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1) Brad Holt yet again makes the Hot List (# 5), with this comment:
Holt makes his second straight appearance on the Hot Sheet after a two-start week where he fanned 21 batters in 11 1/3 innings. Holt struck out 14 in six innings on Thursday, running his season strikeout total up to 51, tops in the NYP. The only worse news for league hitters is that Holt told a reporter that he has been throwing his curveball more, meaning he may have been successful in developing that second pitch.
Right now, I think I put Holt at # 5 among all Mets' prospects:
1) F-Mart
2) Flores
3) Niese
4) Murphy
5) Holt
6) Havens
7) Murphy
8) Evans
9) Carp
10) Thole
Or something like that -- Ike Davis has to show more to get on the list, but could move up quickly if/when he does. I don't believe at all in Parnell or Kunz. I'd like to be convinced about young Pena, but he, too, has to show something . . . .
2) They didn't put Niese on the Hot List, but they like what they're seeing:
Just 21, Binghamton LHP Jon Niese (Mets) has succeeded in Double-A by cutting his fastball and showing the ability to consistently pitch inside to righthanded hitters. . . . [T]he more he shows he can pitch off the fastball and locate it enough to combat righthanded hitters, the closer he is to the big leagues. He went 1-0, 2.63 this week, with 15 strikeouts, four walks and 14 hits (no home runs) in 13 2/3 innings.
Nice.
3) Mixed reports on Murphy -- good bat, bad glove . . .
The Mets have given him a long look at second base, but at least one scout contacted by BA says the move won't take. Murphy, 23, made four errors in the 14 games he's played at second, and scouts doubt he has the agility needed for the position. He can hit, though, batting .320/.485/.640 on the week with two homers, two doubles, seven RBIs, eight walks and only one strikeout. And Murphy should have enough bat for first base, third base or even left field, the three positions he played in addition to second in the last week.
The guy would be SO much more valuable if he were even an adequate second baseman. Damn.
There's really only room for one of Pedro Feliciano, Scott Schoeneweis and Joe Smith in the bullpen. Maybe two. If you take away the closer and long man, you have five middle relievers. I think you need four of them to be able to come into most situations.
Sanchez and Heilman are the only ones trusted to get both lefties and righties out. And that's a serious problem.
The problem is that you can't manage the bullpen for a five-inning game (Maine coming out in the middle of the fifth) as if you are managing them for a two- or three-inning game. That's what Manuel did last night, using Feliciano for one out in the fifth and then immediately pinch-hitting for him. Especially since he knew he didn't have Heilman and was thus short anyway, he just could not do that. When he brought Feliciano in, he either had to double-switch so he could leave him in for the sixth, or he had to just let him hit in the top of the sixth.
Yes, I know that Feliciano has big trouble with righties. But you have to take that chance in recognition of how far the bullpen had to stretch last night and how few arms were available. That is what Manuel missed, and it's not a function of bullpen construction (though that is a more general issue, I agree). If you're going to end up with either Schoeneweis facing a slew of righties in the 8th, or Feliciano doing it in the 6th, which would YOU prefer?
• Manuel said he’d be intrigued about hard-throwing Binghamton closer Eddie Kunz joining the bullpen. But the interim manager said any such dialogue hadn’t yet reached his level yet, indicating nothing imminent along those lines.
1) F-Mart
2) Flores
3) Niese
4) Murphy
5) Holt
6) Havens
7) Evans
8) Carp
9) Thole
10) Davis
You'll notice Ruben Tejada does NOT appear anywhere on this list. Nor is he likely ever to. .594 OPS's just don't cut it, not even in the FSL. Especially not when you also have only 5 steals (and 4 CS's). No power, little apparent speed? No prospect.
1) F-Mart
2) Flores
3) Niese
4) Murphy
5) Holt
6) Havens
7) Murphy
8) Evans
9) Carp
10) Thole
I know you don't think much of the Met farm system but does Murphy really warrant two spots in the top-10? I think Thole is a better prospect than either Murphy or Carp. I'd also probably include Pena. A .700 OPS isn't bad for a young catcher with good defense.
Hitting is the single most important, and sometimes underrated, skill. Scouts look at toolsy prospects and think the coaches can teach them to hit the damn ball because they have a pretty swing and/or they can hit the ball 450 feet the rare few times they make contact.
