Morning Report – June 4th – Jeurys Familia, Arismendy Alcantara, Steven Matz, Jon Singleton

 

Polo Grounds 

  

                                                                                             

Coming Later Today –  

                                                           

        9 30 am – Herb G – Minor League Report

        11 00 am -   Reese Kaplan - Random Mets Thoughts

        12 30 pm - Craig Brown - I May Be Wrong

        2 00 pm - D Whit - The Kids Are Alright Part 3- Rick Ankiel's release and the rise of the future Mets         

4 pm – 2015 Draft Profile - RHP - Kyle Funkhouser – Louisville

        

Roster Moves - 

    LHP John Mincone from Savannah to Brooklyn

    LHP Paul Paez from Brooklyn to Savannah

    OF Dustin Lawley returns to Binghamton from DL

    LHP Alex Panteliodis from Binghamton to Brooklyn

C.J. Nitkowski wrote an interesting article for Fox Sports saying that the Mets approach of using multiple pitchers as closers ‘could start a trend that may change baseball’. This is hilarious. Going back to aluminum bats could change baseball. Putting umpires on the pitcher’s mound could change baseball. But using Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia both as closers probably is nothing more than a numbers game.

Still, let’s give Nitkowski the benefit of double and add in Vic Black here. You now have three pitchers with wipeout stuff and maybe it’s less the pitcher and more the freshness when the situation comes around. You also (I’m Sandy-thinking now) don’t have to pay any of them big closer money.

The best part about articles being written like this is there’s a better chance now that you will never see any of these three guys ever again pitch in either the 5^th or 6^th inning. My hopes, when either Rafael Montero comes back as a reliever, or when Bobby Parnell returns next year, you won’t see any of them in the 6^th inning either.

You add these five with the projected 2015 rotation (Harvey, Wheeler, Syndergaard, Gee, Niese), than add in one of the rotation guys that didn’t make the cutoff (say Colon) as the long man, and you’ve got a kick-ass pitching staff.

You ask where is deGrom?

He’s wearing an LAD uniform J

It’s June, so this is probably a good time to start looking at the teams that have no chance of making it to the playoffs this year and may be trying to clear some salary.

Did I say Cubs again?

It’s pretty bad when your team has less than $93mil in salary and $19mil is being paid to Alfonzo Soriano, who’s not on your team anymore.

The Cubs have an interesting situation at shortstop. They’ve signed Starlin Castro to a $60mil contract that runs through 2019. Normally, the Cubs tend to sign long term deals and immediately start looking for ways of getting out of them, but the fans love Castro who has become a star in Chicago.

They also have two ‘prospect’ that have both hit the AAA level. Javier Baez was picked 8^th overall in the 2011 draft; however, he hasn’t developed defensively and now projects as the possible future second baseman for Chicago. This still leaves 22-year old Arismendy Alcantara. He’s a gap hitter with pop that has a cannon arm. He’s also under team control well into the next decade.

As we know, the Cubs are already rumors to trade Jeff Samardzija this month and Jason Hammel’s contract expires at the end of this season.

I would think the Mets could come up with one of their young pitchers to find themselves a new shortstop here.

Toby Hyde  did a nice job of breaking out the starters at the A+ and A level. It was an honest piece, which basically said that the only guy that seems to have a guarantee to reach the Mets rotation someday would be Steven Matz.

Matz will most probably be moved to Binghamton (along with CF Brandon Nimmo and 2B Dilson Herrera) just after the all-star game in the Florida league.

There’s a lot of talent at both Savannah and St. Lucie, but there just isn’t anyone except Matz that stands out (like a Syndergaard or Montero). The good news is we said the same thing about Jacob deGrom and look what he’s doing.

Check the post out.

There was lots of chatter regarding the five year extension signed by 1B Jon Singleton with Houston. Estimates on the amount of the contract range from $10-$30.5mil, though what would have been his first year of free agency ($13mil team option). Other agents are calling for Singleton’s agent’s head, though, in the long run he could turn out to be another Ike Davis and the only people that will benefit will be his children.

(final details on deal -  $1.5-2014, $2mil 2015-2018, $2.5mil ($500K buyout) 2019, $5mil ($250K buyout) 2020, $13mil-2021 ($250K buyout) 

All this did was make me run to the Cot site to see if there was anyone currently on the Mets that Sandy and Company should be trying to put a deal together like this one.

Based on it being a five year, deal, it would only be worth the Mets while if the five year period included at least two years past the arbitration period the player was currently playing through.

So, your contract would be the remainder of this year and the additional years of 2015-2019.

This leaves you Lucas Duda, Ruben Tejada, Dillon Gee, Eric Young Jr., Buddy Carlyle, and Dana Eveland to pick from.

See anybody?

And lastly,

The Mets are currently working their way through a six game road trip that could return them home solidly entrenched into second place in their division. This is going to be one of those nail biting wild car races between 6-8 average team, two of which will prevail because a few of their average players step over the line. One of those teams could be the Mets but it’s not going to happen it they return to CitiField and the stands are either empty or filled with wise-ass negative fans.

So, you wanted a pennant race and it looks like you might have one. Now jump in the water and get wet and help this team get through June.