Daily Archives: January 20, 2010
In a chat for Scouting the Sally, Mike Newman talked with Adam Foster of Project Prospect about a variety of players throughout the minor leagues, including prospects from the Mets.
Foster was asked about Mets 20–year-old pitching prospect Jenrry Mejia, and said:
“He has max-effort arm action. His windup is really calm, then he fires through. That makes him really deceptive and some guys pull off his kind of delivery as starters. But I don’t think he will. He’s arm action is inconsistent. That’s why he has trouble throwing strikes. H e’s someone who has probably gotten more hype than he deserves this offseason. The raw stuff is there, but I don’t see a frontline starter.”
Later, Newman talked of Mejia as well, adding:
“Durability seems to be the biggest issue with Mejia. You obviously give a player of his talent every opportunity to stick in the rotation, but I believe he will wind up a closer long term based on conversations I’ve had with people who have some ties to the Mets organization.”
According to Adam Rubin of the Daily News, Jerry Manuel traveled to Arizona last November to gauge whether Mejia may be able to help the Mets in the bullpen in early 2010.
Earlier this month, prospect guru John Sickels put Mejia No. 1 on his list of the team’s Top 20 Mets Prospects for Minor League Ball, during which Sickels posts a grade and commentary for each player.
In a report last October for ESPN.com, Keith Law described Mejia as, ‘The most impressive arm so far,’ in the Arizona Fall League.
According to Law, if Mejia can command his pitches better, and throw his curve ball more often, “he’s a potential No. 1 or No. 2 starter.”
Mejia was 0–5 with a 4.47 ERA in 10 starts and 47 strike outs in 44 innings at Double-A.
…i have every intention of spending a lot of time this spring watching mejia in minor-league camp, and i’ll do my best to get video and pictures for you guys to decide what’s what for yourselves…
By the way, if you’re interested in tracking prospects around baseball, be sure to check out Foster’s Digital Prospect Guide, which is outstanding, here.
In a post to Caught Lookin’, Matt takes a look at what could be next for the Mets and suggests the Mets try to sign both Ben Sheets and John Smoltz to short-term deals over Joel Pineiro and a longer-term deal.
Meanwhile, Dominic over at Pessimets says the Mets don’t “have the appetite for for multi-year deals for aging veterans anymore. Thankfully.”
Paul over at Hot Foot feels Angel Pagan is one of the better fourth outfielders in the National League.
Finally, the Metsgrrl describes the holiday gift she received from the Mets…in January.
Marty Noble from MLB.com says Omir Santos is now expected to be the Mets primary catcher in 2010, with Henry Blanco as his understudy, and says that chances are, they will not sign either Yorvit Torrealba or Rod Barajas.
…as i said below, i think this is the wise choice…not that Santos thrills me, but i feel as though if they can’t find a dramatic upgrade behind the plate, in a way, Santos at least deserves the chance to be the primary catcher out of Spring Training, rather than bringing in what i consider to be a medicore option to replace him…
Last season, Santos hit .260 with seven homeruns and 40 RBI in 96 games.
Original Post, 11:46 am:
In a post to his blog, Buster Olney of ESPN says “There were signals being sent out on Tuesday night that the Mets are turning to Yorvit Torrealba”.
David Waldstein of the New York Times suggests that if the Mets entertain signing Torrealba, his agent, Melvin Roman, might seek dollars he feels his client lost out on when the Mets pulled a three year, $14.4 million deal prior to the 2008 season.
…i think, since the Mets couldn’t bring in Bengie Molina, they should simply go with what they have at this point in Henry Blanco and Omir Santos and continue the development of Josh Thole…not to say i was so thrilled with Molina joining the Mets, but he does provide an offensive boost that the others don’t…so if they can’t upgrade offensively, and they already have a guy like Blanco who is known for the handling of pitchers, i don’t feel signing Torrealba, who is a defensive oriented catcher known for handling pitchers, should be a priority over acquiring a starting pitcher right now…and considering the legal battle between the two sides, if they were to come to some sort of agreement, i can’t see this being a happy marriage…
In a post to Amazin Avenue, Eric Simon calculates where the Mets must be in terms of their 2010 payroll.
