Daily Archives: January 7, 2010
To listen to SNY’s Ted Berg talk about the Mets with Max Caster on WCWP 88.1 FM on Long Island at 6:30 pm, click here.
Later tonight on SNY’s Mets Hot Stove, which airs live at 7 pm, host Kevin Burkhardt talk one on one with Mets OF Jason Bay, Jeff Francoeur and Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan, who worked with Bay in Boston.
In a post to Mets Underground, Eddie Perez posts a theory suggesting WFAN’s Mike Francesa is getting news to break on air during his popular radio show, as a favor for being less critical of Mets GM Omar Minaya.
…i have no idea if this is true or not, but i am not naive enough to think stuff like this doesn’t happen… in fact, i know stuff like this happens… i mean, life is politics and life is a campaign… this is why i still love Survivor…
…anyway, true or not, eddie submits a well-written post that has me thinking about media, sports, fans, and whether it even matters how information is revealed, or through whom it is revealed…
…in regards to francesa’s new-found career as a reporter, i have had other fans theorize that the team is using him as a way to get back at the their beat writers, which is not very likely… i have seen other people write that francesa must have a source in the team’s or league’s payroll department… or that he is now tight with an influential agent or two… or that Ownership simply wanted to drum up hype before season-tickets were due, and where better to do it than on air, while print was mostly on vacation…
…none of this matters to me, though… i don’t really care HOW the news is reported, i am more concerned about the ACTUAL news, and who is or isn’t signed or traded…
…instead, what fascinates me about this subject is how creative fans are being in trying to figure out what is going on, and why they care to know…
According to Joe Hamrahi of Baseball Digest Daily, the Royals signed 19–year-old Cuban pitcher Noel Arguelles to a five-year Major League contract.
In early November, MLB Trade Rumors said, “Arguelles impressed a number of agents and representatives from various teams at a workout in October in the Dominican Republic.”
…interesting… and so, i wonder how many years will be given to fellow countrymen Aroldis Chapman and Yuniesky Maya, both of whom are free agents able to negotiate with MLB teams… reports suggested arguelles and maya would be paid significantly less than chapman… but, it’s the five years i am most surprised and impressed by…
Last month, a report for Globedia.com said the Mets and White Sox are the front-runners to sign Maya, who threw for scouts in the Dominican Republic in mid-December.
The day after his audition, ESPN.com quoted a scout who watched Maya as saying he threw in the 88–92 mph range, while sporting a fastball, two-seamer, a slider, curveball and a changeup.
Enrique Rojas of ESPN.com believes the Rangers offered a one-year, $7 million contract to free-agent OF-DH Vladimir Guerrero.
In late October, Jeff Blair of the Globe and Mail said, “Baseball people have felt for some time it’s a slam-dunk that Guerrero would end up with the Mets and GM Omar Minaya.”
…thank god baseball people can be wrong…
In December, Lyle Spencer of MLB.com said Guerrero had been seeking a two-year deal.
…this is somewhat significant, because guerrero is part of the market that includes free-agent 1B Carlos Delgado, who the Mets continue to monitor in Winter Ball…
Yesterday, Joel Sherman of the New York Post said the Mets will consider re-signing Delgado if a) “He shows he can play multiple days in a row at first base,” and b), “He is willing to take a contract similar to Troy Glaus,” who signed for one year and roughly $2 million plus incentives.
…i believe delgado expects to be paid more money, like some place between glaus’s $2 million and vladdy’s $7 million, so i’m thinking $5 million… which, to me, is too much… in my book, most of his money should be tied to incentives, i.e., give him more money if he makes the Opening Day roster, then the other portion due if he appears in a certain amount of games, or something to that effect…
...of course, if it was up to me, they wouldn’t bring him back at all…
The A’s will re-sign free-agent DH-OF Jack Cust to a one-year deal, worth roughly $2.5 million, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.
In late November, Adam Rubin of the Daily News said the Mets were among the teams interested in trading for Cust, before he was non-tendered by Oakland, since he was most likely going to earn more then he was re-signed for in arbitration.
…i think if the Mets were interested, it would have been a potential back-up plan to losing Jason Bay or Matt Holliday, among others… cust is just good enough to be better than a bench player in the National League, and he has never played first base… the Mets have Angel Pagan as a utility-outfielder, among others, and so he really had no fit in Citi Filed once bay signed…
In his three years with the A’s, he averaged roughly 460 at bats per season, with a .241 average, around 25 home runs, 15 or so doubles, and a .375 OBP, while batting slightly better against right-handed pitching.
