40 Man Roster Day, Andrew Benintendi & Alex Guerrero & Yasiel Puig

Baseball will be buzzing in the next few weeks as the Rule 5 draft approaches along with the winter meetings right around the corner.

So with all that said, I was pretty locked into the baseball yesterday and I'll share a lot of my findings today.

• I'll start with 40 man roster additions from Friday.

Three names I'm excited about being added?

Josh Bell - PIT 1B

Michael Fulmer - DET RHP

Brandon Nimmo - NYM OF

I've written about all three in some capacity in the last few years and while it was unintentional, I the amount of excitement I have is in the order they're listed.

Here's a recent ditty I did on Fulmer:

I said after the Yoenis Cespedes trade happened, Michael Fulmer would be the #Tigers top prospect going into 2016. (PSSSST I was right)

He will likely start the year in the bullpen but I would bet the ranch he ends the season as their best starting pitcher.

FYI: Fulmer is from Oklahoma. Dylan Bundy and Archie Bradley were the two guys in the 2011 draft with all the hype but Fulmer was an under the radar first rounder.

Come this time next year, we might be talking about Detroit's ace for years to come.

• Eddie Martinez

The Cubs decisions about where guys fit is only going to get tougher in the next couple years.

Cuban prospect Eddie Martinez will be nothing short of special and in a crowded outfield, the question isn't will he fit, but who will move to make him fit?

• Andrew Benintendi

RedSox prospect Andrew Benintendi (LH OF) will be the real deal. The Arkansas product gives you a little bit of everything offensively and conceivably has no weaknesses.

Not far away from being in Boston (or somewhere else if the Red Sox choose to move him).

In his first taste of professional baseball, the kid walked more than he struck out (34/24 BB/K) and hit 7 HR with 7 SB.

I'm no Red Sox fan, but I can't wait to see what this young man can do.

• Alex Guerrero/Yasiel Puig

Guerrero turned 29 Friday; rejuvenating the anger in me that he went from utility full time player and one of the National League’s best hitters to so deep on the bench, in the last three months of the season grew barely got the amount of at bats he got in April and May.

On top of that, the Dodgers continue to be a clown show.

It came out Friday, the daddy of one of their part time players goes to the media claiming Clayton Kershaw is lobbying for the trade if Yasiel Puig.

I have so many issues on this front. I like the Dodgers and think they can be such a dominant franchise, but this kind of garbage just leaves me wondering all too often, what exactly is happening in Los Angeles?

But to wrap up my Guerrero thought; I'm really hoping the front office of LA finds loving homes for Puig and Guerrero because I think their talents are left beyond unappreciated in the City of Angels.

I'll be honest, as a Mets fan, I'd send a nice package of players the Dodgers way for these two, and, no it wouldn't include The Big 4 pitchers.

• Paul DeJong

If you follow me on twitter or instagram, you know I love me some Paul DeJong.

The ISU product finally cracked the Cardinals mlb.com/pipeline top prospect list at no. 30.

DeJong is a one size fits all fielder that has the bat to play major league baseball.

He's another guy that doesn't strike out (52/29 K/BB) and again, does a little of everything. (9 HR, 13 SB)

Talking w/ folks at ISU, he was a walk on who earned everything he got. I don't know about anyone else, but THAT'S the guy I want on my team.

I'm no Cardinals fan, but I'm rooting for him.

Just a few final thoughts…

• 

  Guy that flew up the Yankees top prospect list this last year? James Kaprielian. Finished the summer at Low-A and the 3 NYY post-season prospect, after being drafted in June.
  
  I can't say I'd be surprised if this UCLA product ended up the Bronx Bombers 'pen in September with a rotation spot in 2017. Gonna be a very good player.

• It's time for Mariners OF prospect Austin Wilson to establish himself. Will be 24 and hasn't played past A-ball. Very toolsy player I watched at Stanford and thought had a lot of promise. I'll be rooting for him too next year.

• For being a power hitter, Marlins 1B Justin Bour's 101 Ks in 2015 was very impressive. Believe it or not, Bour was top 10 in the NL among 1B in SLG, OPS, & HR.

• One thing the 2017 Atlanta Braves are going to do is keep teams off the board. The biggest question though is can they, themselves, get on the board?

Happy holidays friends!

Illini Football, Coaching Search, College Football Talk with Bob Asmussen

Mets Pitching, Curtis Granderson & Daniel Murphy

I haven’t had much of a chance to sit down and do this and I’ll be honest, I’m pretty flattered a lot of friends/people have been curious of my take on the World Series. So here it is.

