After another three-strikeout performance, Davis now has 29 Ks in 82 at-bats and is on pace for over 195 strikeouts.

Back on April 17, I stated that Davis has shown himself to be nothing more than a platoon player at best throughout his major league career. I suggested that the Mets promote Josh Satin from Triple-A at the time and looking at each of their numbers now, almost two weeks later anevat the end of April, everything I wrote back then has been completely validated.

The right-handed hitting Satin can give the Mets what they need desperately right now as his .333/.429/.550 batting line would attest. A product of the PCL? Not on your life. Satin has always been a great and disciplined hitter and one look at his career .397 on-base in six minor league seasons should have the suits in the front office with their tongues hanging out of their mouths, as would his .466 slugging percentage.

Collins is playing favorites. You see, Ike Davis is gritty so he gets to play and avoids the same kind of treatment that Lucas Duda got when he was sent to Triple-A last season. After all. we wouldn’t want to piss Ike off… Him and Wright are besties…

I’ve now gone from clamoring for a platoon at first base to now sending Davis back to the Minors. Yes, Ike, that’s where hackers like you belong.

We’ll miss your occasional bomb that you sandwich in between a dozen or so strikeouts, but we won’t miss you .159 batting average which has sucked the life out of our offense. I know many a Met fan who wasn’t this patient with Jeff Francoeur despite his gaudy defense. So what’s the big holdup here?

Right now Davis is a negative impact player.

It’s time to release the Kraken.

Rafael Montero by MMO Contributor and Photographer Gordon Donovan.

Updated by Joe D. on 4/24

It’s almost word for word from what Mitch wrote yesterday, but here is what VP of Player Development Paul DePodesta had to say about Rafael Montero:

“His fastball is very advanced right now, but the secondary pitches need to continue to get better,” DePodesta says.

“He just needs to face better hitters, and he needs to face some adversity. And I think he will… We’ve already sped the development of the player up quite a bit, and he has responded to it very well.”

Can a pitcher make the jump from Double-A to the majors?

“It all depends on the individual,” DePodesta says. “There are guys who can make that jump from Double A to the big leagues with little or no time at Triple-A, and there are guys who need some or even significant time at Triple-A.”

By the way, we are actually chasing down Paul DePodesta at Citi Field. Got off the phone with John and told him to seek him out and emailed him 4-5 questions to ask.

Stay tuned…

Original Post 4/23

In case you missed the feature on MMO about Rafael Montero on Saturday, I posed the question on whether or not it was possible that Montero actually makes it to Flushing before Zack Wheeler:

“Never thought I would be pondering this question, but if Montero keeps up this pace, is there a chance that we will see him in Citi Field before Wheeler?

The answer is yes, it is a definite possibility.”

That was written after another dominating performance by Montero, where he struck out six batters and walked none. That brought his season totals to 27 Ks and one walk. I couldn’t do that in a game of MLB The Show, and here is Montero, putting these numbers up in real life.

Once he got to Double-A, his numbers were supposed to dip a bit as he made an adjustment to a higher level of hitters – the complete opposite has taken place. He has made the jump up to Double-A look as if it was a step down. And how should the Mets reward Montero if he continues this utter dominance? How about a promotion to Triple-A Las Vegas?

Heck No.

The last thing the Mets should do is promote Montero to Las Vegas. The only reason why he would have to stop in at Triple-A, would be if he needed to continue working on mastering the strike zone. The difference in facing Double-A hitters and Triple-A hitters isn’t great – and actually very similar to the difference between Low-A and High-A ball hitters.

Montero has already mastered the strike zone. Montero is already a great pitcher.

He needs a few more starts in Double-A, but if he continues this dominance then you bump Montero straight to Flushing with no layovers in Vegas.

Why send this dynamite talent to a notorious hitter’s league?

There are no written rules that say that a pitcher needs X number of starts at Double-A, followed by X number of starts at Triple-A before they are ready for big league action. A pitcher tells you when they are ready by showing sheer dominance, and that is exactly what Montero has shown.

I still find it funny that Metsblog had Montero labeled as “raw” during spring training. Raw pitchers do not have a 27:1 strikeout to walk ratios. I guess “raw” is a term to use when an analyst has never heard of a guy and has no clue what they are looking at. Montero is not raw, he may be the most polished pitcher in the entire Mets system right now. Going back to his last season, the fireballing righty has struck out 137 batters while walking only 20.

