Stuff – Vincente Lupo, Danny Muno, Jack Leathersich, Lance McCullers Jr., John Henry

Vincente Lupo

The Mets have an actual, positively genuine outfield prospect. The problem he’s at least four years away. Vincente Lupo is an 18-year old hitting machine that is ranked in just about every top five offensive categories anyone has come up with. We all know far too little about these kids playing way down south and I give the Mets a lot of credit not rushing him; however, I do expect to see him play with Savannah next year for a full season. He’s second in the league in homers (nobody hits home runs down there) and his stat line Tuesday was: .349/.492/.629/1.121. Really? 

Danny Muno

Frankly, I’m very impressed here. I was never that excited about his big numbers in Brooklyn (2011 - .355) because of the age he played there. Then came the stupid 50-game suspension and I thought we had seen the last of this guy. Well, we haven’t. He’s still playing SS, hit his 6^th home run of the season and going into Tuesday’s game with a stat line of: .274/.369/.406/.775. I especially love the 35-BB in 234-official at bats and only 39-K. For the hell of it, he produced four hits tonight while I was writing this (up to .286).

I can’t see Muno having any future with the Mets at short, though there is no one in his way next spring there or at second base in AA. I’m adding Muno to my ‘blue’ list and admitting I had this kid wrong.  

Jack Leathersich

We got a live one in St. Lucie. 5-11, 205, 22-year old Jack Leathersich has now thrown… get ready… 106 strikeouts in 66.1 innings. ‘Leather’ totally dominated Savannah in the spring 0.75, 24.0-IP, 37-K, but the strikeout machine is continuing at the A+ level, with an additional 64-K in 40.1-IP. I’ve met Jack and seen him pitch and he’s quite the bully on the mound. He comes off much older and I can’t see him having any trouble getting to Queens before the 2013 season ends. Once again… 106 strikeouts in 66.1 innings. This is very special folks and Jack is definitely a member of the ‘red’ list.

Lance McCullers Jr.

I saw this on a Houston blog this morning:

RHP Lance McCullers - At 18, supplemental first round pick McCullers is the youngest of the group and he has yet to win his first professional game, but with a 1.42 ERA and a 1.053 WHIP, it's only a matter of time. After four starts with the GCL team, McCullers was promoted to Greeneville where he's made two additional starts. Batters are hitting only .186 against him.

(The Mets drafted BOTH Cecchini and Plawecki with McCullers still available)

The Mets drafted BOTH SS Gavin Cecchini and C Kevin Plawecki with McCullers still on the board. By the way, McCulllers high school ERA in his senior year: 0.18. Cecchini is ready impressing no one in Kingsport and, while Plawecki is showing some promise, one has to wonder how a sure fire pick like this was passed over.

John Henry

I worked for a guy like Boston Red Sox owner John Henry. The holder of the major note for two Savannah radio stations ‘hired’ me to turnaround a situation in which the broadcast-minority owner, had run the stations into the ground under an incompetent General Manager. I had to fly to Boston and meet with both of them and the broadcast dude, Bill McCormick, wanted nothing to do with me; however, it wasn’t his call. In return, McCormick made me address to the staff on the first day at the radio stations my dependency problems, even though I had been sober for 16 years. Nice way to start a job (note: turned stations around in 2.5 years, produced $440K PCF, and sold stations to Dick Verne (ex-President of NBC who hired Howard Stern) and I remained for three more years as minority partner). Bobby V should tell these guys to go fuck themselves at the end of the year and go replace Fareed Zakaria on CNN.