Blogger Day At Citi

The Mets were nice enough to invite me, along with my fellow bloggers, to Wednesday night's game.

We were allowed to go to Terry Collins' pre-game press conference, watch batting practice, talk to some players, view the game from the press box, and then attend Collins' post-game press conference.

 It was a very cool experience. Below are some photos.

 

Jose Reyes Taking His Talents To South Beach

Jose Reyes agreed to sign with the Miami Marlins for six years, $106 million.

He chased the money.

I don't blame the Mets ownership. I don't blame Sandy Alderson. At the end of the day, Reyes had complete control over the situation. If he really wanted to stay in New York, he would have. Instead, he went where the money is. That's baseball.

The Mets never made an offer to Reyes. They had to have known early on that they had no chance of re-signing Reyes. I have no problem with the team for not making an offer. Why waste anybody's time, and why bother making an offer that will be guaranteed to be rejected.

I know Mets fans are depressed, but get over it. It's not the end of the world. Life will go on. Remember, the Mets have won nothing, NOTHING, with Reyes during his nine years here.

Also, I don't know about you, but I'll be glad that I'll no longer have to hold my breath every time Reyes runs around the bases wondering if his hamstring is going to explode.

While Mets fans are quick to hand over the World Series trophy to the Marlins on this deal alone, take a step back and remember that they've won nothing yet. In fact, they're already losers with those new uniforms.

Happy Thanksgiving, Mets Fans

On this Thanksgiving morning, I'd like to take a minute and reflect on five things I am thankful for.

I am thankful for the fact that...

5. Jose Reyes is still a Met...for now.

4. I'm not a Dodgers fan. The Mets have found themselves in a financial mess this season, but it wasn't close to the disaster that occurred out in Los Angeles.

3. Johan Santana is coming back this year...hopefully.

2. The Mets are lucky enough to have a guy like R.A. Dickey on the team. Let's just hope that plantar fascia stays intact during his trip up Mt. Kilimanjaro.

1. Baseball is unpredictable. The 2012 season could be just as awful as the past few seasons, but who knows. We could be surprised. Ya gotta believe!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Mets To Reyes: Happy Thanksgiving, Here's Arbitration

This is not breaking news. By offering Jose Reyes arbitration, the Mets are guaranteed to receive two draft picks should he walk (He's a Type-A free agent).

Mets News Galore

A bunch of things happened in Metsland today.

• Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported on Tuesday that the Marlins offered Jose Reyes a 6-year, $90 million. Rosenthal also wrote, "Obviously, the offer was not tempting enough for Reyes to accept immediately." Obviously.

• Nick Evans declared free agency. According to Andy Martino of the Daily News, Evans will look to play elsewhere. That's for the best. He never stood a chance in New York.

• According to SI.com's Jon Heyman, the Mets will tender Mike Pelfrey and Angel Pagan.

• Adam Rubin tweeted that Jason Pridie signed a minor league deal with the Oakland A's.

• Ken Davidoff of Newsday reported that the Mets are looking at Jason Marquis as a possible replacement for Chris Capuano. Capuano is seeking a two-year deal, and the Mets will not offer that.

• Davidoff also reported that the Mets' medical staff will look a little different next season. Assistant trainer, Mike Herbst, will now oversee health and conditioning of the Mets' minor-league players in Port St. Lucie. Brian Chicklo will now serve as the assistant trainer with the big league squad.

That's all for now.

To Jose, Or Not To Jose: For The Mets, That Is The Question

For months now, I have been going back and forth.

Is it a good investment for the Mets to sign Reyes? Or should they let him go, and invest the money elsewhere.

From a fan’s perspective, it is an easy answer. Sign him, no matter the cost. I mean, why not right? They technically don’t have to pay for it (except for higher ticket prices).

From a business perspective however, things get a lot more complicated.

Say what you want about David Wright, good or bad, Jose Reyes has become the face of the franchise, and people pay a lot of money just to Jose play.