Had Wheeler shown this dominance at any level, then we would be having the same discussion about him. However, Wheeler is a “thrower” at this point, using his overpowering stuff to get hitters out, but he hasn’t mastered the art of pitching yet. When he does master it, watch out.

Montero’s stuff is electric – Wheeler’s stuff is better. That’s a scary thought.

Last night, in the Mets 7-2 loss to the Dodgers, Juan Lagares entered the game in the top of the fifth inning to play center field as part of a double-switch – officially marking his major league debut.

Lagares led off in the bottom half of the fifth with a hard hit fly to the warning track in left field against Dodgers’ ace LHP Clayton Kershaw. In his next at-bat, Lagares singled against left-hander Paco Rodriguez in the seventh for his first major league hit. The first of what I’m sure will be many.

“When I got to the dugout, all my teammates said ‘Congratulations,’” Lagares said. “I really don’t know how to say it, but I am so excited to be here with the team.”

Lagares, 24, was promoted in place of outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who was optioned to Las Vegas after hitting .125 (2-for-16).

I appealed to the Mets to call him up only the day before they did after looking at his .346 (27-for-78) in 17 games with Las Vegas. The athletic outfielder started every game in centerfield and had already hit three home runs, three doubles and two triples in his 82 total plate appearances. His .929 OPS was second on the team.

“He’s the future,” Mets manager Terry Collins said before Tuesday’s game. “A great defender. Got some power. There are people in this organization that think he’s a better outfielder than Matt den Dekker. That speaks a lot.”

Initially an infielder, Lagares converted to the outfield in 2009 and has only gotten better according to Wally Backman.

Collins said Lagares will start Wednesday with the Dodgers starting left-hander Ted Lilly.

Welcome to The Show, kid…

Terry Collins

Jeremy Hefner, Dillon Gee and Aaron Laffey – You’ve all been warned. Or maybe not.

Collins also said yesterday that it was unclear when exactly Wheeler might be called up.

“Wheeler could be an option soon? I wouldn’t say soon,” Collins said to reporters.

“But it all depends on what happens. That is why you have to be careful what you say. ‘Soon’ could mean July. To you guys it’s Friday, so there is a big difference.”

Sandy Alderson, who recently spoke with Adam Rubin, said Wheeler’s performance at Triple-A Las Vegas is the primary consideration for him to be promoted to the big leagues.

“Super Two status is a consideration. 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 is currently winless in three starts with a 3.86 ERA, but showed great improvement in his last start walking none which was key.

Juan Centeno (Photo by Gordon Donovan)

Update by Joe D. at 2:20 PM

Well that didn’t take long… The Mets announced that Juan Centeno has been promoted to Triple-A Las Vegas to replace Travis d’Arnaud who was officially placed on the DL moments ago. Centeno will get the majority of the starts while Landon Powell will continue to remain the backup.

Now read about how Mitch just speculated that would likely happen about 30 minutes ago, as well as his other thoughts on the domino effect…

Original Post by Mitch at 1:45 PM

Unless you have been away from your computer, smart phone, or tablet for the past hour or so, you probably have already heard that Travis d’Arnaud will probably miss up to two months with a fracture in his foot.

This is crushing news, as Mets fans were started to get really excited about seeing the top catching prospect make his Flushing debut, especially with the talk of late where Terry Collins stated he would be willing to play both John Buck (1B) and d’Arnaud in the lineup at the same time.

Looks like we will have to wait a few more months before that becomes a reality. The reality is that our best position player prospect is now on the shelf, and someone will have to step up and replace him in Las Vegas for the time being.

The most likely candidate is Juan Centeno. Centeno does enough offensively, and more than enough defensively to make him the prime candidate to be promoted to Triple-A. Centeno also spent the entire 2012 season with Binghamton where he hit .285 on the season, showing that he can make the offensive jump to Triple-A. Blake Forsythe has had an excellent year for Binghamton so far offensively, but seeing as he has logged only five games at the Double-A level, he is probably going to remain in Binghamton. This will allow Forsythe to get more innings, as the B-Mets will only have two catchers on the roster now.

