David Wright Clears Waivers

Mets star David Wright clears waivers. The Mets reasoning for this was to open more financial space to re-signing Jose Reyes.

Post-Game Analysis: 8/20

Tough loss for the Mets today against the BrewCrew. Originally down 7-1 the Mets rallied back to tie the game. They had scored 3 runs off of former Met Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez. When it looks like the Mets had the momentum the Brewers scored 4 runs off of Jason Isringhausen to put the nail on the coffin and end the Mets rally. The Mets could not touch John Axford as the Brewers win 11-9, the final. W: Francisco Rodriguez, L: Jason Isringhausen, SV: John Axford.

Mets Lineup 8/20 vs. Brewers

Mets Lineup for August 20th against the Brewers:

1. Willie Harris, CF

2. Justin Turner, 2B

3. David Wright, 3B

4. Scott Hairston, RF

5. Jason Bay, LF

6. Ronnie Paulino, C

7. Nick Evans, 1B

8. Ruben Tejada, SS

9. Chris Capuano, P

Down on the Farm: Weekly Player Spotlight

ZACH LUTZ

Bats: Right, Throws: Right
Height: 6' 1", Weight: 222 lb.

Zach Lutz has been a player on the rise in the Mets farm system this year. While old for a prospect at 25, he could certainly still make an impact in the majors, maybe even by next season. Lutz is a power/average hitter who has raked in the minors this year to the tune of a .307 BA and 8 homers in 200 at bats with AAA Buffalo. Over 5 full seasons in the minors he's a career .288 hitter with 41 home runs. 27 of his dingers have come in the last 2 seasons, with just over 500 ABs, which leads scouts to believe that his power will indeed transfer over to the MLB.

The only thing holding Lutz back is his position, 3B. The Mets have all-star David Wright entrenched at 3B for the foreseeable future. He's also been playing 1B and DH in the minors this year but neither of those positions would work for the Mets. He projects very similarly to Lucas Duda and Daniel Murphy, 2 other players who don't really have positions in the majors. So while Lutz may very well be best used as trade bait or simply organizational depth in the minors, he certainly has starter potential and has been a bright spot for a weak Mets farm system.

Mets-Brewers

Mets open up a 3 game series against the Milwaukee Brewers. Friday's matchup is Shaun Marcum (MIL) vs. Mike Pelfrey (NYM).

The Future.... Is Now?

Ever since the New York Mets traded away star closer Francisco Rodriguez in mid-July, there had been rampant speculation about who would take on the responsibility of being the Mets current closer as well as who would be their closer of the future. It was pretty quickly reported that Jason Isringhausen would be the Mets closer for the rest of the season. Isringhausen was a mere 7 saves away from 300 and the Mets wanted him to reach that mark. As a closer he was solid, converting 7 of 8 save opportunities. Recently, with the Mets falling farther and farther out of the wild card race, the team has decided to give Bobby Parnell a shot at closing.

At just 26 years old, Parnell looks like he's got the skills to be a very good closer. He has a plus fast ball that consistently hits the mid nineties. His complete repertoire also includes a slider which has been vastly improved this year as well as an average change up. Parnell strikes out plenty of batters, 49 in just 39.2 innings this year which is good for an 11.12 K/9, about on par with the top MLB closers.

Parnell's peripheral numbers do leave something to be desired though. A career WHIP of 1.57 needs to be greatly improved in order for him to become a true, shutdown closer. His career FIP (Fielder Independent Pitching) is 3.52 which is pretty good. His xFIP (which is considered a good indicator of future performance) is 3.85. While not great, I'm sure the Mets would be very happy with that from their young closer. In Queens, New York, it appears that the closer of the future has just become the closer of the now.

Jose Reyes...Staying or Leaving?

I've been closely following the Jose Reyes contract standpoint with the Mets. One of the twists to this situation for the Mets is that Reyes is not willing to negotiate about a new contract mid-season, because he doesn't want to be distracted from his playing. The Mets had the option of trading him to a team before the trade deadline, but instead they elected to take a risk and try to re-sign Reyes in the off-season, where if they don't re-sign him they will get nothing in return. Reyes has gotten injured a lot over the years, and with a few DL stints this season, the question is has his value dropped with all of his injuries, or is that part of the package with Reyes? I'm glad to see the Mets GM, Sandy Alderson taking a risk and trying to re-sign Reyes, because he's a great player to lead the Mets; energetic, gives 110%, good teammate. The only problem I think we will have with re-signing Reyes is there's always that team on the free agent market who comes up just short and will take a chance overpaying Reyes. With the Mets current financial situation they wouldn't be able to match the surplus cash. The only perk we have in this situation is that Reyes said he would like to stay a Met, but that doesn't mean we can offer him a few quarters and hope he stays.

Jose Reyes has a special handshake with teammate David Wright.