Mack’s Morning Report – 11/23 – Dustin Lawley, Chris Young, ‘Player Evaluation By Position’ – SS

 

Dustin Lawley –

Dustin Lawley, St. Lucie (122 games), Las Vegas (six games): After two solid seasons in the system, Lawley exploded in 2013, leading the organization with 26 homers and 96 RBIs. The 24-year-old batted .262, earned Florida State League All-Star honors and ended up being named the league's Player of the Year as well. "It was a big, big year," DePodesta said. "He didn't come with a lot of fanfare, he was a senior sign in 2011. Last year, he went to Savannah and had a very good year but was obscured a little by the ballpark. Then he goes to St. Lucie this year and had a monster year -- 25 homers there, went to Vegas and hit a few more. "He hits the ball extraordinarily hard, he's super strong, he also plays third base. He's a good athlete, he really does move well defensively. He's a legitimate right-handed power bat, which can be hard to find." http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20131121&content_id=63739820&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb&tcid=tw_share

Mack – I’m a big fan of Lawley which begins with the fact that we have met and I like him. He survived his time in Grayson Stadium and he’s now putting up the kind of power numbers that Chris Young would be proud of. He managed to get in 20 at-bats in Las Vegas (.300) due to injuries on other outfielders and the assumption is he will open there in 2014. The career .805 OPS is impressive, but also remember only 287 strikeouts in 1,214 at bats.  

Chris Young –

Defensively Young played to a Gold glove caliber level in his last two season in Arizona with an UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating – the closest thing to a definitive catch all defensive stat) of 15.9 in 2011 and 10.00 in 2012 before seeing it plummet to league average with a UZR of 0.2 in 2013. for the duration of his time in Arizona, Young played solely in Center field before spending time in all three outfield positions this past year. young played 381 full innings in center with 164 and 194 innings in left field and right field respectively. Youngs outfield defense cost the A’s 6 runs more than the average player in 2013. His arm strength was an issue again in 2013 as his lack of arm strength allowed 2.2 more runs than average. Young’s arm has never one of his strengths (no pun intended) with -6.8 run allowed overall due to his arm in his career. http://nymetsnow.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/could-chris-young-bring-any-value/

Mack – Look, I don’t like this signing, but I’ll wait it out and see what the final Mets outfield looks like on opening day. He had two shit years in 2012-2013, but he produced 116 home runs and 357 runs batted in during the five seasons before that… and, he’s only 30-years old.

 Player Evaluations -

The series continues with shortstop.

Queens wise, everything is up in the air. Omar Quintanilla is holding down the off-season fort while Ruben Tejada’s broken leg heals. Past that, who the heck knows.

It’s no big secret that Tejada and Sandy and Company aren’t having Thanksgiving dinner together. I though the Mets would have already signed Jhonny Peralta by now (yes, it is early, but this was supposed to get done early) but things are now hung up on the amount of years Peralta wants.

We don’t include ‘maybes’ in these position evaluations, so we are limited on who is currently on the team. The Mets themselves list their depth chart at short as Tejada, Quintanilla, and Wilfredo Tovar.

In Las Vegas, I have Tovar (Bing: .263, Mets: 15-AB, .200) and Rylan Sandoval (Vegas: 110-AB, .327). Tovar could possibly be the backup in Queens but my guess is that would only happen if Tejada replaces him in Vegas and the Mets go outside the organization for their starter. Sandoval is a utility AAAA player at best.

I’ve got Matt Reynolds playing Binghamton though he didn’t set the world on fire last year for St. Lucie (433-AB, .226). Frankly, he’s the only shortstop in the organization ready to play at this level.

St. Lucie is a guess right now. On paper, Gavin Cecchini (Brooklyn, .273) would go to Savannah, but Amed Rosario (Kingsport, .241) impressed scouts and Cecchini’s old enough to make the two level jump to Florida. Both don’t ETA until at least OD 2017 so the Mets would need someone here for three years (hint), not two.

Rosario could be backed up in Savannah by either Anthony Chavez (Brooklyn, .201) or Dimas Ponce (Savannah, .198).

But we’re not done yet and one of the interesting battles looks to be Brooklyn where two players, 12^th round draft pick Jeff McNeil (Kingsport: .329) and Victor Cruzado (Kingsport: .328), had a great 2013.

Luis Guillorme (GCL: .258) probably earned his Kingsport wings and will be backed up by Jean Rodriquez.

Past that could be some more middle infield excitement someday. Sandy and Company have secured for the future Alfredo Reyes (DSL2: .316), Yeffry de Aza (signed in July 2013 for $475K), and Luis Carpio (30^th ranked Int’l SS signed July 2013 for $300K). Look for Reyes to come stateside for the GCL team while de Aza and Carpio play for the two DSL teams.

Summation: Lots of young projectable talent here that should result in a genuine every day star by 2017. Maybe two.

Grade – B+