The question is, does this injury also open the door for other catchers to be promoted, like, let’s say, Kevin Plawecki? Could the Mets bump Plawecki up to Binghamton now? It’s not out of the realm of possibilities. He is a polished college hitter who is absolutely dominating Low-A ball. In fact, I thought it was a shocking that Plawecki started where he did and should have started with St. Lucie because of his hitting ability and his age. To make the jump to St. Lucie now wouldn’t be much of a challenge for Plawecki. The added bonus is that Binghamton could use a bat like his in that lineup to give some run support to pitchers like Rafael Montero, Tyler Pill, Logan Verrett and Jacob deGrom.

* * * * * * * *

By the way, interesting exchange between Joe D. and Will Carroll just now on Twitter:

By the way, when did Carroll leave Baseball Prospectus to join Bleacher Report? Sounds like an odd switch, but also explains his over the top “Second Lost Season.” Sensational titles are Bleacher Report staples as I was a former writer there before joining MMO. They would send us crazy titles and ask us to build stories around them and drilled it into our heads. I couldn’t work that way.

According to Mark Hale of the New York Post, Triple-A manager Wally Backman believes Zack Wheeler is not far away from being promoted to the Mets despite his rough outing on Thursday, and drew comparisons to Matt Harvey.

“He is the same spot Matt Harvey was at last year, I would say,” Backman said of Wheeler in a phone interview with The Post Friday. “It’s a matter of command. I think it’s going to be a matter of consistency.”

“He struggled with command a little bit Thursday night. It was the first game. He was rushing a little bit. He showed signs of just dominating, and then he’d get a little bit erratic.”

Wheeler had big command issues walking three of the first six batters he faced. He was unable to complete the fourth inning after tossing 86 pitches in 3.1 innings.

Last season, Wheeler went 2-2 with a 3.27 ERA in six Triple-A starts, striking out 31 and walking 16 in 33 innings.

Updated 4:00 PM by Mitch Petanick

Domingo Tapia had a very forgettable outing today in Grapefruit League play. Tapia pitched two innings, allowing four runs on four hits, two of which were home runs. Sounds scary when you read the stat line, but remember that Tapia is still a lower level prospect who was pitching against major league hitters that are just about ready for regular season play. And by lower level prospect, I do not mean talent wise, I mean that he has yet to pitch past Single-A.

Tapia is still considered one of the better right-handed pitching prospects in the Mets organization. His performance today does not change that. Hopefully taking some lumps from major league hitters didn’t hurt his confidence too much, and he will use this as a learning experience.

Original Post

Looks like St. Lucie will have a crafty veteran leading their bullpen as Pedro Feliciano opted to stay with the Mets and accept a minor league assignment. It is surprising that he’ll be pitching at Single-A instead of Triple-A. ”I think I’m going to be here in Florida for a month. I’m just going to do my job and get strong,” said Feliciano. I’m thinking he just wants to stick around for Spring Break and take in all the sights.

Seven minor league pitchers were cut on Wednesday: Brandon Moore, Brandon Sage, Jeff Kaplan, Jared West, Andrew Wells, Kyle Allen, and Yohan Almonte. I would be hard pressed to say that all of these cuts were deserved, but business is business…

The Mets have signed Shawn Teufel, son of former Met Tim Teufel, to a minor league deal. The 26-year old sports a career 4.93 ERA over his three minor league seasons, spanning 243 innings. Can I call nepotism? Best of luck to the left-handed hurler in our system, who is coming over from Detroit’s minors.

In other news, the Binghamton Mets are having their “Welcome Back B-Mets” Dinner on Tuesday, April 2 at the Binghamton Riverwalk Hotel and Conference Center. Baseball fans will have the opportunity to meet some players, get autographs, and also win some B-Mets memorabilia. The event also features live music performed by the Scott Freeman Band. Tickets are $20.00 and can be purchased through March 29 by calling (607) 723-METS.

There are two no-brainers in place for the Mets with their latest injury news.

The first was the slam-dunk Shaun Marcum would be injured. The surprise was it happened before the team broke camp, but considering the shape he reported in, well, maybe not so much.

The second is the inevitable early clamor for the Mets to promote prospect Zack Wheeler, which should be an emphatic NO WAY.Manager Terry Collins told reporters today in Port St. Lucie, but he has a few more days to mull it over in his mind, especially throwing Johan Santana’s name on the soon-to-be-DL list.

