10/29/09

Minors Stuff




New York Mets

I am truly fascinated by the constant debate about Daniel Murphy. Here was a rookie who batted .265, with 54 extra-base hits. He even showed more maturity in the second half of the season, adjusting to the inside pitch. Yet so many refuse to give him a chance for next season and beyond. He needs work on his defense, that is obvious. However, he can hit and has shown that.

Murphy is a low-cost option at first, freeing up cash to spend on a left fielder and No. 2 starter. It's amazing in this town and this day and age that we refuse to let players develop before calling for their heads. I wonder if Mets fans today would have traded Sandy Koufax away after his first couple of miserable years with Brooklyn and L.A. Why don't we allow players who are not instant impact players time to develop? -- Jeremy I., Smithtown, N.Y.

What's this, another reader advocating patience? Two in two days. Next thing we'll have people doing things in a New York hour.

All you have written is well taken (even though Murphy's rookie status was gone after his 131st and final at-bat in 2008). The Mets see quality in him. I suspect what the ever-demanding public sees is an aggressive and improving, but nonetheless ordinary defensive first baseman with ordinary power playing for a team that, last season, lacked power. If the Mets 2010 left fielder were going to be the 1989 version of Kevin Mitchell, I believe the public would be more patient with Murphy.
As much as I believe in doubles as a critical element in sustaining offense, home runs are necessary, more home runs, at least, than the Mets hit in 2009.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091028&content_id=7567078&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym&partnerId=rss nym


Tim Teufel is to be promoted to manager of the Double-A Binghamton Mets after managing the St. Lucie Mets, the organization's most advanced Class A affiliate, for 3 1/2 seasons in the past five years. Wally Backman, Teufels's other half as the Mets' second baseman from 1986-1988, is to be hired to manage the St. Lucie affiliate. And Mookie Wilson is to return to the organization after a two-year absence to work in the Minor Leagues.
A person familiar with those changes and possibilities acknowledged them Wednesday while general manager Omar Minaya was in the Dominican Republic for the opening of the club's instructional league season. The final decisions involving the third-base coaching assignment and the Minor League positions and the announcements are likely to follow the end of the World Series.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091028&content_id=7565696&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym&partnerId=rss_ nym



Sources say longtime scout Sandy Johnson has agreed to return to the Mets as VP of scouting to continue assisting embattled general manager Omar Minaya after suggesting for weeks he was likely to retire, and some Mets officials believe the unusual effort made to retain Johnson is another sign of diminishing faith in Minaya.

Mets COO Jeff Wilpon is said to have thought it imperative that Johnson, who had a big hand in building winning teams in Texas and Arizona, return to boost the front office. Johnson had previously expressed to the Mets that he was likely to retire. Johnson was said by one club official to have been given basically "a blank check" to return, signaling the Mets' desperation to keep him. The vast majority of Mets scouts had their contracts renewed within the past few days with no raise, said to be the result of a bad economy and the team's poor performance

Read more: - http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/10/28/mets.johnson/#ixzz0VKXznOSd




Winter Leagues:
Catchers:

Doyle, Dock C 6'0 200 L/R 3/24/1986 Sanford, NC
Glenn, Jeffrey C 6'3 185 R/R 9/22/1991 Phoenix, AZ
Gronauer, Kai C 6'1 196 R/R 11/28/1986 Solingen, GER
Maron, Camden C 6'1 175 L/R 1/20/1991 Huntington, NY
Valdez, Amauris C 5'11 202 R/R 8/24/1988 Monte Plata
Zapata, Nelfi C 6'0 203 R/R 12/13/90 Santo Domingo, DR
Avila, Wandel C 6'2 185 R/R 4/10/1991 SPM
Caba, Arickson C 6'3 190 R/R 2/2/1989 Bonao
Cordero, Albert C 6 191 R/R 01/14/90 Charallave, Venezuela
De Leon, Jeyckol C 6'2 204 R/R 7/25/1990 Panama
Diaz, Socrates C 6'2 205 R/R 9/24/1990 San Pedro de Macoris
Mejia, Humberto C 6'1 215 R/R 10/13/1990 Las Matas de Farfan

sure looks like no more 5-8 catchers in this system

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/mets/2009/10/instructional-league-rosters.html#ixzz0VHSsKQeo



Caracas Leones (13-3)

Josh Thole (.375) is thriving in the Caracas heat

Lance Broadway (2.63) is trying to justify his number one pick by the White Sox. He’ll be 27 next year so time is running out. The White Sox had so soured on him that they traded Larry to the Mets for backup catcher Ramon Castro

Six years after their famous brawl in the 2003 playoffs, Pedro Martinez and Don Zimmer still differ on what exactly happened.

When a separate altercation broke out on the field at Fenway Park, Zimmer, then a 72-year-old New York bench coach, charged at then Red Sox ace Martinez, who grabbed Zimmer by the head and tossed him to the ground. The Yankees were annoyed that Martinez hit Karim Garcia with a pitch earlier in the game, but the 38-year-old Martinez said his ailing shoulder was giving him trouble.

"It was an ugly scene," Martinez said Wednesday, adding this was probably the first time he was discussing it publicly. "Zim charged me and I think he's going to say something, but his reaction was totally the opposite, [he] was trying to punch my mouth and told me a couple of bad words about my mom. I just had to react and defend myself.

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