Mets News and Morning Links 1/5/2020

Winter ball updates below and more on Yoenis Cespedes.

Some of the best bloggers in the business looked at the Yoenis Cespedes Boar story.

Metstradamus said it was a Horse of A Different Color.

Faith and Fear and Flushing discussed the “Boarish Behavior”.

Mets 360 had a story about Edwin Diaz and Bold Predictions. “Here’s a bold prediction. Edwin Diaz will be better next year. The peripheral stats support that. An expectation that he won’t be better is just pessimistic. He was literally the worst closer in baseball last year. He could just be average and that would be significantly better.”

Mets 360 also had an in depth analysis of “The root of Wilson Ramos’ struggles and how to plan for 2020.”  Way too much data to quickly summarize but here is the final “takeaway” – “Utilizing the exaggerated results of most of the Mets pitchers between the two catchers makes it a strong possibility to have the 26th man be a catcher and have Nido take over late in games to help the bullpen’s results, and let Nido catch Syndergaard.”

Amazing Avenue continued to run down the top 25 Mets Prospects with number 21 – Dedniel Nunez and number 20 - Adrian Hernandez.

The Daily News says the “Mets need J.D. Davis to follow in J.D. Martinez’s footsteps.” The article notes how both players saw better results after adjusting their swings. 

SNY.TV looked how the Mets Bullpen stacks up against the rest of the NL East.

Rising Apple says why the Mets bullpen is not the best in baseball: “…there are holes left. There are questions about the ability of far too many of these guys to declare it the best around.” 

Elite Sports NY says the Mets’ bullpen remains unproven even with Dellin Betances.

Metsmerized says the Mets need to create Bullpen depth.

Metsmerized also said that the Mets need to resolve the Jed Lowrie situation.

Empire Sports Media asked if Robinson Cano is capable of bouncing back.  “He needs to work in strengthening his legs muscles, among other things. However, if the New York Mets can have a healthy Cano, good things are in store.”

Mike Vaccaro in the NY Post wondered what would life be like for Mets fans if the Brooklyn Dodgers had stayed. 

213 Miles from Shea is looking at their 2019 projections for each Mets player and comparing it to the actual 2019 results.  Yesterday they looked at Brandon Nimmo’s projection vs. result.

Reflections on Baseball talked about the Mets lack of situational hitting in 2019.  Great points including the following Mets ranks out of the 15 National League Teams from the Baseball Reference Website: Grounded into double plays  (2nd most); Productive outs make (Successful advancement of a runner) (12th); Percentage of baserunners who scored (10th); Runner advanced with none out and a runner on second (dead last); Runners left on base (4th most); Strikeouts (11th most). 

Sports Mockery.com reported that ESPN predicts that the White Sox will be very good this decade.

Yahoo.com on the status of the lawsuit from a group of minor league players suing Major League Baseball over alleged illegally low wages. “MLB had sought to prevent a 2014 lawsuit brought by minor league baseball players seeking minimum wage and overtime pay from proceeding as a class action, but the Ninth Circuit court in San Francisco has denied the league’s request.”  

In case you missed it, Baseball Cards like they ought to be looked at their collection of Travis d’Arnaud cards when he signed with the Braves.  Zvon does great work on this site.  Worth the look.

Per MLB Trade Rumors, The Nationals resigned Asdrubal Cabrera.

MLB Trade Rumors also reported that the Padres will resign Craig Stammen.

Last night in the Puerto Rican Winter League and in the Dominican League, no current Mets saw action.  Here are some notable ex-Mets that did:

In the Dominican, the Aguilas Cibaenas beat the Leones del Escogido 7-5 (box).

In that game, Carlos Gomez played center field and went 1 for 4, with an RBI and a walk.

Cesar Puello went 0 for 3 with a walk and 2 strikeouts.

Jonathan Niese started for the Aguilas Cibaenas going 5 innings giving up 3 runs on 7 hits with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts.    

2019 Syracuse Mets Pitcher Arquimedes Caminero went one scoreless inning giving up one hit and recorded one strikeout.

In the other game, the Toros Del Este beat the Tigres del Licey 2-1 (box).

Jordany Valdespin played right field and went 0-3 with a walk and a run scored.

Ramon E. Ramirez recorded the save pitching the ninth but it was not easy.  The pitcher the Mets obtained in the Angel Pagan trade to the Giants gave up three singles to load the bases then balked in a run before striking out the final batter of the game.  In all, Ramon gave up 3 hits, one run, a balk, and two strikeouts. 

In Puerto Rico, just one ex-Met was in action as Juan Centeno caught, went 0 for 3 with a walk and a run scored as the Cangrejeros de Santurce beat the Atenienses de Manati 8-6 (box).

We haven’t looked at the Venezuela League in a while but three ex-Mets continue to play.

Wuilmer Becerra is still in the top ten batting in the league with a .325 Batting Average with a .393 OBP and .413 SLG with 2 homers and 19 RBIs. 

Wilfredo Tovar was over .300 for a large part of the season.  He is now hitting .293, 2 HR, 20 RBIs, .331 OBP, .414 SLG.

Ronny Cedeno is hitting .230 in 38 games, 135 at bats, 3 HRs, 18 RBIs, .298 OBP, .341 SLG.

In Australia, Gavin Cecchini has not played since 12/21/19.  He hit .278 in 19 games, 2 HR, 8 RBIs, 18 strikeouts, 2 Stolen Bases, .303 OBP, .417 SLG.

FYI, recent games in Calvary were cancelled due to “Hazardous Air Quality” “Canberra and Adelaide’s round seven Australian Baseball League series has been cancelled due to extremely hazardous air quality. The four-game series was slated to start tomorrow but has been called off as smoke from serious bushfires continues to blanket The Fort at MIT Ballpark and surrounding area.”

UltimateMets has the date in Mets History:

Born on this date:

• Charlie Hough (1948)
• Norichika Aoki (1982)

Died on this date:

• Rogers Hornsby (1963)
• Tug McGraw (2004)
• Rick Down (2019)

Transactions:

New York Mets traded Vince Coleman to the Kansas City Royals for Kevin McReynolds on January 5, 1994.

New York Yankees signed Miguel Cairo of the New York Mets as a free agent on January 5, 2006.

New York Mets signed free agent David Newhan of the Baltimore Orioles on January 5, 2007.

New York Mets traded Corey Coles and Ryan Meyers to the Chicago Cubs for Angel Pagan on January 5, 2008.

New York Mets signed free agent Jason Bay of the Boston Red Sox on January 5, 2010.

Milwaukee Braves signed Eric Young of the New York Mets as a free agent on January 5, 2016.

New York Mets traded Bobby Wahl, Adam Hill and Felix Valerio to the Milwaukee Brewers for Keon Broxton on January 5, 2019.

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