“There’s a reason why we sent him out,’’ Collins said. “He needs to face hitters in Triple-A.’’

Although Wheeler was impressive in his first appearance since straining his oblique muscle, too much can’t be read into that because he wasn’t facing major league hitters.

The send-off the Mets gave Wheeler was to work on his command, especially lower in the strike zone and on the corners. That includes both his fastball and breaking pitches.

GM Sandy Alderson was adamant at the start of spring training of putting Wheeler, “in a chance where he has a chance to be successful,’’ but said he’s not there, yet.

Alderson wouldn’t identify a concrete timetable, and some of it pertains to the free agent and Super Two issues. Based on service time within the first 20 days of the regular season, Wheeler would become a free agent after the 2018 season instead to 2019, and be eligible for an extra year (four instead of three) in salary arbitration.

An example of a Super Two player is the Phillies Cole Hamels, but it should be remembered he was first played in that status in 2009, the year Philadelphia went to the World Series. At last check, the Mets haven’t been over .500 since that year.

People accuse the Mets of being cheap all the time, and that this is more of an accountant’s decision. However, Alderson said if there’s a need for a player such as Wheeler or catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud they would be promoted regardless.

If Marcum isn’t ready for the season – it seems doubtful he will make Thursday’s start – the Mets will likely place him on the disabled list. It would be foolish to wait to see if he’ll be ready for the season’s second start, or even worse to push him back in the rotation.

Under those scenarios, if Marcum pitched and was re-injured, he would go on the disabled list backdated to the time of that injury and be out two-weeks. If not, he would be backdated into spring training and miss time.

Marcum sustained a pinched nerve in his neck sustained throwing in the bullpen Monday. Marcum has only broken 200 innings once during his career, and only had 124 last year.

Thoughts from Joe D.

Mets fans are always clamoring for top prospects to quickly make their debut. If the prospect does come up and hits pay-dirt they all stand up and say, “See, I told you so.”

But if they flop, and most do, all the blame goes to the GM, “Why was he rushed?”

I’m with Terry Collins on this. Let Wheeler go dominate in Triple-A first, and then we’ll reevaluate the situation after that happens. We’ll cross that bridge once we get to it.

Do I expect Wheeler to do just that? Dominate in Triple-A? You bet I do… That’s why I drafted him in our MMO Fantasy League last night and stashed him on my bench.

Much like a lot of other things the Mets say, this is wrong.  The Mets somehow were able to steal Santana for 4 prospects that are nowhere close to the talent Santana has.  Lets look at each player following the trade:

• Kevin Mulvey: The Mets drafted Mulvey in 2006 in the 2nd round of the draft (62nd overall).  Last year in AAA his record was 7-9 with a 3.77 ERA.  This year he is currently 4-7 with an ERA over 4.  He has 48 walks this season, that was all the walks he allowed last year.  So far he has pitched in 20 games this season.

• Deolis Guerra: The Mets signed Guerra in 2005.  He seems the most promising out of the trade for the Twins as far as pitching goes.  Last year for the Twins Single A+ team he went 11-9 with a 5.47 ERA.  He started in 25 games last season.  This year in the 1st half of A+ ball he was 6-8 with an ERA of 4.69 in 15 games started.  He is now currently in AA with a record of 4-2 and an ERA over 6 in 6 games started.

• Phil Humber: The Mets drafted Humber in 2004 as their 1st round pick.  They gave him a signing bonus of 3.7 million dollars.  Before being traded he underwent Tommy John Surgery in 2005.  After being traded to the Twins Humber was assigned to Triple A for most of the season.  He did appear in 5 games for the Twins in 2008.  He had an ERA of 4.63 in 11.2 innings.  He allowed 11 hits, 6 runs and allowed 6 HR’s.  In 2009 he appeared in 4 games posting an ERA of almost 13 before being designated for assignment by the Twins.

• Carlos Gomez: The Mets signed him to a contract at the age of 16.  In his time with the Mets he made it to the show.  We saw that he had explosive speed and was a good defender but his offense left a lot to be desired, challenging the notion that he was a five tool player.  Gomez became the starting center fielder for the Twins after trade with the departure of Tori Hunter.  He hit for the cycle last season but also had the most errors among center fielders in MLB.  He finished the season with a .258 batting AVG.  This season so far he is hitting only .224.

