Mack Attack: July 4, 2008

By John Mackin Ade
Posted Friday, July 4, 2008

Phils: 39 losses - Marlins: 40 – Mets: 42 - Braves: 46 – Nats: 53

Observation: it's becoming increasingly more obvious that the Phillies slump is over and the only way the Mets are going to catch them is by beating them...

Observation: RP/CL Carlos Muniz continues to not pass the litmus test for the future Mets closer role. I would expect this last visit to Queens to possibly be his last one and look for the B-Mets Eddie Kunz to get the call come September.

ESPN baseball writer Buster Olney talks to Michael Kay about the possibility of the Mets trading Jose Reyes. He says that it’s not out of the realm of possibility if the right deal comes along. Specifically, he mentions the Rays as a team that could put together an adequate package to satisfy the Mets.

“Oliver Perez has been mystifying for nearly five seasons now. In 2004, then with the Pirates, he posted an ERA+ of 1.45—the 142nd-best mark of any starting pitcher since 1980. But he did so at age 22—only three pitchers beat that mark at a younger age: Mark Prior, whose brilliant career has been derailed by injuries, Dwight Gooden, who lost his career to arm injuries and personal problems, and Bret Saberhagen, who went on to post a better-than-average ERA+ in 11 of his next 12 seasons. Even Prior and Gooden together posted another 11 such seasons. But Perez followed his 2004 with a 5.85 ERA in 2005, good for an ERA+ of just 72. In 2006, he got even worse, putting up a 6.55 ERA for an ERA+ of 67. A pitcher who had electrified at age 22 got dealt to the Mets by age 24—and as a throw-in. It didn’t help that the Pirates tried to remake Perez’s motion completely—though they lacked any success in doing so with pitchers, they tried it with their finest prospect. The results were predictable.” - NYObserver

A Look Back at the Trades:

1/21/06: Acquired RHP Jorge Julio

Traded for Orlando Hernandez 5/06

18-12 over 2006/2007 season for Mets

and RHP John Maine from the Orioles

26-19 over 3 years for Mets – current SP2

In exchange for RHP Kris Benson

11-12 for Baltimore in 2006

Has been injured since

wife from hell...

Conclusion: This is an easy Mets win…

So, did the current Mets come from the Mets system:

Lucy also won the Divisional Championship, with a team full of Mets prospect talent, in 1998:

They were: 53 players that played on this team:

6 played at Lucy only in a rehab situation

13 roster players made the Bigs

Current Mets: 0

Big Time Players: 2

OF Melvin Mora - excellent 10-yr career still going on – traded for Mike Bordick

OF Jason Tyner - very good 8-yr career still going on – traded for Bubba Trammell

Marginal Pros: 5

P Paul Wilson -40-58 record over 7 seasons, and a Mets dud

P Armando Reynoso - 68-62, 4.74 in 12 seasons

P Jae-Wong Seo - 28-40, 4.60 in 6 MLB seasons

P Grant Roberts - pitched 5 yrs for Mets – 4-4, 4.25 – smoked OOB - one toke over the line

C Jason Phillips - .249 in 7 marginal MLB seasons

Cups of Coffee: 6

P Tim Corcoran - 3 cups with the Rays – 5-9, 4.97

P Derek Aucion - never made it to the bigs

P Dicky Gonzalez - 2 cups with Mets/Rays – 3-2, 5.07

C Yohanny Valera - 10 at bats with Montreal – OOB 2007

OF Mike Bell - 17 at bats with Cincy – OOB 2005

P Eric Cammack - pitched 8x for 2000 Mets – OOB 2004

Zephyrs:

B-Mets:

Salvador Aguilar struck out seven over six innings to earn his league-leading 10th victory, as the Binghamton Mets defeated the Altoona Curve 6-2 at Blair County Ballpark Thursday. Binghamton took three of four in the series.

The B-Mets (48-37) didn’t trail after a two-run first. Daniel Murphy began the rally with a one-out double off Josh Hill. Nick Evans and Mike Carp both reached on throwing errors by Altoona second baseman Shelby Ford, the former scoring Murphy. Caleb Stewart then singled in Evans.

Binghamton got to Hill (4-10) again in the second when Jose Coronado led off with a double, moved to third on Aguilar’s sacrifice bunt and scored on a groundout by Fernando Martinez.

