Coming Up –
10 am - Reese Kaplan - More Dispatches from the Bizarro World
12 noon –
BTBS - Top 38 Prospects - Texas Rangers
2 pm – BTBS - Top 41 Prospects - Tampa Bay
4 pm - MLB Draft Countdown - Mock
6 pm - C - Chase Vellot - St. Thomas More (LA) HS
8 pm – Touki Toussaint, Michael Rivera, Jakson Reetz, Juston Smith
10pm – Matt Garrioch - Mock
Adam Rubin @AdamRubinESPN - Three #Mariners scouts again at Roger Dean Stadium today for #Mets-#Marlins.
Adam Rubin @AdamRubinESPN - Ike Davis 1-4 with walk in minor league game. Lucas Duda 3-4 with double, HR, walk. Neither ran bases, but they ran postgame
Adam Rubin @AdamRubinESPN - Scouts tell me teams are going to run wild on Jose Valverde this season. Does not hold runners. Sure enough, enters and Yelich swipes 2B.
I was wondering what it must be like to start your day being Ruben Tejada. Do you go down to the main strip in St. Lucie and stop by Panera’s for a cheese danish while, at the same time, go dial up places like the Adam Rubin morning report that links to all the beat reporters out there writing stories that morning?
Hmm, let’s see… CBS New York’s Ernie Palladino’s story on Tejada (headline: “ Mets Shouldn’t Settle For Ruben Tejada At Shortstop”) starts off with the first line “Like Nero, Sandy Alderson fiddles around while the Mets burn... then there was the NYDN’s John Harper piece that suggests that the Mets sell off a young pitcher to obtain one of Arizona’s shortstops…
Hell of a way to start your day.
There seems to be a difference of opinion between Adam Rubin and Andy Martino on the future of Jenrry Mejia. Martino posts last night that his ‘sources’ have told him that Mejia could ‘start the season off in the Mets pen’, only to be moved back to the rotation later on in the year. Rubin reported in his Monday morning report that Mets officials would rather decide what to do with Mejia (starter or pen) and then leave him to that decision. We’ll follow this as it develops.
Colon –
Bartolo Colon - My Rank: 91 | Consensus: 64 - Now here’s one that doesn’t surprise me. Colon is going to be 41 (!!!) this year, doesn’t strike anyone out, and posted an ERA about a full run and a half below his SIERA. He’s not going to have that kind of HR/FB rate and LOB% luck again, so without any strikeout cushion, his value could plummet. http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/2014-pods-picks-starting-pitcher/
Justin Turner on the Mets –
“I don’t have that answer for you. I’ve been there for three years. All I can do is say if I was running an organization, in charge of it, I would look at all my players as assets, and want to build them up. So even if I didn’t want them to be on my team, they would have value. But for some reason, I don’t know, that’s not the thought process over there.”
Mack – Frankly, I always thought of Turner as a comic book character that probably wore out his welcome because he was just happy being around rather than winning. He also talked just a little too much, just like he’s doing here.
Long Toss –
First, be advised that you may have to work yourself up to the distances listed below and be patient until you can comfortably work up to these distances. Adjust distances downward for younger pitchers. Be extremely cautious with both the distances and the number of throws. This is not a competition of any type between you and your throwing partner and do not overexert yourself! You and your throwing partner should be sure to loosen up your arms before doing the drill.
