Logan Taylor, Zack Wheeler, Jeff Diehl, Pedro Feliciano, Scott Hairston

I don’t like much about the Mets 2012 draft, but I do like the the 11^th pick out of East Oklahoma State JUCO, sophomore eligible P Logan Taylor. Taylor is a 6-5 righty that BA had the player ranked as the 312^th overall, with a last year stat line of: 83-IP, 120-K, 43-BB. An old scouting report:

Logan Taylor is a 2010 RHP/1B/3B with a 6'5'', 205 lb. frame from Tulsa, OK who attends Jenks HS. Outstandng pitcher's frame, lean athletic look. Fast paced delivery, stays on line, fast arm, FB 88-90 mph, mostly straight, good downhill angle when down in zone, hard spin on CB, buries many but sharp when in zone, flashes change up. Should keep improving. Premium prospect who will get pro looks next spring. Good student.

BA followed this up with:

Taylor began his college career at Northeast Texas CC in 2011, transferred to Arkansas last fall and moved on to Eastern Oklahoma State when he didn't survive the Razorbacks' final cut. He helped the Mountaineers come within an extra-inning defeat of advancing to the Junior College World Series, taking the loss in a 10th-inning relief appearance against Jefferson (Mo.) CC. Taylor ended the regional playoffs ranked third among national juco players in strikeouts (114) and strikeouts per nine innings (13.5). Taylor sometimes battles his control and command, but when he's on, he's tough on hitters with a 90-94 mph and a 12-to-6 curveball. He did a better job of keeping his 6-foot-5, 242-pound frame in shape this year. If he doesn't turn pro, he'll transfer back to Arkansas

Of course, the bottom line for the Mets was how his debut went for Brooklyn in 2012: 13-G, 0-ST, 2-0, 0.93, 0.67, 19.1-IP, 19-K, 2-BB… what is this now… Bowman, Seward, and Taylor have 77.1P, with a combined 84-K and only 6-BB? WTF? Observation: another guaranteed trip to Savannah in 2013 (21-yrs. old), but possibly St. Lucie as well.

Zack Wheeler:

"I want to prove myself. I want to go out there, try to make the choice difficult for them, just compete. I mean, wherever they want to send me, that's fine. I want to go compete wherever that is. I'm going to try to get better wherever they send me. I don't care. I just laugh because I think I've got a chance. If I come out of spring training and I'm dealing . . . "

Regarding the future of the Mets outfield, the powers to be did make a small adjustment last year to the future career of C Jeff Diehl that might translate into something good down the line. The 6-4 Diehl was drafted in the 23^rd round of the 2011 draft by the Mets, straight out of Cranston H.S. (RI). It’s very seldom you see Perfect Game give a high school player a 2.00 Pop rating and the Mets wasted little time with him behind the plate. In fact, they never played him a game there. He was signed to a $130,000 bonus but sat out the remainder of the 2011 season due to annoying injuries. 2011 came and Diehl was an outfielder and his stats for 2012 were, well, better than some first rounders on this team: 171-AB, .251/.291/.404/.695, 2-HR, 21-RBI, 64-K, 9-BB. Yes, the strikeouts are a problem and he would swing at a hornet, but he was 18-years old and it will be interesting to see what he does in Brooklyn this year.

Michael Baron‏@michaelgbaron -

 Folks, new @mets beat reporter for the Wall Street Journal: @jareddiamond. Give him a follow.

Pedro Feliciano:

            "It's nice to come home. I think I can help out some of the younger guys in the bullpen. I'm 100% healthy. Some people made a big deal that I was mad at the Mets because they overused me. That's not true. I always asked for the ball. I was the one that wanted to pitch." 

Let's give OF Scott Hairston's agent all the credit that is due him. He got his client the two deal deal he promised him. There's going to be a couple of posts later today about signing Michael Bourn. Sandy and Company needs to step up... now. Fans were willing to wait out this whole patience process (which worked for the Dickey deal), but I think the only outfielder still out there is Sammy Sosa. Sign Bourn for three years. Put a position away and move on to other needs.

