philadelphia for a great pitching duel between two great teams. You’re watching two teams that simply can’t generate enough offense to win a simple nine inning baseball game.

Yes, the Mets have enough young talent to generate trades for an additional outfielder and a new shortstop. These things take time. You’re watching the current showcasing on Jacob deGrom, which will definitely set him up for a trade (if Dillon Gee ever gets back on a mound). You’ll also see Daisuke Matsuzaka dealt as a loner, and my suggestion would be to package both of them to the Dodgers for Peterson.

(Ya know, for all the great young starters this teams seems to have they sure are throwing up a lot of guys named Everland, Colon, and Matsuzaka and not pitching at all Harvey, and Gee,)

As for shortstop, my choice would be to find an outfielder with pop first. Peterson or Polanco would make so much sense on this team for so many reasons.

Oh… one more thing. You may need to start worry about the catcher also. The one currently playing doesn’t seem to working out.

While I’m on the subject of the outfield…

        I discussed this yesterday in the comments section of my Morning Report. No one is happy with the acquisitions of both Curtis Granderson and Chris Young and followers continue to question whether or not the Mets should have re-signed Marlon Byrd. My memory fades sometimes but I simply don’t remember re-signing Byrd to a Young-type deal as being an option.

        It no longer matters what was a good deal and what wasn’t. What now matters is the team actually still has a chance to make the wild card schedule this year and the front office/manager has to figure out how to get them there.

        The answer here is a simple one though many of you may not like it.

        This is a team with limited talent, so, the only way you get to where you want to go is to play the best players you have in the dugout. Period.

        Your best outfielder… right now… is Juan Lageres, but he’s not available. Fine. Get over it and fill out the lineup card with what the next best is and stop looking to the Las Vegas stat sheets to find your answer.

        Any combination of Granderson, Young, Bobby Abreu (frankly, one of your most valuable players so far this year), and Eric Campbell is what is going to get you through the next couple of series. You know that Lagares is coming back so there’s no reason to recall Andrew Brown and let him sit on the bench.

        Your next big decision after that is what happens to either Abreu or Campbell when Eric Young Jr. comes back.

        But this is your 2014 Mets outfield. Like it or lump it.

        And while I’m on Campbell. He’s been a pleasant surprise however, the guy have only a little more than 30 at-bats in the league.

        You have to plot a strategy like they did in World War Two to get to Berlin. One town at a time (we didn’t employ this kind of strategy in Viet Nam because we never had a plan to go to Hanoi). You go to Philadelphia for a five game series. You hope to win four but you’ll be thrilled to escape with three victories. You never look around at what the other teams are doing. Just do your job and you’ll have a good chance of achieving your goals.

        My hopes are that Sandy Alderson will address this position before the trading period runs out. There’s enough good pitching in the system to package two of the guys for someone like Joc Peterson. I’ve been a General Manager. I too would rather have someone under team control.

        And I’ve been wrong about this before (Lagares) but it seems to me that the only true outfield prospect the team has in its system right now is Brandon Nimmo, who will be ready on opening day 2016.

        

        Until then, the outfield looks day-to-day.

An observer’s view on Noah Syndergaard –

        “He needs to go back to the fastball after it gets hit, instead of going immediately to a breaking ball that is right in the hitter’s swing path. Don’t abandon the fastball when they make contact off it. Just go further inside with it next time.”

        Good advice from Andy Martino. Very few people on earth can consistently throw a baseball as fast as Syndergard, and there are even less that can swing and barrel up on a pitch that fast.

                What all this means is position is everything.

        ‘Thor’ just may be thinking about this too much. Just throw the damn ball and get up here and help us!