We wonder nowadays if the team will ever score more than 5 runs a game, which they have not done in the last 15 games or who will be in the lineup for each game and will those players actually produce. Rick Ankiel must have read my last post, “Will Ankiel Answer the Mets Need for Their Powerless Outfield?” Since joining the team, he is hitting .304, 2 HR in 7 games, but the verdict is still out on this move and it will take sometime to see if the move was worth the money spent. Without including Ankiel’s numbers the Mets five outfielders combined are hitting .224, 16 HRs, 50 RBIs, which I am sure that Ankiel can top that alone if he continues to get comfortable at the plate.

The team may not have the talent us fans have been accustomed to watching and as the players are aware, Mets fans are very passionate about their team, which Terry Collins recently eluded to when he went after the fans in the media.

He chose to take out his frustration on the fans recently by saying, “They (fans) have no idea what goes on in there. They have absolutely no idea what it means to be a professional teammate at this level.” That may be true to some extent, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t see the writing on the wall. It doesn’t mean that we are not educated baseball fans, plus we feel we understand the game better than most that actually play the game. We may be fooling ourselves, but we just want what other successful teams and organizations have, and that is a chance. A chance to watch our team go out each day and play the game the way it is supposed to be played.

I hope other fans feel the same way I do, but I can do without all the drama. If you have a good player on the team, play him and if you don’t care to then don’t, but make a right decision and leave it out of the news. Give the fans hope that maybe just maybe this team, our team will turn it around. This is baseball, a game we all grew up loving and some playing and we just hope that ownership gets the concept that in order to keep the fans happy, you have to put together a team worth rooting for. They won’t win all the games but have something to build on.

In a recent NY Daily News article, Collins actually said he regret his remarks about the fans, “Of course I regret the choice of words. I certainly respect the New York fans; they’re the most knowledgeable fans I’ve ever been around.” See Collins even admits how smart we are and he goes on to say “They know the game. They know the people.”

We know what we expect and we know that unless there is some sort of hope, this ship will continue to sink and when it finally goes down, usually the captain goes down with it and I am not referring to David Wright.

Catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud will need to remain in a walking boot for two more weeks without any weight-bearing activity, according to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York.

Adam goes on to say that the determination was made after team doctor Struan Coleman examined d’Arnaud today at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.

D’Arnaud, 24, avoided surgery to repair a non-displaced fracture in his left foot and was initially expected to miss eight weeks.

He was batting .250/.429/.472 in 49 at-bats for Las Vegas with one home run before suffering the injury on a foul ball off his left foot. But four weeks later and he still has not been cleared to put pressure on that foot.

“D’Arnaud experienced some tenderness to the touch in the area of the broken first metatarsal.”

With John Buck adequately producing for the Mets, there’s no urgency to rush D’Arnaud back. Regarded by many as the top catching prospect in the game, he probably wasn’t going to join the Mets until the second half anyway.

The Mets will play this one cautiously and make sure he is completely healed before any determination will be made regarding his rehab and beginning baseball activities.

Keep it up, kid. You’ll see AA soon…

Noah Syndergaard took the hill for the St. Lucie Mets tonight, and continued to dominate hitters at the Single-A level. He was bringing 96 mph heat, and mixing in his change-up and curve ball all night. The curve ball was the sharpest it’s looked all year, as he snapped off hook after hook that either left hitters frozen in their stance, or left them swinging wildly like they were trying to hit mosquitoes out of the sky.

This was the kind of performance I was waiting to see from Syndergaard, whose main flaw seemed to be that his off-speed pitches needed more development before the season started. Tonight, he used them confidently — they were sharp, and they were getting hitters out.

On the night, Syndergaard struck out ten hitters in 6.2 innings of work, and walked none. That looks like a Rafael Montero stat line plus four extra strikeouts. He gave up two runs on seven hits, a couple of which were infield hits, but the ten strike outs were the most this season for the young fire-baller.

St. Lucie would go on to lose this game, 3-2, after T.J. Chism allowed a two-out RBI double that scored a runner left on base by Randy Fontanez for a Brevard Country walk-off win. Rylan Sandoval was responsible for the two St. Lucie runs, with a sixth inning two-run single.

Syndergaard is getting closer and closer to Double-A, and is the clear cut favorite to be the Mets No. 1 prospect once Zack Wheeler is promoted. As of right now, I would slot Syndergaard behind Wheeler as the No. 2 prospect in the organization. I’m starting to believe that he was the key addition from the R.A. Dickey trade, and not Travis d’Arnaud.

If I had to rank my top five prospects in the Mets organization now, they would be Zack Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard, Travis d’Arnaud, Rafael Montero and Brandon Nimmo. It’s nice to imagine a future rotation that includes Matt Harvey, Wheeler, Syndergaard and Montero. Barring injuries, if these guys remain on track, good times are right around the corner for Mets fans.

Where would this team be without Matt Harvey?

Is it safe to say that as of this moment, the only proven and legit core player under the age of 30 this team has is The Dark Knight of Gotham?

I like Jon Niese a lot, but is he a core player? Or just an number three pitcher who plays the role of an ace on a very bad team?

I quickly threw some numbers into a spreadsheet and I can’t believe how appalling the numbers are once you take Harvey out of the equation.

Two of our top three starters have ERA’s of 5.93 for Jon Niese and 6.13 for Dillon Gee. Our number four starter, Jeremy Hefner has got them both beat with a 4.28 ERA. You may recall me saying back in January that he would be a sleeper and best choice for fifth starter? (Hey Alex68, remember this? Underrated????? SMH!!!)

Then you have the pitcher who was supposed to help replace R.A. Dickey‘s innings in Shaun Marcum. The Mets gave marcum a guaranteed $4 million dollars and in return he’s already missed one month and since his debut is averaging 4.1 innings in three starts and has a team worst 8.31 ERA.

Mets pitchers are now officially the worst in the National League and second worst in the Major Leagues. And that’s with Matt Harvey who is in the top five in over a half dozen pitching categories.

That’s kind of embarrassing, wouldn’t you say?

Gee has been the latest starter to deliver an abysmal performance after allowing six runs and nine hits against the Cardinals last night in 4.0 innings.

“I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t even know what to say, really. I didn’t feel all that bad tonight”, said Gee after the game. “Physically I feel great. There’s nothing going on there. I don’t know. I’m kind of lost.”

You don’t say?

Gee and Co. is partly why the Mets bullpen has been as abysmal as it has. They are burning through arms at an unprecedented rate. Six weeks in and already eight transactions related to the bullpen alone. And it’s not as if it was a great bullpen to begin with. It was put together with sticks and Krazy Glue.

