Mack Ade – AM Report – 9-5-13 – Top Players on Kingsport This Year, Dilson Herrera, Warren Spahn

Kingsport finished their season. There’s always a chance that every player could become a successful major league baseball player; however, in my opinion, these are the members of this year’s squad that stand out as potential stars of the game. They are:

 

Jeff McNeil – SS – 21-yrs old - .329/.413/.409/.822 – I’m not sure the original plan by the Mets was to have this guy their starting shortstop in Kingsport, but he earned it from day one. One caveat… he’s a left handed bat that just about platoons exclusively against righties (.343). He’ll have to expand his game eventually.

Amed Rosario – SS – 17-yr. old - .241/.279/.358/.637 – Had the most meh season of the two SS prospects on this team, but probably has the most bonus money in the bank. Led the team with 14 errors.  Got the lion share of platoon starts against lefties (.287) which is a pretty damn good number for a kid this age. Projection? He’s playing at a professional level at an age where someone in the United States would be a junior in… high school. There is absolutely no rush here, but you will see him in Brooklyn on opening day next April.

Pedro Perez – 3B – 19-yrs. old - .264/.314/.365/.679 – I’m not sure what the Mets have here. He’s off to a good start after have lower back problems last year. No one is standing in his way, so look for him to play Brooklyn next year.

Victor Cruzado – DH/OF  - .328/.421/.467/.888 – Cruzado was basically the everyday right fielder in July until he seems to have been hurt (very tough to get info out of here… thanks to Hobie for some info listed later in this post…).

Robert Whalen – RHSP – 19-yrs. old – 12-starts, 3-2, 1.87, 72.1-IP, 76-K, 17-BB - This is the first of two very exciting young starters. Whalen was a 12^th round pick in the 2012 draft and is a perfect example of the Sandy Alderson scouting system. Whalen wasn’t anywhere to be found on Baseball America’s top 500 list and he signed for the $100K slot money. Then, he simply has gone out and pitched his way into a Mets future. Hits the low 90s and simply throws a lot of strikes. He came to the Mets with basically one pitch (FB) so it will be interesting to see if he remains a starter next season. My guess is he goes to the Brooklyn pen.

Chris Flexen – RHSP – 18-yrs. old – 11-starts, 8-1, 2.09, 0.94, 69.0-IP, 62-K, 12-BB - Now, here might be the future. Flexen was a 14^th round pick in 2012 right out of high school. He was only ranked 306^th on the BA draft list that year. Signed for $374,400 which was damn good money. Has had an all-star season at an incredibly young age. His fastball now hits 95 and he has a slider, curve and changeup as well. There’s no reason to hold this kid back. I see him in the Savannah rotation on opening day 2014.

Ricardo Jacquez – RHRP – 20-yrs. old – 16-G, 2-0, 1.74, 20.2-IP, 33-K, 9-BB – Jacquez was a bad-ass that was thrown off the Texas Longhorns team and it looked like his baseball career was over. Then, the Mets drafted him in the 25^th round and gave him the opportunity to right the wrongs he did to himself. Well, it looks like it is working an it’s going to be hard to find a better 25^th rounder in any year. I expect the Mets to keep him close to ‘home’ by playing him in Brooklyn next spring. This could be the steal of the draft.

 

MLB Pipeline ‏@MLBPipeline  -  Top 25-30. No glaring flaws. @ChatteryMates where do you see Noah Syndergaard landing in you top 100? what does he still need to improve

 

Bernie Pleskoff –

At age 17, Dilson Herrera had an outstanding beginning to his career in the Venezuelan Summer League. He hit .308 that season in 260 plate appearances. Included in his 66 hits were two home runs, five triples, and 19 doubles. He drove in 27 runs and stole 16 bases. Making excellent contact, Herrera struck out only 40 times. In 2012 Herrera led the Gulf Coast Rookie League in extra-base hits and runs scored, once again showing the high quality of his offense. This season, Herrera spent most his time at Class A West Virginia in the South Atlantic League. He hit .265. In 479 plate appearances, Herrera hit 11 home runs and drove in 27 runs. He had 11 stolen bases. In his first seven games for the Mets' Class A affiliate in Savannah, he collected six hits and three stolen bases in 19 at-bats while scoring six times and driving in four runs. http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130903&content_id=59411048&vkey=news_nym&c_id=nym&tcid=tw_article_59411048

Mack – Sandy Alderson has this ability to add on a player to a trade that quickly becomes the projectable prospect. I’m sure Travis d’Arnaud was the principal player wanted in the R.A. Dickey deal, but it quickly became the ‘Thor-deal”. Now, Vic Black was obviously the primary player in the Byrd-Buck last minute trade, but Herrera looks like he’s going to develop into the second baseman the Mets have been looking for since Fonzie exited.

What also interesting is he was assigned to Savannah, the same level he was playing when he was with Pittsburgh. Trust me, at this age, the Mets would have had him either with the GCL Mets or with Kingsport.

Let’s see if this is the start of a new policy on prospect alignment.

 

Rob Neyer -

Warren Spahn lost that 16-inning marathon in ’63, but didn’t lose much else. His 23-7 record matched exactly his career best, from precisely a decade earlier; his 2.60 earned-run average was his lowest since ’53. He tied his career high with seven shutouts. He also led the National League in complete games for the seventh straight season. Did I mention that Spahn was 42? Still, there wasn’t any real reason to think he wouldn’t keep pitching well. Sure, no 43-year-old pitcher had ever done anything particularly brilliant before. But the same had been true of 42-year-old pitchers, until Spahn pitched brilliantly.

                Mack – So much for innings limits…