Juan Gone

One at bat in the majors since 2004. One pitch from TBPiB. One moonshot over the outstretched glove of Pee-Hands.

The only thing that could have made it any more hilarious is if Moises' knee exploded as he leaped to try and make a play.

Our Prospects Are Good....Right?

I know this is weeks late, but it was too funny not to post. Metsblog's Jordan Zakarin interviewed Kevin Goldstein of BP on Valentine's Day and this happened. I bolded the especially memorable parts.

Jordan Zakarin: One of the most intriguing guys in the Mets system is Scott Moviel – obviously has a high ceiling, but the Mets were seemingly recently burned with a big right hander in Mike Pelfrey. Are there legit similarities there, and can Moviel perhaps turn into a top of the line prospect?

Kevin Goldstein: I don’t see the similarities really, other than the tall, right-handedness.

Jordan Zakarin: So that’s a good thing?

Kevin Goldstein: Moviel is all projection, while Pelfrey has some really good stuff now — at least the fastball. Moviel is one of those players you can dream on — he could turn into a top of the line prospect, but keep in mind, that every system has this guy. The big, projectable pitcher. A few of them turn into really nice prospects, and most fall by the wayside. Still, to even have a player with that chance is a good thing.

Jordan Zakarin: Sounds like the Mets were pleasantly surprised with his initial performance, though.

Kevin Goldstein: Yes — he took very well to coaching, showed some early feel for a changeup, and threw more strikes than expected.

Jordan Zakarin: Okay, another draftee with upside, Brant Rustich – some say he had some of the best pure stuff in the draft – if he really did gain that command he showed in his pro debut, what’s his ceiling, and is there a chance he’s a starter?

Kevin Goldstein: He’s probably a reliever in the end. Rustich has very good raw stuff, but whoever said it was the best in the draft was smoking something. His fastball/slider combination gives him two plus pitches that profile best in relief, as he doesn’t have much of a changeup. The control hit seems like a total fluke, based on what he did at UCLA, and the fact that he wasn’t throwing strikes in Hawaii.

Jordan Zakarin: He was hurt while at UCLA though, right? He said that really hurt his command, when I talked to him.

Kevin Goldstein: Sure, but not always. It’s not like he was a world beater when his finger was fine. He’s mechanically a little messy, and until he consistently throws strikes, he’s not going to have a lot of believers in him… For a guy with an ERA over six in college, to still go in the second round, that tells you his stuff is pretty impressive — but he’s got a long way to go.

Jordan Zakarin: Okay, another draftee coming from the pen — Eddie Kunz – set up man, or potential closer? Did his tough pro debut take away some of the luster, or was he just tired from non-stop pitching the last two years?

Kevin Goldstein: I see him as almost a borderline closer. It could happen, but I’m not sold on it yet. I don’t think his debut really dinged him too much, even Mets knew that he wasn’t one of those college fast-track relievers and might take a bit to develop.

Jordan Zakarin: So he’s not on the Joe Smith track, per se?

Kevin Goldstein: Not unless he starts throwing a ton of strikes.

…as i said on Tuesday, big thanks to kevin, who took out a huge chunk of time to do another interview with me…

…it seems that the Mets still have some decent prospects, it’s just more an issue of a lack of real close-to-the-majors, high-ceiling guys…the thing is, kevin is more optimistic than i had anticipated about the big picture, maybe because the big league team has a real chance to win…but, there are some younger, further away, high-ceiling guys there, which is better than having just a bunch of future utilitymen…

…as i keep saying, this draft, in which the Mets will have three picks inside the first 33, will be very, very important…

Ok, now here is the first comment from the post (which was not by me, though I wish it was):

Comment by The Milledge Idiot

2008-02-14 12:55:36

Jordan: The Mets prospects are good, right!?

Kevin: No.

Jordan: They’re good, right!?

Kevin: No.

Jordan: I’ve heard great things, they’re going to be great!

Kevin: No.

That - as Kenny Bania would say - is gold.

I know it happens at the start of every Spring Training, but is it me or does it seem like the prospect hype is going a little above and beyond this season? The Mets have always overhyped their prospects. See, e.g. "Generation K." But this year on Mets.com, Metsblog, you name the official outlet, it just seems like there is a constant stream of "we have good prospects in the system, you just haven't heard of them!"

Not according to BP.

Dear Jon, Get Off Jimmy's Nuts

Jon Heyman's aversion to rational inferences based on statistics is well documented at places like FJM, but his dislike of the Mets - or love of Jimmy Rollins - has never been that apparent to me. That is, until I read his latest contribution to SI:

The Mets may unseat the Phillies as NL East champions this year, but there's no sense in trying to beat NL MVP and trash talker extraordinaire Jimmy Rollins at his own game.