Cutnpaste: Jeff Diehl. 2012 Rotation, Ruben Tejada, Bobby Parnell, The Kid

9-19-11: - link  - Jeff Diehl, C: Drafted in the 23rd round from high school in Rhode Island, Diehl signed too late to play so we have no stats to look at, but he qualifies as someone to watch in '12. He's considered raw but promising, with a strong arm, plenty of bat speed, and good power potential. His $135,000 bonus could be a real bargain if he reaches his maximum potential.

Given the organization's limited financial flexibility this winter, there's not a whole lot the Mets can do to revamp their rotation. They expect Santana to be healthy and hope he can again be an ace -- short of that, they are rooting for him at least to give them some consistent innings. Though rumors of the Mets non-tendering Mike Pelfrey may swirl this winter, I suspect the team will offer Pelfrey a contract simply because he is their best bet to deliver 200 innings. Jon Niese will be back and I'd expect more of the same from him. Dillon Gee will also be back and, the team hopes, more consistent. And I expect the Mets to sign a relatively cheap starter to fill out their rotation, a la Chris Capuano and Chris Young. Perhaps even Capuano himself will return on a less incentive-laden deal, if the money is right. - http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110919&content_id=24917188&vkey=news_nym&c_id=nym&partnerId=rss_nym

9-20-11: - http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-hope-reyes-tejada-combo-is-a-keeper-1.3183457 - Tejada is listed at 5-11, 185 pounds, but in reality, he's well under in both cases. That doesn't mean he won't generate the power Collins speaks of at some point. Dustin Pedroia, after all, is officially 5-9, 180 pounds -- again, an exaggeration -- and he has 20 homers through 150 games this season. Tejada's learning curve, however, won't be measured by how far he hits the ball. What the Mets have noticed most from him this season has been his selectivity at the plate and an ability to hit with two strikes, a fear that young players must overcome. Tejada has a .335 on-base percentage with two strikes; a year ago, it was .272.

It’s one thing to throw 96 to 100 miles per hour. It’s another to do it along with a killer slider or nasty hook. Parnell gets hitters to swing-and-miss at his slider 41 percent of the time. That sounds good and it does rank well. But the really good relievers do better. Kimbrel, League, Walden, Hanrahan, and Bard all get hitters to miss on at least half of their sliders. How many times did it seem like Parnell was about to finish off a hitter, only to give up a hit? More than a few. He’s given up 28, twice as many as last season, but hasn’t gotten twice as many outs to go with it. - http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/35051/in-depth-whats-kept-parnell-down

Gary Carter's battle with cancerous brain tumors has taken much of his energy, but the Hall of Fame catcher was able to briefly help coach his Palm Beach Atlantic University baseball team this past week. Carter was due to begin taking a second, higher-dosage round of chemotherapy pills Monday night, but his white-blood-cell count was too low, his daughter Kimmy Bloemers wrote in an online family journal to which ESPNNewYork.com has been granted access. "There is no doubt that dad is fighting an extremely difficult battle," Bloemers wrote. "He is exhausted, sad at times, unmotivated and frustrated that his body won't move like it used to. However, there are moments where we will see dad laugh, smile and show that determined attitude to win. - http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/6995672/gary-carter-attends-practice-palm-beach-atlantic-university-team

Cutnpaste: - Jeff Diehl, Fernando Martinez, Daniel Murphy, Bartolome Fortunato, Stadium Dimensions

Jeff Diehl:


Rhode Island signee Jeff Diehl is expected to sign with the New York Mets tomorrow according to a report from the Providence Journal. Diehl’s father said the combined signing bonus and education-tuition payments will be worth “a little over $300,000.” Diehl was expected to compete for the starting catcher position with the Rams in the fall. - http://www.collegebaseballdaily.com/2011/08/08/2011-mlb-draft-news-and-notes-for-august-8th  


