Cutnpaste: - Jeurys Familia, Nick Evans, Wally Backman, Al Jackson, Octavio Dotel

10-10-11: - https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/132edccbf718965f  - Top five Met prospects -  Sunday, October 9, 2011 - The Record - 4. Jeurys Familia, RHP, turns 22 Monday (.228 batting-average against in St. Lucie and Binghamton): 132 strikeouts in 124 innings for the right-hander who has been clocked consistently in triple digits. He could switch to the bullpen in the majors.

10-13-11: - http://www.metsminorleagueblog.com/season-review-full-season-1b - Nick Evans played 26 games at first for Buffalo, 10 at third and 31 in the outfield. Oh, and the 25-year old hit .313/.375/.462 overall in 249 AB and .338/.397/.544 against lefties in 68 AB. Will he ever hit enough to hold a job at the big league level? His .256/.314/.403 line in 176 AB this year which nearly matches his MLB career of .256/.305/.407 doesn’t offer much hope as an everyday player. And yet, he owns a career batting line of .295/.360/.489 versus lefthanders. If only there was someone who needed a platoon partner…

Wally Backman isn’t going anywhere- except maybe Buffalo. Backman admitted yesterday he considered leaving for a potential spot on Davey Johnson's staff with the Washington Nationals, but opted to remain with the organization that drafted him. "There was some thought," Backman said of leaving on WFAN Saturday. "It was a long-thought process. I started at 17 years old with the Mets and I'm gonna stay with the Mets." After managing the Mets' Single-A Brooklyn Cyclones team in 2010 and then Double-A Binghamton last year, the 52-year-old Backman figures to be in line to become Triple-A Buffalo's manager this season, replacing last year's manager at Buffalo, Tim Teufel, who was recently was moved up to be the Mets' third base coach. "We haven’t talked about that yet," Backman said. Backman interviewed for the Mets' managerial position a year ago after GM Sandy Alderson was hired, but Alderson chose Terry Collins. Still, Backman believes he has a future with the Mets. "I feel like there's unfinished business," Backman said. "The organization is going in the right direction. And I want to be a part of it." – www.newyorkpost.com

When the National League added the New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45s for the 1962 season, Al Jackson was a 25-year-old pitcher with 11 major-league appearances. And when he heard on television that he had been selected by that new team in New York, he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Not because of any weird premonition about the dismal season the Mets were heading for. And not because he had secretly hoped to wind up in Houston. The Mets simply did not have a reputation for anything yet, good or bad. "How can you be excited about a team when you don't know anything about it?" said Jackson, now 75. "I was just happy for an opportunity to pitch in the big leagues." Jackson was one of 22 players selected by the Mets in that expansion draft, held 50 years ago this week. There had been expansion drafts before and there have been several since, but none remains quite as significant as this one. – www.wsj.org

Even 12 years later, the memory eats at Octavio Dotel. Ask Dotel, the St. Louis Cardinals reliever, about his biggest postseason moment before this season, and the conversation turns to 1999, when he was a promising rookie right-hander for the Mets. But Dotel considers it a slight as much as an accomplishment.  Dotel pitched the final three innings of the Mets’ 15-inning victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. He gave up one run and struck out five, and picked up the victory after Robin Ventura’s apparent grand slam turned into a game-winning single when Ventura was mobbed before he could circle the bases. - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/sports/baseball/cardinals-octavio-dotel-hopes-to-erase-a-mets-memory.html

Don't Find The Best 25, Find The RIGHT 25

Apparently a ninja attacked me with a throwing star and I chose to defend myself by swallowing it. So I'm gritting through immense throat discomfort as I'm writing about the first thing I thought of that I could tie into the Mets.

"Miracle" was on this morning. First, it's a great sports movie (Good Sports Movie = You Care About the Team ... GREAT Sports Movie = After It's Over You Want To Go Out And Play That Sport). I could only stay through the beginning but something Herb Brook's (Kurt Russell) said stuck with me.

"I'm not looking for the best players, Craig. I'm looking for the right ones."

THAT made me think of the Mets...

Question: Is Lucas Duda a Top 20 RF?

Answer: No.

Question: Is he a premier choice to hit third for a team?

Answer: No.

Question: Might he be the best fit for the Mets right now?

Answer: Yes.

My Point:

Maybe instead of trying to build a team of great players who should succeed based on their raw skill (Like the Yankees), the Mets should build a team based on dynamics. Where one player's skills makes up for his compatriots deficiency. It's just a thought but... maybe Josh Satin, Ruben Tejada, Lucas Duda, Daniel Murphy and Nick Evans are the players we should be focusing on this offseason. Maybe THEY are simply the RIGHT players to make the Mets winners again.

Cutnpaste: Jordany Valdespin, Zach Lutz, Nick Evans, Lenny Dykstra, Maikel Cleto

9-3-11: - http://metsmerizedonline.com/2011/09/prospect-pulse-buffalo-2012-help-on-the-way.html  - Jordany Valdespin - Not to beat a dead horse, as I recently described Valdespin in detail, in both the LH hitter post, and the Shortstop post, so all I’m going to say about him is since he is finishing this year at Buffalo, it makes perfect sense for him to man shortstop there next year. As far as him being able to help the Mets next year, the question right now is whether he can improve enough in three areas to warrant a call-up to the bigs. First he needs to cut down on his errors, second he needs to stop getting caught stealing so much, even if it means running less often, and third the coaching staff must decide that he has left his lack of maturity issues behind for good.