Think about it, every aspect of his game is exciting, even when he is not on the field.

Meet The Met: Juan Lagares

I have been waiting for weeks to write about Lagares, thinking his play would cool off. After a month of outstanding baseball and no slump in sight, I could not wait any longer.

Before this season, Lagares was known as a top prospect that never fulfilled his potential. Back in 2006, the Mets signed him as a 17 year old short stop from the Dominican Republic, thinking they found Jose Reyes a double play partner for the next ten years.

That player never showed up; until this season.

Lagares debuted as a 17 year old in the Dominican Summer League, where he hit .255 in 57 games. Nothing special, but since he was so young, not much was to be expected because surely he would get better each year.

He didn’t.

Nobody could have expected or wanted him to spend the next four years in low A-Ball Savannah as that would seem to represent a failure in his development, but that is what happened. After four straight years in low A, Lagares was a forgotten man. However, if you take a closer look at his year-to-year stats, he WAS developing, just at a painfully slow pace.

Take a look at his numbers development in the SAL:

	2007	2008	2009	2010
BA	.210	.254	.274	.300
OBP	.262	.285	.305	.318
SLG	.317	.337	.333	.459

While his improvement across the board, especially his 2010 numbers, look very good, his peripherals over that same time period were quite the opposite. Over those four seasons, he struck out 178 times and only walked 39 times; good for a K-rate of 19.3%! Not only is that a terrible ratio for any power hitter, where the extra bases cover it up a little, but for a player who only hit nine home runs in those 920 at-bats, the ratio stands out even more.

So even though his average and slugging percentage in 2010 were nice, those outside numbers showed a player may not be ready for higher levels. It was easy to see why, after his promotion to high A-Ball, against more advanced pitching, Lagares struggled. In his first 133 at bats, Juan hit .233, with a .248 OBP and a .316 SLG, striking out 18 times with only two walks.

A 21 year old struggling out of the gate is not abnormal in the Florida State League, but it will not help you get noticed, at least not in a good way. By your fifth season in A ball, if you aren’t dominating the league, many scouts and front office may not even consider you as a player destined for AA, forget the major leagues.

That is why his 2011 season was so surprising. Lagares played four consecutive seasons in Low A-Ball! He couldn’t touch high A-Ball in his brief time there. He has taken his expectations for the 2011 season and blown them out of the water.

His career batting average in the minor leagues coming into this season was .254, split between low A-Ball and high A. This season, he is hitting .353, in more advanced leagues of high A and AA. He has 24 walks this season; he had 25 walks in his last three seasons COMBINED. The outrageous numbers continue, and they only get better when you look at his stats after his promotion to AA.

Lagares has accumulated 95 at-bats in AA, and decided hitting .339 in High-A was not good enough. Juan is hitting .400 in Binghamton, with a .589 SLG, and has firmly placed himself on the map as a legitimate Mets prospect.

Another thing to like about Lagares, is that he is still young. My prospect crush Reese Havens (who found himself on Baseball America’s prospect hot sheet) is turning 25 in October. Lagares turned 22 in March. He is still developing into his body, and as such, has more room to grow and further enhance his game.

I am not saying he is the top outfield prospect in the Mets organization. I am not even sure he is a top ten prospect.

What I am saying, is that when Lagares signed way back in 2006, he was billed as a top prospect with the talent to play in the Major Leagues someday. Before this season, that vision was more like a dream. After this season, that vision may come to fruition someday soon.



Zach is also the author of metsvibe.wordpress.com. Follow him on Twitter @zpetersel

Mets Top Targets For 2012

The Mets are in money trouble, in case you hadn't heard.  Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz got some bad news this week, and may be out $300 million or so come the offseason.  That will severely limit them when it comes to building for 2012 and beyond through free agency.  Of course, given what we've seen the Mets do with money in the past, maybe it's not such a bad thing for Sandy Alderson to have an allowance.