Possible Distances When Long Tossing:
60 feet apart--6 throws
90 feet apart--8 throws
120 feet apart-10 throws
90 feet apart--8 throws
60 feet apart--6 throws
Remember not to overexert yourself and find distances and number of throws that are comfortable for you! I would not recommend long tossing on two consecutive days and if you should have a somewhat serious long toss session, I would take two days off before long tossing again. http://www.larrybaseball.com/component/content/article/34-free-tips/121-the-long-toss-a-pitcher-will-benefit-tremendously-from-long-tossing
Plawecki v1.0 –
A first-round pick in 2012, Mets catching prospect Kevin Plawecki delivered a breakout performance in his first full season last year, hitting .305/.390/.448 for Class A Savannah and Class A Advanced St. Lucie. His batting average ranked fourth among all full-season Mets farmhands and his 80 RBIs tied for fifth-most in the system. The big year has propelled Plawecki up prospect lists; MLB.com now ranks him eighth in the Mets organization. Besides having a reputation as a strong receiver and leader behind the plate, the 23-year-old backstop has a knack for making contact at the dish -- in 168 career games at Purdue, he struck out just 29 times and was named Big Ten Player of the Year in 2012. http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140317&content_id=68794604&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb
Plawecki v2.0 –
Kevin Plawecki presents an attractive combination at catcher — a solid average contact hitter with defensive skills which are continuing to develop. Scouting Plawecki multiple times last season, his bat proved impressive. Utilizing a repeatable, compact swing that generated above average bat speed, Plawecki barreled every pitch he made contact with. A methodical hitter, Plawecki’s knowledge of the strike zone will result in high walk rates and low strikeout rates. His power presents as average, limiting his projection to 10 to 15 home runs in a full season. Behind the Plate, Plawecki provided an easy target for pitchers to throw to. Physically, he resembles another New York catcher, the Yankees’ Brian McCann. They share the same body type and similar disposition behind the plate. Defensively, Plawecki flashed plus potential framing pitches, but struggled with pitches in the dirt and to the back hand side. http://rotoscouting.com/mets-kevin-plawecki-a-valuable-trade-chip/
Vegas –
After each game, when Backman composes his nightly report to send to the Mets, he essentially passes along two sets of numbers: the official box score and the true box score. The second one takes into account the pop-fly homers, cheap doubles and groundouts-turned-base hits. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303287804579443332756970364?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303287804579443332756970364.html
3-17 Game Notes –
-The St. Patrick’s Day baseball cap has to be a great reason to beg your coach not to be in today’s lineup. I don’t want to speculate who designed it which would probably risk embarrassing a very nice, loyal employee.
-all of the regulars that played in Vegas are off today… another lost day for team building… jeez
-pitching wise…
It’s John Lannan’s turn (I’m writing this in real time)… my hopes are we see at least four innings here… not the start you wanted here… (is it just me or is most of the projected Mets starters going in the crapper lately?)… gave up 2-R, 3-H in the first inning…
The second inning started as badly… a walk followed by a wild pitch… then another walk… this was not going to be Lannan’s day to show he could earn himself back a slot in the rotation… he did get out of the inning with some nifty infield field work, but 3-BB, 0-K, 2-ER, in 2.0-IP (6 of first 8 batters made it on base) so far.
The hits… and the runs… kept coming in the third. Stat line after 3.0-IP: 6-H, 4-ER, 4-BB, 1-K
Well, it may be a bad outing, but the Mets obviously intend on stretching Lannan out to become part of the opening day rotation. He came back out for the 4th inning after throwing 31 (15 strikes, 16 balls) in the first three innings… and KABOOM… a Reed Johnson home run (5-1)… Lannan was done after 3.1-IP, 5-ER.
Enter Jose Valverde, who cleans up the last two outs in the 4th inning. He had a good day: 1.2-IP, 0-R, 2-K…
Scott Rice did not: 0.2-IP, 2-ER… just not a good game for Mets pitching overall (10 runs)
-fielding wise…
Nice pickoff play in the 1st… With Jeff Baker batting, Jarrod Saltalamacchia picked off and caught stealing 2nd base, pitcher Lannan to second baseman Omar Quintanilla to first baseman Zach Lutz.
Error on the Captain…
-hitting wise…
the Captain singles in the first, but was picked off for the third out…
I do want to point out one thing here… there’s only one person in this lineup that currently projects to be in the Mets starting lineup, and that’s Rubin Tejada, so I hope you don’t expect much from the outcome of this game…
The Mets did manage to score 7 runs, but all of them came from players deep within the system… a good example would be OF Eudy Pina.
-Tejada watch…
Two caught looking strikeouts in the first two at-bats… a deer in the headlights… 2-24 for the spring…
Line drive single to left field (.120) to load the bases in the 5th…
-Overall summary…
You walk away from this game for what it was. A wasted day of not playing your regulars and more questions than solutions from the pitchers.