What I love most about Zack Wheeler and Matt Harvey is their incredible determination and confidence. Each of them possess a similar swagger and they both exactly know what they want and go after it. They pair that confidence with a professionalism you don’t see very often in players so young. I’m sure you caught the comments Harvey made earlier this week about wanting to win and becoming the ace of the Mets. In similar fashion Wheeler weighed in with this gem on Wednesday:
“I want to prove myself. I want to go out there, try to make the choice difficult for them, just compete. I mean, wherever they want to send me, that’s fine. I want to go compete wherever that is. I’m going to try to get better wherever they send me. I don’t care.”
I never remember Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese or any other Mets pitching prospects of the past, carrying themselves the way Wheeler and Harvey do. I love that swagger.
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After an entire day of drama over Michael Bourn, the Mets, and the first round pick, it looks like MLB’s stance was pretty cut and dry… If you want Bourn go out and sign him, and then we’ll talk about your first round pick afterward. Ain’t that a kick in the ass. I’m hearing that most likely MLB would protect that first rounder for the Amazins’, but why should they go through all the trouble of deliberating about it and getting 29 other teams to approve it if the Mets never make a competitive offer? And how fair would that be to the Mariners? Go get your man like all the other teams and then we’ll work out the other thing later. Makes sense to me. Your move, Sandy.
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I took a quick look at that Mariners deal that Justin Upton vetoed and compared it to the Braves deal. Wow. Frank Wren scored a major coup for his franchise. When he spoke about the Martin Prado situation yesterday it all made sense. Just as we did with R.A. Dickey, Wren sold high on Prado, who is 30, had one year left until free agency, and was coming off a career year. Plus we also learned that Prado was playing hardball with the Braves for a contract in excess of $7 million and wouldn’t budge an inch in negotiations. So when the D-Backs showed interest in him, Wren jumped at it, especially when he learned he wouldn’t have to part with any of his top prospects. The Braves gave up some mid-level prospects, none of whom will be missed. The kicker was that they got back a younger replacement for Prado in Chris Johnson who batted .281 with 15 homers and 76 RBIs in 488 at-bats for Houston and Arizona in 2012. What was Arizona thinking???
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Okay, so who saw that Scott Hairston to the Cubs deal coming? I didn’t. For a few days I actually thought Sandy’s waiting game was actually going to pay off and Hairston was going to crawl back and take that one year deal for $2 million the Mets initially offered. Instead he held out for his two year deal and he got $6 million smackeroos. That should be enough to pay for his new summer home. Well played, Scotty. Thanks for the memories.
