Joe D. | Metsmerized Online- With the Mets ridiculously challenged for offense, the team should get a nice boost to the lineup when Travis d’Arnaud is activated from the disabled list. Terry Collins said he hopes d’Arnaud will hit the ground running. Don’t we all? “You can’t have spring training,” he said. “We’re in the hunt right now and you can’t afford to go 10 days, two weeks to wait until a guy gets ready.” D’Arnaud, who was hitting .317/.356/.538 with two homers and 10 RBIs in 11 games, was the team’s leading run producer went he went down.
(Chris Soto: Man...talk about a sight for sore eyes. Getting d'Arnaud back today is going to be huge considering his OPS output before he got hurt was 320 points! higher than Plawecki's performance. He should slot nicely into the #2 hole where he was hitting .333 with a 1.195 OPS before getting injured.)
Michael Baron | Just Mets- Bobby Parnell completed his rehab assignment on Tuersday night, throwing a scoreless seventh inning for the Binghamton Mets on against the Bowie Bay Sox with a walk and two strikeouts. Parnell will join the Mets at Citi Field tomorrow night, and be activated in a few days. Presumably, Parnell will be eased into higher leverage situations, and will probably have to earn his way into a prominent role in this bullpen again. As for who goes down, the logical conclusion to draw is it will be Jack Leathersich. They’re carrying three left-handed relievers, and at the very least Parnell would restore balance to the crowded bullpen on the right side.
(Chris Soto: Well like it or not, Parnell's rehab assignment expires after tonight's game so the club has to call him up. Is he ready? Probably not, but at least Parnell's last 3 outings have been much better than his earlier Binghamton performances. I expect that Parnell will only be used in low leverage situations to start. Down big or Up big, 6th inning fill in work, etc.)
Scot Cohen | Amazin Avenue- Las Vegas left-hander Steven Matz could be promoted to the Mets in the next three weeks. The biggest hurdle for the Mets to install Matz in the rotation could be finding a trade partner to move Dillon Gee or Jon Niese, or possibly even both. Gee has recently been sent to the bullpen and Niese struggled this season. Matz has been tremendous at Triple-A, where his 1.94 ERA leads the Pacific Coast League. He also leads the PCL in strikeouts with 75 in 74 1/3 innings. He's allowed just a .207 average to opposing hitters and has posted a 1.103 WHIP.
(Chris Soto: This notion that Matz is going to be promoted 3 weeks from now really picked up steam when Joel Sherman [I think] asked a Mets official if after the All-Star Break was a realistic call-up date. The unnamed official responded with, "oh, I think he'll be up here before July 1st." Beat writers and bloggers have taken that date and run with it. HERE IS MY OPINION...Matz is scheduled to start tomorrow night for the 51's....LHSP Jonathan Niese IS ALSO scheduled to pitch tomorrow night. Matz currently only needs 5 IP to get past the "150+ IP above A+" internal rule that the Mets have. All this leads me to this statement....June 11th, 2015 will be the last start Matz makes for AAA Las Vegas and he will be pitching for the MLB Mets on June 16th. AGAIN....THIS IS MY EDUCATED OPINIONATED GUESS.
Mack's Mets Draft Coverage- In case you were living under a rock yesterday, The Mets added 8 new players yesterday via the MLB Rule IV Draft. Here they all are along the stories/information Mack posted from yesterday.
3rd Round - LHP Max Wotell - Marvin Ridge H.S. (NC)
4th Round - 3B David Thompson - University of Miami [Junior]
5th Round - LHP Thomas Szapucki - William T. Dwyer H.S. (FL)
6th Round - RHP Chase Ingram - Hillsborough CC (FL) [JUCO]
7th Round - RHP Corey Taylor - Texas Tech University [Senior]
8th Round - C Patrick Mazelka - Stetson University [Junior]
9th Round - OF Kevin Kaczmarski - University of Evansville [Senior]
10th Round - RHP Witt Haggard - Delta State University [Senior]
(Chris Soto: I like what the Mets are doing knowing that they have a limited signing bonus pool. They are not shying away from the tough sign guys....Instead, So far they are balancing high upside, high cost High School Arms with easily signable, and low cost college bats. I love the 3rd, 5th, and 6th round guys specifically. The Mets farm system is starved for left handed upside arms as currently the only guys in the system are at the very bottom in Blake Taylor [Kingsport] and Adrian Almeida [GCL Mets]. The club needs a boost in this department and both of these guys already have plus velocity from the left side. As for our 6th round, Chase Ingram was considered one of, if not, the top Junior College arm in the draft. Ingram was among the leaders in strikeouts, ERA and wins and posseses an outstanding curveball. The fastball velocity is pretty meh [91-92mph] but if the guy knows how to pitch, he'll be successful.)
