3/31/14

Morning Report – 3-31-14 – TC,VSL, TJS, d’A, FieldRush, Harvey,

1905 - New York City 


Coming Up –

        10 am –  Mack – Opening Day

         12 noon –   Craig Mitchell -- The Mets Six Secret Weapons

         2 pm –   Throught The Fence- Mock v. 6.0

          4 pm –   Big League Futures - Mock

         6 pm -  A.J. Vanegas, Tyler Beede, Kyle Freeland, Josh Morgan, Jeren Kendall

         8 pm  -  3B - Michael Chavis - Sprayberry (GA) HS



Darin Gorski @darin_gorski20  -  headed to the @bmets to start the season.


So… after all that, Didi Gregorious and Nick Franklin both wind up in the minors. Unbelievable.


TC –
I saw that Terry Collins admitted that he does know what his starting lineup is going to be, but he’s not going to share it with anyone until just before game time. In fact, his answer when asked if he knew the lineup was a curt, sarcastic, one word “yes”, followed by a”no” when asked to share. Is this what the relationship with the press is down to two days before opening day?

The Mets first 20 games this season are against Washington (3x-86-76), Cincinnati (3x- 90-72),Atlanta (6x- 96-66),LAA (3x- 78-84), Arizona (3x- 81-81),and St.Louis (2x- 97-65).
Envision this team going 4-16 out of the box and then let’s see what the humidity is like between the beat dudes and Terry.


VSL –

The game was introduced to the country in the early 1900s when U.S. oil tycoons ventured south to strike deals. In 1941, when Venezuela stunned Cuba to win the Amateur Baseball Series, the game caught fire… The late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was a baseball fan, Perez said, and would play in celebrity softball games, batting left-handed. He pitched and Perez caught. There were many more baseball fields than soccer fields in Venezuela, even though baseball was more expensive. The more big-league players that were produced in Venezuela, the more equipment the major leaguers sent back to the country, and the sport mushroomed. Now, the Venezuelan-born big league players are starting academies with their signing-bonus cash, just like the Dominican-born players did when they made it big in Major League Baseball http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/29/venezuelan-playersmakemarkinthemajors.html


TJS –
        “The rehab might be moving too fast,” Conte said. “One thing with Tommy John surgery is you are [inserting] a tendon, but the body recognizes it as a ligament. It changes from a tendon to a ligament. That takes up to at least a year before you can come back to competition. The graft matures to maximum strength, and if you come back too soon and throw too hard I believe there is a direct relationship. How hard someone throws stresses the ligament. Throwing is not the problem. Throwing too hard is if you do it too soon. The theory is that throwing hard stretches out the ligament again and you have damage near the end of the rehab process. http://nypost.com/2014/03/29/harveys-rush-to-return-from-tommy-john-surgery-a-bad-idea/

Mack – this is a very good 2-part article of TJS and the increase of home many young pitchers have had to have multiple surgeries after rushing their return to the mound…


D’A-
               Travis d'Arnaud, C, New York Mets-Best Case: An excellent defensive catcher with an even better offensive game, d'Arnaud is MLB.com's No. 22 prospect and the Mets' Opening Day backstop. In a perfect world for d'Arnaud and New York's NL team, this is the first of many seasons with the 25-year-old serving as an ideal batterymate to Zach Wheeler, and the catcher also provides his staff with plenty of run support.

Worst Case: He struggles to hit big league pitching and never develops into the kind of offensive threat he should. Despite his Minor League success, d'Arnaud batter just .202 with four extra-base hits over 99 at-bats in 31 Major League games last year. After missing significant parts of three of his last four seasons with injuries, d'Arnaud hits the Major League DL this year as well. http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140330&content_id=70184980&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb

