Santana’s Select Merlot: The ideal wine for your adulterous adventures

From CharityWines.com:

The color of this wine is intense-deep ruby purple. Aromas of ripe plums, smoky berry fruits and spice. Juicy red currant flavors on the entry, followed with rich, red cherry, black cherry and blackberry flavors extending to the mid-palate. A long finish with spicy oak and velvety fruit. Soft, lush and colorful!

#41 Zack Wheeler

New York Mets

DOB: 5/30/1990

Previous Rank: N/R

ETA: 2014

Wheeler was traded straight up for Carlos Beltran in July and was sent immediately to High Class A St. Lucie where he posted a 2.00 ERA with a 31:5 K:BB ratio in 27 innings.  Those numbers were considerably better than those from the 88 innings he threw in the California League before the trade.  Nevertheless, Wheeler immediately became the top prospect in the Mets organization, and at just 21 years of age, he should be in the rotation at Citi by 2014.

Wheeler features a fastball that sits consistently around 94-95 mph with the ability to reach back for 97 mph.  His best secondary pitch is a true 60 curveball with good 12-6 shape and about 15 mph off of the heater.  His third pitch is a changeup that is far behind the other two pitches at this point due primarily to an inability to maintain arm speed or slot.  The pitch has arm side life with sink, though, and has a chance to be a useable pitch with just minor improvement.

His 6-foot-4 frame is lanky and projectable and might still allow him to pick up a tick on the fastball.  Wheeler should begin the year in Double-A and might push that ETA up a bit, but the Mets are the worst team in the East and have no business rushing either Wheeler or Harvey in our opinion.  The good news for fans in Queens is that the Mets appear to finally have real pitching prospects with real top-of-the-rotation upside.

#45 Matt Harvey

New York Mets

DOB: 3/27/1989

Previous Rank: N/A

ETA: 2013

Harvey was the top collegiate arm in the 2010 class, but his career at North Carolina was not a smooth ride like most figured it would be considering that his fastball can reach 98 mph and he carries mid-90s velocity deep into nearly every start.  His mechanics and deception, as well as fastball life, have greatly improved in the last two years.  He throws two breaking ball variations, one of which is more of a slider while the other is more of a hard downer curve.

Scouts are fairly split on which one has the better prognosis, but at the Sombrero we think that each has its place when considering what side of the plate his opponent is hitting from.  His changeup is behind and he doesn’t throw it often or consistently enough yet, but it has some arm side action to it as well.  It profiles as a 50 while both breaking ball variations can be 60s or 70s given the day.

Harvey has a terrific frame at 6-foot-4 and 210-pounds, and his numbers suggest that he could reach the Big Leagues as early as 2013.  Across two levels, including 12 Double-A starts, Harvey struck out 156 guys next to 47 walks in 135.2 innings.  He kept the ball in the yard quite well too and finished the year with a 3.32 ERA.  The future looks bright for Harvey, and maybe, just maybe, the Mets might not blow it with him.

Top 1: Jason Pridie struck out swinging against Brandon Beachy

Top 3: struck out swinging against Beachy

Top 4: struck out swinging Beachy

Top 7: grounded out to second base against Eric O’Flaherty

Top 9: struck out swinging against Craig Kimbrel

Final Line: 0-for-5, 4 K

Notes: Pridie collected his first golden sombrero of the 2011 season – and first of his career – on Sunday against the Atlanta Braves.  Although the Mets won, he contributed absolutely nothing towards the win by fanning four times and committing an error in center.

Total 2011 Sombreros: 118

-  How bout those Rays?  Can they really pull the rabbit out of the hat and clench a playoff berth?  I mentioned this earlier as a joke, but the Tampa Bay Rays are about to pull a Houdini.

-  But which is more impressive- The Rays surge, or the Boston Red Sox collapse?

-  Good old Manny being Manny again…or is it Manny being Kirby now?  Either way, at least Manny Ramirez’s legacy was already tarnished, right?  Makes this episode just a bit less shocking.

-  I am not sure what all the hullaballo was about MLB not allowing the Mets to wear hats that did not meet the “uniform” requirements as written in the rulebook.  It is a rule people.  And it is not like there were not other ways that the Mets, and every other NFL and MLB team used to show support for all of 9/11.  Sure, they could have shown a little leeway, but then they might be setting a precedent that could cause problems somewhere down the unforeseen road.

-  Someone asked me to describe teaching 6^th graders in a single sentence the other day…and this is what I came up with- “Teaching 6^th grade is the equivalent of herding cats.”

-  Watching a player begin his decline as a ball player is always difficult.  It is even more difficult when said player has never given anyone a reason to hate.  That said, it will be interesting to see how Ichiro Suzuki‘s 2012 campaign goes.  Is him not reaching 200 hits that big a deal this year?  Does it mark the start of his decline?  Only time will tell.

-  Good luck to Andrew McCutchen while negotiating what hopefully turns out to be a favorable deal with the Pirates.  It’s really exciting to see a team like Pittsburgh rising from their grave.  It gives Astros fans hope.

-  Speaking of the Houston Astros, we currently host 16 rookies on our roster, with 10 of them being pitchers.  Yikes.  Talk about rebuilding.