First of all, the aspect of the entire month of October I’ve been disappointed with (from a baseball standpoint) was the showing the Mets had in the World Series. I didn’t for one second think the Mets deserved to win, considering the way they played, but at the same time, I felt their play was a supremely subpar to how well they had played since the trade deadline.

That said, I am in no other way disappointed with the outcome. I am not mad. I’m not pissed. I sat back and watched the World Series from the standpoint of: this is far beyond what I could have ever imagined the 2015 Mets doing, and for them to get to where they were was nothing short of fun.

All things considered, I didn't expect a playoff team this year. I didn't expect a World Series trip. A very successful season, for sure.

— PastACompetentFlores (@_mistermet) November 2, 2015

I enjoyed watching them on a national stage. It was funny, as I’m watching, if I had stuff going on around me, I’d take the time when they were hitting to take care chores.

Maybe I’m not nuts, but I have often found most people want to see their team’s hit. I wanted to watch these young pitchers, specifically, Steven Matz, who I hadn’t seen much of in the big leagues.

I have to admit, once it came down to Chicago/New York and Toronto/Kansas City, I really didn’t care who won the World Series.

I’m not the biggest Blue Jays fan, so had the Mets faced them, I might have been a little more emotional, but for the most part, watching the Royals win was not the worst thing I’ve ever been through.

As a mets fan, I love Sal and am happy for this team n the fans! Well done friends #crowned https://t.co/vnzdrRf3eL

— Seth (@Seth_SportsTalk) November 2, 2015

Anyone who knows me, knows I’ve been a huge fan of Salvador Perez, before he was this big start with KC.

I like the Royals as a franchise. I love that ballpark. I don’t mind guys like Moustakas and Hosmer and Gordon. I guess I don’t dislike them, but I wouldn’t ever consider them among my favorite players. That’s no knock on them. They’re terrific talents, I’m just saying, I have other players I root for more prominently.

But Sal Perez for several years now has been my guy.

I love watching him catch a ballgame and swing the bat. To watch him win the title and the MVP of the World Series was very cool.

I’m happy for the Royals and their fans. Terrific fans. Some of the best in my opinion.

Happy for the #Royals... a fan base that totally deserves this #TakeTheCrown #worldserieschamps #WorldSeries

— Seth (@Seth_SportsTalk) November 2, 2015

But my reaction for the Mets is simply this: The Mets far exceeded my expectations this year and I won’t complain about much.

In fact, I don’t do this often, but I’ll rave about the young pitchers. I’ve thought this from the time they clinched the Dodgers series, and then the Cubs series really reinforced it.

If the Mets simply get in over the next 5-7 years, they are going to be one of the toughest outs in all of baseball and it all comes down to their five pitchers. Yes, five. Forget not they have Zack Wheeler, a (once) top 10 prospect, who’s currently recovering from Tommy John Surgery.

The #Mets could easily be up 3-1 in this series. If you're a fan that can give you hope and make you sick all at once.

— Steve Gelbs (@SteveGelbs) November 1, 2015

I find that extremely exciting.

I have to admit, I wasn’t a fan of the Mets bringing on Curtis Granderson a few years ago, but I’ll say this, if he wasn’t on this team, we probably are nowhere near the postseason, let alone the World Series.

To me, he earned every penny of that contract.

Prior to the Yoenis Cespedes trade, Granderson was the glue guy on this team. His numbers may not reflect it, but this may have been the most impressive year of his career because of how he carried this team on his back from April to the trade deadline.

