Top pitching prospect Zack Wheeler tweeted this morning that he’s going to begin the 2012 season with the Binghamton Mets. Of course, he was the prospect acquired from the Giants last year in the Carlos Beltran trade.
He spent last season with the St. Lucie Mets after coming over from San Jose. Between both stops, he was 9-7 with a 3.52 ERA in 115 innings of work over 22 starts. Expect his innings to increase this season on his way to building strength to pitch a completed big league season.
If he’s successful at Binghamton we may see Wheeler in Flushing by September.
Yesterday Mets ace Johan Santana faced live hitters in batting practice for the first time this spring. He pitched two simulated innings and looked pretty good. Several of the hitters remarked that his stuff looked excellent. The plan from here is for Santana to start on Tuesday against Carlos Beltran’s Cardinals and continue to monitor how he’s doing to see how he feels.
If he continues to progress and feel good on the day after he pitches, it would be great to see him start building strength and stamina in his arm with an eye towards pitching early in the regular season.
I continue to believe that the Mets season is highly dependent on how quickly Santana can return from shoulder surgery. I don’t think they’re a playoff team even with Santana. But the season could become a complete disaster without him including the possibility of 100 losses which we haven’t seen here since ’93.
In this installment of the Mets Weekly Report with Kerel Cooper of On The Black, we talk about the Carlos Beltran trade. Beltran went to the Giants for minor league pitcher Zack Wheeler last week. We recap the trade and talk about whether we think it was favorable for the Mets. We also talk about the Mets strategy, in general, of trading K-Rod and Beltran but holding onto everyone else.
David Wright is also a topic of discussion this week. Is David Wright the undisputed leader of this team now that Beltran’s gone? We talk about Wright’s leadership skills and his relatively lengthy tenure with the Mets.
The Mets trade of Carlos Beltran and cash to the Giants for prospect Zack Wheeler should be completed and announced by both teams today. There’s quite a bit of video of Zack Wheeler available including some boring interviews. Here’s some quality video of a single-A start that Wheeler made for San Jose on May 11, 2011.
Wheeler was the sixth overall pick in the draft in 2009 by the Giants. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s assigned to St. Lucie or Binghamton when he joins the Mets. Here are his minor league stats:
For all the complaints I have made about Carlos Beltran in the past… how selfish I think he was, how he never stood up to be a leader in the clubhouse or on the field, how he didn’t show up to a Veteran’s Hospital visit, how he ended the 2006 NL Championship with his bat on his shoulder and even his preference to play for the Yankees for a discount before he settled on the Mets… his bat and glove will be missed.
Let me make that clear… His bat and glove will be missed. The player will not be.
He has had a productive career here but he was (and still is) clearly playing for his next contract and a chance to win now. Who can blame him? He currently has a 32 game on base streak that dates back to June 16th. It’s the second longest active streak in the majors. He’s leading the NL in doubles with 30 and he’s seventh in the NL with 66 RBI’s. He’s http://laparkan.com/buy-sildenafil/ also tied for 2nd with 47 extra base hits.
Basically, Beltran was having a monster season and showing everyone he was finally healthy, proved he could still play the field and was still dangerous on the base-paths. This was a 4 month audition for his next team. Nothing more so I had no emotional attachments to Beltran this year. I’m not glad he’s gone, don’t really care he’s gone either.
I am glad he went to the Giants though. I can now root for the Giants. Beltran’s going to have a monster 2 months and he still has the capability of carrying that team all the way to the World Series. I would love to see Beltran help the Giants beat the Phillies and the Yankees at some point. The trade is bittersweet but had to be done. We did get a great pitching prospect in return and the future looks a little brighter for it.
So I will say Goodbye Carlos Beltran. I’ll enjoy watching you hit homers out into the San Francisco Bay.
The Mets finally pulled the trigger today on a Carlos Beltran trade. For those of us holding tickets for a game in 2011, we just lost out big time as the Mets threw in the towel on the rest of the season. There’s not much reason to go to Citi Field or watch on TV anymore this season for the casual fan. We’ll check in with you in February for spring training. Only the hardcore fans will remain and it seems like there’s getting to be fewer and fewer of us left.
I don’t blame the Mets or Sandy Alderson for making the deal. They got Zack Wheeler from the Giants a single-A pitcher that was taken sixth overall in 2009 and top 40 prospect. That’s not a bad haul for an aging star with two months left on his contract and a clause that doesn’t allow the team to offer salary arbitration.
My point is now that the Mets have traded their closer and their starting right fielder there’s nothing to really look forward to this season from the Mets. It’s too bad that the Mets haven’t been able to get themselves into contention like the Giants, Phillies, Braves, etc. I wish the Mets were looking to add pieces for a playoff run. It’s incredibly disappointing for a team with one of the highest payrolls in baseball.
This week I talk to Kerel Cooper from On The Black about the upcoming non-waiver trading deadline. The deadline is next Sunday at 4pm and there are several Mets that are being mentioned pretty heavily in trade rumors.
Of course, nobody in baseball is being talked about more heavily in trade rumors than Carlos Beltran. There are several teams tied to Beltran including the Phillies, Braves, Giants, Rangers, and Red Sox.
In this week’s video we talk about some of the other Mets that could be traded this week. And we talk about whether we think the Mets front office will completely break down the team in a “fire sale”. Check out the video below.
The Mets Report 