Daily Archives: February 26, 2010
It was another cool, sunny day in Port St. Lucie today, but there was a lot of action on the back fields at Tradition Field this morning. Here is a quick rundown of the morning’s events:
- Jenrry Mejia threw live batting practice today, and although he was wild, Jerry Manuel is impressed with the natural cut on his fastball.
- Jon Niese and R.A. Dickey also threw live batting practice, and according to SNY Producer Matt Dunn, Niese is excited just to be throwing again.
- Former Mets Darryl Strawberry, Mookie Wilson and John Franco spoke during the team’s media training this morning.
- The Mets announced they will hold an intrasquad game at Tradition Field this Monday, and Nelson Figueroa will open the Grapefruit League schedule against the Braves on Tuesday at Tradition Field.
LHP Arturo Lopez has cleared waivers, and will return to Mets camp as a non-roster invitee.
On Wednesday, the Mets designated Lopez for assignment to make room for Rod Barajas on the 40 man roster.
According to Adam Rubin of the Daily News, the Mets have made an offer to free-agent LHP Joe Beimel.
…i think this would be a very wise signing…the Mets need another lefty late in games out of the bullpen, and bringing in Beimel would make their bullpen much more versatile, and it would also take the load off of Pedro Feliciano…
On Tuesday, Rubin said here the Mets were interested in bringing in another left handed pitcher to the bullpen, and were interested in adding either Beimel or Ron Mahay if either would accept a deal similar to what Rod Barajas accepted.
In walking around Mets camp the last few days, it’s fairly obvious that Ike Davis is causing quite a stir.
In fact, I have heard Omar Minaya mention his name at least a dozen times.
Today, Fred and Jeff Wilpon, as well as Jerry Manuel, and many of the team’s coaches, watched Davis hit against Jon Niese.
Here is today’s video diary for SNY.TV, which is all about Davis, featuring footage of him taking batting practice and doing fielding drills today at Tradition Field:
This is video of Ike Davis, Daniel Murphy and Mike Jacobs taking ground balls at first:
Here is a quick video of Jenrry Mejia throwing a bullpen session:
Here is my quick interview with Jeff Francoeur, before he appeared on SNY’s Hot Stove live from Duffy’s in St. Lucie on Thursday night:
According to SNY Producer Matt Dunn, Jerry Manuel said today he still wants to bat Jose Reyes third, envisioning an Opening Day batting order that would look like:
Angel Pagan, Luis Castillo, Reyes, Jason Bay and David Wright – or Wright then Bay – then Daniel Murphy, Jeff Francoeur and Rod Barajas.
…from what i can tell, reyes hitting third is all about keeping him fresh… he broke down a bit, and slowed down, at the end of 2007 season, as well as the end of 2008, then he got hurt in 2009… hitting him third will put less emphasis on stealing bases, and more emphasis on driving in runs, and reyes does put the ball in play… plus, he’s going to see a good diet of fastballs hitting in front of reyes and bay, especially if one of pagan or luis are on base… i’m warming up to this… though, i still worry about complicating things for him, at this point, coming off of last season… i’d rather see them just let jose be jose… but, in either case, it seems temporary…
Updated at 4:25 pm,
by Michael Baron:
Asked about his impressions of batting practice so far, Manuel said an early positive has been Francoeur, as he believes he is swinging the bat as well as he has seen him in his career.
Regarding Jenrry Mejia, Manuel is impressed with the natural cut on his fastball, and with his combination of a power change-up and a power breaking ball, he sees Mejia as a starter long term.
However, Manuel says Mejia’s command isn’t there just yet.
…this was his problem this past fall and winter, and he ended up walking a ton of batters in a small amount of innings…i’m not concerned at all, as this is common for young pitchers, and there is plenty of time for him to grow into what is expected of him…
Regarding Luis Castillo, Manuel feels he did well last year despite the dropped pop-up at Yankee Stadium, and expects him to have a good year with all of the other pieces healthy and in place.
Asked whether Ike Davis should spend more time in the Minors, Manuel says that would be best for him, and feels the team can afford to send him down right now.
…i agree… he should definitely spend most, if not the entire year in the minors… i know it’s a tall order to expect him to start the 2011 as their opening day first baseman without anytime at the big league level this year, but i feel he needs a full season at triple-a, unless of course he is destroying the ball down there…
Manuel expects Davis to get a lot of playing time early in the Grapefruit League season.
Here is a recap of photographs I took today, walking around Tradition Field.
Here, Jose Reyes waits his turn, as the infielders work on base running, after which Fernando Tatis laughs, as Daniel Murphy nearly has his head taken off on a line drive off the bat of Ken Oberkfell, during infield drills at first base:
…by the way, reyes, as Samuel Jackson would said, ‘Is too cool for school.’…
Here, is Josh Thole’s equipment bag, followed by Jenrry Mejia throwing a fastball:
Here is the rest of the gallery from today’s workouts:
Here I will feature my last five updates to Twitter, which I will be using to let readers know where I am going in Port St. Lucie, what I’m working on, and what to next expect on the blog:
To follow me on Twitter, click here.
