Tom
Brennan - LEFTY LASHERS
The Mets certainly have their share of LEFTY
LASHERS on the Mother Ship in Queens.
Big, bad (but surely great in 2017) Lucas Duda;
young Michael Conforto: bags-packed Jay Bruce;
gent's gent Curtis Granderson; and switch hitters in Asdrubal
Cabrera, Neil Walker, and former batting champ Jose Reyes,
who hit lefty most of the time. That is a lot of LEFTY hitters. Not to
mention thunderous Noah Syndergaard.
Not sure when the Mets over the years had as many
lefties as this...are they planning to install a Yankee Stadium porch or
something? Might want to, and call it something original like Kiners
Korner.
But this article is not about the majors guys.
Instead, it asks if there are up-and-comers who swing from the right
side of the plate and thus earn the honor (which I share) of being called
a LEFTY. I guess lefties are in their right minds and also hit from
the right side...I get it now.
Anyway, yes, we have minors lefty bats Here's
the best:
Brandon Nimmo
- won the triple A batting title....whoops, TJ Rivera edged him
out by a point by going 9 for 16 over his last 3 games. But Nimmo did win
the LEFTY AAA batting title at .352, and also hit a low power .274 in
limited action in Queens. Will he get much of a chance in the bigs on a 2017
team crowded with LEFTY hitters, and if he does, will he do well? Hope he
plays like a very successful 1st round pick. His limited power to date may
limit his career if not altered.
Dominic Smith
- a first rounder two years after Nimmo, he has progressed nicely in most
respects, including upping the HR quotient of his power game in
2016.
He hit .302/.367/.457 as a guy who turned just 21
last June, with a nice 91 ribbies in 130 contests. According to his
stats, he has achieved parity with current Met 1B Duda in one unfortunate
respect...250 pounds. At his listed 6'0" height, that is a bit
unsettling. Maybe Weight Watchers needs to send Las Vegas an eating
coach?
Kevin
Kacsmarski - after only one short season and one full season
in the minors KK has already just turned 25 on New Years eve, so he needs to
fire it up in 2017. In 175 minor league games so far, a Nimmo-like
.309/.381/.451. but just 6 long balls. But those 670 at bats include 47
doubles, 15 triples, and 34 steals.
Seems like a future utility major leaguer in
progress to me, but let's see if he can stun us in 2017. Oh, and just 2
errors, with 10 assists, as an OF in 170 games out there, which is terrific for
a minors guy.
Pat Biondi of
St Lucie is 25, 10 days younger than KK, and is a very speedy, very low power
guy who hit .27I with a .352 OBP in 2016 in 99 games. My feeling is there is
not enough stick to get Pat to the bigs, but maybe he surges in 2017 and
changes minds.
Luis
Guillorme - the powerless (one career HR) defensive SS whiz
regressed to modest levels of offense after his promotion to St Lucie in 2016
after his MVP season in Savannah in 2015. A boost in the bat going
forward could land him a utility IF spot in the bigs someday.
Pat Mazelka
- the lefty hitting catcher, who will play as a 23 year old in 2017, has
impressed in the same 1 1/2 year time span as Kevin K, with Pat putting up a
.329 career minors average so far, with decent pop and excellent contact.
Patrick only made as far as Columbia in
2016 because he missed a good chunk of time with an injury and (righty) Tomas Nido
blocked him in St Lucie. Both will undoubtedly move up a level; it is nice to
have 2 fine hitting catchers in the system below Kevin Plawecki.
Dash
Winningham just turned 21, and 2017 is time to show if he
will be a mediocre minors power bat, or start to accelerate. With Columbia in A
ball in 2016, Dash had 31 doubles and 12 homers in 465 at bats...but hit just
.234. Hoping for a big year from the big 1B in 2017.
His 3 steals in 243 games indicates that the name
is not descriptive of that aspect of his game. However, his 29 career homers in
under 1000 at bats IS impressive.
Ricardo
Cespedes - the teen idol had a fine year in 2016 in
Kingsport rookie ball (56 G, .322/.356/.379). He'll only turn 20 at the
end of the 2017 season. One to really watch.
Anthony Dimino
– WHO? Well, he hit a very nice .325/.437/.410 in 37
games as a catcher in the Gulf Coast league, so let’s add him here, just to
acknowledge a good job in 2016. He is
already, though, a 23 year old who did a lousy job throwing guys out in 2016,
but let’s toss him in the mix just to get him on the outer reaches of our radar
system.
Andres
Giminez - the SS played the entire DSL season as a 17 year
old and killed it, with a .350/.469/.523 in 69 games. Let's hope he is a
future super duper star.
Hope
none of your LEFTY favorites were LEFT off my list.
Overall, some good signs of hope from the LEFTY
hitters down under, in terms of future help for the Mother Ship.
If you missed it, look up my last
article: RIGHTY RIPPERS.
8 comments:
Tom -
Morning.
I have seen so many minor leaguers over the years hit .300+ at the lower levels... come back to me when someone hits .300+ at 20-years old or younger in AA... THEN you caught my attention.
For me, the only lefty lasher... right now... in the pipeline is Smith, who I no longer care if he hits 15+ home runs. I would be thrilled to have a Golden Glove first baseman that hits like Keith Hernandez
I would like to see them play some defense at various positions. However, speed and defense don't seem to be high priorities to this organization.
Mack and Reese, I am with you both on your comments.
We have one current bona fide lefty prospect (Smith) in this group until either the older ones do something spectacular (e.g., Nimmo and Kacsmarski at least doubling their home run output - tripling it would work a lot better - for them and us) or young guys like Ricardo Cespedes and DSL star Andres Giminez show they can hit really well at higher levels.
With regard to the highly regarded Giminez, DSL stats are almost meaningless. I liked Vicente Lupo in his DSL hitting spree year about 4 years ago, but he just bombed out in the states, a strikeout disaster, so I take DSL performance with 1000 grains of salt. At least Cespedes did it in the states. Hopefully he is the real deal - we need two guys someday named Cespedes in our OF.
I do like Mazelka a lot - this is the year for him to show that our liking him is warranted. I have a feeling that if he had been healthy all last season, he'd have gotten far more attention. STAY HEALTHY IN 2017 and tear the cover off the ball
I always used to tell people to go to www.milb.com and find the page that has the league leaders each year for the DSL... go back 5.. 10... 15 years and click on the leaders in hitting... then click on the HR or the BA... the guy on the top NEVER MADE IT ANYWHERE... he was probably 5 years older that reported and didn't even use his real name. Or he was hitting against pitchers that couldn't get me out in stickball even now. It's a shit league in a shit country. There is no way to clean this up (i.e.shitty).
Agreed. Giminez the best of a group of CYO weekend players
I sometimes agree with Alderson and the Mets plan not to invest a lot of bonus money on these DSL kids. All the street talent is funneled into playing shortstop. Very few are big enough to be a potential power hitter.
Ain't that the truth. Shortstops by the Dozen.
There is all the talk about how deep we are at SS...But who are you excited about... Ok Rosario is the Future... and may be a 7 year player... But there is an impression that we have a fab 5 of SS...
Cecchini... we hope he pans out as a 2B... and then we don't expect Ryan sandberg, robbie alomar or Joe Morgan...
Carpio? Reynolds? Evans? Muno? None Scream Future starter we hope they are utility player...
SO Spend on these Bonus kids... and the big ones... the ones that go to the Cubs, oakland, red sox, Dodgers...
the money seems high but the investment even if you miss is low... Its billionaires spending then same as you and I in the hundred...
Just for the record I am excited for Gimenez... I believe the stars shine... at 17 what are you suppose to do...
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