Now if these guys were not traded and were the “future” of the New York Mets we would be in even more trouble than we are now.  The fact is that Santana being traded here to the Mets did not deplete the farm system.  The farm system was no good before this trade was made.  The Twins were desperate to cut their payroll and had asked too much of the Yankees and Red Sox, and the only team left that could afford to give Johan the money he wanted was the Mets.  The Mets over the last few years have done a horrible job developing their minor league system.  If there is one silver lining this season that silver lining is that the amount of injuries has shown how bad the farm system is and that it needs to be rebuilt and soon.

For the last 4 years we have been hearing about Fernando “F-Mart” Martinez.  The 16 year old was praised as the future of the New York Mets.  F-Mart was the 5 tool player that the Mets were going to make into their next superstar.  There were growing pains of course, the last couple of seasons F-Mart was injured.  Some were wondering if F-Mart would live up to his expectations.

The 2009 Mets as we all know are walking M*A*S*H unit.  The Mets on May 26, 2009, decided to call up Fernando Martinez from Triple A Buffalo when they put Ryan Church and Jose Reyes on the disabled list.  This was not considered a permanent promotion.  The Mets needed someone in the outfield and they wanted to see how F-Mart could perform at the major league level.

It was a bumpy ride for F-Mart’s first major league assignment.  In his first game he went 0-3, 2K’s, was hit by a pitch but he did drive in an RBI.  There was of course that pop up fly ball that was dropped and Fernando Martinez didn’t run it out and as a result he was thrown out at first on a play in which he should have been safe and the Mets would have had a runner on base.

F-Mart showed some potential but it was obvious that he needed some more seasoning in the minor leagues.  He hit only .207 and he could not recognize breaking balls.  The Mets last week made the right decision and sent him down to Buffalo.  It was the right move as he would play everyday and now the Mets could give the Bisons’ manger and coaches a detailed account on what they wanted them to work on with F-Mart.

Fast forward to Monday, June 23, 2009, Carlos Beltran joins the other 8 players who are on the Mets disabled list with a bone bruise.  The Mets have no choice but to recall F-Mart.  This time it’s not a test for F-Mart, it’s not an assignment just to get a look at the progress F-Mart has made and to evaluate the potential as a major leaguer he has.  Carlos Beltran is out for at least 2 weeks, sounds like it could be longer and F-Mart is going to need to produce.

F-Mart is young, he has potential and it looks like he needs to start utilizing some of that potential for this Mets team that is having a difficult time staying healthy.  He is going to have to grow up faster than most would like.  Situations like this show the make-up of a ball player.  He knows the expectations the fans, the organization, and the media have for him.  F-Mart can either sit in a corner and just try to perform or he could show us that the Mets were right in not trading him and billing him as a superstar of the future by taking advantage of the injuries and performing the way we know he can.

These guys need to be playing everyday at this stage in their career.  Murphy I believe has declined since we saw him last season.  Murphy should be demoted to Triple A and put at first base for the remainder of the season.  He can improve his defense at 1st and be ready for the 2010 season when he will be our everyday 1st baseman.  One of the reasons Murphy made the team this year out of Spring Training was his ability to hit against left handed pitching.  His numbers have decreased against lefties as Jerry has used him less frequently against them.

Fernando Martinez has been good but it’s obvious that at this stage in his career is not 100% ready for the big leagues just yet.  This is not a knock on him.  I have all the confidence that next year, barring an injury on his part we will see him in the outfield everyday for the Mets .  F-Mart still has to work on his hitting.  He has a very hard time hitting the breaking ball.  Also he still needs to mature a little as evidenced when he didn’t run out that pop out to the catcher.  Last week this went unnoticed but he tried to bunt, it looked to be going foul and the ball did thanks to the catcher but F-Mart did not run out of the box.  I think another few months in the minors where he will be playing everyday will help him improve on his skills and mature into the player theMets hope he will become.

I like both players, I think they are going to be important to this franchise in the years to come but if they are not going to get playing time everyday we need to send them down where they can improve and develop their skills for the majors.