1/30/13

1-30-13 – Armondo Rodriguez, Scott Hairston, Michael Bourn, TPA Top Mets Prospects



Gio Gonzalez‏ - @GioGonzalez47
I've never used performance enhancing drugs of any kind and I never will. I've never met or spoken with Tony Bosch or used any substance



RHP Armando Rodriguez - In his first season of relief, the 24-year-old had good success posting career-highs in strikeouts per nine (9.54) as well as walks per nine (2.60) as a member of the Double-A B-Mets bullpen. Remember a couple years ago when Omar Minaya compared his arm to that of Jenrry Mejia? Well obviously that wasn't entirely accurate, made clear by the fact that he went unclaimed in the most recent Rule 5 Draft. However, at the very least Rodriguez offers good command of a very strong fastball -- and not much else -- which, thanks to a spotty relief crew, should be enough to give him a real shot as middle relief fodder at some point in 2013.

I’ve always liked Rodriguez. He came on the scene in 2009 as a 21-year old International free agent from a country (DR) you usually read about teams signing 16-year olds. Where was he for five years? Then again, who was he for five years? That being jokingly said, Rodriguez has basically done nothing wrong during his four year accent to AAA. His career stats are: 19-18, 3.22, 1.13, 361-IP, 365-K… and last year’s stats at Binghamton (2-3, 3.22, 1.09, 72.2-IP, 77-K) got him past that hump. He finished the season pitching in one AAA game which is where he will start off this season. The 6-2 righty does sit in the low 90s where his velo seems to have peaked. We all know that the Mets pen is one of the areas that need improvement. Rodriguez will get his chance sometime in 2013 a la Elvin Ramirez did last season. Hopefully, the results will be different.


Jon Heyman‏ @JonHeymanCBS

Scott Hairston deal with Cubs is for $5M over 2 yrs. incentives, if hit, can add $1M extra.

Wow. I expected this to be a much bigger dollar figure. I know Hairston and his agent wanted many more year than this, but this is chump change based on what some of the other free agent outfielders got this off-season. I thought Hairston was going to bring back any deal to the Mets and, based on last year’s stats and the state of the current Mets outfield, why wouldn’t Sandy Alderson match this? No, there was more here, something we’ll probably never read about.


Fangraph  got into the action regarding the possible adjustment of the Mets 11th pick:

But, if the idea behind the compensation system was actually to promote competitive balance, then perhaps MLB should immunize the Mets from having to sacrifice their first round pick to sign Michael Bourn. Changing the rules in the middle of an off-season doesn’t seem fair, but the change would be narrow enough that no other team would be affected by the change, as the Mets were the only franchise pushed out of the top 10 by the Pirates failure to sign Appel. No other franchise could claim that the agreed upon rules had a material affect on whether or not their first round pick should be considered their “highest available selection”.  My guess is that MLB will rule against the Mets and declare that their pick is still eligible for forfeit, but it might be a more interesting decision that it seems on its face. If Major League Baseball is serious about continuing the charade that draft pick compensation is for the benefit of losing teams, making an exception for the Mets would be a good way to support that claim.

            Everybody just needs to move on here…



TopProspectAlert - 2013 Top 150 Major League Baseball Prospect


#10 Zack Wheeler – RHP – New York Mets (47) -  Born 5/30/1990 -  Highest Level Reached Triple-A Buffalo Bisons -  2012 Combined Stats:  MILB: 12-8, 3.26ERA, 149IP, 59BB, 148K, .221BAA

#25 Travis d’Arnaud – C – New York Mets (21) -  Born 2/10/1989 -  Highest Level Reached Triple-A Las Vegas 51′s -  2012 Combined Stats:  MILB: .333, 21(2B), 2(3B), 16HR, 52RBI

#44 Noah Syndergaard – RHP – New York Mets (107) -  Born 8/29/1992 -  Highest Level Reached Low-A Lansing Lugnuts -  2012 Combined Stats:  MILB: 8-5, 2.60ERA, 103.2IP, 31BB, 122K, .212BAA

#92 Gavin Cecchini – SS – New York Mets (NR) -  Born 12/22/1993 -  Highest Level Reached Short-A Brooklyn Cyclones -  2012 Combined Stats:  MILB: .240, 9(2B), 2(3B), 1HR, 22RBI

#114 Brandon Nimmo – OF – New York Mets (99) -  Born 3/27/1993 -  Highest Level Reached Short-A Brooklyn Cyclones -  2012 Combined Stats:  MILB: .248, 20(2B), 2(3B), 6HR, 40RBI

       this seemed like a tribute to Alderson's trading, rather than his drafting, ability. I also was surprised that Wilmer Flores didn't make the list.

6 comments:

Hobie said...

Pittsburg was not allowed to redirect the $2.9MM slot money allotted to their unsigned pick to others in the 2012 draft. Mack, do you or others know if that $$ is carried over with the Mulligan pick, or is their 2013 cap spread over now 11 picks?

Anonymous said...

Hobie there alotted TOTAL slot money for any team is spread among all picks in the draft. The higher value ones (rounds 1-10) are spread across all picks in those rounds.

For instance, lets say the slotting amount for the first ten rounds for the Mets is $5.5MM in a normal year (1 pick per round) However this season they have 2 second round picks. (thus 11 picks in 10 rounds) Since they do, their slotting amount would increase by the value of that additional pick. so instead of 5.5MM they would have 5.7MM to spend

Anonymous said...

An easier more perfect explanation Hobie can be found here.


www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft/news/2012/32613398.html

Hobie said...

Thanks, S.

Herb G said...

I've been saying for a while now, that Armando Rodriguez has a real shot to appear in the Mets pen this year. He is a different animal than Elvin. High expectations for Ramirez were unrealistic. Until 2009 he was very hittable in the minors, while his command problems resulted in high BB/9. He has always been a high walk pitcher, and we should not have expected any different when he was called up.

Rodriguez is different. He was effective as a starter and when converted to the pen last year, was equally effective. Low WHIP, high K/9, the only concern is a steep increase in HRs the last 2 years. I think that will not hurt him in Citifield. I'm looking forwaard to seeing him in Flushing as an effective member of a very strong pen.

Mack Ade said...

Herb, Rod needs a full year in Vegas to build up strength and learn how to pound the corners.

Rushing him could set up the hed cse we're stuck with right now with 'EL'.