213 Miles From Shea

Today we look at another rule V draft pick the Mets have coming into camp in Brad Emaus. On the surface, before looking into his bio or stats, we know that Emaus has some sort of advantage coming into camp due to his rule V status. He must make the 25 man in order to stay with the Mets organization. He seems to be Murphy's main competition for the second base job, and if he doesn't get it, he looks to be the leader for back up infielder.

Emaus was originally drafted by the Braves out of High School but elected to go to college (Tulane University) and was then drafted by the Blue Jays in the 11th round. He has been a promising prospect to some degree (A three star prospect according to Baseball Prospectus) but the Blue Jays couldn't get him on the 40 man, and now the Mets have him. The will be 25 year old has put up some good numbers, not jaw dropping, but not bad either, in the minors which is why the Mets are intrigued by him. Also he plays second base, which has been an empty position for a while now. Anyway here are some numbers:

Career Minors – 1559 AB, .276 BA, .364 OBP, .426 SLG

2010 – 445 AB, .290 BA, .397 OBP, .476 SLG, 32 2B, 3 3B, 15 HR, 75 RBI, 13 SB

His numbers from last season look pretty good. Depending on how camp unfolds, it really could turn into a wide open competition with Murphy. The aspect that I am holding onto the most with Emaus is he shows between himself, Turner, Muprhy, and Tejada we have options at second base. Which is good for the future (which really seems to be long to Tejada once he gets a bit older).

DJ was drafted in 1997 by the Baltimore Orioles. He was then a member of the Indians' system in 1998 and then a member of the Pirates between 1999 and 2002. He broke into the majors in 2003 with the Royals and stayed with them in 2005. The rest of his story will be revealed later.

The 34 year old Carrasco looks to fill a need in the bullpen as a right handed pitcher who's career really has been a tale of two different pitchers. In his first three major league seasons, he was a combination of a starter and a reliever (actually pretty much only a starter in 2005) and had a really average ERA. He then left in 2006 and pitched for Japan, followed by a year in the minors in 2007. 2008 started the second half of his career as when he came up he was a pretty good reliever. Since 2008, his numbers started to go down:

2008 – 1-0, 3.96 ERA, 38.2 IP, 14 BB, 30 K, 7.0 K/9, 2.14 K/BB

2009- 5-1, 3.76 ERA, 93.1 IP, 29 BB, 62 K, 6.0 K/9, 2.14 K/BB

2010- 3-2, 3.68 ERA, 78.1 IP, 34 BB, 65 K, 7.5 K/9, 1.91 K/BB

In 2008 he was with the White Sox, and was with them until January 2010, when he signed a contract with the Pirates. Then in December he signed a contract with the Mets.

DJ looks to be a critical new addition in the bullpen, since the entire bullpen seems to be a question mark anyway going into this season. He is also the member of a very small group players the Mets gave more than one year too. He looks to be a pretty solid pitcher as the last three years suggest, and fairly consistent as well. Since he has a two year deal, it is pretty safe to assume he has a spot in the bullpen going in, but once again, if he struggles out of the gate, there seems to be a good amount of pitchers behind him that are ready to step up.

Without much introduction, bam:

Probable Line Up (All Star Years):

1. Reyes (3)

2. Pagan

3. Wright (5)

4. Bay (3)

5. Beltran (5)

6. Davis

7. Murphy

8. Thole

9. Starting Pitcher

The most solid part of this lineup is the first three positions. I'm fairly confident that will be the order for the vast majority of the season. Reyes should definitely be first. Pagan should be second due to his speed, his variety of hits, and more importantly, he is one of the better hitters on the team. Wright could be clean-up, but the Mets have so many players could be power hitters, Wright is fine in the third spot. Also, I would say that Wright is the best all around hitter on the team, and that is where the third batter goes.

Spots 4-6 are murky. Honestly, it could be Beltran-Bay-Davis, Beltran-Davis-Bay, etc. Ultimately, the order should go in the way of the best hitters. I have Bay at 4th because I think he has the best shot of getting the most homers. What is difficult is Beltran and Wright are sometimes interchangeable, which is why I have Beltran at 5th right now. Thus, Davis is 6th, just because he's the youngest right now. If he shows a month in, weather its Spring Training or April, then he should be moved up in the lineup.

