213 Miles From Shea

18 Days Until Spring Training!

When the Met signed Byrdak on the 19th of January, I was wondering why his name sounded so familiar. After looking up his stats on Baseball Reference, I realized that he was on the Baltimore Orioles when I started to write this blog, and back then, since I was relying pretty much on Baltimore Newspapers to get by, I was very familiar with the Orioles club (now-a-days, I can hardly tell you about their pitching staff, but I think most people from Baltimore are in the same boat on that one, as the pitching staff nearly has a full turnover every season).

Anyways, Byrdak doesn't look to be a major component of this years pen (yet). The veteran (37 year old) has played nine seasons in the big leagues all as a reliever (343 games in those nine seasons). His career numbers look good though as he has pitched 266.2 innings with a 4.35 ERA. What has held him back in his career are injuries. He is another one of those players in camp that with a good Spring Training, could probably surprise his way onto the roster. Working against him is his minor league contract and non-40 man status, so if it comes down to similar players with similar numbers, he might lose out just on that. Anyway here are some objective numbers from the last two seasons.

2010 – 64 G, 38.2 IP, 3.49 ERA, 20 BB, 29 K

2009 – 76 G, 61.1 IP, 3.23 ERA, 36 BB, 58 K

As it stands, I wouldn't mind seeing him on the team as in the last three seasons he has appeared in at least 59 games and has an ERA under 4, which is very consistent as relievers are concerned.

Byrdak also brings a wealth of other stories with him. In 2003 he faced a 77 year old, Minnie Minoso, and according to his Wikipedia article, when was with the Tigers (2007), he worked the overnight shift at Target. (No Reference Though).

Earlier this week there was a discussion about the uniform changes to the Padres. At that time we had, via Uni Watch Blog, images of the uniform changes to the Sunday camo uniforms and the logo patch. Also at that time, it was said there was going to be a change to the Road uniform as well.

Well here is an image of it, via the ticker on Uni Watch Blog on this past Thursday.

Overall this is an upgrade. If you remember, the road uniform used to be sand, and the hat used to have a gold SD on it. This looks much better, probably because it looks more traditional.

Now that we have images for all of the uniform changes to the set, I think it is safe to say that these changes overall (including the change to the camo) are an overall upgrade to Padres uniform set.

19 Days To Spring Training!

We continue looking at non-roster invites today. Blaine Boyer signed a minor league contract with the Mets on January 21st, so only a few days ago. Boyer, if he makes the team, is a relief pitcher who continues to add to the depth of the bullpen the Mets wish to have in 2011. The will be 29 year old has bounced around between minors and the majors since his debut in 2005 at the age of 25.

Blaine was drafted out of high school by one of our favorite teams, the Atlanta Braves. He played a minor rule in their pen over the last few seasons. In 2009 he was traded to the Cardinals for Barton. He was later DFA'd and then picked up by the Diamondbacks. Now he is New York Met. Anyway here are some recent stats:

2010 (Major) – 57.0 IP, 3-2, 4.26 ERA, 54 G, 29 BB, 29 K

Majors Career – 227.1 IP, 6 Seasons, 4.63 ERA, 1.73 K/BB

Minors Career – 571.1 IP, 8 Seasons, 3.58 ERA, 1.89 K/BB

What impresses me about Boyer is K/BB, but if you look at 2010, those numbers were nothing like his career. They were .73 lower than his career in fact. This why I am intrigued about him being in on Mets camp. He was one of the best members in the Diamondbacks bullpen last season (which isn't saying much). Since he is not guaranteed a spot at all, he really does no harm. He's not going to be the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year, but he could be a benefit if the bullpen wears thin.

Hooray for depth?

Yesterday we here at 213 briefly discussed how the Mets didn't have any prospects on the Top 50 prospects list. There was also a report that came out earlier this week on ESPN that the Mets had the 26th best farm system (its really hard to use the word “best” in that scenario) in the league. So the question lingering is, who do we have in the system? In order to paint a picture in context, I wanted to compare lists of Top 10 Prospects for the 2011, 2010, and 2009 seasons. In each ranking, the 2011 name will be listed first, followed by 2010 and 2009. All are from Baseball America with the 2011 list from Matt Eddy and 2010/2009 lists come from Adam Rubin (and the difference in writers can of course make a difference when comparing rankings).