Of course, the new model in baseball differs greatly from the last decade. There's been a paradigm shift away from signing big money free agents, and toward drafting well and locking guys up early.  Great young players just don't hit the open market anymore because teams are too smart to overpay for their own players.

There is not much talent available this year, besides the very top tier guys. Let's assume that the Mets money issues preclude them from signing Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder. If those guys are off the table, who should the Mets be chasing this winter?

The Ultimate Mets Lineup

The 2011 Mets are hovering around .500 right now, and they will probably finish the year around .500 too.  Fitting, given that this team has been oddly snakebitten.  Jose Reyes was in the middle of his best offensive season and is now on the disabled list for the second time with a recurring leg problem.  Daniel Murphy joins him on the DL after establishing himself as a starter with a breakout year.  Last year's breakout Ike Davis hasn't seen the field in months, and won't until next year.  Ace Johan Santana will be lucky to see game action in 2011, and may never be the same after shoulder surgery.  David Wright has been hitting well since missing time, leading one to wonder how he would have performed over a full season.  Ditto for the departed Carlos Beltran.

So I decided to perform a little experiment.  What if everyone on the 2011 Mets had performed at the peak of his career? What if every starter had his best historical season - forget that, how about taking every Mets star from the last decade, sticking them on the field and seeing how they would perform at their absolute apex.

The ultimate Mets fantasy team of the 2000s, instead of the also-ran 2011 edition.

The Wright Stuff

David looks great for 229 years old!

David Wright made his fairly triumphant return to the Mets this weekend, and at least one Wikipedia editor was not pleased. I cannot fathom what about Wright could inspire someone to alter his bio into an 18^th century New York Stupid Metropolitan, but here we are. Wright is back, and for whatever reason some guy on the internet is pissed.

Wright has always inspired somewhat inexplicable vitriol. Maybe it's playing in New York, maybe it's playing for an often-disappointing team, or maybe it's the photogenic smile and the hot girlfriends and the Vitamin Water ads. Maybe it's everything combined, but I've never felt Wright has gotten a fair shake.

Just How Much Could a Carlos Beltran Trade Return?

These next ten days are going to be very stressful for Sandy Alderson. He can blame Carlos Beltran for most, if not all, of that anxiety.

Not only is Beltran the biggest, most talented bat on the trade market, but he has become the Mets' most important player. Without Jose Reyes, Beltran has kept the Mets relevant (they are only 7.5 games back of the Wild Card), and over the last two days he has gotten on base seven out of ten times, with an enormous, game-tying home run to boot in Wednesday's victory.

One thing that will help Mr. Alderson is that with every day Carlos remains a Met, his value goes up because of his production. As the pennant race gets closer every day, each contending team is seeing Beltran as the final piece to the puzzle, and with that, is offering a nice prospect from their organization. With Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco rumored to be making the strongest pursuit, here are some of the high-end prospects the Mets may receive.

Capuano, Mets Roughed Up By Yanks In Loss

The good news: the world didn't end tonight. The bad news: the Mets were killed with the long ball tonight, losing to the Yankees by a score of 7-3.

• Chris Capuano went 5.1 innings, giving up four home runs. By the time he left in the sixth inning, he allowed six runs on six hits, while striking out five.

• Justin Turner drove in yet another RBI. He now has an RBI in seven consecutive games, breaking the franchise rookie record previously held by Ron Swoboda.

• Jose Reyes had three hits in the game, scored two runs, and stole a base.

• Pedro Beato was perfect out of the bullpen after coming to pitch 1.2 innings of relief. Beato has not allowed a run in 18.2 innings.

• Besides Capuano's start, the worst part about this game was that it was all on Fox. I really don't know what's more painful, watching the Yankees tee-off against the Mets, or listening to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

Next up: The Mets look to take the rubber game of this three-game set, Sunday, at Yankee Stadium. Game time is 1:05 p.m.