Luis Castillo, Adam Rubin, Terry Collins, and Source Material

 

There was a report yesterday that went across the internet that ESPN’s Adam Rubin reported that New York Mets manager Terry Collins wanted 2B Luis Castillo released from the team.

First, let me tell you about Rubin. Adam would never break a story like this unless he was more than confident that the information was correct. He also would have multiple sources.

Source material is tricky. There’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t umbrella that hangs over information like this.

I haven’t had a bunch of juicy info over the years I’ve been doing this, but three cases can easily show you the different outcomes you can have. However, all source information does one thing when it is printed. It divides Mets ownership and management both from the players as well as the reporters that cover the team. The initial reaction of any manager would be to not trust anyone around them that they shared confidential information with.

I had the scoop on the re-signing of Oliver Perez three days before it was announced. This information did not come from anyone employed by the team, but it still caused some internal concern (as I was told later), but, in this case, the concern was how did I know something no one in the Mets organization knew.

I next had exclusive information on seven ball players that had received a mid-season promotion from one of the Mets minor league teams to another. My sources were confirmed, so I printed the names (which were correct), which created a devide from the management of that team, to me, and to the players involved. As it turned out, none of the players had told me, nor did any of them confirm it…  I was smart enough not to involve them… but they still were considered the source of this material by management.

And lastly, I reported about the triple-VP system the Mets were going to have this year, but I had one of the names wrong. I should have spent another day triple checking my sources and I was castrated by the Mets internet community for being incorrect with the names (though I was given no credit for having the 3-VP thing correct).

The point I’m trying to make is a reporter, or a sports writer, or a columnist, or whatever the hell some of us are… is pulled in multiple directions when it comes to exclusive information received… and confirmed.  You break the story, the team gets pissed at you and loses trust in everyone around them. You hold the story and you’re not doing the job you’re suppose to.

I’m currently holding an exclusive on a medical clusterfuk that happened during the past ten years, that I’m not going to write about until the player (who is still playing organized baseball) retires from this game.

Someone wrote, when I had the 3-VP thing blow up in my face, something like “heck, why would a guy living in Savannah be privy to information like this?”. That’s understandable narrow thinking, when, in fact, it really doesn’t matter where you live anymore (btw… I’ve never lived in Savannah).

You have a story if two people talk, write, tweet, or facebook each other with information.

You write that information gained from that conversation on a sticky and it place it on the top of your computer.

Then, you need to find someone else to back up what you were told by the first person.

Then, you have exclusive information from “multiple sources”.

The next move is yours…

I May Be Wrong, But… Jenrry Mejia, Wally Backman,Terry Collins, Alex Silver, Adam Rubin, Daniel Murphy, John Maine

 

photo by Michael G. Baron

1. I see that the Mets were shut out in the MLB Top 50 prospect list that aired on TV opposite the State of the Union Address by President Obama (by the way, how come no one pays this guy the respect to put the word “President” in front of his last name?). I had predicted Mets fans only needed to turn on during the last 15 minutes figuring Jenrry Mejia would sneak in near the end. This makes one remember one important thing when we are discussing Mets prospects… other teams get to sign players also.

2. Having Daryl Strawberry predict that Wally Backman will be the next Mets manager is like having Lenny Dykstra pick the next stock you’re going to buy. How would you like to be Terry Collins and you wake up and find out one of your roving coaches is already predicting your demise? Nice timing, Straw. Maybe you should stick to the restaurant business and the big Yankee reunion you’re having at the end of this month.

3. I was thrilled to hear Terry Collins say there would be  less players in camp this year. The first thing this tells me is that most, if not all, of the players that are currently projected not to make one of the four full-year minor league teams, won’t report until near the end of ST. This gives the players fighting for jobs more innings to pitch and more grounders to catch. Secondly, it screams of a major league clubhouse of only 40-man members and newbies that have recently been signed. I like that idea to. Don’t put thoughts unachievable in the heads of young prospects. Let them mature at the levels they are supposed to play in.

