Morning Report – July 11th – Bartolo Colon, 2nd Half Direction, Tulo

                                                                                                                                            

Coming Later Today –        

           10 00 am -  Ernest Dove - To Contend, or Not to Contend? That is the Mets Question.

          12 00 pm - Stephen Guilbert- Future Major Leaguers- Las Vegas 51s

            2 00 pm - Brian Mangan - Sandy Alderson is Right, the Mets Are a .500 Team: Run Differential Explained  
                                                                                                  

            4 00 pm – 2015 Draft Profile  -   RHP  -  Kyle Funkhouser  -  Louisville - UPDATED 6-13-14

It seems that the Mets have overcome their inability to win baseball games at home. Going into Thursday’s game they were 22-22 at home, while playing only 20-27 away. Boy, we could use that win-loss record for away games from last year right about now.

Toby Hyde ‏@tobyhyde  

Champ Stuart just scored from second on a Dominic Smith sac fly to the warning track. He scored from second. #speedkills

I never expected the Mets to sweep Atlanta, though it would have been sweet. The secret of playing baseball at this time of the year is winning the series and the Mets did that.

What's needed to make the playoffs is a combination of your team playing well and the others that are currently ranked ahead of you coming back in your direction. This will hopefully continue when the Mets play Miami beginning today and, with a little skill mixed with luck, win their third series in a row.

The first resurgence would be passing the Marlins in the standings. The next could happen if other teams play badly, but this could all easily come down to all of us becoming Nationals fans when they play the Braves.

Now THAT would be a hoot.

The New York Post’s Ken Davidoff is the first beat reporter to go on paper and call for the Mets to throw in the towels they’ve been waving. http://nypost.com/2014/07/09/its-time-for-the-mets-to-let-fans-dream-big/ 

He mentioned a number of players, but singled out SP Bartolo Colon as the main guy that should be moved via a trade. He also said that the Mets should set a conservative goal of going 40-32 for the rest of the season and finishing the year 81-81. This, as he puts it, would start the healing process. IMO, a major team-approved fluff piece.

TP said –

            Mack, Nice column as usual. When the Mets face RHP, Grandy should be leading off and Duda should be hitting cleanup each and every game. It is looking more and more like Alderson made the right choice in retaining Duda over Davis, but we need to see how Duda now handles the cleanup role and if he can show improvement in the "close and late" ABs, in which he has been dreadful up to this point in 2014. The Dude establishing himself as a legit middle of the lineup bat will be quite helpful to the franchise. I know it is tempting to use Grandy in the middle of the order, especially given his improvement since April, but they have no better alternative, and I think he looks comfortable in the role, and may even have a better mental approach when leading off. Also, I would like to see Captain Kirk get more starts vs. RHP. This should come mostly at the expense of EYjr, but he can also give Lagares a day of rest weekly vs. a tough RHP. The sample size is small, but Kirk looks improved and if he can keep down the Ks, his athleticism makes him a great candidate for a 4th OF.

TP, you’re getting into some areas that are very important for building the foundation of the 2015 team.

A few good things first… Granderson is proving more every day that his deal was worth it… Duda is becoming a legitimate 35-95 threat in this league… deGrom has been a God-sent pitcher… Nieuwenhuis and Campbell has proven they can handle a future utility role… and d’Arnaud is proving this month that he belongs in the majors.

I would make a couple of adjustments for the remainder of the season whether we get new players or not… continue the rehab process with Montero and eventually send him back to Queens to join the back end of the pen… give Duda the lion share of starts at first, regardless whether or not the pitcher is a lefty or righty. Let’s see if he can handle it… platoon Campbell and Kirk in left field for the remainder of the season… and let Tejada finish the season at short in Queens while Flores gets his confidence back in Vegas.

All of these are small moves, but I consider them good ones for the future of this team.

Barnaby, Daniel to me -

            Hi Mack,  I’m sure many people are speculating about Tulo these days with the recent rumors of him not being satisfied in Colorado but I wanted to throw my .02 cents in here. I think the Mets can contend next year if they land Tulo, it would be a lineup transforming move.  This would be my off season plan. 

            First I’d extend Murphy, give him 4 years at 8 a year.  We all know he’s no defensive wiz but he’s a perfect 2 hitter. We trade away Colon for the best prospect we can get. No contract for Eric Young Jr. and we offer a 3 year 10 mil a year deal for Melky Cabrera. 

            Now the big part, we trade for Tulo.  Every single minor leaguer is up for grabs.  Ideally I’d like to keep Nimmo and Matz but I’d be willing to give up just about anyone. 

            I’d push Tejada, Flores (because there’s plenty of spots open for him to play there) Thor and Plawecki, plus 2 others below the AA level.   Either way though, if there are other people in the minors that we need to throw in to get it done we should do it. 

            I’d like Montero and Matz to stick around in the minors for depth (plus I can see Matz replacing Niese or Gee in another year or so.)   I’d go with a 5 man bench and 7 man pen.  This is how the team would shake out.

            ROTATION:  Harvey, Niese, Gee, Wheeler, deGrom

            BULLPEN:  Parnell. Mejia, Black, Familia, Torres, Hefner, Edgin

            STARTING LINEUP - Granderson RF, Murphy 2B, Wright 3B, Tulo SS, Duda 1B, d’Arnaud C, Cabrera LF, Lagares CF

            BENCH – Recker, Campbell, Tovar, Nieuwenhuis, Brown

            That’s a pretty dangerous looking lineup and 1-4 will be downright deadly.  The pen looks like a strength as well with 2 guys in Torres and Heffner that offer viable rotation depth.  This is a team where the veterans are on the young side with Grandy being the oldest.  They could contend for a number of years.     

            Cheers, Dan

            Mack – I’ll let the readers give their opinion here, but I don’t think Colorado would go for this based on the fact that other teams could offer higher quality players

           I hate discussing trades that never happen especially about players we never have a chance of getting.

          The cost of someone like Tulo or Stanton could set back your team for 5+ years. Whether we like it or not, Sandy is in Year 4 of a plan that is supposed to bring this team some success in a year or two.

          We all know it will only happen if we keep our best pitchers. This is not the time to bail on any of them.

          Harvey, Wheeler, Syndergaard, Gee, Niese, deGrom... you need six because one is always on the DL.

          Trade off Colon and put Montero in the pen... and you have 100% of your games being pitched by someone that could be most team's SP 1, 2, or 3...   

           You have to give this rotation a chance to prove this.