Draft Day Applesauce
by James Kannengieser on Jun 9, 2009 9:45 AM EDT
in Applesauce
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PrintI'm filling in for Joe today, so hopefully I can live up to his high applesauce standards. Let's go:
Meet the Mets
The pitching matchups are set for this week's 3 game series against the Phillies at Citi Field:
Tuesday - Johan Santana vs. J.A. Happ
Wednesday - Mike Pelfrey vs. Cole Hamels
Thursday - Tim Redding vs. Jamie Moyer
Has Johan forgotten about Shane Victorino's bush league baserunning the last time these teams met? We'll find out during Vic's first at-bat.
Jorge Says No! interviewed the energetic Wally Backman, who is currently managing the Joliet Jackhammers of the independent Northern League. Backman led the 1986 Mets in grission points and is one of the names frequently mentioned as a possible future Mets manager.
There hasn't been any indication that the Nationals are looking to trade Adam Dunn, but The Daily 'Stache says no thank you if he is available. Dunn is outrageously bad in the field, but I'd still take his 17 homers and .402 wOBA on the Mets right now.
Joe at Mets Today suggests the Mets forget about power hitters and focus on acquiring speedy players. I'm all for that, as long as these speedy players can also get on base at a high rate. Some of the suggested players in the post (Emilio Bonifacio, Scott Podsednik, Yuniesky Betancourt) fall definitively in the "do not want" category.
Noted Livan Hernandez skeptic Rob Neyer says that if the big guy can maintain his improved strikeout rate, he may continue to be useful.
Ben Shpigel of the New York Times profiles Alex Cora, who will be crucial to the Mets' success with Jose Reyes sidelined.
Is David Wright not a fan of Citi Field? A quote from Chipper Jones on "Ripken Baseball" on Sirius Radio:
"I juiced the ball just right of center field as hard as the good Lord can let me hit a ball, and it hit midways up the center-field wall for a double. And every time there was a long fly out or a double that hit off the wall or something, David Wright would run by me and go, 'Nice park.'"
2009 MLB Amateur Draft
The draft is today at 6 PM Eastern Time, and the first round will be airing live on MLB Network. It will run through Thursday. The Mets don't pick until #72. Here are various links to peruse to learn a little more about the draft:
Alex Nelson at Mets Geek reviews the Mets 2008 draft, comparing actual picks to his preferred picks.
Marc Hulet at Fangraphs looks at the Mets recent draft history and the outlook for the 2009 draft. He lists outfield, second base, and lefthanded pitching as organizational needs.
Baseball America listed its top 100 players in the draft a couple weeks back.
Beyond the Boxscore profiles college hitters.
Federal Baseball has multiple Stephen Strasburg features, here and here.
David Pinto wants to abolish the draft altogether.
Around the NL East
The Braves beat the Pirates 7-6 in 15 innings. Each team used 8 pitchers. Nate McLouth hit his first Braves home run, against his former team. New Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen went 4-7 with 2 triples.
Sean West led the Marlins over the Giants, throwing 8 shutout innings in a 4-0 victory. Randy Johnson pitched on 3 days rest for some reason and wasn't sharp.
Hank Aaron sided with Braves management regarding the Tom Glavine situation. Talking Chop points out that Aaron is a member of the Braves' board of directors.
Phillies Nation notes that Raul Ibanez, Chase Utley, and Jimmy Rollins lead All Star voting at their respective positions. Rollins might be the worst everyday shortstop in the National League this season. The other 2 are certainly deserving.
Around MLB
The Rangers exercised their option to keep manager Ron Washington through 2010. They're in first place in the weak AL West, but are losing struggling Josh Hamilton for 4-6 weeks due to a torn abdominal muscle.
Viva El Birdos has declared the Cardinals lineup "Albert and the 7 Dwarfs". Take a look at the Cards' Fangraphs page, it's pretty ugly.
The White Sox signed Freddy Garcia, who struggled this spring for the Mets.
Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press suggests the Tigers release Magglio Ordonez. Maybe the Mets would be interested if that happened - Sheffield part 2? Magglio was worth 8.9 WAR just 2 years ago, but is slugging only .354 this season.
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Let's sign Betancourt!
… if we want to pay millions of dollars to an entirely useless out of shape player!
yeah, I was going to say
I don’t want to hear anyone mentioning Betancourt and the Mets in the same sentence ever, ever, ever again
I'm trying to figure out
how Wright kept on running past Chipper. Chipper must have been hanging out in the Mets dugout so every time Wright was coming in from the field he passed Chipper on the way out.
instead of letting him hit the ball hard
i wish ther good lord would just go ahead and smite larry jones where he stands. what a tremendous piece of crap that guy.
All of the mets fans hope that we will not see the bad news mets ever again.
Is 2b really an organizational weakness?
I mean, I think pretty much everyone recognizes that Havens future is at second, and even a guy like Tejada probably won’t ever play much shortstop for the Mets (unless Omar does something very, very stupid).
I think it’s considered a “weakness” because neither of those guys (or any other guy that might end up at 2nd) will be ready in the next year or so. Just my guess.
by Lunkwill Fook on Jun 9, 2009 11:29 AM EDT up reply actions
fair enough
but then, if a team is drafting based on how it thinks it will look in the next year, it’s probably in trouble. I’d rather just go with the “best available” approach, even if it’s a position you’re already stacked at.
yeah if the prospects for the desired positions you're looking at aren't that great then just go best available even if it's a stacked position
That’s why we have trades. Can always get a piece we want via trade.
by dulciusEXasperis on Jun 9, 2009 12:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Somehow
There are NBA and NHL Finals games on tonight, along with the MLB Draft and a Johan start vs. the Phils. And this of course after there was nothing on last night.
all that and jeopardy
i have a busy evening planned.
