Mets top three pitching prospects continue to pitch well

By Steven Inman

Noah Syndergaard

Sandy Alderson’s plan has been and will continue to be developing the Mets young arms in an effort to have a dynamic yet cheap starting rotation. Matt Harvey and Jon Niese are already in place and the Mets top pitching prospects Zack Wheeler, Rafael Montero and Noah Syndergaard have spots waiting for them.

Wheeler pitched well Thursday night vs. Tacoma in what is considered to be his final minor league start. Wheeler gave up just one run against a Triple A team that has scored more runs than anyone else. Wheeler is expected to pitch the night half of a double header on Tuesday in Atlanta for the Mets.

Montero has been promoted to Triple A Las Vegas and will start on Saturday. Montero, 22, had made one spot start for Vegas and pitched well earlier this year. If he pitches well in Vegas and that’s a big if with the way pitchers have fared there, then he can be in position to be in the Mets rotation later this season. No Mets prospect has had their stock go up more in the last calendar year than Rafael Montero.

Zack Wheeler looks ready for the big leagues

Syndergaard who the Mets got from the Blue Jays in the R.A. Dickey trade has pitched very well for Port St. Lucie. He could be in line to get a promotion to Double AA Binghamton in a few weeks. While Syndergaard is further away, he too has a very good arm and is considered a top 30 prospect in the game.

Keep in mind that the Mets got Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud for R.A. Dickey, who has given up more earned runs than anyone else in baseball through the first 65 games or so. Dickey is 5-8 with a 5.11 ERA in 88 innings for the Blue Jays this season.

The Mets can use one of these guys as trade bait or can put them all together for what could be one of the best young rotations in baseball.

Things are even worse than they seem for Mets in Vegas

By Steven Inman

In an absolute must read for any baseball fan, let alone Met fan, Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal, details how bad the situation is for the Mets Triple A affiliate in Las Vegas.

Costa talks first about what we already knew, due to the Mets poor job in developing a farm system no minor league team wants to be associated with them. “They’re undesirable,” said Dave Rosenfield, a longtime Norfolk (Va.) Tides executive. “Nobody wants them.”Norfolk was the Mets Triple A affiliate up until 2006.

There are 30 major leagues teams but just 30 Triple A minor league teams so it’s kind of like musical chairs.

Due to the Mets inability to develop a farm system along with the meddling nature of the Wilpons, Norfolk and eventually the Buffalo Bisons, dumped the Mets, forcing them to Las Vegas. “When he (Wilpon) became involved in everything was when things changed,” Rosenfield said. “I dealt with him on some things and somebody always had to go to him if you wanted to do anything. He had his nose and hands in everything.” Rosenfield said.

The Mets did their best in 2010 of keeping Buffalo happy by bringing in veteran minor league talent like Mike Hessman and R.A. Dickey, (yes the 2012 Cy Young award winner was brought in to appease a minor league team) Both players along with others however were called up early that season to Queens and the Bisons were a losing team once again.

Last offseason Buffalo signed a player development contract with the Toronto Blue Jays, leaving the Mets with Las Vegas in a game of undesirable musical chairs.

The Mets will be in Vegas for at least this year and next year. We have already heard complaints from prospects like Zack Wheeler.

In the article even executives in the Las Vegas organization know the stadium is far from pro ball standards. The field is dry, making it difficult to grip a baseball. The ball flies when it’s put in play. The organization only has two groundskeepers so they don’t have time to water the field before games somehow.

“You get in situations where you’re like, ‘I’m not looking for a double play here. I need to strike this guy out because I’m afraid of him putting it in play.'” Greg Burke said.

Sandy Alderson has acknowledged that putting the Mets Triple A team in Vegas, makes it significantly more difficult to evaluate players.

The only bright side to the Mets situation is they are only signed up to be in Vegas through 2014. If the Mets can develop their young players especially on the offensive side of ball they can turn the 51’s into a winning club. If they can do that they can probably leave Vegas after next year for a club closer to New York. That’s what the Blue Jays did and they are very happy in Buffalo.

Noah Syndergaard has been awesome in the minors

By Steven Inman

The piece of the R.A. Dickey trade that has gotten the least publicity, pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard, has been pitching very well for the High A St. Lucie Mets. Syndergaard, 20, in seven starts for St. Lucie has a 2.61 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 38 innings.

In his last start Syndergaard went seven innings giving up just four hits and a run. Again he’s just 20 but if he keeps pitching this well, he will be in line for a mid season promotion to Binghamton.

