1/5/20

John From Albany – Mets Breakfast Links 1/5/2020


Winter ball updates below and more on Yoenis Cespedes.

Some of the best bloggers in the business looked at the Yoenis Cespedes Boar story.



Mets 360 had a story about Edwin Diaz and Bold Predictions. “Here’s a bold prediction. Edwin Diaz will be better next year. The peripheral stats support that. An expectation that he won’t be better is just pessimistic. He was literally the worst closer in baseball last year. He could just be average and that would be significantly better.”

Mets 360 also had an in depth analysis of “The root of Wilson Ramos’ struggles and how to plan for 2020.”  Way too much data to quickly summarize but here is the final “takeaway” – “Utilizing the exaggerated results of most of the Mets pitchers between the two catchers makes it a strong possibility to have the 26th man be a catcher and have Nido take over late in games to help the bullpen’s results, and let Nido catch Syndergaard.”


The Daily News says the “Mets need J.D. Davis to follow in J.D. Martinez’s footsteps.” The article notes how both players saw better results after adjusting their swings. 


Rising Apple says why the Mets bullpen is not the best in baseball: “…there are holes left. There are questions about the ability of far too many of these guys to declare it the best around.” 




Empire Sports Media asked if Robinson Cano is capable of bouncing back.  “He needs to work in strengthening his legs muscles, among other things. However, if the New York Mets can have a healthy Cano, good things are in store.”



Reflections on Baseball talked about the Mets lack of situational hitting in 2019.  Great points including the following Mets ranks out of the 15 National League Teams from the Baseball Reference Website: Grounded into double plays  (2nd most); Productive outs make (Successful advancement of a runner) (12th); Percentage of baserunners who scored (10th); Runner advanced with none out and a runner on second (dead last); Runners left on base (4th most); Strikeouts (11th most). 


Yahoo.com on the status of the lawsuit from a group of minor league players suing Major League Baseball over alleged illegally low wages. “MLB had sought to prevent a 2014 lawsuit brought by minor league baseball players seeking minimum wage and overtime pay from proceeding as a class action, but the Ninth Circuit court in San Francisco has denied the league’s request.”  




Last night in the Puerto Rican Winter League and in the Dominican League, no current Mets saw action.  Here are some notable ex-Mets that did:

In the Dominican, the Aguilas Cibaenas beat the Leones del Escogido 7-5 (box).

In that game, Carlos Gomez played center field and went 1 for 4, with an RBI and a walk.

Cesar Puello went 0 for 3 with a walk and 2 strikeouts.

Jonathan Niese started for the Aguilas Cibaenas going 5 innings giving up 3 runs on 7 hits with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts.    

2019 Syracuse Mets Pitcher Arquimedes Caminero went one scoreless inning giving up one hit and recorded one strikeout.

In the other game, the Toros Del Este beat the Tigres del Licey 2-1 (box).

Jordany Valdespin played right field and went 0-3 with a walk and a run scored.

Ramon E. Ramirez recorded the save pitching the ninth but it was not easy.  The pitcher the Mets obtained in the Angel Pagan trade to the Giants gave up three singles to load the bases then balked in a run before striking out the final batter of the game.  In all, Ramon gave up 3 hits, one run, a balk, and two strikeouts. 

In Puerto Rico, just one ex-Met was in action as Juan Centeno caught, went 0 for 3 with a walk and a run scored as the Cangrejeros de Santurce beat the Atenienses de Manati 8-6 (box).

We haven’t looked at the Venezuela League in a while but three ex-Mets continue to play.

Wuilmer Becerra is still in the top ten batting in the league with a .325 Batting Average with a .393 OBP and .413 SLG with 2 homers and 19 RBIs. 

Wilfredo Tovar was over .300 for a large part of the season.  He is now hitting .293, 2 HR, 20 RBIs, .331 OBP, .414 SLG.

Ronny Cedeno is hitting .230 in 38 games, 135 at bats, 3 HRs, 18 RBIs, .298 OBP, .341 SLG.

In Australia, Gavin Cecchini has not played since 12/21/19.  He hit .278 in 19 games, 2 HR, 8 RBIs, 18 strikeouts, 2 Stolen Bases, .303 OBP, .417 SLG.



UltimateMets has the date in Mets History:

Born on this date:
Died on this date:
Transactions:

New York Mets traded 
Vince Coleman to the Kansas City Royals for Kevin McReynolds on January 5, 1994.

New York Yankees signed Miguel Cairo of the New York Mets as a free agent on January 5, 2006.

New York Mets signed free agent David Newhan of the Baltimore Orioles on January 5, 2007.

New York Mets traded Corey Coles and Ryan Meyers to the Chicago Cubs for Angel Pagan on January 5, 2008.

New York Mets signed free agent Jason Bay of the Boston Red Sox on January 5, 2010.

Milwaukee Braves signed Eric Young of the New York Mets as a free agent on January 5, 2016.

New York Mets traded Bobby WahlAdam Hill and Felix Valerio to the Milwaukee Brewers for Keon Broxton on January 5, 2019.


Want something else tracked here each day?  Please leave a comment below.

6 comments:

TexasGusCC said...

Incredible coverage John. Do you sleep?

John From Albany said...

Thanks Gus. Just love baseball. I would rather follow a Dominican, Australian, or Puerto Rican game on my phone than watch football.

John From Albany said...

And if I ran the MLB Network, I would be broadcasting these games.

TexasGusCC said...

That’s a very good point. I wonder if they feel that they wouldn’t sell enough ads to cover costs? And do these leagues play at night, when people may get home to tune in and see? I’m surprised that they don’t do a little bit during the winter, maybe playoffs only.

John From Albany said...

Or at least the Caribbean Series that starts in February before Spring Training starts.

Anonymous said...

The Theoretical

True, the 2020 NY Mets have a lot of one year contracts looming heading into the 2021 season, and with really good players. However, is it not within at least "theoretical reason" to conceivably try and think of a way to acquire Mookie Betts for here now?

Good question and who knows.

Humor me some.

Matz ($5.3 million), Conforto ($9.2 million), and Gimenez ($.583 million), plus $4.0 million cash for Betts ($20.0 million), Chavis ($.583 million), and McGrath (.583 million).

Reasoning behind.

The Red Sox may need another starter to go with Sale, Rodriques, Hernandez, and Price, and Matz costs a lot less than Marcus Stroman would at his $11.8 million salary. Conforto would take over Fenway left or right field, with Gimenez being their heir apparent at second base should Pedroia fail at his comeback bid with the knee thing.

The Red Sox would send to the NYM CF Mookie Betts (with Brandon Nimmo moving over to right field.) They also would get multi-positional utility man Michael Chavis to back up second and third base, and solid young lefty starter Daniel McGrath who would open up in AAA with Tom Szapucki as possible mid-season call-ups and injury insurance starters. (Kevin Smith and David Peterson would be vying for the seventh reliever spot out of camp.)

With Stroman in this trade idea (instead of Matz) the Mets may need to send maybe $7.0 million cash.

Who knows, I just woke up.