So while everyone is piling on when it comes to the Mets offense, the truth of the matter is that this team is quite atrocious on all fronts. Take a look at the evidence:

METS PITCHING RANKINGS

METS HITTING RANKINGS

That stinks to high heaven. It’s a shock to the system to even look at those awful, awful numbers.

I can tell you right now that Zack Wheeler and Travis d’Arnaud alone are not going to fix that. In fact I think it’s a sin that those two are being setup for an unfair amount of undue pressure, as if trying to stick in the majors wasn’t already challenging enough.

On Wednesday, Sandy Alderson seemed concerned that Wheeler is being looked upon as some sort of savior and he admitted to Mike Francesa that he wasn’t. But the fact that both he and d’Arnaud will be walking into this disaster is going to be something to behold and I don’t mean that in a good way. I wonder how they will handle it, and God forbid if they don’t produce immediate results and hit the ground running.

The other day on Twitter I tossed out the suggestion of just letting both of them stay at Triple-A and don’t bring them up unless this team turns it around. Losing is contagious. I know you all know that. If this is what those two kids are going to walk into, I’d rather wait and call them up in September.

At least in September they can come up without the pressure of having to carry a team that was poorly constructed. It’s bad enough that Matt Harvey has had to deal with this. I totally feel sorry for that kid. On any other team, but the Mets, Harvey would probably be 8-0 right now.

I don’t know if this is rock bottom, but heaven help us if it isn’t and it continues to get worse.

I gave Davis a pass during last season’s first half, what with the Valley Fever and that whole ankle debacle, but what’s his excuse this time?

How long can we afford to continue to trot him out there, especially with a left-hander on the mound?

Three weeks ago I called him a platoon player at best. Some of you said it was too early to make such a judgement – small sample size and all.

Is anybody ready to join my bandwagon now or are you still seeing Ike as the power-hitting first baseman of the future even with every mighty whiff at those down and outside baseballs pitchers love to feed him?

Well guess what? I’ve got another shocker for you.

But maybe you should sit yourselves down for this one…

Given the incredible season by catcher Kevin Plawecki – by the way I told you to expect great things this season – I’m thinking some crazy thoughts. It will be sacrilege to most of you actually…

Amid all the hoopla of acquiring Travis d’Arnaud in the R.A. Dickey trade, it seemed the catcher who nobody could stop talking about a year ago, was suddenly rendered mute and was no longer in the team photo.

Meanwhile as D’Arnaud logs more and more time on the disabled list, a hobby he’s become quite adept at, all Plawecki keeps doing is fulfilling those high expectations that caused the Mets to select him in the first round out of Purdue in the first place.

Scouts see a solid defensive catcher with a .280 bat and a few .300 seasons in his future. They project his bat to be in the 15-20 home run range, but with the additional benefit of 30-40 doubles due to his gap power and ability to drive the ball to all fields. That would explain his league leading doubles totals. He’s an old-school backstop behind the dish and regarding those plays at the plate, he’s not afraid to take a hit and keep on ticking. Tough as steel.

What this organization needs more than anything is an outfielder. My solution? Send D’Arnaud to his fourth organization in three years to get one, sign John Buck on for another season until Plawecki can take over, and put Duda at first base until Jayce Boyd resumes his rightful place as the real first baseman of the Mets future. A first baseman cut right out of the same fabric as Keith Hernandez.

I don’t get into these fanboy attachments with players and prospects like so many Mets fans do. I want to win and do what’s right for the team more than any attachment to a singular player – even one as touted as D’Arnaud. He is suddenly looking more and more like a player who is too brittle to handle the rigors of being an everyday catcher in the majors. There were already some concerns about his ability to stick at catcher anyway, and that was before the Mets traded for him.

His apparent propensity for spending more time off the field than on it, already have the Mets contemplating a permanent ban to keep TDA from blocking the plate moving forward. A catcher not blocking the plate? Sorry, but give me the tough-as-nails Boilermaker Kevin Plawecki if that’s going to be the case, and let’s use TDA to get that power outfield bat we so desperately need right now.

The Mets used their first-round pick last year on shortstop Gavin Cecchini.

Last month, I had the chance to conduct an email interview with John Sickels of the well-known minor league blog, Minor League Ball. Sickels worked for ESPN many years ago, where he had his own column about minor league baseball. Here is some of what we talked about:

Q: Were the Mets too conservative with the Gavin Cecchini selection?

A: I thought Cecchini was a slight overdraft but I didn’t really think that about Nimmo. By slight, I think he was more of a late first round guy rather than 12 th overall, but that’s my opinion and obviously the Mets disagreed. Their thinking is that a premium defensive shortstop with excellent makeup and a chance to be at least a decent hitter is not easy to find. As with Nimmo, Cecchini is very young of course, just a college freshman age-wise, so it is way too soon to know who is right.

Q: What do you think of the prospects the Mets got for R.A. Dickey?

A: I thought they did well. D’Arnaud has the offensive and defensive ability to be an All-Star catcher, and at least a solid long-term regular. He just needs to stay healthy. I love Syndergaard, who has made a lot of progress with his secondary pitches. He could be a top of the rotation pitcher. They are both elite prospects.

Q: Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia — bullpen or rotation?

A: Bullpen in both cases. I used to think that Familia might make it as a starter, but at this point I think his command and mechanical problems make him a better fit in the pen.

Q: Vicente Lupo wowed in the Dominican Summer League with a .343/.500/.608 slash line and ten home runs over just 65 games. He is a bit of a mystery to many Mets fans. What do you know about him?

A: Well Lupo was a big-bonus guy out of Venezuela who was supposed to hit for power and average. He was terrible in 2011, but supposedly he was sick most of the summer and not at full strength. As you know, he was outstanding last year, more in keeping with the original reports. However, Dominican Summer League performance is not very predictive, so at this point I think we just have to wait and see.

Q: Will changing Triple-A affiliates from Buffalo to Las Vegas have any impact on player development?

A: Las Vegas is an extreme hitters park in a pro-offense league. In one sense, it can be a useful trial-by-fire thing for for pitchers: if you can survive in Vegas, you are better-prepared mentally and emotionally for the major leagues. On the other hand, it does introduce complications in player development for players on both sides of the ball. Breaking pitches don’t act the same. Hitters can get into bad habits that don’t harm them statistically in Vegas, but can come back to haunt them in the majors.

Read more of Sickels’ work at Minor League Ball.

Juan Centeno (Photo by Gordon Donovan)

Rafael Montero was hotter than Scarlett Johansson in her Black Widow costume for his first four starts of the season, compiling three wins, 27 strikeouts and only one walk. Zack Wheeler was as cold as ice, struggling to find command and his first win of the year.