Murphy is a hitter. The Mets have precious few of them in the system. The kid can play left field if he absolutely has to. I love me some Reese Havens, but he hasn't passed the St. Lucie test ("Can this hitter survive in a tough hitter's environment?") and he hasn't passed the AA test ("Can he thrive once the dregs are weeded out and he's facing only real, solid competition?"). Murphy has passed those tests with flying colors. I love me some Brad Holt, and you can make a case to put him ahead of Murphy because of Murphy's defensive limitations, but Holt has a miniscule number of starts, in the NY-P League. He still has a lot to prove. But I wouldn't scream bloody murder if you flipped them . . . .
OPS vs. RHP / LHP
Hanley .979 / .737
Uggla 1.032 / .629
Willingham .897 / .621
Hanley has a normal split for his career, Uggla is reverse, and Willingham is about even. Those are huge reverse splits, similar to Delgado's normal split.
Still a bit worried about the RHB power vs Ollie.
Of course, he never tagged him. Nice call, Bucknor. What a terrible umpire.
Mlb.tv only uses the home broadcast.
It took a good play to get him. Florida usually doesn't make good plays. I don't mind that at all.
Oy. You've got to know the situation -- I don't care who the opponent is. Nobody out in the first inning? You can't go to third on that ball.
I disagree.
Made short work of Hanley . . . .
If Church is healthy, I don;t think the Mets will make a move but it won't be an Endy/Evans platoon. It'll be a Tatis/Endy platoon.
Are you assuming they are never going to go back to Church? Because if he comes back, then such a platoon would mean the end of Tatis . . . .
He's throwing plenty hard. The ball's just not going very fast.
(Old Tom Seaver joke . . . .)
His sense of humor is only matched by his modesty.
That would be a wash. A total wash. Burrell has a .985 OPS -- is Manny that much better? I seriously doubt it, particularly when you take into account that Manny is even worse defensively than Burrell. If the Phillies make that deal, it will NOT make them better.
Burrell is pretty much the same player as Manny so it's not much of a difference and if it depletes the Phillies system even more, I have no problem with that.
He won't get 20 million a year in free agency.
No, perhaps not. But he'll get close enough, and he'll get more than one year guaranteed. I'm sure he'd rather have 3/$54 than 1/$20, which is all he'd have guaranteed if the Sox (or a team to which he's traded) picks up his option.
HIS NAME IS DAN UGGLA!!!111
I disagree, if the non-Burrell players are negligible.
Burrell is standing on his head this season, while Ramirez is having a fairly typical season. Odds are that Ramirez will outperform Burrell offensively for the rest of the season, quite possibly by a very large margin. Also, Burrell is almost certainly not playing for Philly in 2009. Ramirez is good enough that even with a decline, he'll be useful for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
I think this trade immediately improves the Phillies, and this is a year where a tiny difference could very well be enough to succeed. Manny's contract through 2010 is quite possibly better in the long run than the contracts coming down the pipe for the offensive players like Dunn or Tex. If he really collapses, they are only on the hook for that year.
The question is whether the two draft picks they get for Burrell would be better than having club decisions on Ramirez.
It is very unlikely to be "by a very large margin." Manny the last two years has been a 126, and now a 142 OPS player. He's not the hitter he was through 2006 -- he's clearly worse than the guy who regularly put up .600+ slugging percentages. I agree that Burrell has been outpacing his norms in putting up a 151 OPS, but even if you put him more around a 130-135, that puts him in Manny's range (if a little bit worse) as a hitter. And when you take into account defense and baserunning, the trade would be a wash for the rest of 2008. There is no reason to expect the Phillies would be better off in the current pennant race. None.
Still, no one respects the man.
OLLIE!
But, in general, he does play too ####### deep.
And the much needed DP. Well done, Ollie.
And now, Ollie gets out of it. Whew.
Could be spin.
I wonder what you'd say about it if the announcement was a torn labrum. If "mild shoulder strain" isn't about as good as we could have hoped for, I don't know what is. Unless it's BS spin, of course, which is certainly possible.
That's NY Post-esque.
Now, there's no reason to get nasty, Russlan.
Look at Jason Vargas' track record at that point. He dominated the minors, and pitched quite well in the big leagues in 2005. His 2006 was disastrous but there certainly was a good chance that he'd be an average starting pitcher. He got hurt. It happens.
BTW, when is Burgos due back?
• Ambiorix Burgos, the hard-throwing reliever acquired from the Royals two winters ago, is visiting the Mets today. Burgos has been throwing off a mound for 20 days and expects to pitch in a minor-league game for the first time Saturday. He had Tommy John elbow surgery last August.
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