Quiet Mets star Carlos Beltran gave it a surprise shot when he got to camp, borrowing Rollins' exact line from last spring in declaring the Mets as "the team to beat." But as Phillies pitcher Brett Myers noted, "Sequels are never as good as the original.''

And then Rollins chimed in the next day, "Has anyone ever heard of plagiarism?''

Beltran, a nice, laconic, well-groomed fellow, stunned folks with his rare back-page fodder. But Rollins holds the patent. He gets all the credit, with only an assist from the Mets for their reaction last spring. "I thank the Mets,'' Rollins said. "They took it upon themselves to take it personally.

Beltran and other Mets types are understandably excited about the acquisition of ace pitcher Johan Santana. Yet the Mets should hold their tongues now for two very good reasons: 1) They had their chance last spring when Rollins spoke, but to a man, they were afraid to speak up, a reticence that was later reflected in the way they played -- scared; and 2) Philly beat the Mets to a pulp down the stretch, winning the last seven head-to-head games.

Beltran gave it a shot. But under the circumstances his words came off as a pale impersonation of the master.

Ok. Besides the excess verbiage (Laconic? Really Jon?), Heyman seems to imply that the Mets should have answered the challenge last spring when *The MVP* declared the Phillies "the team to beat." Jon Heyman, you're a moron. There, I said it.

I'll go out on a limb and say that the only people calling for any Met player to publicly answer Rollins statements were Vinny from Staten Island and Paulie from Bay Ridge - and they were both "first time, long time."

I can't remember a single person in the media that wanted a Met to answer Rollins. If I remember correctly, the opposite was true. Rollins was viewed as a trash talking SS on a historically losing franchise. Why waste breath in answering him? All anyone wanted the Mets to do was go out on the field and take care of business much like they did on Opening Day.

Now, after The Collapse®, Jon Heyman is talking shit about the Mets saying how they should have manned up and fired a shot back? Get the fuck out of here Heyman, you're embarrassing yourself.

Puff Piece

(If you look closely you can see Fernando Tatis)

As JP at Blastings Thrilledge has already pointed out, the talented writers over at Baseball Analysts have been posting about the young guns ready to make an impact in 2008 from each division. This is what they have to say about the 2008 Mets:

The Mets are beginning to look a lot like the Yankees… by clubbing the rest of the organizations in their division with their checkbook. Mind you, the Mets are arguably more talented on the field at this point with the Yankees aging and a number of young players unproven. As a result of recent acquisitions, such as that minor trade that netted one of the best pitchers in baseball, the Mets do not appear as though they will entrust significant playing time to any rookies in 2008, barring a run on catastrophic injuries.

Music to Mets fans' ears! Well, we already knew that. Any Mets fan paying attention knows the only thing left in the minors is F-Mart. And most Mets fans are content with that for now seeing as how the depletion was the result of the Santana trade. So to recap: The Mets minor league system is barren...

Not according to the Mets!

The propaganda machine that I interviewed to work with - and was summarily dinged - churned out this beauty on Jonathon Niese this past week.

In case you hadn't been paying attention, Niese was drafted in '05 and spent the last two season in A-ball. His numbers aren't that impressive (4.29 ERA and 1.35 WHIP last year) especially considering it's in single-A. The one thing that stuck out for me is how dramatically he cut his BB rate from '06 to '07. Niese had slightly over a 2:1 K:BB ratio in 2006 and he raised to just over 3:1 in 2007.

In case anyone cares, Sickels ranked Niese the organizations #5 prospect (before the Santana deal) for 2008. He was ranked above both Humber and Joe Smith. Now I'd imagine it's a toss up between Niese and Eddie Kunz for the #2 prospect in the organization!

It's a sad, sad state of affairs. Emphasized by the fact that Jay Horowitz & Co. (aka "Marty Noble") felt the need to start hyping a pitcher who by all accounts will start a third straight year in A-ball with a career ERA of 4.09.

Don't fear Mets fans, help is on the way.

The Professor & His Balls

Caption contest time! Post in the comments.

"Really Rick? Victor Zambrano? 10 minutes?"

Check out more pictures here. Happy weekend.

Jesus Christ

Can't the world-beaters in the marketing department leave well enough alone?

I woke up to read this email this morning:







How can this team, a team who blew a 12...well you all know what happened, stand on a pedestal and offer a ticket package entitled "Team to Beat" Pack? I'd sign on for a "Let's Wait and See" Pack or even a "We'll Probably Win the Division, but Let's Not Jump to Conclusions" Pack, but "Team to Beat?"

There was a reason why it was so easy to root against the Phillies and Jimmy Rollins last season. I think it had something to do with a SS making bold predictions before the season started.