The two men may be the brightest pitching prospects in the Mets organization right now, but couldn’t have been further apart from each other on the spectrum as they were for the first month of the season. We know that Wheeler said he watched some video, and noticed a small mechanical issue that could have caused his shaky start to the season. He worked out the kink, and poof, he pitched his best game of the season on Tuesday, going 6.2 innings, and not sacrificing a walk until the final batter he faced. However, there may be more than meets the eye here with both of these guys.

Enter the Travis d’Arnaud injury.

Everyone knows that d’Arnaud is out with a fracture in his left foot. The injury caused the Mets to promote Juan Centeno, who had been the starting catcher in Binghamton until the d’Arnaud injury forced his call up. Many pegged Centeno for Las Vegas at the start of the year, since he is defensively superior and had already shown offensive mastery at the Double-A level with Binghamton the year before. However, this looked as if it was a move that was made to keep Centeno playing everyday, and he was primed to be promoted the minute d’Arnaud got his call to the show.

Centeno spent time in 2012 with Wheeler in Binghamton. During Wheeler’s best start of the year, Centeno was catching. Could that have had something to do with Wheeler’s performance on Tuesday? Is there a comfort level there? Does Centeno call a better game, putting Wheeler in a better position to succeed?

Montero, on the other hand, has pitched quite poorly since Centeno was called up. Montero had primarily pitched with Francisco Pena behind the plate this season, but could the lack of leadership and wisdom that Centeno provided the other catchers, even from the dugout in between innings, be causing the catchers to put the pitcher in a less than optimal position to succeed?

This could all be coincidence, and maybe it is, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that Wheeler has pitched much better since Centeno’s call up, and Montero has pitched much worse. Maybe Wheeler is finally heating up, and it was only a matter of time before he got it together. Maybe the hitters in the Eastern League are heating up, starting to hit Montero, and it was just a matter of time before they figured him out. But maybe, just maybe, Juan Centeno is the smoking gun here.

Noah Syndergaard accomplished two important things on Sunday. He picked up his first win of the season and he pitched seven innings for the first time in his professional career. That according to Jonathan Raymond who got a chance to get up close to the Mets pitching prospect in his last start.

Syndergaard is trying to put that one bad start when he allowed seven runs over three innings completely behind him and he seems to be doing a heck of a job of it too. Since that forgettable outing all he’s done was manage to toss two starts without allowing an earned run. Combined he thrown 13 innings and held the opposition to just eight hits and three walks while striking out 11 of them.

“He really located his fastball really well over both sides of the plate. Kept the ball down and was pretty much in command of all his pitches,” St. Lucie pitching coach Phil Regan said. “He also had two strikeouts on curveballs and two on changeups, and these are the things we have been working on.

“And he went seven innings. It was an interesting thing, someone mentioned to him it was the first time he went seven innings this year. And he says, “Yeah, it’s the first time in three years, since high school.’”

After Sunday’s performance, Syndergaard has lowered his ERA to a respectable 3.24 ERA while striking out 26 and walking ten in 25 innings pitched this season.

“He’s really coming along well. I think he’s making a lot of strides,” Regan said. “He’s understanding a lot about pitching and he’s just a tremendous kid, soaks up knowledge and wants to learn. I think he’s done exceptionally well for his age and where he’s coming from. He’s not afraid, he goes right after hitters, aggressive on the mound. I think he’s got confidence in himself, and that’s all part of it.”

As we said in our Prospect Spotlight back in February, “Syndergaard is a perfect physical specimen for a pitcher and really looks like he can become a perennial all-star. Although there are some things that come into question – his command at times, his stamina, and as always, furthering the development of his third pitch, there is a lot to love about Noah Syndergaard.”

The seven innings pitched certainly shows positive gains with regard to his stamina, and Regan says that his curveball and change have improved and are becoming effective weapons as his command. That’s exactly what we were hoping for.

“He is aggressive on the mound and stays relatively emotionless,” is what we about said about him in our MMO Top 25 Prospect rankings. We also said:

If Syndergaard makes the move to AA during the 2013 season, I have faith that he will breeze through it. It is important not to put too much pressure or to rush the young prospect, as he represents a new wave of pitching prospects…or a changing of the Gaard. See what I did there? Good.

So far, out of our Top 5 Prospects, Michael Fulmer and Travis d’Arnaud are still on the disabled list, Zack Wheeler and Wilmer Flores are both trying to figure out the PCL for entirely different reasons, and Syndergaard has looked and played the part so far in the early going.

I know it’s early, but if I were handing out Monthly Report Cards like they did in Catholic School:

Syndergaard Gets an A-

Flores gets a B

Wheeler gets a C+

Fulmer and d’Arnaud get Incompletes.

Just saying…

Juan Lagares Is Legit – (Photo by Gordon Donovan)

Updated 2:30 PM

Whatever I said below, it’s now official…

Updated at 11:30 PM

Outfield prospect Juan Lagares, who is tearing up the Pacific Coast League, likely will join the Mets as soon as Tuesday, baseball sources told ESPN New York.

Lagares, 24, is hitting .346 with three homers and nine RBIs through 78 at-bats with Triple-A Las Vegas. All 17 of his appearances with the 51s have been in center field. He also has experience.

See you again soon, Kirk… Nice getting to know you…

I’m getting really good at this….

Original Post 3:00 PM 

Prospect Spotlight: Juan Lagares Is Finally Getting His Due

When we did our MMO Top 25 Prospects back in January, we caught some flack for including outfielder Juan Lagares at No. 21.

Some of the blowback we received on Twitter and in our threads included some of these gems:

• Anyone can do a top ten, that’s easy. You need to really know the system to start doing top 25. Putting Lagaras anywhere on it speaks volumes. Having him at 21 is nuts. (Umm it’s Lagares, not Lagaras.)
• The fact you’re the only site that has him ranked in the top 25 doesn’t say much for your analysis, Lagares sucks.

After we finished releasing out MMO Top 25, several other sites rolled out their own Prospect Rankings weeks later and aside from Mack’s Mets and Toby Hyde, Juan Lagares was included in everyone else’s Top 25 including Amazin Avenue, Jonathan Mayo, and John Sickels (Top 20, but had Lagares among honorable mentions).