Finally, at the back end we have Murphy and Thole. Honestly they could be switched as well.

The one thing I really relearned from doing this, I forgot how good the Mets lineup looks on paper. When the team is healthy, and batters bat the way they are supposed to, this could be a really good lineup. Also, addition by subtraction of Castillo is awesome.

Chris is part of the new set of players that Sandy brought in with some extra intangibles. Chris was the valedictorian in his High School and graduated from Duke University with a degree in economics. The very quick story on Chris is he has had success in his career, being a one time All Star, but he also had Tommy John surgery twice (once in 2002 and again in 2008).

Anyway some background. In 2003, he made his debut with the Diamondbacks. After his first season, he was traded to the Brewers as part of that massive Richard Sexson trade. He remained with the Brewers until this past offseason, where he signed a deal with the Mets. Due to injuries, he actually missed both the 2008 and 2009 season at the major league level, but when he returned last year, in a small sample he put up some good numbers:

Career – 46-52, 4.35 ERA, 777.2 IP, 2.45 K/BB, 7.4 K/9

2010 – 4-4, 3.95 ERA, 66.0 IP, 2.57 K/BB, 7.4 K/9

Anyway, his career numbers and 2010 numbers are pretty solid. For a back of the rotation pitcher, which he is now, I would take those numbers in a heart beat. The challenge for Capuano coming into camp is first he must be better than Dillon Gee, who if he comes out strong, has a good chance of grabbing that last spot and then second, if he makes the rotation of camp, he must be strong in the first half of the season if he wants to stay in the rotation once Johan Santana returns. Capuano though will make a good addition to the pen as a long man and spot starter.

He is one of our question marks, but he is one that we can put a good amount of hope into.

This should really come as no surprise. It seems like routinely now that every few years, that every Major League team goes through a change of Batting Practice Jersey, starting back in the mid 2000's (or at least that is when I started to notice that all teams change the uniforms at the same time). It's not just the Jerseys, but the hats as well now change at the same time too. It was speculated after last season that there would be a Jersey change, since the hats changed last season, and the BP Jerseys seemed to be unchanged for an extended period of time.

Anyway some background on BP Jerseys. They started as warm-up uni's in the early 80's. The common theme for the Mets early BP uniforms were blue. In fact, I have only been able to find one BP that was not blue, but I didn't search for too long. Anyway, let's take a look at a few early BP uniforms. Here's one, another one, and finally this one.

Anyway one of the first BP uniforms that had a standard model across the league would be this one, which is orange. Then after that the Mets then switched back to Blue BP's. The main complaint about the latter Jersey would be the orange underarms. The second complaint is almost always about the amount of black in the uniform, as if it was our third color.

Well here is our new uniform this upcoming season. First off, it is an upgrade from last year's uniform. However it still could use some work. It would look better without the armpit black, which is probably to highlight the cool base technology. Also, the “Mets” shouldn't be black. But this will be a debate we will continue to have for a long time.

We continue our journey of possible role players in the bullpen with Taylor Buchholz. Buchholz is going for a relief job, although he can start if needed. Right now, due to the crowded rotation, Johan's eventual return, and Dillon Gee (which would bump out Capuano to the pen), Buchholz is probably on the outside looking in right now of the 25 man roster (and that is not in anyway a bold prediction). Before we get into the stats and team biography of Buchholz, its worthy to note, since we were all probably thinking it, Taylor is only a distant cousin of Clay Buchholz.

So Biography. Buchholz (age 29) was drafted by the Phillies in the 6th round of the 2000 MLB draft. He was part of the package in 2003 that landed Billy Wagner from the Astros. He was brought up to the majors in 2006, and that was really the last time he was used as a starter. In December of 2006 he was part of a package sent to the Rockies for Jason Jennings. At the start of 2007, the Rockies tried him as a starter, but then after 8 games switched him to the pen. In 2008 he found success as the set-up man for the Rockies and was actually selected to the All-Star game.

