A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

[royals19]

And it's that time of year folks, the time where we head down to Spring Training and sort through everyone on the 40 man roster and try to piece together a roster that will hopefully make progress this season. The past teams have played their Spring Training in the arid Arizona climate but this season, we get to head on down to Florida instead... boy what a treat.

There's surfing, Disney World, golf, Disney World, Palm Trees, gators... Did I mention that they have Disney World here? This is where its at my friends, Florida is the place to have Spring Training.

So down in Port St. Lucie we start cranking it up and getting ready to grind through 162. There aren't a lot of locks coming into Spring Training so we've got to play nearly the whole damn 40 man every game so we can get a feel for what we've got... I guess that's one of the perks of the job...

Now in the first Spring of a new franchise, we learned a few lessons about this franchise.

First off... the quality of screenshots sucks on the Vita... I ain't gonna complain though because I'm able to play The Show but man... they suck.

Regardless... We've got Familia pictured above. He's easily had the most electric arm of anybody on the roster and we've got Zack Wheeler here. He's supposed to be a starting pitcher but I think it would be more beneficial to use him out of the bullpen to get his feet wet. Not many pitchers have a high 90s fastball sinker combo with a great slider... He'll eventually start but I'm really excited to see him out of the pen this season. If all goes according to plan, then he's gonna be getting the majority of the late inning situations.



Kirk (not gonna waste my time spelling his last name) has been our best bat this spring... that's saying a lot with David Wright, Lucas Duda and Ike Davis on the roster. The center field job is basically wide open so we're gonna have to pencil in Kirk unless Marlyn Bird decides to go really tear it up out there in the next half.



This was the biggest surprise I think we've encountered all Spring. He's not a top prospect, he's rated as a D potential but he struck out those three guys... looking. You can't ignore that, we're going to keep our eye on him and he might just make the team out of Spring Training.




Let me start off by saying that Matt Harvey is looking like a legit #1 starter this season. If we can get Johan Santana back and Jon Neise pitches well or Zack Wheeler makes an impact, we could be looking at a postseason run... The Mets' aren't gonna hold their breath though. Back to Harvey, if he can shutdown those 3 teams, then I can't wait to see what he has in store for the regular season...


While we let that marinate... onward to the second half of Spring!

[Deuce2223]

I traded for D. Tapia in my Franchise, and like him a lot. The kid throws gas. He actually has decent stamina as well so you could use him as a backend SP a great middle relief guy or like you posted a possible CP..

[beamerball811]

Lovin' your readings so far. I'm looking forward to reading through this. Great start!

[royals19]

Quote: Originally Posted by Deuce2223

I traded for D. Tapia in my Franchise, and like him a lot. The kid throws gas. He actually has decent stamina as well so you could use him as a backend SP a great middle relief guy or like you posted a possible CP..

He'll probably end up getting a crack in the bullpen this season. There aren't that many current guys in the bullpen that are valuable so we'll probably see a ton of different pitchers out there.

Quote: Originally Posted by beamerball811

Lovin' your readings so far. I'm looking forward to reading through this. Great start!

Thanks dude, it's gonna be an interesting ride with the Mets. I'm not even finished with Spring Training and I can tell this is gonna be a rough rode ahead...

******

Mets' Spring Training Complex
Mets' Spring Budget Meeting
March 18th, 2013
7:00 AM

It was another one of those gorgeous days in Port St. Lucie. The sun was shining there wasn't a cloud in sight. Willie set up a 10 A.M. tee time so hopefully, this meeting wasn't going to take very long.

On this day, the Mets' top brass were sitting in a meeting room. Owner Fred Wilpon was at the head of the table, GM Sandy Alderson and his special advisor J.P. Riccardi sat on one side of the table. On the other side, Willie Singleton sat with the head of player development, Paul DePodesta.

Quote:

Fred Wilpon So what's the situation, do we need to spend more this year or what?