FieldRush –
       NL East - Washington Nationals: Stephen Strasburg wins 20 games, strikes out 250+, and posts and ERA in the low-2.00s and takes home the NL Cy Young Award.
Atlanta Braves: Tommy La Stella takes the second base job and never gives it back as he hits over .300 with an OBP over .370 and wins the NL Rookie of the Year Award.
New York Mets: Rafael Montero impresses in his rookie year and Zack Wheeler takes a step forward with 175+ innings of 3.25 ERA ball and over 150 strikeouts. Matt Harvey pitches in five games. Mets fans salivate at the prospect of a rotation with Harvey, Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard, and Montero for the next five years.
Miami Marlins: Jose Fernandez performs just as well as his historic rookie season and does it in more innings. Derek Dietrich hits 15+ homeruns.
Philadelphia Phillies: The Phillies finally realize they need to rebuild and get rid of Ruben Amaro, Jr. That’s positive, right? http://www.fieldrush.com/team-team-2014-mlb-predictions-positive-edition/#.UzhBUPldVsl


Harvey-

        It was a crisp late summer day in picturesque Cooperstown, N.Y.Everyone who was there remembers that detail, even if they don't remember the exact date: Aug. 31, 2006.Two baseball games took place that day at Doubleday Field, in the shadow of the Baseball Hall of Fame. It was a doubleheader between the Japanese national under-18 team and a cobbled-together American squad made up of top high school players from the Northeast.

         The first pitch of the day was thrown by a 17-year-old from New London, Conn.His name was Matt Harvey.

         The last pitch of the day was thrown by a 17-year-old from Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.


13 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Hey Mack - did not see this post up to Metsmerized.com. You may want to re-cheeck that.

I agree with those first 20 games - some seasons you can fake it until a stretch-of-truth schedule hits you square in the face - this year, it comes right away.

Had a nice inch of snow in Nassau County this AM, but Queens looked clear from the LIRR train I was on. Snow-pening day.

If we do pick up Nick or Didi (Nick and Didi sounds like a nightclub act, by the way), let's not overpay if they could not even make their own major league rosters.

This just in: Collins will reveal opening day lineup at 3 PM today.

Harvey should just wait until next year, for his career's sake - but it is his career to protect or screw up.

Anonymous said...

Daniel Murphy out on paternity leave.....

Saves Collins the trouble of deciding what to do with young for at least 1 maybe 2 games.

EYJ to 2B, Lagares in CF, Young in LF

Tom Brennan said...

Are you serious, Chris? I know players take paternity leave, BUT OPENING DAY?? WHEN THIS TEAM FACES THE POSSIBLE 4-16 STRETCH MACK POSTULATES ABOUT ABOVE? I am sorry, that is not right unless his wife is having a difficult pregnancy. what if it were in the playoffs? Take off then?

Anonymous said...

lol I hope your joking Tom.....

Pregnant Women don't wait for anyone....including Opening Day. THis is his 1st so I'm giving him and his wife victoria a free pass

Anonymous said...

FLASH: Chris Young is day to day with a Quad Strain.....Andrew Brown will start in LF.

David L. Whitman said...

I just saw that too. I wonder if it will lead to a DL stint for CYoung.

Unknown said...

Hopefully they bat D'arnaud second behind EY jr today.
Too bad the Wilpons didn't go into to more debt back in the day and put in a retractable roof, like they originally planned to do. Actually maybe it's good cause our payroll would probably be $50 million right now?

Anonymous said...

@D Whit

Quads are usually quicker to recover than Hammy's so I think he'll be fine for Wednesday game.

@Zozo

I'm thinking we'll see

EYJ 2B
d'Arnaud C
Wright 3B
Granderson RF
Davis 1B
Brown LF
Lagares CF
Tejada SS
Gee P

Reese Kaplan said...

The lineup I saw posted had Lagares batting 2nd behind the leadoff batter who can't get on base.

Anonymous said...

Yep....I just started up the Game Thread on the site.

Any chatter about today's game should be posted there.

Tom Brennan said...

Hey Mack
Not that old school - I just think Opening Day is different - and it does make one think, what if baby arrives in a playoff series on game 5?

As far as Metsmerized, I now see your post on there - all is good

Tom Brennan said...

OK - I'll lighten up on Danny boy. Happy Father's Day, Daniel.

Craig Brown said...

Chris--I wish they would hit d'Arnaud second as you suggested...He's not going to get any protection at the back of this lineup...They really need him to get off to a good start, if he opens the season 2 for 27--he might be able to come back from that....

Thomas--Its just a game, I would be more upset if Murph had decided to play...