All of the mets fans hope that we will not see the bad news mets ever again.
I don't like it
Shpigel is better than Lee Jenkins — hell, who wouldn’t be? — but he so wants to buy into the “mets are soft, need some grission” storyline. That whole story wants to posit that what the mets really need is some toughness, when in fact what they need is some starters back from injury.
Glavine
It seems that most people on Talking Chop, and many writers, are siding with the Braves. They seem to think that Glavine only cares about the money. But I don’t see how you can be pleased with the Braves cutting one of the most important players in franchise history, who’s lived near Atlanta for his entire career, right as he’s about to come back from a rehabbing process that took basically a year. What’s wrong with letting him finish the year and retiring, since you need a fifth starter anyway?
Really, Jerry?
Of course they're siding with the Braves
They’re Braves homers and Glavine is no longer a Brave. From my perspective, I think the Braves organization handled it despicably and have no excuse to not take it in the ass from us critics.
by Lunkwill Fook on Jun 9, 2009 1:38 PM EDT up reply actions
"Homer" here means uncritically adopting the party line
Of course fans, by definition, root for their team. That doesn’t mean that fans everywhere immediately jump to back their teams’ ownership and management against their players, or automatically rally to defend every classless move the team makes.
Precisely.
I’m not outing Braves fans in general. I’m outing the homers.
by Lunkwill Fook on Jun 9, 2009 3:15 PM EDT up reply actions
It looks like he's got a good case
that they made the decision to save money – to avoid paying him the million – which is not allowable under the rules.
Not that I want him to win, he should have decently retired after he screwed our 2007 September.
While he may be on the right side of a grievance
it still looks mighty petty to file one
by HotChipWillBreakYourLegs on Jun 9, 2009 1:56 PM EDT up reply actions
Lidge to DL
A year ago, this would have been great news, in terms of how it might aid the Mets. This year, its probably bad news for the Mets.
"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet
What a fool I was to defy him"
-HST
by Mark Himmelstein on Jun 9, 2009 3:15 PM EDT reply actions
I was just about to post this.
"We have to find a way to play better, there's no doubt. Overall. I'm not pointing fingers at anybody. Offense, defense, pitching -- we have to find a way to play better. The reality of this is, coming here to Pittsburgh and being swept -- personally, I feel embarrassed." -- Carlos Beltran
Just like...
…phillies starters are 8-0 with 2.66 era in 10 games since Myers’ last start (courtesy USAToday).
Buying high on a punchless bat?
Not exactly something I’d be interested in.
"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet
What a fool I was to defy him"
-HST
by Mark Himmelstein on Jun 9, 2009 3:45 PM EDT up reply actions
Just a thought
because when manny comes back their going to have a very expensive bench player, and I think they would want to get rid of his salary if they could.
by He'sGotPotential on Jun 9, 2009 3:46 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah but once his BABIP is like, .325 instead of .397
He’ll be the same old Juan Pierre. The Mets have at least three corner outfield options that are at least as good and substantially cheaper .
"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet
What a fool I was to defy him"
-HST
by Mark Himmelstein on Jun 9, 2009 4:05 PM EDT up reply actions
hmm
I was all ready to make fun of Pierre, but it’s worth noting that his OBP is .421 so far this season and his OPS+ is 134.
the OBP is boosted by a pretty ridiculous .397 BABIP that’s almost certainly unsustainable with his 20% line drive rate (which is basically the same as his career rate of 19%). if the BABIP were the ~.320 you’d expect from that LD% (assuming my recollection is right that expected BABIP is LD% + .120) then his batting average would probably be more like .290 than his current NL-leading .360, and his OBP would be more like .350 (it’s worth noting that Pierre’s walk rate so far this year is the highest of his career, though still below MLB average), and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
which isn’t to say that he hasn’t been good for the Dodgers so far, because what’s in the past is in the past, but it’s worth pointing out that the current level of performance is unsustainable. I assume Omar and company realize that as well. I HOPE they realize that as well.
on the unsustainable note
Remember Omir?
"We have to find a way to play better, there's no doubt. Overall. I'm not pointing fingers at anybody. Offense, defense, pitching -- we have to find a way to play better. The reality of this is, coming here to Pittsburgh and being swept -- personally, I feel embarrassed." -- Carlos Beltran
Glad to be here
Hi all. I’ve been lurking for awhile and glad to be aboard. Like Livan from Cuba I’m a refugee from Met sblog.
Pumped for tonight!
Welcome to the best damn Mets blog period
"We have to find a way to play better, there's no doubt. Overall. I'm not pointing fingers at anybody. Offense, defense, pitching -- we have to find a way to play better. The reality of this is, coming here to Pittsburgh and being swept -- personally, I feel embarrassed." -- Carlos Beltran
by EMSfan9 on Jun 9, 2009 4:47 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I'm an Metsblog ex-pat, too
Welcome to the excellent AA community!
Even Cerronerpede realized that the comments on his own blog were dumb. Slashed them all at once, now there’s no community at all.
by TheBigStapler on Jun 9, 2009 4:54 PM EDT up reply actions
I must admit
I was too a runaway from the “Blog Father”. Glad to be here, where intellectual baseball talk meets sarcasm, snark, and rabid fanhood. Word to the wise: watch out for the Site Bot.
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