As Metstradamus has lamented, these comments coming from Beltran's mouth is one thing, having the team latch onto it and turn it into a marketing campaign is another.

The 2008 Mets: Let's Jinx This Motherfucker Before We Even Play a Game.

A Tale of Two LOOGYs

JP's recent post examining the Mets bullpen over at Blastings! Thrilledge got me thinking about the state of the 2008 bullpen. Besides overpaying for Jorge Sosa and the return of the Sanchez not much has been written on the relief corps. I found that to be ironic, seeing as the bullpen played a large role in the Collapse® of 2007.

From a - very - cursory look at the stats it looks like carrying both Pedro Feliciano and Scott Schoeneweis this season will be a mistake that will likely cost Joe Smith, Matt Wise, or Filthy Sanchez a roster spot.

While many people claimed that Feliciano solidified his spot last season as a legitimate reliever, his numbers against RHB proved that while he wasn't terrible against RHB - there were still far better options in the pen:

Feliciano vs. RHB:   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS
                .221  .325  .371  .697 

He was much, much better against LHB (.168 BAA, .211 SLG, .483 OPS) - his problem like in 2006 was walking too many batters.

Compare the numbers of the other members of the bullpen against RHB last season to Feliciano's numbers against righties.

                 BA   OBP   SLG   OPS
Heilman:       .218  .263  .305  .568
Sosa:          .202  .253  .296  .549
Smith:         .266  .361  .359  .720
Sanchez ('06)  .179  .275  .226  .501
_____________________________________

                 BA   OBP   SLG   OPS
The Show:      .316  .390  .574  .963
Wagner:        .209  .268  .318  .587

It's clear that Feliciano holds RHB to around the same BA as the better RHP in the Mets pen, but when the RHB make contact they hit it a lot harder and further (he also walks a bunch of them). In fact, the only RHP in the bullpen that was worse against RHB was Smith, and PECOTA and ZiPS project him to be much improved in 2008.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that while Feliciano isn't terrible against righties - he isn't great either, and he shouldn't be facing them with so many other viable RHP options in the bullpen.

Because Schoeneweis' numbers against righties are so awful his value would be maximized by making him strictly a LOOGY as JP pointed out over at BT. If you need anymore proof check this out (hat tip to BT).

It would appear, however, that carrying him as a LOOGY would force Feliciano into bigger spots (non 1-2 out situations) against RHB. As we have seen, RHB reach base against him at a far higher clip than they do other members of the pen.

However, Omar did sign Schoeneweis for way too much money and Willie will probably give him another shot to get everyone out this year so we should probably all brace ourselves for more moonshots exiting Shea over the head of a angry and frustrated Scotty Show. I, for one, can't wait.

Sorry for the rambling. None of this matters anyway - the manager doesn't know how to use the bullpen. Thank you Joe Torre.

Fail

I miss Benny Agbayani.

Thanks to Riding with Rickey for the link to the Fail Blog:

Captain Red Ass Speaks

Breaking his long silence since being named in the Mitchell Report, the author of the famous "my phone is TOAST" note on Dodgers stationary has expressed his deep sorrow and regret.

"In regards to Senator [George] Mitchell's report," Lo Duca said in a written statement, "I apologize to my family, all my fans and to the entire baseball community for [the] mistakes in judgment I made in the past and for the distractions that resulted. I am fully committed to being the best player and person I can be, on and off the field, for the Washington Nationals and the entire baseball community.

"I recognize the importance of my role in the community as a professional athlete, and I intend to focus my energies on making a positive impact in that regard. So that I can focus on making positive contributions and avoid creating further distractions, I respectfully decline to comment any further on the content of the Mitchell Report."

Good damage control Paulie, but you're still bat-shit crazy. Both for cheating on your playmate wife with Stoneonta's finest and trying to kill umpires after a strike two call.

Oh, and by the way, don't think that just because Crazy Eyes is off the juice he's not still going to go .500/6/36 in the 18 games the Mets play the Nats. The 2008 Mets: Your Beatdown at the Hands of LoDuca and Milledge Has Come!

Pedro's Juicing

On eggs, mangoes and OTC pain reliever/fever reducers. Link stolen from CSTB:

Martinez did have some pointed words, however, for the reporter who once called him a prima donna.

“I have a small frame and when I hurt all I could do was take a couple of Aleve or Advil, a cup of coffee and a little mango and an egg — and let it go!” he said.

Martinez’s point: He wasn’t going to try human growth hormone or any other performance-enhancing substance. In fact, he would welcome a more stringent drug-testing program in baseball.

“I dominated that era and I did it clean,” he said. “I can stand by my numbers and I can be proud of them.”

A couple Aleve? A badass if there ever was one. Juice on my friend, juice on.