9-3-11: - http://bleacherreport.com/articles/833229-new-york-mets-ranking-their-current-best-prospect-at-every-position/page/7#/articles/833229-new-york-mets-ranking-their-current-best-prospect-at-every-position/page/2  - Even though Ike Davis basically has first base locked in for the New York Mets in the foreseeable future, they have a young prospect by the name of Zach Lutz that could eventually give him a run for his money.Lutz, who also plays third base, has been compared to Lucas Duda in that his power is borderline legendary and that is his greatest asset.

In Terry Collins' eyes, a significant gap exists between what Nick Evans is capable of doing in the Major Leagues and what he has thus far had the opportunity to do. "If Nick Evans, at this level, got 450, 500 at-bats," the Mets manager said, "I bet you'd see 25 homers out of him." To date, Evans has produced eight home runs over 330 career plate appearances, including three in 53 PAs since becoming a full-time starter late last month. Neither he nor the Mets may ever know for sure how he would perform over a full season, given the likelihood that Evans will break camp as a reserve player, not a starter, next season - http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110907&content_id=24365506¬ebook_id=24365510&vkey=notebook_nym&c_id=nym&partnerId=rss_nym  

Former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra has pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles for allegedly exposing himself to women he met on Craigslist. City News Service reports Dykstra is accused of exposing himself to several women who responded to ads for personal assistants and housekeepers between 2009 and 2011. The 48-year-old former baseball star has been jailed since June in lieu of $455,000 bail on car theft and drug possession charges. He also faces bankruptcy fraud charges. A pretrial hearing is scheduled Oct. 5 on the indecent exposure misdemeanor charges. - http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/6941919/lenny-dykstra-pleads-not-guilty-indecent-exposure  

Prospect of the Day: Maikel Cleto, RHP, St. Louis Cardinals - If you like fastballs, pay close attention to St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Maikel Cleto, just promoted to the majors. Keep in mind that it takes more than pure heat to make a successful pitcher. Cleto was originally signed by the New York Mets as a free agent from the Dominican Republic in 2006. After a pair of mediocre seasons in the low minors, he was involved in the December 2008, 12-player, three-way J.J. Putz trade which landed him in the Mariners system. More mediocre numbers resulted in 2009 (5.33 ERA in 25 innings in the Midwest League, with a 24/11 K/B but 35 hits allowed), then he was hit hard in the difficult environment at High Desert in the California League last year (6.16 ERA, 83/44 K/BB in 102 innings, 125 hits). - http://www.minorleagueball.com/2011/9/7/2409092/prospect-of-the-day-maikel-cleto-rhp-st-louis-cardinals  

Cutnpaste: Reese Havens, Jon Niese, RBIs, Evans to Catcher, Albert Cordero

9-3-11: - http://metsmerizedonline.com/2011/09/prospect-pulse-buffalo-2012-help-on-the-way.html  - Reese Havens - Havens will be embroiled in a fierce competition for the Mets 2B job in 2012. If they manage to retain Jose Reyes, the inside edge for 2B goes to Ruben Tejada, with Justin Turner, Daniel Murphy, Jordany Valdespin, and Havens all vying for the job. On natural ability and a balanced game, Havens may be the best baseball player here. His sweet left-handed stroke, is ideal for not just hitting, but hitting for power. And being a natural shortstop, he has made a fairly seamless transition to 2B. He just needs to stay healthy in order to open some eyes, and he could force his way into the picture anytime in 2012.

9-6-11: - .mlb.  - Though the Mets are not ruling out a return this season for starting pitcher Jon Niese, the left-hander has not progressed significantly since straining his right intercostal muscle last month. Niese is currently doing pool work in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and is "not close" to returning, according to assistant general manager John Ricco. "That midsection is kind of tricky, so we've just got to wait until he's pain-free," Ricco said. "When he sneezes, he feels it. It's not a sharp pain, but he still feels something in there, so we're not progressing him until he totally feels good."

9-6-11: - http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/  - RBI clearly is not a predictive statistic. A predictive statistic is one that correlates highly from year to year.[1]. What a player accomplishes in year X, we should expect him to accomplish in year X+1. As an example, look at xFIP. xFIP does not tell us what happened in the current year - how a pitcher was able to prevent runs - but rather tells us how one should have been able to prevent runs by looking at one's strikeouts, walks, while assuming a league average homerun rate. The assumed home run rate isn't even something that actually happened.

9-6-11: - http://mets.lohudblogs.com/2011/09/06/nick-evans-for-catcher/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mets+%28The+LoHud+Mets+Blog%29  - Way back in October of 2009, I wrote that moving Nick Evans to catcher made a ton of sense for the New York Mets. After all, Evans had a plus bat, no clear on-field destination, and the Mets certainly needed depth at the position. Like many things concerning the Omar Minaya Mets, this was n apparently fleeting idea with no follow-through. Two years later, it is hard to see how anything has changed concerning Evans, or how he could best help the Mets. Evans certainly holds his own at first base- his 143 OPS+ this season is more than adequate for the position. Among catchers? It would make him a superstar, assuming he could merely hold his own behind the plate.





photo by Allan Greene

 9-3-11: - http://bleacherreport.com/articles/833229-new-york-mets-ranking-their-current-best-prospect-at-every-position/page/7#/articles/833229-new-york-mets-ranking-their-current-best-prospect-at-every-position/page/2 - Fantastic news, Mets fans! For a team that is basically using a platoon role for their current catcher, they also don’t really have a top prospect catcher anywhere in the minors! Luckily, I was able to find a bit of a sleeper candidate in Albert Cordero. Cordero has a good glove the plate, puts up decent power numbers (eight home runs, .189 ISO, 32 RBI in rookie ball), and shows breakout potential as a prospect. His power numbers were behind only Aderlin Rodriguez in rookie ball last season, and at 20 years old, he has already shined behind the plate defensively.