Here is our original MMO Profile:

21. Juan Lagares, OF

Height: 6’1″
Weight: 175 LBS
Bats/Throws: Right/Right

Juan Lagares had a monster season in 2011 and followed it up with a good season at Binghamton hitting .283 with some improvement in his plate discipline and his continuing ability at playing CF. Lagares’ value at this point is held to which position on the field he will play because despite the high batting average, Lagares doesn’t exhibit the type of power you would expect from a corner outfielder. Expectations would see Lagares going to Las Vegas for the 2013 season to either start in CF if possible, otherwise playing a corner and proving his bat is solid

Outlook: Lagares can hit but the only downside is the tweener label at this point and value that goes to each position. The Mets outfield at this point is so devoid of right-handed bats, if Lagares came up to the Mets for the 2013 season I would not be surprised in the least bit. That being said, I think Lagares gets 400+ AB in Las Vegas, playing all three OF spots and makes the big club by September 2013 for a tryout for 2014.

In one of my replies to one of those commenters, I wrote the following about Lagares sucking:

Not according to what Paul DePodesta had to say about him yesterday, when he said Lagares will most likely make his MLB debut in 2013. (That was based on comments DePo made at a Citi Field event back in January.)

Even before Travis d’Arnaud injured his ankle, the top slugger on the Triple-A Las Vegas squad was and continues to be Juan Lagares and my other MMO fave, Josh Satin.

Lagares is swinging a .346 bat to lead the 51s with a .378 On-Base, .551 Slugging and a .929 OPS. In 17 games played he has three doubles, two triples and three home runs to go with 13 runs scored and nine driven in.

As we projected, Lagares is Wally Backman‘s leadoff man and with the injury to Matt den Dekker he has started every game in center field where he ranks third in the PCL in range factor and fifth in fielding percentage. He leads the team in putouts and has already had his arm tested, accumulating four outfield assists in barely two weeks.

Is this a fluke? Not really, in 2011 – and in a not so hitter-friendly league – Lagares batted .370/.391/.512 for Double-A Binghamton in 170 plate appearances. Combined with St. Lucie that season he hit .349 in 550 Plate appearances.

Last season toolsy outfielder produced at a .287 clip and some people were already willing to toss him into the wood chipper. What also gets overlooked is Lagares’ speed and in the last three seasons he has stolen 21, 15 and 25 bases.

I feel strongly that unless Collin Cowgill gets that on-base percentage significantly over .200 real quick, Juan Lagares will be promoted from Las Vegas to fill the void and see plenty of time batting leadoff for the Mets. His right-handed bat would pair very well with Jordany Valdespin as a platoon in center field.

For the first two weeks of the minor league season, the Mets were represented with a prospect cracking the Baseball America Hot Sheet. Last week it was Rafael Montero. This week, it’s Wilmer Flores. Both players were listed “In The Team Photo,” which is basically considered an honorable mention.

As I stated in the Mets Minors Report earlier today, Flores is quietly having a nice season offensively. This fine hitting prospect seems like he has been overshadowed by Travis d’Arnaud and Zack Wheeler for these first couple of weeks. But Flores continues to put up solid numbers, and hit his first home run of the season last night, adding three RBI in the Las Vegas 51s victory.

For his efforts over the past week, he was selected to Baseball America’s Hot Sheet. Here’s what they had to say about him:

Wilmer Flores, 3b, Mets. Against the backdrop of Triple-A Las Vegas teammates Zack Wheeler (blister on middle finger) and Travis d’Arnaud (broken foot) dealing with injury woes, Flores just keeps hitting. The 21-year-old went 12-for-30 (.400) with a homer and four doubles this week, but more remarkably he has just three strikeouts in 15 games this season.

Baseball America has to update their files, Flores has been playing second base the majority of the year. But that is besides the point, and Flores is having an excellent season. With the news that d’Arnaud will not require surgery, he should be back in eight weeks or sooner. This could be a chance for Flores to pull himself out of the shadows again with a continued hot play.

I was kind of shocked to see no mention of Brandon Nimmo on the list. He has been virtually impossible to keep off the base paths this season, but it was most likely his power numbers that caused him to get snubbed. Out of all of his hits, he only has three for extra bases this year. Some players on the list had that many home runs alone this past week.

During the Hot Sheet Q&A session this afternoon, a couple of questions came up regarding some Mets prospects. I found one exchange very interesting, regarding Jacob deGrom, which is shared below:

• John (Chicago): Might not be hot sheet worthy, but Jacob deGrom had an 8 ip, 3 h, 8 k, 1 bb line in his first AA start. He’s already 24 (missed a year to injury), but he looks like a major league starter in the making, no?
• Matthew Eddy: Yes, deGrom has a great arm and *just missed* making the Mets Top 10. Some scouts who saw Savannah last year preferred him to Sand Gnats rotation-mates Michael Fulmer and Domingo Tapia. The area to watch for deGrom and all sinker-slider pitchers is the platoon split. Can he consistently retire lefthanded batters?

Players To Watch For Next Week’s Hot Sheet

• Watch out for Aderlin Rodriguez, who is on a tear, and has homered in his last three games.
• Jacob deGrom could crack the list with another solid start on his next visit to the mound.
• Rafael Montero is always a threat—the kid is the goods.
• Kevin Plawecki, who started the season hot and hasn’t started to cool off yet.

Matt Bowman is off to a solid start for Savannah.

Last Night’s Quick Scores

• Savannah (7-7) dropped to Lakewood, 3-2
• St. Lucie (9-5) droppedto Fort Myers, 11-8
• Binghamton (8-6) topped New Hampshire, 4-3
• Las Vegas (8-6) topped Sacramento, 10-6

Prospect Pipeline

• Brandon Nimmo cooled off a little last night, and had his first game without a hit in almost a week. He still leads the Mets organization in hitting with a .411 average.
• Travis d’Arnaud will miss some time with a fracture in his foot. Hopefully he won’t need surgery, but the good news is that this kid is ready for the big leagues, so when he does return, don’t be surprised to see him play in a few tune up games and then join the Mets some time after the All-Star break.
• Wilmer Flores continues to have a solid season, and it seems like he has been playing in the shadows of d’Arnaud and Zack Wheeler for the first couple of weeks of the season. He hit his first home run of the season last night and added three RBI in Las Vegas’ victory.
• Being overshadowed by the exploits of his teammate Brandon Nimmo, catcher Kevin Plawecki is raking to the tune of a 375/.426/.667 slash this season. Said one scout about him, “He barrels everything.” Ten of his 18 base hits are of the extra-base variety showing the immense power that was projected of him when he was selected in the first round of the 2012 Draft out of Purdue University. It would be a shock if he doesn’t end the season in Double-A. This kid can hit and shouldn’t be overlooked. (Joe D.)
• Savannah’s Rainy Lara could be the starter to replace Jake deGrom in the St. Lucie rotation now that they have an open slot. Lara has been dominating and has a 0.70 ERA, 0.618 WHIP and 10.1 strikeout rate in 11.1 innings pitched. Matthew Bowman is also an option with a 2-0 record and a 1.62 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and a 3.50 K/BB in three starts this season. (Joe D.)
• Noah Syndergaard had one of those forgettable starts last night. He gave up seven earned runs in three innings of work. It’s the most runs he had ever given up in a start. Most young pitchers will go through starts like this throughout their careers, and it’s all part of the development process. Everyone will be watching to see how he responds during his next start.
• Though Flores got the nod with the Stat Line of the Day, St. Lucie shortstop and 2013 MMO Sleeper Matt Reynolds was 2-for-5 with a triple, a two-run homerun and three RBI. Reynolds, 22, is  batting .286/.355/.411 in 14 games this season. (Joe D.)
• Andrew Brown is crushing the ball. He had three hits last night – a single, double and triple. He was a home run short of the cycle. He is now batting .351 this season and has a .996 OPS.
• Aderlin Rodriguez looks like he’s in another one of his signature tears at the plate. He’s now homered in three straight games after a dreadful start to the season. I spoke to one coach about him on Wednesday and was told that he’s keeping his leg bag now and using both his upper and lower body when he drives the ball. Let’s see where this continues to go. (Joe D.)

