Manager Pedro Lopez on the B-Mets

Pedro Lopez addresses the media

            Tuesday was media day for the Binghamton Mets, and Pedro Lopez discussed his team at length in an interview that can be listened tohere, care of Tim Heiman. I transcribed the roster relevant quotes below, but there are still some interesting quotes from Lopez on his time in Venezuela this past offseason, and on what he can learn as a manager this season, if you're interested. Heiman is the BMets radio announcer, and posts pre- and post-game interviews to his blog throughout the season, so check it out.

On 2015

“We got guys back that, in my eyes, deserve to be in AAA. Our system right now is stacked with good players and some guys needed to come back.”

“I told them they are one step away from the big leagues here, look at Dario Alvarez and Dilson Herrera from last year.”

On Jayce Boyd

“I think is going to be OK. That’s all he’s going to play, the OF. He’ll get some time at DH too, because I need to get everyone playing time. We have to remember it’s a new position though. He looked good in Spring Training but he’ll occasionally have some bad routes to the ball.”

On the lineup

He still needed to get the playing time list from the front office at the time of the interview, so he’s not sure how the lineups will break down. He explained that the front office decides when a trend in results from a player is enough to merit a change in playing time throughout the roster.

On Brandon Nimmo

“Nimmo just needs to working on his overall game… He’s working with [hitting coach] Luis Natera on some new things, especially the way he’s holding the bat that can free him up on pitches inside. That’s one thing we saw last year when he came up was that he was getting beat on pitches inside. We saw the results [of their work] right away in Spring Training, when he was able to get to pitches inside a lot easier than in the past, and he likes it. He’s going to be playing not only CF, but some RF as well. As we all know, we have Juan Lagares and he just signed a multi-year deal, so I don’t think Nimmo is going to be playing CF anytime here soon for the Mets, but you never know.”

On the new pitchers from A-ball

“I tell you what, I’m excited and pleased with the guys that we have. A guy like Seth Lugo, I saw him pitch in Spring Training this year for the first time – I’ve never seen him before – and I liked what I saw. Pretty good fastball, locates it well. Good feel for his secondary pitches. Matt Koch is the same way. We had a chance to see Kochie up here last year towards the end of the year. Unfortunately he didn’t pitch for us, but we saw him on the side and in Spring Training and he’s kind of similar. Then you get a guy like Luis Cessa, a guy we saw pitch for us last year for one game against Portland… He’s got a great feel for his secondary pitches. Then you got a guy like John Gant, short arm but he keeps the ball down. And we got Gabriel Ynoa back, and we got Rainy Lara back, so hopefully they’re able to go out there and perform. I like what we got.”

On his experience managing winter ball in Venezuela this past offseason

“It was almost like [managing] in NY, hopefully now that I’m back in Binghamton I can relax.”

He was just supposed to be the bench coach for his team.

On Gavin Cecchini

“He was playing with the AAA team for most of Spring Training, so I didn’t really get to see him play, but hopefully the Eastern League treats him well early on so he can get some confidence to go out there early and perform. Again, there’s no pressure from my staff or me, it’s all about letting them go out there and play their game. We know they’re going to make mistakes, especially young players, and they’re young. It can be intimidating at times when you make an error or you’re striking out or not going your way. We’re just going to keep it simple and I’ll get a better feel for him in a couple of weeks.”

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