Quote:

Sandy Alderson To be blunt, Fred we need more money... bottom line. We can't run this roster out there. 3/4 of this team has 0 value.

Quote:

J.P. Riccardi If I may add, our latest projections have us losing upwards of 90 games...

Quote:

Fred Wilpon So uhh... why don't you guys just do that Moneyball thing?

Quote:

Sandy Alderson Because our hands are tied. With your financial instability, we can't afford to dump money into this team and invest in a "Moneyball" franchise. What we have out there needs to be scrapped and rebuilt and that takes financial security. Quite frankly Fred, I'm afraid to spend anything over a nickel because it might put us under investigation by the MLB. We're really in some deep ****.

Quote:

Fred Wilpon Look, I'm telling you put together a team with the money that we do have. At this point, I'm not sure if I'll be able to pay David Wright or Johan Santana this season...

Quote:

Sandy Alderson So, you're telling me... no us, that you can't afford the contracts to these players that you pushed hard for? Look Fred, with the recent Ponzi Scheme and all that... as your friend, I think you need to sell this ball club. You need to get your life straightened out.

Quote:

Willie Singleton Umm... If I may add, I had some clients of mine at AIG who I still do their portfolios for and they would pay a pretty penny for the ball club. If you analyze the current situation Mr. Wilpon, you'll find that as we continue this rebuild, you're going to lose more money continuing to invest in a losing franchise. When you combine that with the fact that you'll be losing attendance, you'll be forced to pay money out of pocket, not profit to restock the concessions, pay for utilities, supplies, etc...

Quote:

Fred Wilpon And who in the hell might you be?

Quote:

Willie Singleton I would be Willie Singleton sir.

Quote:

Fred Wilpon Willie, get the hell out of my office. As for the rest of you, figure out how to make the money work. Good day.

Quote:

Willie Singleton With all due respect, this isn't your office.

[royals19]

I know it hasn't been that long but Spring Training has really worn out its welcome. Even the most savvy baseball fan can only take so much of Spring Training. The micromanaging, finding PT for 40 players is an exhausting mental exercise. Combine that with the fact that I need to take notes and put this roster together... it's a grind and one that I'm ready to get over with as soon as possible.

So with that, let's wrap up Spring Training and be on our merry way.



OK, OK... maybe I came off too strong. The rotation is great on paper but in all actuality, it's really hit or miss. If our pitchers can get quick outs and locate pitches, we're sitting on a talented staff. But more often than not, they give us a couple good innings and then can't make it out of the 5th... this season, our goal is 700 innings. The bottom line is that we need our pitchers to eat innings or we'll lose ball games.



I don't know exactly what to do here. Outfielders just don't grow on trees. At this point, Lucas Duda is probably the only fixture out there. Kirk Ninehousner or whatever started off strong but it's evident here in the closing stages of Spring Training that he might not be good enough to play everyday. In right field, we're probably looking at another platoon situation with Valdespin and Byrd. I don't want to carry 5 outfielders on the roster but we might be pressed to.



Travis d'Arnaud, this dude is gonna be good. His bat is major league ready but we need him to go down to AAA to improve on his defense. John Buck can't block pitches to save his life and judging by the games I saw, he allowed 23 total bases to opposing runners because he couldn't block the ball. TDA needs to improve on that to become a defensive upgrade over Buck and take his position full time.

Regardless though, he's something to be excited about. With a future of Wheeler, Harvey, TDA, Ike Davis... it's an exciting ball club. Once he gets the call, it's probably for good so keep your eyes peeled.



And lastly, you knew we had to take about our boy Wheeler. He isn't going to make the club out of Spring Training because he needs to refine his changeup and had some command issues but he'll see time at some point this season. Whether its out of the bullpen, or from the rotation I don't know yet. I would prefer to have him get his feet wet out of the pen before moving to the rotation because we don't wanna mess this type of talent up.

Well there you have it, Spring Training is finally over... good riddens.

[Deuce2223]

I think one real life pickup that would really help your team is the EY Jr to play CF and bat leadoff.