Syndergaard has a plus plus fastball with a curveball and a changeup that have the potential to be above average pitches in the major leagues.

Syndergaard could be in line for a promotion to the big leagues at some point in 2014 if he continues to cruise through the minor leagues.

For the record R.A. Dickey is 2-5 with a 5.06 earned run average in 48 innings this season for the Blue Jays.

Former Mets struggling in Toronto

By Steven Inman

As the Met get set to (hopefully) play two games against the Colorado Rockies, let’s take a look at what some former Mets are doing in Toronto. Over the winter as you all know the Mets traded R.A. Dickey and Josh Thole to the Blue Jays. Former Met all-star Jose Reyes was also traded to Toronto in a separate deal from Miami. It hasn’t gone as swimmingly so far in Canada.

After being carried off the field, Jose Reyes is expected to miss three months.

R.A. Dickey has gotten roughed up in two of his first three starts including giving up five runs in the first inning in a game vs. the Red Sox last week. It’s still very early but Dickey has a 5.82 earned run average in just 17 innings. The concerning part for Blue Jays fans is he hasn’t had control of his knuckleball.  Again it’s early but his walk rate has doubled from two over nine innings to 4.5.

Josh Thole didn’t make the Blue Jays somehow and J.P. Arencibia has struggled to catch Dickey’s knuckleball. Thole will be up at some point if Arencibia continues to struggle with Dickey’s knuckler.

Jose Reyes has a fine start to his season but had awkward slide into second in a game against the Royals. He had to be helped off the field and tore ligaments in his left ankle. The Blue Jays (6-7) are hoping to have Reyes back after the all-star break.

It’s still incredibly early but so far the Mets look wise to trade Dickey. John Buck is batting over .340 and Travis d’Arnaud is hitting well in triple AAA Las Vegas.  Well have to wait and see. BrokeMets will update on a lot more former Mets as the season progresses.

Assessing the Mets offseason

By Steven Inman

Well, the offseason is officially over and it is spring training time. With games just around the corner and Opening Day just six weeks away, let’s take a short moment to assess the Mets offseason.

It wasn’t exactly as active of an offseason as w e had thought and the team is very similar to how it looked at the end of last season. Here were the biggest moves Sandy Alderson and crew made this winter.

1. Mets trade R.A. Dickey, Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas to the Toronto Blue Jays for John Buck, Noah Syndergaard, Travis d’Arnaud and Wuilmer Becerra.

This trade was fantastic for the Mets as they added two top 100 prospects including Travis d’Arnaud who is expected to be half of an all-star battery team with Zack Wheeler in Queens for years to come.

2. Mets extend David Wright for eight years and $138 million.

Did the Mets overpay here a little? Maybe a little but remember that includes Wright contract for this year which was originally at $16 million. Wright is no-doubt the face of the franchise and will be with the Mets until at least 2020. Alderson mentioned the stuff that Wright does for the Mets off the field was also a major factor in this signing. Wright will own every Met position player record by the time he is done playing.

3. Mets sign Shaun Marcum to a one year deal worth $4 million plus incentives.

This was a good move for the Mets as Marcum is the best pitcher they could have gotten to replace R.A. Dickey in their price range. Marcum has been a very solid #2 starter for the Mets when healthy, If Marcum is healthy he will help the Mets a lot and if they are out of the race then they can flip him for more prospects.

4. Mets  acquire OF Collin Cowgill from the Oakland Athletics for Jefry Marte.

This was the under the radar move of the offseason as Cowgill, 26, who was once thought of as a pretty decent prospect will really help the Mets dominantly left-handed outfield. Cowgill can play a good center-field for the Mets and has been compared to former Met Lenny Dykstra. Cowgill is even wearing the same number (#4) that Dykstra wore. Cowgill has never gotten as many at bats at the major league level that he is expected to this season.

The Mets made four solid if not good moves this offseason to help the team going forward. The first two moves were meant more for the future of the team and although the Mets plan is more for 2014, these moves can help the team improve in 2013. The team’s bullpen is improved but we won’t really know how much until the season starts. They never really got that closer they were looking for.

Other than Cowgill, the Mets didn’t add another outfielder on a major league deal or in a trade this offseason. We went in thinking the Mets needed a catcher, 2 outfielders and a whole new bullpen. I give them an A on the catching situation in acquiring Buck and d’Arnaud, a D for the outfield for just not addressing their needs and a B- for the bullpen as the jury is still out on how improved this bullpen is.

Overall for the offseason I would give the Mets a C+. They did clear up the situations of both David Wright and R.A. Dickey but other than that there isn’t a lot to write home about.