Stat Line of the Night

Wilmer Flores: 2-for-4, HR, 3 RBI, BB, 2 R

Tweet of the Day

The life of a minor league player trying to live out their dreams in the big leagues.

5:30 AM still on the bus #Grinding

— Jack Leathersich (@LeatherRocket) April 18, 2013

Transactions

Juan Centeno was called up to Las Vegas to fill in for injured Travis d’Arnaud.

Now word yet on the MRI results for right-handers Luis Mateo and Logan Verrett. I’m sure we’ll get word this afternoon at the latest.

Prospect Audio/Video

B-Mets manager Pedro Lopez discusses the team with Tim Heiman and offers a two-week report card on his team.

After a long day on the farm I like to relax and read MMO’s Mets Minors Report .

Updated by Joe D. on 4/17

Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, spoke to Mets GM Sandy Alderson who essentially said that Zack Wheeler’s performance at Triple-A Las Vegas is the primary consideration for him to be promoted to the big leagues. Or in other words, what I’ve been saying all along and you can read below this update.

“Super Two status is a consideration”, Alderson told Rubin.

“But his level of performance is probably the major consideration. He pitched at Triple-A last year. He’s pitching at Triple-A this year. His last outing was excellent. Let’s see how it goes.”

Wheeler allowed three runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings against Colorado Springs in his last start, walking none  and racking up eight strikeouts.

“If he pitches extremely well over the next several starts, that will indicate one thing. If he doesn’t, that might indicate something else,” Alderson explained.

“And, of course, we’d have to have input from our player-development people as well as Las Vegas manager Wally Backman and pitching coach Randy St. Claire and so forth.”

Makes sense to me and my thoughts are right below…

Original Post 4/15

Zack Wheeler bounced back from a couple of less than optimal starts and delivered a solid performance Sunday at Cashman Field in Las Vegas.

The Mets’ top pitching prospect allowed three runs on six hits including one home run, in 5.1 innings while walking none and striking out eight. All told, Wheeler threw 97 pitches, 61 of them for strikes.

Wheeler struggled in his first two starts this month, lasting just 3.1 innings in his season debut and letting up two runs on three hits, three walks and striking out three. His second start was hardly better, allowing four runs, one earned, in 5.1 innings, but still struggled with his command.

The Mets later announced that Wheeler was dealing with a blister/avulsion on the middle finger of his pitching hand, something that he’s dealt with in the past. A precautionary MRI revealed nothing serious.

Sunday’s performance alleviated any fears as Wheeler looked dominating and even had his curve working unlike his first two starts. His fastball had great late movement today and was ranging from 95-97 mph and even touched 98 mph twice. Of course it was his control that stood out the most – allowing no batters to reach on a walk. One thing to note was that veteran catcher Landon Powell caught this game and not Travis d’Arnaud.

Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson both have said that promoting Wheeler wouldn’t be a consideration until he showed that he could dominate in the PCL. That of course is the logical way to proceed as they look to safeguard the young right-hander’s future and avoid setting him up for failure. I was chatting with Mike Newman of FanGraphs on Friday and he believed that Wheeler should follow the same course of action they took with Matt Harvey last season.

Fans however, will continue to rant and call for his immediate promotion at the hint of any positive sign as they focus solely on the strikeouts and not much of anything else. Let me remind them that this afternoon’s performance by Wheeler, though a big improvement, wouldn’t have been considered a quality start by the major league definition.

Hopefully, Wheeler can build on his latest effort and continue to improve in future starts. I want to see him take control of a game when runners are on base. I want to see fewer hitters dig in on him and would love to see Wheeler take over the inside part of the plate and own it.

You could tell that he was very focused and determined on throwing strikes, which was good to see. But I want to see Wheeler use his command to paint the corners with his fastball and keep hitters off balance. Then he can drop that hammer curve on them to seal the deal.

Until Alderson and his team see Wheeler use all four of his plus pitches with greater efficiency and more deliver consistent and impressive results, they will keep him in Vegas until he starts rising up the ranks of the WHIP and ERA leaders in the Pacific Coast League. That has been their barometer and mandate since the beginning of spring training.

The last thing on the minds of the Mets front office right now is Super Two or not losing a year of his service time. Wheeler is simply not at the place he needs to be for them to even consider a promotion. Sandy flat out said in our conference call that his destiny is not tied to injuries or poor performance by the team’s major league rotation. And that’s exactly the way it should be.

Brandon Nimmo has gotten off to one of the hottest starts in the minor leagues this season. After another three hit performance on Tuesday, he woke up on Wednesday morning as the leading hitter in the South Atlantic league with a .447.

Nimmo has officially positioned himself to be the No. 2 prospect in the Mets organization once Zack Wheeler and Travis d’Arnaud are promoted to the big leagues. Noah Syndergaard still has the keys to the No. 1 spot on the Mets’ prospect list, but Nimmo is making a push.

Many fans thought Nimmo was a bust after 2012. They would look at his numbers and scoff at them. However, Nimmo spent 2012 adjusting to professional baseball. He grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where his high school didn’t even have a baseball team. He grew up playing American Legion ball, and established himself as one of the top high school prospects in the nation moving into the 2011 draft. The thing with high school players is, they only face a good pitcher once per week…maybe. Sometimes, they find themselves playing professional baseball and have never faced a pitcher as good as they will see at that level. Now they see pitchers blowing 90+mph fastballs from the rubber every day of the week. The speed of the game changes drastically, and it takes the hitters time to adjust.