1. Jenry Mejia, Jenry Mejia, Fernando Martinez

2. Wilmer Flores, Wilmer Flores, Wilmer Flores

3. Cesar Puello, Fernando Martinez, Jon Niese

4. Matt Harvey, Ike Davis, Brad Holt

5. Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Brad Holt, Bobby Parnell

6. Reese Havens, Jon Niese, Jefry Marte

7. Lucas Duda, Reese Havens, Jenry Mejia

8. Fernando Martinez, Josh Thole, Reese Havens

9. Aderlin Rodriguez, Ruben Tejada, Nick Evans

10. Brad Holt, Juan Urbina, Eddie Kunz

1. The Falling Stock of Fernando Martinez.

At the start of the 2009 season was the last really high point of the next hitting machine. Since then questions have risen about Martninez's health. For the most part his talents have not diminished but because he can't stay healthy, he hasn't been able to develop. This has put a question mark on his overall status as a player and as a trade chip.

2. The Constant Stock of Wilmer Flores

Flores is the only player to be at the same spot every year, and would be the only player to be able to do that. Flores came into the Mets as a young player, in fact last season he was 18 years old. I look forward to the rest of his development.

3. The “Disrespect” for Jon Niese

His stock dropped from 2009 to 2010, yet he is a key member of the team. He is, of course, not on the 2011 list because he is no longer a prospect. This goes to show the difficulty in compiling these lists.

4. Big Seasons Mean Big Rewards

Captain Kirk and Lucas Duda both had big seasons last year and their reward is they both have found themselves on the 2011 prospect list.

5. Other Quick Notes:

-Reese Havens Continues to Rise

-Brad Holt Continues to drop

-In addition, we have to feel bad for Nick Evans, and the lack of love he seems to receive.

Spring Training is 20 Days Away!

That is such good news, let's repeat it. Spring Training is 20 Days Away!

In order to get excited about Spring Training, and the probable 55+ names in camp, it might be a good idea to get familiar with the players going for the top 25 this season. In this 20 day journey, we will look at 9 non-roster invitees followed by 11 players on the 40-man, all trying to get on the roster. They are a mixture of recent acquisitions and prospects in the system, that are not quite household names yet.

The first player on our trip is 29 year old Boof Bonser. Boof made a very impressive debut in 2006 in Minnesota at the age of 24. After a successful season where he pitched over 100 innings with a 7-6 season with a 4.22 ERA, he was never able to completely regain himself on the major league level. Last season he made it to the major leagues twice with two different teams, the Red Sox and the Athletics. He was first acquired by the Red Sox for a player to be named later, was activated off of the DL on June 8th and then became a free agent on June 18th when he refused a minor league assignment. He was then signed by the Athletics, and then called up for the season on July 31st. Now he tries to return to the majors with the Mets. Here are some recent stat lines:

2010 (Majors) – 25 IP, 1-0, 6.12 ERA, 15 G, 17 K, 8 BB

2010 (Minors) – 56.1 IP, 2-3, 5.59 ERA, 14 G, 13 GS, 42 K, 25 BB

Last season Boof was coming off of a missed season (in 2009 he only pitched one minor league inning) and this was due to surgery. He has a career minor league ERA of 3.74 and a career major league ERA of 5.18. While he has had talent over his career, his stamina has been his main issue. He has also had a weight struggle in his career as well, which isn't uncommon for pitchers. He tried to lose weight for the 2008 season, and he did accomplish that, but it didn't turn into results for stamina or pitching. Coming into camp he is not a favorite to make it on the team, he is not even on the 40 man roster right now, so he will have to dazzle in order make it to Queens in April. His addition though is the type of low risk, high reward signing that adds good depth to our system, if we ever need to go down out of the 40 man and bring him up.

The MLB Top 50 Prospect List is out now and what jumps off the page this year is first the Royals have a lot of highly regarded prospects and that the Mets system is not getting any respect. There are 26 teams this year featured on the list and two of the four not on list come from our own division. Before we get down to the analysis, here is a list of every team with the amount of prospects they have on the list:

Royals 6

Rays 4

Mariners 3

Reds 3

Yankees 3

Braves 3

Blue Jays 3

Rockies 3

Phillies 2

Orioles 2

Rangers 2

Twins 2

Angels 1

Nationals 1

Tigers 1

Pirates 1

Cardinals 1

Padres 1

White Sox 1

Giants 1

Diamondbacks 1

Astros 1

Indians 1

Red Sox 1

Dodgers 1

Cubs 1

Mets 0

Marlins 0

Athletics 0

Brewers 0

The Royals seem to be pretty set, in at least player projections. Part of the reason they are in the position they are in is because they received good players in the Grienke trade, thus also why the Brewers have 0 players on the list. This is the story that the MLB.com article harps on.

