The Syracuse Mets held a virtual open house last night
featuring General Manager Jason Smorol
and Manager Chad Kreuter.
Jason Smorol detailed all of the enhancements to the NBT and
COVID-19 protocols.
- About 2,000 fans will be admitted to each game.
- Fans who have had their full vaccination 14 days prior or a negative test 72 hour prior may attend a game.
- Seats are located in socially distanced “pods”.
- Tickets will go on sale for the month of May on Tuesday, April 20th at 10 a.m.
- On Monday, April 19th at 10 a.m. fans who bought tickets last year and did not get a refund may exchange last year’s tickets a day before they go on sale to the public.
Manager Chad Kreuter had some interesting observations about
his roster.
- When asked if there were any Latinos on the roster as there is a large Latino population in Syracuse Chad mentioned that Wifredo Tovar will likely be the SS, Jesus Reyes and Yennsy Díaz on the mound and Johneshwy Fargas in the outfield.
- When asked about how the Outfield might be the fastest in Pro Ball he mentioned the speed of Mallex Smith, Khalil Lee, Drew Ferguson, and Johneswy Fargas. Chad added that you have to manage to the players you have and that will mean taking advantage of their speed.
- Asked about the rotation, the first name mentioned was Thomas Szapucki. He stated that he has been doing well at the Alternate Site. He recently struck out 12 in an inter-squad game and is on the taxi squad roster this weekend in Colorado. He thought there might even be a chance he pitches this weekend because of the weather.
- He then mentioned Corey Oswalt 2nd and Jordon Yamamoto 3rd.
- Asked about the catching department. Chad said it was a “little lite”. He said that the Mets have some real good defensive catchers at the lower levels but that he was not able to bring them as the club felt they were not ready yet for AAA (no names mentioned). He stated how Patrick Mazeika was a bat first catcher and also noted Bruce Maxwell.
Overall a great Virtual Open House. The Syracuse Mets plan to post a recorded
version on the web soon.
13 comments:
Nice update.
Nice to hear about Szapucki and his 12 Ks. Very nice.
Mazeika and Ferguson are two guys I am very interested in following. And Yamamoto on the mound.
Any mention of Ryley G?
Thank you very much John for fitting time in between your cash paying job, your faminy, your dinner, and ypur dog to participate in this last night.
Thanks for the update John.
I am a bit disappointed to hear Kreuter, a former MLB catcher, call the tandem of Mazeika and Maxwell “lite”. Not that I question his judgement but it just dampened my expectations of either being much of a factor down the road.
The 12 K’s sound nice, but who was the competition?
Did he mention who would play CF?
AAA is a weird situation where you have former major leaguers like Mallex Smith, prospects like Thomas Szapucki and others that are in between as veteran fillers like Wilfredo Tovar.
On the catcher front, I do believe most regarded Pat Maeika for his bat rather than his glove, hence his workouts at 1B. Catcher is a position that unless you hit like Mike Piazza you cannot exist on bat alone.
He might have said that because he was looking for a defense first guy to be their 3rd catcher.
All affiliates carry 3 catchers though one might not be active and is just used in the pen.
I have reached out to some of the players today to see if they will confirm they are returning to Syracuse.
Will report back here if I 👂 anything.
Gus - I was surprised about Chad's comments on the catching core as well. Also surprised he didn't mention David Rodriquez.
He didn't specify who would be in CF - just that his outfield was very fast (that was actually in response to my question to him to talk about the outfield.) As I said above he mentioned Mallex Smith first, then Fargas, Ferguson, and Lee.
Overall I was impressed with Chad on the zoom. Really look forward to the upcoming season.
I think Syracuse will mostly be used as a place with AAAA players that can come up if there is an injury smattered with a few prospects - like Lee and Szapucki.
Thanks Mack.
No mention of Ryley G Tom. I will ask about him if there is another Zoom before the rosters are finalized. If there are other players as well let me know. Chad seemed to have an idea of who was going to be on the team next year.
Just sent him a message.
The two guys that interest me the most are Lee and Ferguson. For some reason (unknown), I am hoping that Ferguson can come up and be a useful player, if not this year then next. Something makes me think he is a better bat than Almora, and a full season of reps in the outfield will help there.
And perhaps not specifically apropos to this article, but I don't think I missed anything but any scuttlebutt about the PTBNL that is supposed to be going to Boston from the Lee trade?
Nice summary, John.
Post a Comment