Top Mets pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard likely won’t get to make his big-league debut this season, Newsday’s Marc Carig reports. Mets manager Terry Collins says Syndergaard, who has pitched 124 1/3 frames for Triple-A Las Vegas this season, is close to hitting his innings limit for the year. Las Vegas will also make the PCL playoffs, so their season will continue past the usual early-September endpoint. Collins also says that if Syndergaard were to be promoted, the Mets would want it to be for more than just an inning or two. Here’s more from the East divisions.
- Rusney Castillo was able to get such a big contract from the Red Sox in part because his skill set of speed, defense and power will be rare in this offseason’s free agent market, his agent tells Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald. “[E]specially when teams were evaluating what was going to be available either at the trade deadline this summer or, more importantly, in free agency this winter, there just weren’t players that matched (Castillo’s) skill set,” says Brodie Van Wagenen of Roc Nation Sports.
- The Phillies need to seriously consider removing Ryan Howard from their roster this offseason, David Murphy of the Daily News writes. Howard has, of course, struggled this season, hitting .222/.300/.373, but Murphy points out that Howard’s offensive struggles go all the way back to 2012, and there were signs of decline even before that. Meanwhile, as the Phillies attempt to remake themselves, plate appearances represent an asset — a way to gain information about a player who might help in the future, like Darin Ruf. Instead of finding playing time for Ruf primarily at first, though, the Phillies are moving him around, cutting into Domonic Brown’s playing time.
Howard shouldn’t of got that extension in the first place.
One of the dumbest moves, even at the time it was known it was dumb.
Paid max dollars two years before they had to.
If they are going to extend him that early, then the Phils should have at least gotten a discount.
Nope, amaro is too good of a Gm I guess.
The “discount” he got was in the years. Howard got 5. Adrian Gonzalez got 7. Prince Fielder got 9. And Albert Pujols got 10.
I’m not saying it was a good deal – just if I have to be laden with a bad 1B contact, all for relatively the same amount of money (within $5 M per season), I’m gonna take the one that is for the fewest years.
Agreed. It’s obviously not an ideal contract by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it ends 2 years sooner than the next-closest (AGon), and only lasts through his age 36 season.
AGon’s ends at the same age, and while not living up to his contract he’s at least doing a better job than Howard, but those Fielder and Pujols deals are terrible even by comparison to Howard. Especially if Fielder doesn’t improve noticeably (or, also possible, declines further) after his surgery. $24MM/year (heck, even just the $18MM paid by the Rangers) for 6 more years to a guy who’s hitting league average and whose defense at the easiest position on the field ranges from “league average” on down? Yeesh.
Your right on that point but Ryan Howard needs to either stay or go
The Phillies should also seriously consider removing Amaro, but that’s apparently not happening either.
“Removing him” but without the “how” is advice that has little content. If they waive him, they will find that they are paying his salary to hit for another team, almost certainly in the AL. Maybe Howard has nothing left, but someone will look at the 19HRS and 80 RBI and think for the major league minimum, why not? Remember that a team signing him that way has very little skin in the game. And who is really ready to trade for him, give something up, and take on even a modest portion of Howard’s salary? “Removing him” may just mean holding your nose and closing your eyes. That’s tough at that price.
Noah Syndergaard is pitching much, much better than his ERA indicates – he’s getting BABIP’d to death right now, even for Vegas. I mean, he’s not giving up a lot of home runs, he’s limiting his walks, and he’s getting a lot of Ks. If I was Sandy, I’d have called him up by now, but I’m sure Sandy has a good reason for keeping him down.
Sure. If he flops in Vegas, you can write it off to the playing environment. If he flops in the majors, then his trade value sinks even lower than it is right now. Keeping him in Vegas keeps the illusion alive that it’s the ballpark and not the increased level of competition.
That being said, however, both Jacob de Grom this year and Matt Harvey last year pitched far better in the majors than they did in Vegas. By artificially keeping Syndegaard where he is Alderson is creating plausible deniability for another GM when he tries to rook him into turning over a big offensive weapon in exchange for the right hander.
I really hope they don’t trade Syndergaard. I live in Vegas so I’ve seen him pitch a few times. He’s a monster on the mound. Sitting behind homeplate there you really can see that curve ball too. I never agree with what Collins says, but when he called it the “hook from hell” he was telling the truth. He can be as good as Wheeler if not better. Harvey, Wheeler, Syndergaard, deGrom, Gee looks sweet! (They should flip one of Niese/Colon before they get hurt).
his WHIP is 1.504, so i doubt it
vegas is a hitter’s park but pitching in the majors is like facing the best AAA hitters one after another
Apparently you missed the ‘getting BABIP’d to death’ part. And you’re severely downplaying the PCL factor and Vegas’s specific park factor.
Note Harvey and note deGrom.
BR says deGrom had a WHIP of 1.274 or something like that in PCL and an ERA in the 2’s
He has a better WHIP in the majors this year. And last year, he was 4.52 ERA, 1.467 in Vegas. I don’t think you understand the magnitude of offense in the PCL and in Vegas in particular.
But also, look at Harvey. He had a 3.68 ERA and a 1.318 WHIP in Buffalo of the IL in 2012. He was called up and went 2.73, 1.146 in the bigs. That whole ‘facing a team of the best AAA hitters thing’ isn’t entirely true.
Even hobbled Howard has so far produced 80 RBIs this season and is #1 in RBIs and #2 in HRs. Ruf doesn’t look like a 100RBIs and 30HRs guy to me. Who is in Phillies system that’d more than replace Howard’s production?
Also, I find it interesting that Murphy and many other Howard-bashers want to talk about BA and OBP of a cleanup hitter like Howard, not his RBIs or HRs.
RBIs are an overrated stat because you can’t drive in guys unless they are on base for you. His sub .700 OPS isn’t good, but his contract makes him even worse. I don’t watch the Phillies, but if Ruf matches or exceeds Howard’s production (OPS and the Advance Stats instead of stats like BA or RBIs) then he needs to play.
ya the cleanup hitter with a lower OPS than some pitchers. Come on man.
Not to defend Howard here, but the only pitchers (with at least 50 PAs) he has a lower OPS than are Travis Wood and Madison Bumgarner. Considering those guys have a .773 and a .778, that’s not a huge knock on the guys who aren’t replicating their numbers.
Other players with at least 100 PAs at #4 who have a sub-.773 OPS while there include Dayan Viciedo, Chase Headley, Corey Hart, Chris Colabello, Alan Craig, Alex Gordon, Kendrys Morales, Devin Mesoraco, Ike Davis, Pedro Alvarez, Jay Bruce, Chris Davis, Josh Willingham, Evan Longoria, Mark Teixeira, AGon and Carlos Gomez.
In fact, of 54 players with 100 PAs at #4, only 21 have a super-.773 OPS while batting there.
Rasmus and Melky Cabrera are pretty good. The verdict on Castillos power has yet to be determined. Its one thing to have BP power, another to have power in games. Also, Fenway is not a HR park anymore