Altoona (36-48) cut Binghamton’s lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the second, thanks to a Luis Cruz RBI single. However, the B-Mets responded in the top of the third when Carp singled and scored on Salomon Manriquez’s two-run homer for a 5-1 advantage.

Aguilar (10-1) gave up another run in the third on Jason Delaney’s sacrifice fly. The B-Mets scored the game’s final run in the sixth when Manriquez and Coronado singled and Martinez walked, loading the bases before Manriquez came home on a Dave Davidson wild pitch.

The Eastern League announced today that Binghamton Mets infielder Daniel Murphy has been added to the Northern Division roster for the EL All-Star Game. The game will be played Wednesday, July 16th at Merchantsauto.com Stadium, home of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Murphy replaces New Britain infielder Steve Tolleson, who will not be able to play in the game because of injury. The 23-year-old is 10th in the EL with a .317 average and, despite missing more than a week and a half with a shoulder injury, is second on the B-Mets in RBIs (48) and third in homers (8). On May 26th vs. Reading, Murphy became just the sixth player in Binghamton Mets history to hit three homers in a game. Primarily a third-baseman, the Double-A rookie also has two four-hit games this season. Murphy will join fellow position players Mike Carp and Nick Evans and pitchers Bobby Parnell and Salvador Aguilar on the Northern Division squad. New Hampshire, the host club, is the only other Northern Division team with five All-Stars.

This time last year, SP Jose Sanchez was 4-9 for the B-Mets… now he’s 8-4, with a 3.86 ERA. We shouldn’t forget about this guy either , especially since he just turned 24... CL Eddie Kunz continues to fulfill the closer role, notching his 22nd in 25 tries; however, his K/BB ratio (33Ks/22BBs) still needs some work… the B-Mets opponent pitchers seem to have finally figured out that pitching around Mike Carp is the best thing to do. His OBP is rising with all the walks he’s getting, but, at the same time, it’s hurting his slugging percentage.

Lucy:

Thursday night was the 2nd bad outing in a row for SP Dylan Owen… on June 28th, Owen gave up 6ER in 3.1 IP, while last night, it was 6 more earned runs in 2.1 IP…

Gnats:

Offense was not a problem for one team Thursday night. Unfortunately for the 5,015 fans at Fluor Field, it was the visiting Savannah Sand Gnats (38-47, 5-10) who laced 17 base-hits en route to a 9-1 victory over the Drive (47-38, 7-8).

The Sand Gnats struck in their first at bat as Felix Doubront (8-6) hit leadoff man Greg Veloz with a pitch. After a stolen base and a sacrifice bunt, Jose Jimenez singled in the speedster.

The relentless offense continued in the top of the second as the Sand Gnats recorded three more runs on four hits. The first five batters all reached base, accounting for all of Savannah’s runs, as B.J. Hubbert roped a two-run double and Veloz added another RBI-double.

Trailing 5-1 through four and a half innings, the Drive plated their lone run in the bottom of the fifth. Will Vazquez led off with a double and scored as Kristopher Negron and Che-Hsuan Lin hit back-to-back groundouts.

Two-base hits were the theme of the night for the Sand Gnats collected two more doubles in the seventh, leading to three runs. After a walk to Sean McCraw and a double by Carlos Guzman, Nick Giarraputo scored both with a double of his own. Veloz capped Savannah’s scoring with an RBI-single.

Elvin Ramirez (6-6) and Nicholas Waechter combined on the fine pitching performance for Savannah, as Ramirez allowed a run on five hits and three walks while fanning five in 5.0 innings. Waechter finished off the Drive, as he was perfect over the final 4.0 innings, striking out six for his third save.

Observation: P Josh Stinson has been returned to a starter role, something he was when he first came to Savannah in the spring of 2007. Also, his ERA is below 3 (.297) for the first time this season.

Clones:

On Saturday, July 5th, Mets legend Darryl Strawberry will be signing free autographs at KeySpan Park, beginning at 5pm. Saturday is also Bat Day, so bring your kids to the game early, get a free bat, and then get it signed for free by Darryl Strawberry! Strawberry will sign one item per person on the Concourse level in front of the team store, and will sign autographs from 5pm - 6pm.

