Analyzing the Mets and Marlins decisions on Wheeler and Fernandez

By Steven Inman

The Mets and Marlins both have arguably two of the top three pitching prospects in baseball in Zack Wheeler and Jose Fernandez. However they both teams made completely different decisions on these two top prospects. As Met fans are well aware, New York sent Wheeler down to Triple AAA Las Vegas to work on his control a bit. More likely though, the Mets sent him down for service time. He won’t be down for long.

After taking a lot of heat for heavily cutting payroll this winter, the Marlins plan on making top prospect Jose Fernandez their 5^th starter. Fernandez, 20, has not pitched above High-A Jupiter.

To me the Mets are clearly doing the right thing here in keeping Wheeler down. Wheeler still has things to work on and the Mets will get an extra year of service time if he spends 20 days or more in the minors. Spending 20 days in the minors is definitely worth the extra year of service time. This isn’t the Mets being cheap, based on the CBA it’s a smart business plan for most teams.

I’m not really sure what the Marlins are doing in bringing Fernandez up. He hasn’t pitched in Double or Triple AAA yet. It reeks of being desperate because even if the Marlins felt he was absolutely ready (which he might be, he’s really good) it just makes sense for the team to keep their future ace in the minors for 20 days.

The Marlins lost Nathan Eovaldi and Henderson Alvarez who they acquired in trades over the last year to the disabled list. They really didn’t have any other quality options and Fernandez might be the best pitcher in the Marlins rotation already. He will make his major league debut against the Mets next Sunday. This also shows that the Marlins aren’t necessarily cheap, just that they don’t know how to run their team as well as they should. Even though I think the Marlins are making a mistake here promoting Fernandez, I still think he will be very effective in the majors right away but there is no reason to give up that extra year of service time when you don’t have to.

The Mets are doing the right thing with Wheeler here and it should be fun to see these two rookies batting it out for the National League rookie of the year. Fernandez will have the leg up between the two though as he will start the season in the majors.

Mets 2013 Opening Day Lineup

By Steven Inman

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2013 Mets Opening Day lineup…

Collin Cowgill, cf
Daniel Murphy, 2b
David Wright, 3b
Ike Davis, 1b
Marlon Byrd, rf
Lucas Duda, lf
John Buck, c
Ruben Tejada, ss
Jonathon Niese, lhp

The three new guys are Buck, Byrd and Cowgill who probably have more upside than the players who were at those positions last year on Opening Day. Terry Collins announced that both Byrd and Cowgill, contrary to popular belief, will not platoon, instead both will be everyday players to start off the year. We are now just 24 hours away from first pitch of Mets- Padres at CitiField. You can catch it at 1:10 p.m. on SNY.

“Alderson: We brought in Marlon Byrd as a favor”

By Steven Inman

In a phone interview with WFAN’s Mike Francesa Friday afternoon, Sandy Alderson admitted that they brought in Marlon Byrd to Spring Training as a favor to the player. “I wouldn’t say it was great scouting” Alderson said. Then Alderson told Francesa that bringing in Byrd was more of a favor to the player. As we near the end of the spring training Byrd had the best spring of any Met outfielder.

The Mets are going to need a quality season from Marlon Byrd season if they want their offense to be above average. The Mets plan on using Byrd in right field although he is playing centerfield in today’s exhibition game vs. the Cardinals. Byrd, 35, is expected to play mostly everyday according to Terry Collins. Can Marlon Byrd carry his quality spring training in the regular season?

Reese Havens and Darin Gorski will lose their 40-man roster spots

By Steven Inman

Prospects Reese Havens and Darin Gorski will lose their 40-man roster spots, according to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York.

Havens and Gorski will be placed on waivers; if no other team claims them, they will be assigned to the minor leagues. I believe Havens will probably get through waivers but Gorski who can throw around 90 MPH, is very deceptive and has a decent chance of getting claimed. I bet the Mets are doing everything they can to trade one of these guys before putting them through waivers.

With these two players off the 40-man roster, there will be five open spots for players that need to be added to the 40-man before the season begins. That means there is the outside chance of the Mets claiming a player as spring training winds down.

Santana likely done for the season, career in serious jeopardy

By Steven Inman

In a conference call on SNY Thursday evening, Mets GM Sandy Alderson said he believes that LHP Johan Santana has a tear in the anterior capsule in his left shoulder. This would be the second time this has happened to Santana in as many 2 ½ years. “A second surgery is a strong possibility,” Alderson said. “Johan may be lost to the Mets for the season.” Very few pitchers have ever had this injury and none have come back to have the same success as before.

Pitchers such as Chien Ming-Wang and Chris Young have also had this surgery with middling success.  In fact Santana was probably the most successful of any pitcher who had this injury. No pitcher has ever had this injury before and Santana’s career could possibly be over. His Met career is definitely over.