Mets Most Memorable Moments of 2012

By Steven Inman

With tomorrow being the last day of year, here are Mets most important, memorable moments in 2012. If you haven’t been paying attention to your beloved Mets lately, here is a quick recap of there 2012 on and off the field. Even though it ended badly with just 74 wins, their were several significant moments for the Mets.

7. Mets cut Jason Bay– Exactly three years and one day ago, the Mets signed Jason Bay to a four-year contract worth over $66 million. Bay badly struggled in his three years in Queens but none more than 2012. It all came to fruition when the Mets and Bay parted ways on November 7^th.The Mets had no choice but to cut him and Bay signed a one year contract with the Seattle Mariners earlier this month. The Mets needed to move on from Bay and it was a significant day for the Mets when he and the team agreed to part ways.

6.  R.A. Dickey wins his 20^th game– In September Citifield was an absolute ghost town. However the place was loud and the fans were excited every time R.A. Dickey took the mound.  On September 27^th, Dickey won his 20^th against the Pittsburgh Pirates. It turned out to be the last game Dickey ever won as a Met but it was a fun moment for a team that was already eliminated from the playoffs.

5. David Wright breaks Mets all time hit record– Also against the Pittsburgh Pirates, David Wright got an infield hit to break Ed Kranepool’s record on September 26^th. It was a fun moment for the sparse crowd at CitiField and seemed to help cement Wright as a player that the Mets had to keep, which is exactly what they did. Wright now has 1,426 hits in his career as a Met and should now have plenty more.

4. Johan Santana throws first no-hitter in Mets history-It was the greatest moment on the field for the Mets in 2012. The excitement built up as Johan Santana got through each inning on June first against the St. Louis Cardinals. The thought as Santana got closer and closer was that Terry Collins was not going to let Santana finish the game. Santana was not pitching more than 100 pitches each start and got through 134.

In the game Mike Baxter, completely sold out his body to make an incredible catch aganist Met-killer Yadier Molina in left field to preserve the no-hitter. It was a great moment for the Mets franchise and now the Padres are the only team without a no-hitter.

3. R.A. Dickey wins the N.L. Cy Young– On November 14^th the Baseball writers association of America awarded Dickey as the National League Cy Young award winner. (BBWAA) Dickey was named first on 27 ballots and second on the other five of those cast by two writers representing each league city to score 209 points, based on a voting system that rewards seven points for first place, four for second, three for third, two for fourth and one for fifth.

The idea that Dickey went from the first guy cut in Spring Training in 2010, to a 38-year old knuckleball throwing Cy Young winner is one of the greatest stories in the history of baseball. 89% of BrokeMets viewers thought that Dickey deserved the Cy Young.

2. The Mets trade R.A. Dickey to the Toronto Blue Jays– It finally happened,on December 26th, the Mets traded Dickey to the revamped Blue Jays. The deal brought the Mets catcher John Buck, who will likely start the season as the opening day catcher as well as two top prospects Travis d’Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard. Acquiring a top flight catcher is nearly impossible to do and yet Sandy Alderson may have done the impossible.

1. David Wright agrees to an 8 year extension– On November 30^th, the Mets agreed to an eight year contract with their star third basemen David Wright. Wright is one of the best 3B’s in baseball and a good 3B is hard to find. Most importantly Wright will be the first star position player to spend his entire career with the Mets. Every record will belong to Wright by a large margin by the time his contract is up in 2020.

Official: R.A. Dickey traded to the Blue Jays in seven player trade

By Steven Inman

Well it’s official, the Mets have traded Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey along with catcher Josh Thole and catcher Mike Nickeas. They will acquire top prospects C Travis d’Arnaud, RHP Noah Syndergaard, OF Wuilmer Becerra along with veteran catcher John Buck. The trade has been announced by both sides. To make this trade official the Blue Jays brought Dickey into their Spring Training site this morning in Florida for a physical. The Blue Jays also signed Dickey to a 2 year contract extension.

R.A. Dickey’s new contract with the Blue Jays is 3 years for $30 million along with a $12 million club option for 2016. Dickey got a very reasonable contract with the Blue Jays but the Mets still go out looking like bandits in this trade. They winded up finding their catcher of the future in d’Arnaud, a stopgap catcher in Buck, a legit power pitching prospect in Syndergaard along with another intriguing prospect in the 18-year old Becerra.

The last time a Cy Young award winner was traded was when the Blue Jays traded Rodger Clemens to the New York Yankees.

