The Mack Report - Steve vs. Mets Twitter, Slugger Gsellman, Marte Injury and OF Projection, Is Max Back?

 

Steve vs. Mets Twitter, Slugger Gsellman, Marte Injury and OF Projection, Is Max Back? 

Morning. 

It seems that Mets Twitter is getting to Steve Cohen this early in the season. 

Mr. C posted the following that expressed how he was feeling after seven games: 

“In the hedge fund business, I’ll have a bad week and it doesn’t define my year. It doesn’t define my month. This is kind of the same thing. It’s a really small sample. It’s foolish to make conclusions in such a short period of time.”

I’m surprised he dealt from the hip this early. Obviously, some of the more critical Mets fans online have been highly critical of decisions made early. 

My guess is they covered decisions to send the prospects to Syracuse and then call up one of them (Alvarez) to sit on the bench. 

 

I have been quite critical in the past regarding ex-Met pitcher, Robert Gsellman. I was treated with total disrespect by him when I attempted to interview him when he pitched for the Savannah Sand Gnats. 

Let’s put that in the past right now and send props out to the slugger. That’s right… slugger. 

Robert now plays in Japan for the Yokohama Bay Stars of the Japan Central League and found himself with a bat in his hand the day he pitched in last week. No problem. Gsellman lined a shot into right center for an RBI double. 

Back in the day, Gsellman’s best friend on the Gnats was fellow pitcher John Gant. Both had a promising projection in MLB baseball, Now Robert pitches for Yokohama while Gant does the same for the Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Nippon Professional Baseball League. 

There’s a fine line between a Cy Young award and eating sushi every night from a street cart. 

 

The past weekend’s injury to Starling Marte just seems to be another in a series of nagging setbacks for the former All-Star. It also exposed the fragility of the talent in the Mets outfield system. 

The Mets affiliate outfield super-talent is a little thin these days. Top 10 Mets prospect Alex Ramirez (through Monday: .200) is playing Brooklyn this season and the norm for the conservative Mets is if a player starts the season at the A+ level, it will be two more minor league seasons before he’s major league ready. 

Add to this the fact that the Mets have current prospects that were ready for the MLB being returned to AAA and things get even more dark. Lastly, trhe Mets reluctance of turning prospects like Ronny Mauricio into outfielders… well… you get the bleak picture. 

Down the road:  Nick Morabito, four seasons away. 

Easy peasy solution: Put Jeff McNeil in left and bring up Mauricio to play second. 

 

I watched every pitch Max Scherzer threw on Monday against the Padres. 

The good news is he allowed only one hit all night and gave up no home runs. 

The bad news?  He only lasted five innings, giving up three walks in 97 pitches. He also produced eight 3-2 counts, which put that strain on his pitch count. 

Gone, for at least one night, were the gopher balls and the fast balls that hung up there in the high area of the zone. 

“I’m not broken. I wasn’t broken after the Milwaukee start. I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. I just had to fine-tune some things.”

 The fact that San Diego didn’t get to their hotel the night before until 3am. But though his fastball didn’t hang up there like his last outing, it had a hard time hitting the edges of the zone. 

Was he sharp?  In my opinion, no. 

Is he heading in a better direction? Definitely. 

Is he the best 4.41-ERA starter in the league?  Think so.