Cust, who was born and raised in Flemington, NJ, is eligible for arbitration each of the next two seasons, after which he can become a free agent.
Yesterday, I posted the Mets promotional video, in which they say, ‘We Believe in 2010.’
However, in typical fashion, I uploaded it without sound.
Anyway, for those who missed it, I deleted the old one and added a new one, this time with audio, which you can watch – and listen to – here.
Andy from Baseball Reference did a quick search of their database to determine Luis Castillo’s SLG was less than 90 percent of his OBP, tops of any player during the last 20 years.
…right, in other words, he only hits singles… and that’s fine, as Jose Reyes will hopefully be on first, and he’s followed in the order by David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Jason Bay… the thing is, i still can’t tell if Jerry Manuel prefers castillo in the second slot of the order…
Castillo hit .326 batting second last year, but also hit .324 batting eighth.
…in an ideal world, his slap-hitting style and all of the pitches he takes would lead to him helping to advance a runner from first… but, that doesn’t actually seem to happen all that often… plus, as people in the organization will tell you, he takes too many pitches, misses good opportunities to get a quality hit, and then puts himself in position to fail… i guess they think he should swing more…
Last season, Castillo hit .211 with eight sacrifices and a .356 OBP in 95 plate appearances with a runner on first base; but he hit .316 with a .391 OBP in 338 chances with nobody on base.
In 2008, during one of the worst years of his career, and with Reyes in the lineup on a regular basis, Castillo hit .238 with five sacrifices and a .333 OBP in 53 plate appearances with a runner on first base, while grounding out in to eight double plays.
…it’s weird… i want him to bat second… but, go look at this splits, here… it looks like he shuts off when there is a man on first base… if, however, there is a runner on third, he’s gold… bizarre… he’s such a confusing player…
Speaking of statistics…
According to data from Matthew Carruth at FanGraphs, Francisco’s Rodriguez’s change-up was the fifth most-difficult pitch for major leaguers to hit in 2009.
…well, then he must not have been throwing it much in the second half, because he looked awful…
The most-difficult pitch, based on Carruth’s research, was Brandon League’s splitter to right-handed hitters, which he debuted last season.
I am not a scout. I do not regularly watch the team’s top minor leaguers, and so I have never bothered to create a Top 10 Prospect List. To me, that wouldn’t be fair.
However, I do talk to lots of people in and around baseball, I listen to people in the Mets organization, I read every list published online, and I talk to a variety of minor-league reporters, experts and scouts… and so, I have a notebook full of names that are frequently mentioned to me, when I ask about the Mets farm system.
In other words, the following is my Top 10 Most-Popular Prospects list for the Mets, based on the names that were mentioned to me most by people in and around the game:
- Ike Davis, 1B, 57 mentions
- Jon Niese, LHP, 39 mentions
- Josh Thole, C, 31 mentions
- Jenrry Mejia, RHP, 23 mentions
- Fernando Martinez, OF, 23 mentions
- Brad Holt, RHP, 19 mentions
- Reese Havens, 2B, 11 mentions
- Wilmer Flores, SS, 9 mentions
- Jeurys Familia, RHP, 6 mentions
- Kirk Nieuwenhuis, OF, 4 mentions
I’m curious to see how close this list comes to the talent-based Top 10 lists that will soon begin popping up online from people like John Sickels, Jonathan Mayo, Toby Hyde, and others.
Basically, though this list will not necessarily indicate who will be an All Star and who will not, it does give an idea of who is being talked about most, who is being most watched, and who is most likely to be called upon by the Mets or some other team, either for promotion or in trade.
Speaking of Nieuwenhuis, for people who like prospects and stats, you have to read Mark Himmelstein’s post for Amazin Avenue, which is brilliant, as he breaks down defensive stats, and how they are collected, in regards to the disconnect over Nieuwenhuis’s skills.
For more on Nieuwenhuis and Himmelstein, read Hyde’s two cents at Mets Minor League Blog.
Lastly, in a post to Minor League Ball, Sickels lists 38 minor leaguers he is considering for his list of the Top 10 Mets Prospects for 2010.