This is an incredible trade for Sandy Alderson as he found a way to turn a 38-year old knuckleballer into two “difference making” prospects. Out of the three prospects that the Mets got in this deal, only the 23-year old d’Arnaud is expected to play for the Mets in 2013. We will only truly know who won this trade until all of these guys are in the major leagues but Alderson did what he wanted and that’s find difference making players to improve the Mets farm system.

Dickey Trade depends on extension with Blue Jays

By Steven Inman

The Mets and Blue Jays completed their trade of pitcher R.A. Dickey around 2.p.m Saturday afternoon. Though the deal yet to be officially announced, multiple reports indicate that the Mets will also send Josh Thole and a “non-elite” minor leaguer to Toronto for top Blue Jays prospect C Travis d’Arnaud, veteran C John Buck, RHP Noah Syndergaard (who is considered Toronto’s top pitching prospect), and another “non-elite” minor leaguer. The Mets are expected to receive some cash in the deal as well to offset part of catcher John Buck’s $6million salary.

This would be a fantastic trade for the Mets. D’Arnaud and Syndergaard would be the Mets second and third best prospects behind Zack Wheeler. The Mets farm system jumps from around 25^th to above average but most importantly it gives the Mets more good young players for the future. These guys are very well regarded not just by the Mets but throughout baseball.

That being said, the deal is not quite done yet. The Blue Jays won’t do the deal unless Dickey agrees to a two year extension with the Blue Jays. The Mets have given the Blue Jays a 72 hour window to work out an extension. That window is set to expire at 2pm on Tuesday. A similar scenario happened when the Minnesota Twins gave the Mets a window to work out a contract extension with Johan Santana before the 2008 season. The Mets winded up given Santana a six year extension right before the window.

An extension is no guarantee but the Blue Jays probably wouldn’t have agreed to a trade if they didn’t think they had a good choice to lock up Dickey. Dickey was asking the Mets for a two year $26 million dollar contract so he would probably ask the Blue Jays for something near that. Just keep in mind because of the exchange rate in Canadian dollars along with higher taxes in Canada, he will probably ask for more money. I don’t see this getting done until right down to the wire on Tuesday but if anything breaks BrokeMets will have it.

Josh Thole will likely be included in Dickey trade

By Steven Inman

As the Mets get closer and closer to finishing their inevitable trade of R.A. Dickey, it appears likely that Josh Thole will be included in the deal. The Mets have been talking exclusively to the Blue Jays over the past 24 hours and medical records for both clubs have begun to be exchanged which means a deal could be close.

Thole has had his ups and downs at the major league level but the Blue Jays probably want him as more of a backup catcher who can catch Dickey’s knuckleball. Catching a knuckleball is an art few catchers are able to handle. For all of the criticism that Thole has gotten this year for his defense, he did a pretty nice job catching Dickey’s knuckleball.

Thole could be a nice player as a backup but by no means would he be a deal breaker if the Mets had to throw him in to a trade with the Blue Jays. Ideally the Mets could get Travis d’Arnaud and one of the Blue Jays pitching prospects. From what I understand, the Mets aren’t crazy about OF Anthony Gose and would prefer to center a deal around d’Arnaud. Gose is a great defender but he strikes out way too much and may not hit enough to play every day.

Blue Jays are the favorites for R.A. Dickey

By Steven Inman

It seems apparent to this point that R.A. Dickey will not sign an extension with the Mets and is more than likely to be traded. It appears that R.A. Dickey has pitched his last game as a Met. The finalist for Dickey are the Angels, Rangers, Orioles and the Blue Jays. Toronto is the favorite. Mets assistant General Manager J.P. Ricciardi used to be the Blue Jays General Manager and knows their minor league system very well.

The Blue Jays match up on a trade for Dickey the best as they have young catchers and outfielders. That being said it would only be a great trade for the Mets if the Blue Jays included catcher Travis d’Arnaud. Sandy Alderson has said he will only trade Dickey for a “difference making” bat. D’Arnaud is a franchise catcher and is the “difference making” the Mets were looking for in a Dickey trade. It would be nice if the Mets got a catcher along with Anthony Gose but unless they get d’Arnaud it won’t be the franchise changing move the Mets were looking at getting for their Cy Young award winner.

The point is, it sounds as if the R.A. Dickey saga is finally nearing the end with the Toronto Blue Jays now emerging as the favorites, The package the Mets would get depends on if Dickey is willing to do an extension with his new team. If the Mets are getting d’Arnaud they likely would have to give the Blue Jays some time to work out an extension.