John Sickles featured yesterday his pre-season ranking of the New York Mets prospects http://www.minorleagueball.com/2013/8/2/4582092/new-york-mets-top-20-pre-season-prospects-in-review and it’s not who he ranked, but who he didn’t.
Strengthening what we have been saying here on the Mack’s Mets Report, there has to be ballplayers in every organization that simply never get the chance to prove they have the ability (or renewed ability) to play regularly at the major league level.
Look at who Sickles had below and of the prospect levels, last of which was C+:
OTHERS: Wuilmer Becerra, OF; Matt Bowman, RHP; Luis Cessa, RHP; Gonzalez Germen, RHP; Erik Goedell, RHP; Gilbert Gomez, OF; Darin Gorski, LHP; Matt Koch, RHP; Juan Lagares, Of; Vicente Lupo, OF; Steven Matz, LHP; Colin McHugh, RHP; Tyler Pill, RHP; Cesar Puello, OF; Aderlin Rodriguez, 3B; Ahmed Rosario, SS; Logan Taylor, RHP; Wilfredo Tovar, SS.
Next came a complete snubbing (and classless shot) of Cesar Puello:
The gaping hole in the pre-season list is Cesar Puello, of course, who was relegated to the Grade C/others section. I had seen him flail helplessly at too much breaking stuff to rate him more highly, even though I respected his tools. But here he sits at .328/.405/.550 with 24 steals in Double-A. Sometimes the tools guys figure it out. Of course, there's the little problem of Biogenesis. . .I don't know how you account for things like that.
Lastly, he comments on the progress now:
The big league team is 10 games under .500 and in rebuilding mode. They've gotten some use out of Juan Lagares, and Josh Satin has been great thus far. I didn't have him on this list, but in past years I've rated him as a sleeper to watch closely, as laid out in this Prospect of the Day article from last week. I don't think he's the long-term solution at first base but I think he can be a useful complementary player.
Couldn’t you just say ‘I fucked up’ regarding both Lagares and Satin and kudos to Germer while I’m at it?
I wanted to spend a few minutes on Mets prospect outfielder Brando Nimmo, who isn’t having the greatest year in Savannah. Nimmo has 100 strikeouts in 287 at bats at Savannah (A-level). He’s also 20 years old. My granddaughter is 20 years old and just completed her freshman year in college. A lot of the fans out in Met-land (and trust me, ALL of the Blog owners) expect these kids to be playing at a professional level… NOW. They’re 20 fucking years old! Do you honest think evaluating a 20-year old’s UZR, Dips, VORP, or xFIP is something you should be wasting your time with?
When I was in advertising, the chief ‘demographic’ advertising agencies based their media buys on was trying to reach ‘adults between the ages of 25-54’. I told this to one of my program director once and gave him pictures of a 25-year old female and a 54-year male. I asked him to bring me back a list of songs that both people would love to hear on a radio station. Obviously, the exercise ended there.
Adults 25-54 wasn’t a demographic, it was a family reunion. And a 20-year old playing baseball is far from a 27-year old seasoned veteran.
The one thing Sandy Alderson brought to this team was an emphasis on using early round draft picks on 18-year olds straight out of high school. The first thing I try to do is never quote anything they do during that same year after they sign a professional contract. You’re putting a teenage into a brand new world that is going to take some time to get used to (called ‘the grind’). That being said, the following are the guys that we’re really not going to know what you have until they turn around 22-23 years old. Will they make the grade? Are they the superstars the Mets brass projected them to be when they threw all that bonus money at them?
They are:
20-yr olds –
CF Brandon Nimmo – Savannah - .258
SP Michael Fulmer – St. Lucie – 1-3, 3.82
SP Robert Gsellman – Brooklyn – 2-2, 2.09
SS Phillip Evans – Savannah - .211
19-yrs. old –
SS Gavin Cecchini – Brooklyn - .215
2B Brian Kaupe – GCL Mets - .222
SP Corey Oswalt –Kingsport - 0-1, 3.46
C Tomas Nido – Brooklyn - .219
18-yrs. old –
1B Dominic Smith – GCL Mets - .245
SP Andrew Church – GCL Mets – 2-1, 4.76
CF Ivan Wilson – GCL Mets - .208
P Casey Meisner – GCL Mets - 1-2, 3.38
SS Luis Guillorme – GCL Mets - .269
We’ve applauded Sandy Alderson’s ability to make a trade… Zack Wheeler, Travis d’Arnaud, Eric Young Jr., Kyle Johnson… Kyle Johnson? Who the heck is Kyle Johnson?
Johnson was a Los Angeles Angels 25th round draft pick in 20102 out of Washington State. He was traded earlier this year to the Mets for opening day centerfielder Collin Cowgill.
Scouts loved Johnson. He’s a Lenny Dykstra-type all-or-nothing speedster with excellent upside, the kind of ceiling and tools that Cowgill never came close to having. He played high school in a small Idaho town and went on to the Pac-12 Washington State, where he had trouble getting on the field due to the fact that the team also had players like Jared Prince, Jason Monda, Patrick Claussen, and Derek Jones in their outfield.
Johnson refocused his game by making is mark in summer ball, being named to the All-WCL First Team in 2009 and earning All-Star honors in the New England Collegiate Baseball League. In both of those years, he led the circuit in steals.
He finally became a starter as a senior and shined: .309/.408/.401/.809, 17-SB.’s a typical Alderson-Moneyball type OBP guy that will do anything it takes to get on base. At the time of the trade he ranked 4th in the Midwest League in stolen bases (30) and 8th in walks (38). Scouts already project him as a speedy utility outfielder in the majors with compaisons that range from Reggie Willits to Angel Pagan.
As a Met, Johnson started slowly for Savannah (27-AB, .185) but was promoted to St. Lucie due to a slot opened due to injuries. Through 8-1, he’s hitting .253 (83-AB) with a .318 OBP and seven steals. Naturally, he’s the new Lucy leadoff hitter.
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