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| Photo by Mack Ade |
Non-Roster ST Invitees
–
RHPs - Chase Bradford, Joel Carreno,
John Church, Jeremy Hefner, Rafael Montero, Miguel Socolovich, Noah
Syndergaard, Cory Mazzoni, Logan Verrett
LHPs - Adam Kolarek, Jack Leathersich
Catchers - Taylor Teagarden, Kevin
Plawecki
Infielders - Brandon Allen, Eric
Campbell, Anthony Seratelli, Daniel Muno
Outfielders - Dustin Lawley, Cory
Vaughn, Brandon Nimmo
Mack – There are multiple reasons these guys get invited to
Big Boy Camp.
One… have you ever watched a pre-season game? If you have,
you know that by the 5th or 6th inning all starters have
hit the showers. In fact, as the pre-season rolls on, more and more players are
invited over from ‘the other site of the complex’ to grab their glove and help
finish a game. It is a matter of numbers.
Two, in many cases, this is actually the first time people
like Terry Collins will get a chance to see some
of the prospects play. None of the Mets coaches have seen someone like Nimmo so
the Mets field brass will get an opportunity to see firsthand what’s down the
pipeline.
And three, it’s just a wonderful thing to reward a player
with going through the system. I talked last night with John Church’s mother and, according to her, he’s on ‘Cloud Nine’
about this. So is Kevin Plawecki. These guys
have been playing baseball since T-Ball and this begins the reward they had
hoped to get someday out of this game.
(speaking of Church, here is your typical workhorse kind of
pitcher (23rd round) that just goes out there and does his job every
night. His mother reminded me that I am basically the only writer that has
followed him and said anything supportive about him. What has John done? Over
five seasons for five Mets clubs: 20-14, 3.41, 1.34, 185-G, 319.0-IP, 277-K,
135-BB. In Las Vegas last year: 23-G, 3-0, 3.21.)
I’ve stopped going to these games due to my inability to drive alone and, when I did, I never really got to know any of these players very well.
They are taught early to be careful around news people, especially the ones
that don’t come off as a beat reporter. Still, you see them enough so, in the
future, if they walk by you in spring training, you might get an occasional nod.
What you do get, as a writer, is the feeling of being a
distant uncle as you watch them ascend through the various affiliate levels.
And, you smile on days like yesterday, when you see your ‘nephew’ do good.
David Wright on Tom Glavine
–
Glavine wasn't worried about jinxing his Hall of Fame
candidacy. He knew the credentials he had created at that point of what became
a 22-year career would open all doors in Cooperstown. He declined because it
was the proper response.
David Wright was apprised of that anecdote two days later -- David Wright,
who lives his life by a code similar to Glavine's.
"Would you expect Tom to do anything else?" Wright
said. "I have so much respect for him. You can learn a lot about being a
good person and being a professional by watching Tom Glavine."
Mack – No one is ever going to call Glavine an ex-Mets
pitcher, though he did start for them for five years. The fans will also always
reserve their opinion of him on his last outing, sort of like that infamous Carlos Beltran non-swing. Still, in 2006 and 2007,
Glavine went 28-15, pitching 398.1 solid innings. There was no trading here. He
came in a free agent, declined a $13mil one-year contract option with the Mets
for 2008, and signed instead back with the Braves for $8mil. It simply was
never the same.
Is he part of Mets history?
Definitely.
ZIPS Pitching –
Mets supporters with a sensitive disposition might want to
avoid inspecting the pitching projections for their club below — mostly, that
is, because heroic and tragic Matt Harvey‘s name
appears atop everyone else’s. ZiPS doesn’t know that he’s likely to miss all of
2014, just that he recorded a total of 178.1 innings in 2013 and was excellent
while so doing.
More than has been the case with other clubs in this ongoing
release of ZiPS, it’s the case with the Mets that the five pitchers most likely
to begin the season in the rotation aren’t necessarily the five considered most
qualified by Dan Szymborski’s computer math.
Ranked solely by projected WAR, both Rafael Montero (1.5
zWAR) and Noah Syndergaard (1.4 zWAR) would
merit a place in the opening-day rotation. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2014-zips-projections-new-york-mets/
Mack – I talked briefly with Dan about this and didn’t share
what I’m writing here.
It’s nice to see both Montero and Syndergaard’s name here as
projected Mets pitchers in 2014, but how serious can you take a computer sheet
that also projects the likes of Stephen Matz and
Matt Fox making this team?
ZIPS… Steamer… Oliver… all a waste of paper.
Brandon Nimmo
Injury Splits –
Prior to April 20 (pre-injury): .392/.489/.527
April 20 through July (injured): .207/.330/.282
August through end of season (recovering): .315/.468/.398
And most this was accomplished in a home field pitchers dream
of pitching in.
Nimmo is a very young baseball player with a limited amount
of experience. He has one of the nicest swings I have ever seen. Sort of hangs
the bat just off his shoulder and follows through with excellent bat speed.
The power we haven’t seen yet could be dependent on what he
did this off-season. I interviewed him last year with 1B Jayce Boyd and Nimmo was very impressed that Boyd had
gained 15 pounds off muscle in the off-season. Hopefully, that’s what we’ll see
here once camp opens.
Deadspin -
I guess turning over a vote to an entity consisting of your
cronies is fine, and turning one over to an entity consisting of baseball fans
isn't. QED. Whatever, though. For our part, we'd like to acquire another vote
next year. We think we have a decent line on one, and it wouldn't hurt to get
another. The first, we'd hand over to the public. The second? Who knows. Maybe
we'll give it to Dan Le Batard.
(This is
going to take a few days to go away…)
Jerry Crasnick
I spent 10 years flying all over the country, waiting for
interviews in clubhouses, fighting deadlines and investing a big chunk of my
life as a beat writer and national baseball writer to earn a Hall of Fame vote.
Maybe it sounds quaint or old-fashioned, but it means something to me to be
able to sit down with that ballot every December and make my choices. It's a
personal privilege, even though I know the process isn't perfect and we're
subject to criticism for the choices we make. So I didn't see anything
especially "noble'' in Dan LeBatard's decision
to give his vote to Deadspin. I respect Dan and consider him a friend. But if
he doesn't like the way the process works, he has a forum to express his
opinion both privately and publicly -- and maybe even help change the system.
The Deadspin ploy got him a lot of publicity and helped fuel the anti-BBWAA
sentiment and rampant sense of cynicism that helps feed Twitter. Beyond that, I
have no earthly idea what he accomplished that could remotely be characterized
as positive. Maybe Dan can answer that question; I certainly can't.