Santana will be remembered for his no-hitter last year on June 1^st, 2012 vs. the Cardinals and his gritty 3-hit shutout vs. the Marlins with a torn meniscus in September of 2008. If the Mets had one the game the next day and made the playoffs, I bet we have more of a glowing memory of Santana. He gave his all to the Mets but unfortunately, the Mets paid a pitcher $137.5 million for the second half of his career and that was a mistake.

The Mets would have been better off making the Santana trade and not signing him to a contract extension, instead let him play as a Met in 2008 (his only fully healthy season in Queens) and then let him be someone else’s problem in free agency. Never pay players 100 million plus for the second half of their careers.

Mets Opening Series vs. Padres is all set

By Steven Inman

The Mets and Padres announced their Opening Series rotations for the first series of the year.

Monday: LHP Jonathon Niese vs. RHP Edinson Volquez

Wednesday: RHP Matt Harvey vs. LHP Clayton Richard

Thursday: RHP Dillon Gee vs. LHP Eric Stults

Richard and Stults could be a problem for the Mets who badly struggled vs. lefties last season. Volquez pitches like an ace at times but at other times looks like he’s a number five starter with his control issues. Richard has turned into a reliable lefty for the Padres since coming over in a trade with the White Sox for Jake Peavy. Stults, 33, has been a journeyman starter for the Dodgers, White Sox and Rockies before enjoying a very strong stint with the Padres last season.

How do you think the Mets will handle the Padres in the first series of the year?

Mets trade Elvin Ramirez to the Angels

By Steven Inman

In the Mets difficult quest to free up some 40-man roster spots, the Mets traded reliever Elvin Ramirez to the Angels, Wednesday for cash considerations. The Angels were looking for bullpen depth and Ramirez is young and has an electric but wild arm.

Ramirez, 25, had a 5.48 earned run average in 20 games for the Mets last season. He was much more successful in Triple AAA Buffalo with a 2.36 ERA. Ramirez has a good arm and a great fastball. However, he has no idea where the ball is going most of the time. In the majors last season Ramirez averaged 8.44 walks per nine innings. He averaged over five walks per nine innings in the minors last year too.

For the Angels he is a “project type” reliever who they think can provide depth at Triple A. The Mets were going to send him through waivers anyway so at least they get a little cash back. The Mets 40 man roster now stands at 38. They still have to clear a few more spots.

David Wright and Daniel Murphy both appear to be ready for Opening Day

By Steven Inman

After much doubt that 2B Daniel Murphy and 3B David Wright would be ready to go with oblique issues, it now appears that both will be ready to go for Opening Day vs. the Padres. Wright has been in minor league games this week and Daniel Murphy is expected to play in a major league game at second base Thursday.

Putting Murphy in a major league game now would not allow the Mets to back date Murphy’s disabled list assignment if he had to go on the DL meaning he would have to miss 15 days not just four or five. This must signify that the Mets are confident that Murphy will be ready to go. It remains to be seen though if Murphy can get the necessary at bats this week to feel comfortable hitting in the regular season but he seems to want to give it a try.

Wright has been saying all along that he would be ready for Opening Day and initially the Mets have more confidence in Wright being ready for Opening Day than Murphy. Now the Mets believe that both will be in the Opening Day infield.

Mets very concerned about Shaun Marcum’s neck

By Steven Inman

Shaun Marcum is now dealing with a neck issue that arose during his last bullpen session on Monday and the Mets are now very concerned. The Mets are now targeting Game five vs. the Marlins for Marcum not Game two or three, which had been the original plan. Even that may be a stretch though based on the concern of pitching Coach Dan Warthen. “I think everyone has legitimate concerns, I mean, it’s a place where we’ve never known it to be before. We have to have it examined and find out where we are.” Warthen said.

Marcum is being examined by Mets doctors Tuesday morning. Another scenario for Marcum would be to put him on the disabled list and back date it so he would be eligible to pitch the 7^th game of the season due to off days.

Just when it seemed as if the Mets were starting to get healthy, another key player goes down with a significant yet unknown injury. It is unclear if Marcum will be ready for the season but as soon as there is an update, BrokeMets will have it.

Mets had a scout at Chris Young’s start Monday night, will opt out of deal

By Steven Inman

Chris Young had his last start with the Washington Nationals, Monday night and has elected to use his opt out clause in his minor league contract to become a free agent. Young was told by Washington that they have no room for him on their roster and that he could go to Triple A. Young believes he will find a major league job elsewhere and is now a free agent.

Many teams’ scouts were in attendance for Young’s final start with the Nationals including a Met scout according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. The Mets are familiar with Young, since he pitched in New York the last two seasons but I guess there is no harm in sending someone out to see how he looked.

Besides the Mets, the Blue Jays, Orioles, Twins, Indians, Cubs, Cardinals, Red Sox, and Brewers all have scouts on hand for Young’s start against the Astros today.

Young, 33,  is 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA in four starts with Washington this spring, having allowed four earned runs, seven walks, and two home runs while striking out nine in 16 innings. As of now Jeremy Hefner is slated to be the Mets 5^th starter but Chris Young could be added. He has interest from other teams and I think the most likely scenario is that he signs elsewhere.