I would like to bring up a different point. The Rays will have 13 of the first 87 picks in this year 2011 MLB draft (essentially unheard of) and they already have, according to this list, 4 of the best 50 prospects. They lost a lot of players this offseason (obviously due to all the draft picks) but they seemed to pick up some prospects in the Garza trade and they will completely restock this year in the draft. I would assume at this point they are expanding their draft budget to sign these players. If they have a smart draft, they could rewrite the AL East (especially when you consider the aging Red Sox and Yankees by the time these Rays players mature).

The Angels only have one player, but its the number one player in the country (Mike Trout). The Nationals one player is Bryce Harper. Both the Nationals and Phillies each have one player in the top four players on the list.

The Padres revealed part of their new uniform set yesterday which you can read about and see pictures of on Uni Watch Blog. The short story is that there are some solid changes that we know about, but there are more coming that there is still some question as to what they will be. The changes that we know about include the camo jerseys have a new look and the emblem was slightly changed. What has not been completely revealed yet are the changes to the road uni.

Anyway, I feel the changes to the camo jersey are an improvement to what they used to be (image originally from the previously linked to Uni Watch Blog article). I think they look more authentic, but they could be hard to see on a dirt infield. Overall, I'm never really nuts about camo jerseys (not just for aesthetic reasons, but I feel there are a lot more proactive ways to support to the military rather than passively wearing a jersey based off of real uniforms).

The change to the emblem is very minor. (Once again, image from Uni Watch Blog). No comment really on the change, it doesn't really effect anything.

The rumored change, as reported by Uni Watch, is that the road uni's might lose the sand color. I'll reserve comment until I see them.

So overall, I would give the changes an upgrade so far, but its an upgrade from something that I didn't like to something I don't really like (for the reasons really to do outside of aesthetics). It's not the worse uniform change of the offseason, that is still reserved for the “rebranding” of the Nationals.

It seems like the Mets, for all intensive purposes, are probably done signing players going into Spring Training. They have at least six starters going into camp now and they have more than enough arms for the pen. The 25-man already looks crowded due to rule V players and players without options, and honestly this is all a really good problem to have. I am glad we have this problem. The Mets are obviously addressing a problem we have had over the last two seasons which is a lack of depth. The question is do we have enough depth?

That is a very difficult question to answer on the surface, because depth is usually exposed by injuries, and as 2009 shows us, things can all fall down quickly. We probably have enough depth right now, but more is generally better. Of course, the argument against “more” is that we don't want to overload AAA with back-up players, because we need room in the system for prospects to work their way up.

The entire point of this article is based on an MLB Trade Rumors article. As the article states, the following players have yet to be signed:

Kevin Millwood

Jermey Bonderman

Freddy Garcia

Doug Davis

Rodrigo Lopez (I remember when he was the “ace” of the Orioles' staff)

Todd Wellemeyer

Brian Moehler

John Maine

Justin Duchscherer

Now with the exception of Millwood, I'm not inclined to give any of the above players MLB contracts, based on who we already have on the team. I exclude Millwood because he will need an MLB contract to sign, plus he's an inning eater, something the Mets didn't sign this offseason. Also, I'm not sure if I want him.

Actually, I wouldn't want any of these players unless the price is right. I would gamble with a Minor League contract with Maine, Wellemeyer, Bonderman or Duchsherer.

I don't have a gut feeling the Mets will sign any of these guys, and it isn't necessary, but its intriguing to see what is still out on the table.

Have you ever cooked a steak, and right before you sat down to eat it, you stared at it and said, “You know what this steak needs, it needs a Mets logo.”

Well if that's you, and I really hope that isn't you, someone has answered your prayers, or something like that:

So yeah.

The merchandising machine that is American Sports has led to a company mass producing branding sears for your favorite teams. This way when you invite Phillies or Braves over to your house, they know who the steak really belongs to, our chicken or corn. I really hope that stupid things don't happen with this product, like people branding each other.*

*I do not support you purchasing this product to brand yourself, friends, and enemies, thats a bad idea. Even if it seems like a good idea, that is a bad idea.

Anyway, the link to buy these can be found here at the official MLB shop. Happy cooking and branding or something like that.

I know I have been really bad about keeping this up to date. Essentially I did the Mariners, hinted at the Nationals and then didn't cover the changes to the Indian's uniform at all and the new branding of the Nationals, so I'll get to all of that soon.

The Angels are celebrating their 50th anniversary this season and with that comes a slew of promotions etc. Earlier this week they revealed their special patch for this season and its a good one:

Source

According to the wiki page, there should be at least one uniform change as well. Apparently they are going to change the halo back to its original gold for the season, and maybe some other changes, when that is released, I'll post it.