Then things go down for a bit, which is why he is now a Met (bargain pitcher). He missed all of 2009 due to Tommy John surgery and was claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays. He was then picked off of waivers by the Red Sox. Finally, he signed a one year deal with the Mets.

Anyway the question is what pitcher do we have. Do we have the pitcher that was an amazing reliever in 2008, or do we have something else (since he had limited time in 2010, it is hard to extrapolate what he was last year):

Career – 19-21, 4.39 ERA, 285 IP, 6.4 K/9, 2.6 K/BB

2010 – 1-0, 3.75 ERA, 12.0 IP, 6 BB, 9 K

2008 – 6-6, 2.17 ERA, 66.1 IP, 3.11 K/BB, 7.6 K/9

It is really hard to ignore those 2008 numbers but as we all know with the nature of relievers, some years they are fantastic, some years they aren't. However with success in his past, any strong success he shows in camp this year may be taken more seriously. If anything, he is a story line to watch in camp this Spring.

MLB.com is pushing their 2011 Authentic Collection now, because well that seems to be what the MLB does. I used to have a really jaded opinion about it, but I'm starting to cross over to indifferent about the entire situation. Anyway, for those you who don't pay attention to these things, because there is no reason to pay attention to these things, the authentic line refers to anything a player wants to wear on the field. It then gets an MLB/Team logo, usually gets an authentic patch (if it is actually clothing) and then gets marked up and sold for a lot of money to consumers.

This covers Jerseys and hats (obvious) but also covers those “magic” bracelets and necklaces (no scientific proof they work). That range includes T-shirts, sweatshirts, before game items, spring training items, various jackets, other weather hats, etc.

Anyway, for some reason, the Mets actually have two jackets. Which means they get to sell two different jackets. Now, it isn't like one jacket is for cold weather and the other is luke-warm weather (although that exists as well). No these jackets are just inverses of each other.

One jacket is the team jacket, the other is the team road jacket. Yep. We have home and away jackets. It just begs for us to rehire Rick Peterson so he can wear more than one jacket.

So yes, the New York Mets. Home to money scandals, off the field issues, and two official winter jackets in the authentic collection (at least we aren't one of those teams that have home

and away

batting practice caps).

The Mets selected Pedro Beato out of the Orioles organization in the most recent Winter Leagues meeting. The connections of Beato with the Mets already are pretty funny, but not ha-ha funny. Beato was actually originally drafted into the Mets organization out of high school, but then decided to go to college. When the Mets drafted him in the Rule V, he was on the Norfolk roster, which used to be the Mets AAA team.

Anyway, Pedro is right handed pitcher who was converted into a relief pitcher last season. The will be 24 year old then went through a major statistical change in terms ERA last season. With the exception of his first season (3.63 ERA) every other season he had an ERA above 4, but last season his ERA was a sparkling 2.11 ERA. Here are some stat lines:

Minors Career- 24-30, 504.0 IP, 4.21 ERA, 1.92 K/BB, 6.2 K/9

2010 – 4-0, 2.11 ERA, 43 G, 59.2 IP, 16 SV, 19 BB, 50 K, 7.5 K/9, 2.63 K/BB

Last year his stats were fantastic. That K/BB and K/9 would be great in any pen, and his K/9 is pretty consistent with his career numbers. When it comes to players we would pull out of the pen, which Beato is trying to be, we need players who can get strikeouts and get out of jams they will be walking into. I'm assuming that Beato will be coming into camp with a slight advantage already, considering he is a rule V pick. If he has a strong Spring, and has comparable numbers to players on the Mets staff with options, he will probably win out. Like what was stated yesterday, we are looking for this year's Joe Smith. The surprise in the bullpen that gives the team the ability to play meaningful games late in the seasons. The stats suggest that could be Pedro Beato, and it would be really great for it to be him, especially considering that he is a Brooklyn native.

Very few things can make it harder to like a person, than association with a terrible event, which is what the Mets are in right now.