Young Brandon Nimmo has adjusted. 2012 was his adjustment year, 2013 is the result. Not only has he adjusted, he has transformed. He is now a professional hitter. He laces line drives back through the box, into center field consistently. When I look at Nimmo, I think tremendous upside. The risk of drafting this kid that never played high school baseball is starting to turn into reward for the Mets.

After the hot start this year, some are calling for a promotion. Bad move. Leave the kid where he is and let him taste success over the course of the season. Let him dominate, then skip him to Double-A in 2014. There wouldn’t be much of an adjustment skipping from Low-A to High-A ball, but why put undue pressure on a kid if the talent level isn’t much different?

There will still be doubters when it comes to Nimmo. There will still be naysayers. But Nimmo is going to keep producing — his swing and his approach to the game tells us that.

Noah Syndergaard strikes out eight for St. Lucie on Saturday. (Photo: Michael Baron, SNY)

Last Night’s Quick Scores

• Savannah (5-4) topped Rome, 8-6
• St. Lucie (6-3) dropped to Palm Beach, 4-3
• Binghamton (5-4) lost to New Hampshire, 6-1
• Las Vegas (5-5) dropped slugfest to Fresno, 11-6

Prospect Pipeline

• I just learned that we have some exciting phone interviews lined up with T.J. Rivera, Travis d’Arnaud, Cory Mazzoni, Brandon Nimmo and Cam Maron coming up. April will be fun around here as we continue to bring you as much information as we can on our incredibly improving system. Yesterday, Mets GM Sandy Alderson glowed when our Senior Writer Matt Balasis asked him about how far the Mets farm system and organizational depth has come in such a short time. (Joe D.)
• In FanGraph’s weekly prospect chat, Mike Newman said that he expects Zack Wheeler to replicate what we saw from Matt Harvey last season – about ten starts with similar production. Wheeler’s curveball is also improved from the inconsistent breaking pitch he scouted in 2010 and that so far this season he has “frequently popped 96 MPH on the radar gun with ease.”  (Joe D.)
• Mets power hitting prospects Wilmer Flores, Travis d’Arnaud, Aderlin Rodriguez and Brandon Nimmo have combined to hit zero homers, 11 games into the season. Meanwhile, underrated Josh Satin hit his fourth home run last night and is batting .474. Am I the only one who thinks he has nothing left to prove in the minors? If I’m Ike Davis, I’d be concerned. (Joe D.)
• First baseman Jayce Boyd hit his first home run of the season after some near misses. It was a three-run jack and it was a no-doubter. Boyd, 22, is one of our top ten sleepers, and is batting .412/.512/.618 with a great eye at the plate (7 walks, 6 strikeouts) in 42 plate appearances. (Joe D.)
• T.J. Rivera continues to hit. He already leads St. Lucie in hits, RBI, batting average, OBP, and slugging percentage, and added two more hits last night. On a team known for it’s pitching staff, Rivera has been the backbone of the offense. I’m very high on Rivera. He reminds me of another prospect in the Giants organization named Joe Panik. Their games are very similar, except Panik was a first rounder, and Rivera was signed as a free-agent out of college. That’s what you would consider “a steal.”
• Jack Leathersich is also very high on Rivera. In a recent interview with MMO, this is what he had to say about his former teammate: “Oh yeah, definitely T.J. Rivera - he’s the one. He’s the real deal. I’ve never been around a kid who prepares as well as he does. He just really loves the game and it seems like every time I see him he’s out on the field working on something. Rivera plays hard and is completely balls to the wall – he’ll do anything to make sure we win. He’s a great teammate and obviously a great player and everybody should be real excited about him. If he continues the great things he did last season, and I’m pretty sure that he will, he’ll be a lot of fun to watch.” You can read the Leathersich interview in it’s entirety here.
• I mentioned in yesterday’s notes that Binghamton manager, Pedro Lopez, stated that he was expecting some tough offensive nights as his team goes through a transition period adjusting to Double-A. It looks as if Saturday was one of those days he was speaking about. After hammering out thirteen hits and fifteen runs on Friday night, the bats were as cold as the Binghamton air temperature on Saturday, as they only managed one run on five hits.
• Noah Syndergaard, whose fastball routinely sits in the mid-90s and can touch triple digits, reminds St. Lucie pitching coach of Kerry Wood. “He reminds me of Kerry Wood,” St. Lucie pitching coach Phil Regan said. “A lot like him, but a better body. He has that tall Texan style.” St. Lucie manager, Ryan Ellis, also likes what he sees: “He has a nice fastball and seems to get stronger. He only threw four innings but he seemed to get stronger in the third and fourth. His breaking ball is really sharp and he’s pitching it with a lot of depth.” Having a combination of Harvey, Wheeler, Syndergaard at the top of the New York Mets rotation, is starting to become a scary reality.
• The St. Lucie Mets pitching staff has lived up to lofty expectations so far this spring. They currently lead the Florida State League with a 2.20 ERA, and second in the league 75 strikeouts. The scary thing is, these stats could have even been better, but Domingo Tapia’s hiccup on Thursday night drove the ERA a bit. Tapia didn’t make it out of the first inning that night, allowing three runs on one hit, also giving up four walks and throwing two wild pitches.

Stat Line of the Night

LHP Steven Matz: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 7 K, 1 BB

Tweet Of The Day

Binghamton’s left-handed fireballer, Jack Leathersich, is going to give away a glove to one of his followers when he hits 3,250 followers. He is currently at 2,952 followers. I wonder what he would be willing to give away for 10,000 followers?

PPL the glove giveaway is still going on.Brand new glove from this year when I hit 3250 followers.lets make it happen! #Mets

— Jack Leathersich (@LeatherRocket) April 13, 2013

Probable Starters

Las Vegas sends Zack Wheeler (0-1, 3.15 ERA) to the mound for tonight against Colorado Springs at 10:05 PM.

Rafael Montero (1-0, 1.54 ERA) of the Binghamton Mets takes on the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Sunday afternoon at 1:05 PM.

St. Lucie sends Angel Cuan (1-0, 0.00 ERA) the mound this afternoon against the Bradenton Marauder’s at 1:05 PM. .

Savannah sends Rainy Lara (1-0, 0.00 ERA) to the mound in series finale against Rome at 2:00 PM.

Updated by HoJo at 2:15 PM

According to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, if Travis d’Arnaud is promoted at some point this season whenever the team deems him ready it will not affect John Buck’s playing time at all if he is still producing.

Terry Collins said that both could possibly start in the same game with Buck potentially playing first base. Buck has never played a Major League game at first base.

Now that is what I would call a good problem, but first Travis will need to start pounding the ball in Vegas befiore that happens.

Original Post 1:00 PM

MetsBlog posted an interview by Robert Brender with catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud. Brender spoke to him last night before the game.

