This morning at Citi Field, Sandy Alderson, Terry Collins, Matt Harvey, Dillon Gee, John Buck, Bobby Parnell and Howie Rose participated in a Q&A session with fans.

Alderson said the organization is at the stage when they can begin adding veteran talent to the big league club, now that some of their young talent has emerged or is emerging from the farm system.

Alderson described the stage as a shift in organizational planning, and they will begin to seriously pursue talent from outside the organization within the next six months.

Alderson noted the organization has invested a lot of money in players with very little return, but assured fans they were through doing that.

There will be some “different faces” brought to the Mets between now and the All-Star break, Alderson said. He did not say whether those players would be from inside or outside the organization.

Alderson said there would be “larger amounts of money” to invest in veterans in the short-term, noting in order to be a good team, risk-taking is necessary.

Cesar Puello currently has a dislocated finger, but his status on the 40-man roster makes him a possibility to join the Mets at some point this season, Alderson explained. He also said they can call up Wilmer Flores at, “any time.”

However, Alderson said while Rafael Montero only needs 70 or 80 more innings in the minor leagues, the fact he’s not on the 40-man roster makes him a long shot to be with the Mets this season.

Here are some other notable tidbits and quotes from the Q&A session:

• Alderson believes Gary Carter’s number should be retired by the Mets, but he doesn’t have a say in the matter.
• Alderson wants the fans to be happy and proud of the Mets.
• Harvey will pitch between 200-210 innings this season, Alderson told fans.
• The Mets balance analytics with subjectiveness in their scouting, Alderson said.
• Buck told fans he hopes Zack Wheeler can match Harvey’s success at the big league level.
• “I want to be in the spotlight,” Harvey said to the fans.
• Harvey said the lack of run support is out of his control and said, “my job is to put up zeros.”
• Gee was very disappointed in his early season performance, and knew he was letting people down.
• Collins said in the past, base running was instinctive, but now players need to be taught how to properly execute it.
• Harvey’s and Parnell’s favorite pitcher was John Smoltz, Gee liked Nolan Ryan and Buck followed Gary Carter.

Hat tip to Mets Bro on Twitter for the picture and curation…

Johan Santana has been rehabbing from shoulder surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, and is pleased with his progress to date, according to Dave Hutchinson of the Star Ledger.

“He’s doing the rehab thing with some therapist. His flexibility is good. He feels good about it. He told me after the first surgery he had at this particular stage he couldn’t even get his arm over his head,” Terry Collins said, according to Hutchinson.

Santana was diagnosed with a re-tear of the capsule in his left shoulder in late March and had surgery to repair his shoulder in early April. He is expected to miss the entire 2013 season.

Santana will earn $25.5 million in the final year of a six-year, $137.5 million contract he signed before the 2008 season. The Mets will also be responsible for paying the $5.5 million buyout of his 2014 option.

Since being inserted as the everyday second baseman last Tuesday, Jordany Valdespin is just 2-for-15 with no walks and three strikeouts – he is hitless in his last 12 at-bats dating back to his fifth inning single on Tuesday night.

“My swing is a little bit off because I didn’t play too much, but it’s coming. I work hard every day and it’s coming. A couple more at bats and we’ll see,” said Valdespin, according to the New York Post.

Overall, Valdespin is hitting .213 with a .274 OBP and .343 SLG, three home runs and 11 RBI in 117 plate appearances over 52 games this season.

“He’s going to get some playing time,” Terry Collins said after Friday’s lost to the Cubs. “When we sent Ike down we made the decision we’ve got to see what he’s got. We’ve got to make an intelligent decision on his progress and whether or not he’s an everyday player.’’

Valdespin is just 3-for-23 with a home run as a pinch hitter, and 6-for-31 with three home runs and nine RBI as a non-starter this season – he has swung at over 30 percent of pitches outside the strike zone overall in 2013.

Last night, Shaun Marcum allowed six runs in 5 2/3 innings to the Cubs – he fell to 0-8 with a 5.48 ERA in ten appearances and eight starts this season.

Marcum became the fourth pitcher in team history to start a season 0-8; Anthony Young was 0-13 to start 1993, Bob L. Miller was 0-12 to start the 1962 season while John Franco also began the 1998 season with an 0-8 record.

After the game, Terry Collins suggested Marcum’s spot in the rotation could be in jeopardy after the next turn through.

“When it comes down to the time to make the decision, certainly I’m not sure salary is going to have anything to do with it,” Collins explained. “I think we’re going to take the five guys that we need to make sure are the best five to go out there.”

Marcum signed a one-year, $4 million contract before the 2013 season with the ability to earn an additional $4 million in incentives.

Michael Baron, Contributor

Marcum has actually pitched much better recently compared to the way he started. His overall peripheral stats suggest he’s pitched into some bad luck as well, and the team has scored a total of 17 runs in his eight losses this season. That’s not to say he should keep his rotation spot by default, especially with the way both Dillon Gee and Jeremy Hefner have pitched over the last few weeks. And, he has shown an ability to pitch effectively in relief – that alone could make him a candidate to go to the bullpen regardless of how he performs.

The Mets, Braves and Nationals loss last night, while the Marlins and Phillies won.

To read about last night’s loss to the Cubs, check out this post on MetsBlog, as well as beat reports from MLB.com, the Wall Street Journal, Star-Ledger, Bergen Record, Journal News,ESPN New York, Newsday, the Daily News and New York Post.

The Mets will look to even their series with the Cubs this afternoon at Citi Field, with Jon Niese facing Scott Feldman at 1:10 pm.

The Least You Should Know…

For a full recap and box score, check out SNY.TV.

Michael Baron, Contributor

With the exception of the second inning, Marcum actually pitched pretty well tonight. He kept his pitch count down and did a nice job mixing his breaking in with his fastball and he had the Cubs off-balanced for most of the evening. Unfortunately, that bad inning gave an already anemic offense an uphill battle to deal with very early, something the Mets once again could not overcome.

Wright killed a chance for a huge inning with a base running mistake in the seventh inning. He attempted to take third base on Duda’s one out, RBI single but he was out by a wide margin. It’s unusual to see Wright make mental mistakes, but he was clearly trying to make something and happen and do too much in that situation. The thing is, when the offense is scuffling the way it is these days, these things just can’t happen. But, that’s the mark of a team which is 13 (and now 14) games under .500 and searching for answers.

I’m looking for something positive in all of these miserable games, but not only is there nothing good to talk about, but all these games seem exactly the same to me. They get no offense mostly everyday, and the pitching usually ends up blowing up in some fashion, be it with the rotation or the bullpen. It’s the same old song and dance day-after-day, and there’s 3 1/2 months left of the season. At least Zack Wheeler and later Travis d’Arnaud will create a little buzz around this team, but I find myself shaking my head and expecting absolutely nothing from this team nightly; they tend to play to those expectations regularly, which is really disgusting…

The Mets will look to even their series with the Cubs tomorrow afternoon at Citi Field, with Jon Niese facing Scott Feldman at 1:10 pm.

Dominic Smith – the Mets’ first selection in the 2013 first-year player draft – has completed his physical, and the two sides will soon finalize his deal, according to MetsBlog contributor Robert Brender.

Smith will report to Port St. Lucie and join the GCL Mets soon after he completes his agreement with the team.

The assigned value for the 11th overall pick in the draft is approximately $2.8 million.

In this MetsBlog Mailbag, pres. by Verizon, Matthew Cerrone tries to answer six questions in less than 60 seconds, quickly discussing topics from whether to trade Bobby Parnell to Wally Backman’s chances becoming manager one day to whether David Wright will end up in the All-Star game…