I want to write a response to a very particular viewpoint that has been flying around really all winter. The statement is the Mets didn't spend money this offseason, because they didn't have it either due to losses from Madoff (before last week) or now due to money that may have to spent in a settlement (since this past week).

If the above statement is true, then I think a really important question must be asked. From a baseball standpoint, is a budget a bad thing?

In order to understand the argument I am about to make, I will need to create a quasi-strawman to compare to. I know this is weak for making an argument, but I feel compelled to do this (and explicitly state it) so you the reader can understand the scope of my argument. If we didn't have the money problem, then we would spend a lot of money to get high tier free agents, like Cliff Lee, in order to give us the best chance of winning now. That is essentially the backbone of the strawman one can derive from saying that the Madoff situation is preventing us to spend money.

Ultimately, I feel the Mets have done something very mature this offseason in that they didn't spend that much money. Specifically, they didn't have to deal out extended deals to players. That is the scary thing with the spending money approach. You sign a lot of players, to play for a long period of time, and then you are stuck with them on your roster, plaguing your team in later years. The Red Sox and Yankees will both have to deal with this in two seasons when the players they locked in now are aging, but cannot be replaced due to the amount they are owed.

Here lies the basis of my very limited scope argument. If the Madoff situation is the only thing preventing the Mets from spending a lot of money, then in the long term development of the organization, this is a good thing. It is much easier to build a dynasty when broken pieces can be replaced, not have to be kept.

The problem with the above statement is the limit on it. It completely ignores the Minaya era when all we did was spend, spend, spend, and not really make any significant progress in the latter years. To say that the Madoff issue is the only thing keeping us from spending is to say that the Madoff issue is the reason we are not doing things Minaya's way. Personally, I don't believe that. Situations like this are complicated, gray and tend to have a good amount of reasons.

That begs the question why did I write this to begin with? Well I watching a video about situation on the Wall Street Journal, that essentially said in the end that the signs of the Mets were in trouble became clear when we didn't spend money this offseason. While their may be some degree of merit in that claim, it ignores that the Mets also knew they needed a change in offseason strategy, which also prompted a change in spending patterns.

The only substantial, wide scope claim you can draw from this is spending less is an important lesson for the Mets right now, as we learn how to make a team that can always run on working parts and if the Madoff situation is reason why we had to do this (and I'm not convinced that it is), then the Madoff situation was good for the Mets.

As the days tick down to Spring Training, we finally move into the 40 man roster with Manuel Alvarez, a 25-year old, right-handed pitcher.

Manuel started his career in the Washington Nationals organization. After missing the entire 2005 season due to injury, he pitched in 14 games in the Nationals Gulf Coast Rookie Team. The Mets then signed him in 2007 and assigned him to the VSL. He has bouncing around the Rookie level and A until last season where he pitched in A+, AA and AAA before the end of the season:

2010 Total – 56 G, 78.2 IP, 2.17 ERA, 12 BB, 84 K, 9.6 K/9, 7.00 K/BB

Alvarez has always had a good K/9 (career 7.4) but last year he just took off. He landed himself on the radar in a big way when in St. Lucie he didn't allow any runs in 25.2 innings over 18 games and 9 saves. He was then promoted to AA where he had a “human” 2.87 ERA.

While he remains an outside chance to make the roster coming out of Spring Training, you have to think with the performance he had last year there will be a lot of eyes on him in Buffalo (I'm expecting him to start the season there), especially for the inevitable bullpen shuffle. If he can duplicate what he did in the lower leagues and what he did all last year in AAA, then he could be a big deal. In some ways, I'm hoping for him to be this years “Joe Smith” as a surprise out of camp that makes a significant impact on the team.

There are two things working against him. He is already 25, so some degree the clock is starting to tick on him. If he is going to make a move into the majors, it should really happen soon. The main thing against him is the amount of pitchers the Mets need to keep on their roster (other wise they would lose them), like Beato who is also 25. He needs to cross over that hurdle, but at least he is on the 40 man, which is one major hurdle crossed.