Robert Brender: As far as your hitting goes, is there anything in particular you’ve been working on?

Travis d’Arnaud: Just trying not to do too much, just see the ball, hit the ball, keep it as simple as possible.

Robert Brender: This is a league where guys hit the ball out of the ballpark pretty frequently. Do you try to keep that out of your mind?

Travis d’Arnaud: Honestly, you come to some of these parks and in BP you know they go so far and you want to see how far you can hit it but whenever I do that I know I have a problem with over swinging so I know I gotta stay locked in and just not try to do too much.

Robert Brender: You were kept in spring training with the big league team for quite a long time. How was that experience?

Travis d’Arnaud: That was a great experience for me. I got to catch a lot of the pitchers up there. That was tremendous for me and I’m truly thankful for it.

D’Arnaud , 24, is off to a .261 start at Triple-A Las Vegas with a .438 on-base and .391 slugging percentage in 32 plate appearances. He hasn’t homered yet, but has drawn eight walks which accounts for his excellent OBP.

With John Buck providing the Mets with historical and MLB leading production at the plate, and the Mets pitching staff boasting a 4th best team ERA, Travis d’Arnaud will get plenty of time to brew in Triple-A and the Mets won’t be in any rush to start his major league service clock.

Las Vegas 14, Fresno 3

The 51s bats were in full force, putting the game out of reach by the first inning with a five-spot.

—

Collin McHugh had a great outing today, going seven innings and allowing four hits while being charged with two unearned runs. He walked nobody and struck out five. McHugh had the offense behind him for the duration of the game so it was just a matter of not imploding and he did more than that. Jeurys Familia pitched the eighth inning and gave up two hits while striking out one. Robert Carson pitched the ninth and allowed one run on one hit and a walk.

Offensively, the 51s were firing on all cylinders. There were crooked numbers across the board as the first three innings yielded five, four, and three runs respectively. Vegas put across two more in the sixth, but after the first inning explosion, all of the rest was just insurance. Only one player (Omar Quintanilla) did not manage a hit. You could blame it on the PCL, but only two home runs were actually hit today. Some shoddy defense did, however, aid Vegas Thursday night.

Key Stats:

Juan Lagares – 3-for-6, HR, RBI, 2 R
Travis d’Arnaud – 2-for-5, 2 RBI, 3 R, K
Zach Lutz – 2-for-5, HR, R, 5 RBI (Grand Slam)
Collin McHugh – 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R (0 ER), 6 K, 0 BB

When the Blue Jays forced Sandy Alderson to take John Buck‘s $6 million dollar contract as a condition of making the deal for Travis d’Arnaud, many people including me groaned. I loved the fact that Buck could actually catch (unlike Josh Thole) and would be an asset overall, but six million samoans for Buck was simply too much for me to swallow.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, and Alderson sure lucked out on this one despite holding his nose and agreed to take Buck in that Dickey deal.

Fast forward to April 9, 2013…

Through seven games, Buck is now batting .375 to lead the Mets and throw in three homers (tops on the team) and 12 RBIs (tops in the NL). Somebody get me a shot of Chivas…

Are there still a lot of skeptics out there? Of course and rightfully so, but that doesn’t faze the Mets catcher one bit.

“I don’t really care,” he said. “I figure if I just keep doing what I’m doing, they can be surprised at the end of the year.”

Before joining the Mets, Buck was merely a career .236 hitter over his nine years in the majors. He has bounced around from team to team and has logged time with Kansas City, Toronto and Miami before hitting the streets of Flushing.

The power however, shouldn’t come as surprise to anyone as Buck has belted 15 or more homers three times in his career. But what’s happening right now? This is a first…

Last night, he blasted a three-run shot off of the once great Roy Halladay and clinched the win for the Mets. But it’s not just his bat that has been impressive. Mets starters have the second best ERA in the majors when he’s behind the dish and calling the game. He’s been the complete package for the Amazins.

I have always said that Omar Minaya struck gold when he picked up R.A. Dickey off the scrap heap. John Buck could end up becoming Sandy Alderson’s first real nugget and ironically, he didn’t even want him in the first place.

As I said, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

Travis d’Arnaud, along with Zack Wheeler headline the Las Vegas 51s roster.

The Mets changed Triple-A affiliates this offseason, going from Buffalo to Las Vegas and from the International League to the Pacific Coast League. The biggest storyline for this team will be how the move affects development. The Pacific Coast League, especially Las Vegas, is notorious for inflated power numbers. It may be harder to judge how well a player is developing because hitters will have more home runs and pitchers will see their ERA shoot up as well. It will be interesting to see how the prospects react as well, with the top two prospects in the system set to play at least the first month with Las Vegas.

The Big Names

• Zack Wheeler (RHP)- It’s only a matter of time before the top Mets prospect gets called up to the majors. Wheeler should only be with the 51s for a few months, coming up in July at the latest. 
• Travis d’Arnaud (C)- d’Arnaud was the centerpiece of the R.A. Dickey trade last December, and for good reason. d’Arnaud looks like the complete package, both at the plate and with the glove. His power has developed over the past two years into one of his best tools. Last year, he hit 16 homers in 67 games in Triple-A before a torn PCL ended his season.
• Wilmer Flores (INF)- After struggling in the lower minors for a few years (as a result of being rushed), Flores had a resurgent season last year for Advanced-A St. Lucie and Double-A Binghamton. The long-awaited power numbers finally came, as Flores slugged .479 with 18 home runs in 130 total minor league games. In his third year in St. Lucie, he hit .289/.336/.463 with ten home runs in 64 games, earning himself an FSL All-Star Game selection. He was then promoted to Binghamton, hwere he hit even better, batting .311/.363/.494 with eight home runs in 66 games. He is still young for the league, currently the seventh-youngest player in Triple-A and the fourth youngest in the Pacific Coast League. If Flores can keep it up, all that’s left is finding a position.
• Jeurys Familia (RHP) Note: Familia was sent down on Saturday and will be with the 51s for the foreseeable future- Familia had a down season last year with the Buffalo Bisons, struggling as a starting pitcher. He made 28 starts and had a 4.73 ERA, along with a very concerning 4.8 walks per nine rate. His poor performance finally convinced the Mets that he belongs in the bullpen, which is where he will be this season for Las Vegas.
• Matt den Dekker (CF)- Note: Broken wristThe former fifth-round pick den Dekker tore the cover off the ball in half a season with Binghamton, but struggled to hit .200 in the second half with the Bisons. He batted .340/.397/.563 with eight home runs in 56 Double-A games. After moving to Triple-A, he hit just .220/.256/.373 in 77 games. His stirkeout and walk rates were awful, as he struck out in 28.4% of his Plate appearances, while walking only 4.4%. Those numbers are among the worst in his minor league career. Den Dekker must cut down on the strikeouts if he will ever play regularly in the majors. His incredible defense isn’t going to carry him to success. Den Dekker has shown a trend throughout his short career of needing an adjustment period to each new level, which has some people very hopeful that he will start to hit again once he comes back from a broken wrist later this season.