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
2004	23	DET	AL	9	28	25	2	6	1	1	0	0	0	0	3	8	.240	.321	.360	.681	9	0	0	0	0	/8
2005	24	DET	AL	47	174	162	18	44	6	3	8	20	1	1	10	43	.272	.314	.494	.808	80	0	2	0	0	87
2006	25	DET	AL	159	679	596	90	155	31	9	19	68	8	5	66	174	.260	.335	.438	.773	261	4	7	6	0	*8
2007	26	DET	AL	158	676	612	122	185	38	23	23	74	26	1	52	141	.302	.361	.552	.913	338	5	5	2	3	*8/7	MVP-10
2008	27	DET	AL	141	629	553	112	155	26	13	22	66	12	4	71	111	.280	.365	.494	.858	273	3	1	1	1	*8
2009 ★	28	DET	AL	160	710	631	91	157	23	8	30	71	20	6	72	141	.249	.327	.453	.780	286	2	3	2	4	*8	AS
2010	29	NYY	AL	136	528	466	76	115	17	7	24	67	12	2	53	116	.247	.324	.468	.792	218	2	4	3	3	*8
2011 ★	30	NYY	AL	156	691	583	136	153	26	10	41	119	25	10	85	169	.262	.364	.552	.916	322	12	4	7	0	*8/D	AS,MVP-4,SS
2012 ★	31	NYY	AL	160	684	596	102	138	18	4	43	106	10	3	75	195	.232	.319	.492	.811	293	5	1	7	4	*8/D	AS
2013	32	NYY	AL	61	245	214	31	49	13	2	7	15	8	2	27	69	.229	.317	.407	.723	87	1	2	1	1	8D97
2014	33	NYM	NL	155	654	564	73	128	27	2	20	66	8	2	79	141	.227	.326	.388	.714	219	6	0	5	1	*987
2015	34	NYM	NL	157	682	580	98	150	33	2	26	70	11	6	91	151	.259	.364	.457	.821	265	7	0	4	3	*9/8D
12 Yrs				1499	6380	5582	951	1435	259	84	263	742	141	42	684	1459	.257	.341	.475	.816	2651	47	29	38	20
162 Game Avg.				162	689	603	103	155	28	9	28	80	15	5	74	158	.257	.341	.475	.816	286	5	3	4	2
DET (6 yrs)				674	2896	2579	435	702	125	57	102	299	67	17	274	618	.272	.344	.484	.828	1247	14	18	11	8
NYY (4 yrs)				513	2148	1859	345	455	74	23	115	307	55	17	240	549	.245	.335	.495	.829	920	20	11	18	8
NYM (2 yrs)				312	1336	1144	171	278	60	4	46	136	19	8	170	292	.243	.345	.423	.768	484	13	0	9	4
AL (10 yrs)				1187	5044	4438	780	1157	199	80	217	606	122	34	514	1167	.261	.340	.488	.828	2167	34	29	29	16
NL (2 yrs)				312	1336	1144	171	278	60	4	46	136	19	8	170	292	.243	.345	.423	.768	484	13	0	9	4

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/2/2015.

As great as he was in the postseason, the Mets cannot bring Daniel Murphy back. Murph’s performance in the NLDS and NLCS will never, ever be forgotten by me. When, or if, I ever see him in a big league ballpark, I will cheer for him. I will clap and applaud when he does well. But he cannot come back to this team if he wants more than the qualifying offer the Mets reportedly plan to offer him.

Now, again, if it wasn’t for Murphy, the Mets are probably playing five or six, hell even seven games with the Cubs, and who knows how things are going down.

And again, I will never, ever forget what Daniel Murphy did and what he meant to this team. It’s tough to say those things, but it’s the reality of the situation.

Billy Buckner play part II

— Seth (@Seth_SportsTalk) October 28, 2015

I want to say for the record, I had no issue with Terry Collins going back to Harvey in the ninth. I would have done the same thing. He's earned that spot. He had earned the right to go back out. I would have done the same thing.

Lorenzo Cain had a great at bat. That breaking ball on 3-2 he knew was coming and finally laid off. I thought he made the one bad pitch to Hosmer, which as we know, was the straw that broke the camels back.

I knew when Hosmer drove in Cain, the Royals were going to win the game.

Again, not mad. Not even disappointed. Just a little disheartened.

Who should pitch the 9th for the @Mets?! #WorldSeries

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) November 2, 2015

I so badly wanted to hype up the Mets pitching train that is deGrom, Syndergaard, Harvey, Matz and probably in full force in 2017, Zack Wheeler. But I honestly didn’t want to wear out my social media friends, specifically on Facebook. So I kept relatively quiet.

Additionally, I just wanted to watch the games and have fun seeing my team actually enjoy success.

There's nothing to be ashamed of when you played the last game of the season. Nothing at all. Thanks for the season, Mets.

— Shea Dugout (@SheaDugout) November 2, 2015

As a Mets fan, these types of teams and these types of runs are just so rare. I didn’t want to get all up in arms about them losing or winning. I just wanted to have fun seeing.

I felt I did that. And it was a blast. I was sad to see it end. But I wasn’t upset either that their opponents were winners once again.

I look back after that game 7 loss to St. Louis in 2006, and I remember it like it was yesterday, Carlos Beltran saying, “We’ll have another chance. We’ll get back here. I have no doubt.”

That duda throw to plate will become more painful to watch than the beltran game 7 K..... #mets #LGM #WorldSeries #KCvsNYM #postseason

— Seth (@Seth_SportsTalk) November 2, 2015

Well if anything, history has told us it’s so hard to get back. Which is why I enjoyed what I was witnessing.

BUT… I think the Mets have a great foundation for getting to the postseason, if not the World Series. And I won’t ever say we’ll definitely be back. But, I really think they are in a position that it would not shock anyone if they’re there a few more times in the next five years.

Again, if they just get in, those pitchers are good enough to carry them through.