Fernando Martinez:


So F-Mart is no longer the top prospect he was hyped to be when the Mets signed him as a sixteen year old. However, that doesn’t mean he still can’t be an effective everyday player. Unless the Mets acquire someone via trade or free agency, the Opening Day right field starter will likely come down to Lucas Duda or F-Mart (Nieunwenhuis might be in the mix as well but I see him competing for the center field job). Duda is getting plenty of at bats now and Martinez will be back with the team in September, but why wait? Why not have both Duda and Martinez in the lineup, close to everyday, at the same time for the next two months in order to see how each one performs against the same pitchers? With Murphy out, Duda could start at first base and Martinez in right field (neither one particularly excels on defense, so the judgement would be based primarily on offense). - http://risingapple.com/2011/08/08/its-time-to-promote-fernando-martinez-again



Daniel Murphy:


Daniel Murphy? Gone for the season ... done in by an errant spike by Jose Constanza (yeah, those Seinfeld jokes don't seem so f***ing funny anymore, do they!) Besides doing in the Mets for the short term hitting wise, Murphy's injury also drops his price in a potential trade in the offseason. You might say I'm crazy, but if Murphy had ended this season healthy, and Ike Davis was assured of coming back healthy in 2012, Sandy Alderson could have seen what Murphy was worth via trade to an American League in what might be the peak of his value. Sure, you'd like to see what Murphy could do at second base for a whole season, but he returns to the position for one damn inning and look what happens. I swear the Mets are like a Final Destination movie. Murphy, if he would have finished top 5 in batting probably could have brought back a significant amount in a trade if they had gone that route. Now, this pretty much assures that both Jekyll (at the plate) and Hyde (in the field) come back in 2012. If Murphy keeps hitting like he has, that's not a bad thing. But remember, Angel Pagan reached his peak last season and wasn't traded. Now what can you get for him? Not much. Murphy? You could still get something for him but not as much as you would have gotten if he had stayed healthy. I dig Murphy and his sweet bat and even his adventures in the field on a good day. But if Murphy would have given the Mets a couple of decent pitchers and perhaps a mid-level prospect, it would have been worth pursuing. Now? The flexibility is gone (maybe in more ways than one.) See you in March. - http://www.metstradamusblog.com/2011-articles/august/im-just-happy-they-didnt-drop-him.html



Bartolome Fortunato:


Bartolome Fortunato was the OTHER piece in the infamous trade in the summer of '04 that sent the Mets No. 1 pitching prospect to the Devil Rays. On July 30th, 2004 the Mets traded their top prospect Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano and of course Fortunato. Everyone knows how big a bust Zambrano was, but not many people remember how Fortunato fared with the Mets. After doing pretty well at the end of 2004, going 1-0 with a 3.86 earned run average and 20 strikeouts in 18 and 2/3 innings, Fortunato suffered a herniated disk in 2005 and was done for the year. He then pitched in two games in May of 2006 and didn’t play another game for the Mets. Fortunato then made the San Francisco Giants spring training roster in 2008, but was cut before the beginning of the year and he never made it to the majors again.



Stadium Dimensions:


Before the four-homer night, incoming minority partner David Einhorn watched batting practice with Fred Wilpon. And, according to Newsday, there was a lot of gesticulating about the outfield walls, which may be getting modified next season to make Citi Field more power friendly. David Lennon writes that the 16-foot wall in left could be halved, but cannot be moved in because behind the padding is a cement retaining wall. Sandy Alderson also modified the design of Petco Park after his first season on the job with the San Diego Padres. The GM acknowledged to Andrew Keh in the Times about dimension changes: "It is probably something we need to think about," while adding: "It’s not something we need to decide with regard to the team we have now. It’s something we need to decide with regard to the team we want to have in the future.” - http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/31438/mets-morning-briefing-8-7-11