The Sleepers

• Juan Lagares (OF)- The speedy and versatile Lagares hit .283/.334/.389 between St. Lucie and Binghamton last season. He can play all three outfield positions, making him a possibility for the Mets bench late this season if things go right.
• Andrew Brown (OF)- Brown was a longshot to make the team in spring training, and was cut before the season started. However, Brown still has a chance to make some noise with his power. He has put up consistent power numbers throughout his minor league career and could play a role on the Met bench as a power-hitting pinch hitter if someone gets hurt.

Other Names to Watch

• Reese Havens (2B)- The seemingly always hurt Reese Havens was finally cut from the 40-man roster in the week leading up to Opening Day. Havens, 26, has never played a full season without injury and in his six-year career, has only played in 308 games. If he can stay healthy and the power that scouts have been talking about since he was in college finally shows up, there is still a chance he has a role with the big league club.
• Collin McHugh (RHP)- McHugh profiles as a long man or back-of-the-rotation type of pitcher. He had a solid season in the minors last year, posting a 2.91 ERA in 25 starts with Binghamton and Buffalo, walking 2.8 batters per nine and striking out 8.2. He struggled in a short stint with the big league club, allowing 21 runs (18 earned) in 21.1 innings over eight appearances.
• Zach Lutz (3B)- Lutz has put up solid numbers for most of his minor league career, and almost made the team out of spring training. He hit .295/.404/.496 in 78 minor league games last season.

With Pacific Coast League action kicking off tomorrow, April 4, MiLB.com has released their top ten prospects to watch from the PCL in 2013. The Mets will have two of the top five players on that list when play opens up tomorrow in Travis d’Arnaud (4) and Zack Wheeler (5).

It’s unclear how long many of these players will remain in the PCL, as they are some of the more exciting prospects in all of baseball, and it may not be long before some of the big league clubs will be calling for some additional help.

The abbreviated list is below. You can see the list in its entirety here.

No. 1. Jurickson Profar (SS, Round Rock Express)

No. 2. Oscar Taveras (OF, Memphis Redbirds)

No. 3 Taijuan Walker (RHP, Tacoma Rainiers)

No. 4. Travis d’Arnaud (C, Las Vegas 51s) – The Mets’ backstop of the future, d’Arnaud is expected to reach Citi Field by the summer — assuming he suffers no setbacks in Sin City. The 24-year-old came to New York in the trade that sent Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey to Toronto, and he stayed with the Mets in big league camp until the final week of Spring Training. d’Arnaud is among the Minors’ best defensive catchers, but he also can hit for a high average with plus power — he batted .333 with 16 homers and 52 RBIs in half a season in 2012.

No. 5. Zack Wheeler (RHP, Las Vegas 51s) – Wheeler advanced to Triple-A Buffalo in 2012 after spending most of the year honing his craft in the Eastern League, where he went 10-6 with a 3.26 ERA. His mid- to high-90s sinking fastball is his primary weapon, but he’s not afraid to keep hitters honest by throwing his curveball and slider early in counts. The Mets insist they won’t rush Wheeler to the Majors, but a hot start in hitter-friendly Las Vegas could force their hand.

No. 6. Tyler Skaggs (LHP, Reno Aces)

No. 7. Danny Hultzen (LHP Tacoma Rainiers)

No. 8. Mike Olt (OF/3B, Round Rock)

No. 9. Jonathan Singleton (1B, Oklahoma City RedHawks)

No. 10. Didi Gregorius (SS, Reno Aces)

With questions of Shaun Marcum’s health dominating the Mets’ headlines, many are calling for Zack Wheeler’s call up as soon as the team can keep the extra year of control on April 21. I have been arguing with Joe D. back and forth for awhile now, regarding whether Wheeler is ready or not. I am always arguing in Wheeler’s favor, and Joe D. has been basically telling me I am crazy. I was pleasantly surprised to read that Joe D. was finally starting to come around earlier today:

The more and more I hear rival executives, scouts and coaches say that Zack Wheeler is ready the more I keep leaning toward bringing him up once he’s past the service time issue. If he truly is ready, then what do we have to gain by letting him waste his time in the desert where he will get his bell rung more frequently than not in the hitter friendly PCL?

Who cares about any Super Two ramifications? If Wheeler is as good as everyone says, wouldn’t he be signed to an extension deal that would buy out all his arbitration years anyway? Much like Jon Niese?

Exactly what I have been preaching for months…he should have credited me in his quote

How could you not take notice?

The game featured more than adequate starting pitching, solid relief work, clutch hitting and even a grand slam.  The Mets’ already ostracized outfield corps went a combined 4-for-12, with three walks, six runs batted in, and the aforementioned grand slam. As a matter of fact, with the exception of the four strikeout performance by Ike Davis, there really wasn’t much negativity to be taken away from the first game of the season.

However, please heed this warning.  It was only the first game of the season.  Met fans, every single one of us. are searching for something.  Whether it’s just a reason to head out to Citi Field, or to turn on the television and watch, or even a reason to simply stick around at this point.. each and every one of us is trying to find that one reason to believe.  For some, yesterday’s game was just that.  It was great.  Great enough that as Colin Cowgill crossed the plate after his seventh inning grand slam my wife stared at me as I muttered over and over again, “I will not buy in..I will not buy in..I will not buy in.”

You see as much as I want to believe, I’ve spent the last two months convincing myself that the reason to watch this season was the maturation of young players like Matt Harvey and Ruben Tejada, along with the eventual promotion of Zack Wheeler and Travis d’Arnaud.  I entered last season under a similar guise, but crumbled quickly under a 4-0 start that saw me quickly invested once again for the long haul.  Of course that eventually led to the annual mid-summer heartbreak that we’re all so accustomed to at this point.

So while I, like many of you I’m sure, fight the urge to once again dive head first into the shallow end of what has all the makings of a fatally flawed 2013 New York Mets season, lets all remember that our team boasts a roster of unproven players searching to find their own way.  Is it possible they shock the world as the Oakland Athletics did last summer?  Sure..but its far more likely that we’ll soon be wallowing in the puddle of self pity we frequent each season.  Only time will tell.  If you chose to take the plunge early, don’t say you haven’t been warned!

Follow me on Twitter at @RobPatterson83.