4. My prayers go out to Texas freshman third baseman Alex Silver, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He’s scheduled to only miss the first couple of months of the 2011 season. For the full story:  http://texas.247sports.com/Article/Silver-ready-to-fight-disease-12807

5. Adam Rubin had a nice interview with Daniel Murphy on Wednesday in Jacksonville, Florida. I loved the line about, when Murphy arrived in camp one day, someone asked him “what position he played?”. He answered with “hitter number three”. I have big money on Murph going into this spring training and I don’t understand why the Mets keep signing more guys to compete with someone who has already proved he should be in the starting lineup. Who cares that he never has played second base. No one hits the ball over there, anyway.

 6. I visited one of my favorite sites this morning, http://baseballdraftreport.com/, and I learned that the author was off work today due to “thundersnow”. Now, I’ve been around for a while, and I’ve watched a lot of weather channels, but this was a new one on me. Thundershow?  Was this the name of a new rock band?  I went to Wikipedia and found out there are four different forms of thundersnow. Great. Now there’s four things I didn’t know squat about.

7. John Maine is working out for teams as a relief pitcher. Wasn’t this what a bunch of us said he should have been doing last year? I’m told that all pitchers lie to their pitching coach about their aches and pains, but I’m also told that Maine took the book when it came to telling no one about nothing. Anybody that covered the start of spring training last year could observe that John’s velo was gone, yet Omar and Co. still turned a blind eye and slotted him into the rotation. However, let’s remember he basically was a throw-in in the Jorge Julio for Kris Benson trade on 1-22-06.

 

I May Be Wrong, But… Adam Rubin, Toby Hyde, Brad Holt, Jeff Francoeur, David Rubin, Ed Ryan, Tyler Florence, Jason Pridie, Tobi Stoner

1. Both Adam Rubin and Toby Hyde have written about SP Brad Holt this week. Look, when you’re one of the few guys that show up at the opening day of a camp, you get written about. Holt wants us to believe that he had no idea why he pitched badly last season. I want to believe that, but I’ve had multiple conversations with different observers and the simply fact is he lost his command. The good news is he can still throw a 91-mph heater to the low end of the strike zone, which, as Toby writes, translates to a 95-mph fastball thrown straight and chest high. Put a little last minute movement on that and it goes up to 97. Just ask Johan Santana or Mario Rivera.

2. Look, I loved the acquisition of OF Jeff Francoeur and there was no one more rah-rah in the clubhouse than Frenchy, but it’s not the Mets fault that he swung at everything thrown his way. Jeff needs to learn a lesson from Nelson Figueroa and it would be in his best interest to not knock any team (or any of their fields) that paid him good money to throw a baseball around. My brother-in-law has a very sick three week old but still have to go to his job every day to shovel out the Long Island school system. That’s a job.

3. One of Mack’s Mets writers, David Rubin, has returned to http://metsfever.blogspot.com/ to write about the Mets. Please check him out over there and welcome him back with Ed Ryan.

4. Many of the younger members of the Mets organization are working out in the Dominican complex this week, awaiting their reporting date for Florida. They include:  P Jeurys Familia, P  Jenrry Mejia, 1B Alexander Sanchez, 2B Sneider Batisa, SS Randolf Santana, 3B Aderlin Rodriquez, C Hector Alvarez, OF Julio Concepcion, and OF Thomas De Wolf.

5. Tyler Florence has started a brand new Mets blog… give it a look see at:  http://moneyballmets.blogspot.com/

6. OF Jason Pridie and SP Tobi Stoner, who were both DFA’d after being removed from the 40-man squad, cleared waivers and have returned to the Buffalo lineup. IMO, Stoner will light a candle every night, hoping Dillon Gee remains on the Queens squad come April 1st, while Pridie has a long road uphill trying to win a roster slot against F-Mart, Scott Hairston, Lucas Duda (who will also play 1B), local favorite Val Pasccuchi, DJ Wabick, Captain Kirk, and Brahiam Maldonado.