However I think a good move might be Willie calling up the Royals and try dealing for L Cain or Dyson maybe.

[royals19]

Quote: Originally Posted by Deuce2223

I think one real life pickup that would really help your team is the EY Jr to play CF and bat leadoff. However I think a good move might be Willie calling up the Royals and try dealing for L Cain or Dyson maybe.

I actually have EY Jr. He didn't swing it well this spring so I optioned him down to AAA. He'll be back but for now, it's all on Kirk. I like the idea of adding LoCain or Dyson but we've got internal options and I'd rather exhaust those than give up prospects for those guys. However, don't think that we won't look to upgrade the position in the future.

******

I know, I know... This isn't how things shake out lineup wise but it's just here to give you an overview of the roster. The biggest surprise on the roster has to be Jordany Valdespin making the roster out of Spring Training. Right field was wide open so we experimented with him out in Right and the defensive plays he made were impressive. The arm strength wasn't very good but this ability to cover ground was definitely there. I think he'll get better.

Another surprise is Josh Satin. He'll be in a platoon situation with Ike Davis because Davis suffered a wrist injury at the beginning of Spring Training and it slowed him down.

The lineup should end up shaking out like this:

Quote:

1. Valdespin-RF 2. Murphy-2B 3. Wright-3B 4. Duda-LF 5. Buck-C 6. Kirk-CF 7. Satin-1B 8. Tejada-SS 9. Pitcher Spot

As for the rotation, there shouldn't be any big surprises. Matt Harvey will get the ball on Opening Day and following that, there's the trickster Marcum following by Niese and then a couple crap shoots. Let me start off by saying that outside of Matt Harvey and maybe Marcum, we'll be lucky to get 175 innings out of each guy.

The bullpen was actually the toughest spot to make the cuts. There were a lot of really talented guys out there but at the end of the day, we rolled out with an 11 man pen. Germen made the club after continuing to get good hitters out and Familia stole the Closer's roll from Bobby Parnell who found himself on the way to Vegas after a really poor showing in Spring Training.

This isn't a very talented roster... there are a couple guys, maybe 3 that could really anchor this team in the future... I would argue that we're in Huston Astros shape because we're strapped by big contracts and the team is loaded with fillers outside of Wright, Harvey, Duda and a few others with no real help in sight outside of Wheeler and TDA. Maybe that's too harsh of a comparison but it's hard to see this team playing any where close to .500 ball.

[royals19]

I can't quite put my finger on it but there's something about playing Opening Day in the final stages of July that sets a competitive air about things. Maybe it's from watching too much baseball and feeling the heat of the playoff race... I don't know. But what I do know is that it's time for some good 'ol fashioned New York Mets baseball here on Opening Day against the San Diego Padres.

So after the introductions and the National Anthem and all that jazz, we get kick of the 2013 season and year one of this dynasty.



... Do I really need to say this? Do I really need to tell you that David Wright is the face of the franchise? Probably not. But I figure that we might as well get this out of the way so that everybody here is on the same page. David Wright is the king of this franchise. He is Mr. Met.

During the game, We were down by 1 run against a dealing Andrew Cashner and David Wight came up. I sat there and thought "Man, this would be a perfect time for a David Wright homer" 98 mph + Inside = 3rd Deck, 480 ft. shoot. Boom ball game tied.



But it wasn't meant to be. Matt Harvey held the Pads to 1 run and had 10 strikeouts over 8 innings but Germen blew it for him in the 9th inning on a Yonder Alonso homerun. We can't pin this whole thing on Germen though. Cashner was throwing gas all day long.

His high 90s heat would come over the middle of the plate and we swing with all our might and we'd whiff on it. "Timing-Good, Contact-Just Missed" Every single time. He had us fooled. Sometimes he'd switch on over to the 2 seam and throw that in the mid 90s and then he'd throw that circle change 55 ft and we'd look like idiots. It wasn't fair... our guys didn't even know what him 'em...