-two ex-2007 Sand Gnats, Wendy Rosa (0.93) and Matias Carillo (0.87), continue to dominate out of the pen. Both started the season this year in the Mets extended camp.

ScoutingBook.com has ranked SS Reece Havens as the 262nd top minor league prospect:

Reese Havens - A successful shortstop in college whose range is a bit of a question in pro ball, South Carolina graduate David (Reese) Havens could make a heck of a second baseman for a future Mets infield that already includes two All Stars and the player picked just before him in the 2008 Draft, first baseman Ike Davis. A solid line drive hitter with plus plate discipline, Havens could be a long-term keystone for New York.

K-Port:

This is getting a little ridiculous… SS Wilmer Flores hit his 5th home run Thursday night… that’s one off the league leader, and remember, this is a 16-year old.

GCL Mets:

DSL Mets:

VSL Mets:

The Mets lost Thursday day, 8-6, to the Tigers… the Mets had 10 hits, including 3 from OF Breiner Soto (.242)… RP Josmar Carreno (7.07) finished the game tossing 1.1 scoreless innings.

Minor League Bios:

Lucas Duda 1B L R 6-4 225 2-3-86 USC

Duda had a career .275 batting average at USC and hit .278 in 2007, with a team-high 6 home runs. He also performed very well last year with a wood bat in the Northwoods League.

Duda was drafted in the 7th round of the 2007 draft by the Mets. He was signed and assigned to the 2007 Brooklyn Cyclones roster, where he batted .299/.398/.462 in 234 at bats, 4 HRs, 32 RBIs, 20 doubles, only 6 errors.
In late January 2007, Baseball America listed Lucas as the 29th top Mets prospect.

In February 2008, MiLB.com came out with their top 15 prospects out of the Hawaiian Winter League:

14. Lucas Duda, Waikiki BeachBoys, 1B (New York Mets)

Had Duda been entrenched in Waikiki's lineup from the get-go, instead of joining the squad midseason as an injury replacement, the slugging USC product would have competed for league all-star honors. In 15 games and a resulting 59 plate appearances, Duda notched a .340 batting average coupled with a .660 slugging percentage with six doubles, a triple, three home runs and 13 RBIs. While the Los Angeles native needs some time to smooth out a few rough edges of his game, including his defense at first base and possibly one of the corner outfield spots, Duda's raw power and size should allow him to move up the ladder quickly

April Totals: .327/.415/.449 | 2 hr | 20 rbi | 15 runs

A May 2008 scouting report by Andy Braunstein:

Lucas Duda - 1B - He has the bat speed, the power to hit prodigious HRs to remain a force in the middle of the order. Has the bat control to be a #3 hitter, even #2. Is a good fielder. Has better hitting ability than Michel Abreu, Nick Evans and Mike Carp and a better glove. Would be the last one I would trade of the 4, and 1B is a position the Mets are going to need someone next year.

Ex-Mets:

Scott Kazmir's rapid ascent through the Mets' farm system ended on July 30, 2004, as he was stretching to make one of his first starts for Double-A Binghamton. Summoned to the office of then-manager Ken Oberkfell, he learned about the ill-fated trading deadline deal for righthander Victor Zambrano. "I started laughing at the beginning because in our relationship we joked around a lot," Kazmir said of Oberkfell. "He looked at me with a straight face and said 'this is serious.' I didn't know what to think. "It was the last thing I thought would really happen. It was a huge shock. I felt heartbroken. I really didn't get to prove I was worth the investment. I wanted to show them it was worth it to take that chance on me. I never got the chance." – NYDN

David DeJesus had 3 hits and a home run for Kansas City… Jeff Kent added 2 doubled and 2 RBI for Los Angeles… Xavier Nady hit 2 home runs and collected 3 RBI…

This Day in Mets History:

1985 - In a 19 inning game, which goes until just before 4 a.m. the next day, the Mets beat the Braves, 16-13. After the 6 hours, 10 minutes game, the 1000 fans left in Atlanta Fulton County Stadium are treated to pre-dawn fireworks which awaken and frighten many of the ball park’s neighbors.

2006 - Billy Wagner becomes the 20th pitcher baseball history to record 300 career saves. The Mets' southpaw, who has also played for the Astros and Phillies, significant save is his sixteenth of the season.