…from what i have been told by people in baseball, it is mostly impossible for us to determine a team’s payroll in January, because arbitration figures are not yet clear, the roster isn’t set, there are signing bonuses and other costs that are not typically public, and, basically, there are too many unknowns…
…that said, according to people around baseball, they estimate the Mets must have around $10 to $15 million to spend on new acquisitions… of course, they’re just guessing…
…yesterday, Buster Olney of ESPN.com said the Mets have not given Omar Minaya an official budget… but, in my time digging in to these issues, going back to 2004 or so, i have never known the Mets to set a hard budget… they tend to always deal with the cost of acquisitions on a case-by-case basis, as they are presented from minaya to Ownership…
According to this spreadsheet from Maury Brown, at the Biz of Baseball, Mets OF Angel Pagan had been seeking $1.8 million, while the Mets offered $1.27 million.
Pagan and the Mets avoided arbitration last off season, settling on a one-year, $500,000 contract.
…the two sides will now go to arbitration in early February, when a court will determine a middle ground… this is always awkward, because the Mets now need to go to court and, in front of pagan’s representatives, explain why he doesn’t deserve to be paid what he wants to be paid… and, from what i can gather, pagan thinks quite highly of himself… what a bizarre process…
In either case, Pagan is under contract with the Mets through 2012, after which he is eligible to become a free agent.
The Mets did, however, avoid arbitration with Jeff Francoeur, John Maine, Pedro Feliciano and Sean Green, all of whom agreed to new one-year deals.
Francoeur and Maine are again eligible for arbitration next season, after which they too are eligible to become free agents and sign with new teams.
To learn more about MLB’s salary arbitration process, check out this post from Suite 101.
Updated at 11:35 am:
According to Joe DeMayo from NY Baseball Digest, teams and players can still agree to a compromise between now and their arbtration court date.
I will be a guest today on Mark Healey’s Baseball Digest Live, broadcasting from Foley’s in Manhattan, which you can listen to starting at 11 am here.
According to Healey, the show will focus on the current state of the Mets and their outlook for the 2010, ‘and beyond,’ with guests including me, Bud Harrelson and John Delcos, among others.
…apparently, harrelson is up first… i already told healey, i refuse to bunt him to second… i’m swinging away…
[poll id="336"]
In talking with a few people around baseball, it sounds to me like Bengie Molina always wanted to return to the Giants, or are at least he wanted play with a team on the West Coast. Also, as the off season moved on, Molina became more and more skeptical of playing in New York.
I had some people suggest he might have become leery of fan and media criticism, while another person speculated he was scared off by how Carlos Beltran’s surgery was communicated in the press, saying, “Players talk.”
What’s more, from what I can gather, the Mets offered at least $1 million more than the Giants, and also offered a player-controlled option for 2011.
Frankly, in talking to people connected to the Mets, though they are slightly disappointed, they were never going to increase their initial offer to Molina, feeling it was not worth guaranteeing that type of money and time to a 35–year-old catcher.
In moving forward, I would not be surprised to see Henry Blanco get the bulk of playing time next season, with Omir Santos, Josh Thole and Chris Coste acting as his back-up. The team believes Blanco is one of the best defensive catchers in baseball, as do others, and he too has a strong reputation for working well with a pitching staff.
So, good for the Mets for holding their ground; and, good for us, Mets fans, the majority of which did not seem to want Molina in the first place.
Original Post at 6:45 am:
According to multiple reports, the Mets first made an offer to Molina in mid-December.
Yesterday, four weeks later, Molina re-signed with the Giants for one year and $4.5 million.
[poll id="336"]
Alex Cora played third base last night for Criollos de Caguas, going hitless in three at bats.
He missed the last six weeks with a back injury, but appears on track to be ready for Spring Training.
The Mets re-signed Cora to a one-year, $2 million deal in late November.
In a post to Twitter in December, SI.com’s Jon Heyman joked that Cora will get $50,000 for playing baseball, and $1.95 million for being ‘a helluva nice guy.’
The 34-year-old Cora had season-ending surgery in August to repair ligaments in both of his thumbs.
He hit .417 in 16 plate appearances as a pinch hitter this season, but just .243 as a starter.
…signing cora so early to a $2 million deal is still confusing to me, as well as it confuses people in the organization, who still feel Omar Minaya could have used those dollars to fill another need…
…but, i will say this, in my interviews with Daniel Murphy, John Maine and Mike Pelfrey, all three immediately named cora, when i asked who on the Mets defines being a leader… murphy talked about how he can seek out David Wright and cora to learn about things he never even considered could be an issue… so, maybe heyman is correct, in that the bulk of cora’s salary is for being a helluva nice guy…
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