Mack's Apples - 11-5 Extra - Winter Stats, Hot Stove Thoughts, Kevin Kaczmarski, Carter Stewart

Good morning.

Sunday is a good day to keep a look see at what’s going on in the winter leaves and, frankly, it’s all about Mets pitching over there. Looks at these impressive numbers through last night –

            

            

Matt Pobereyko – AFL:    6-G, 8.2-IP, 0.00, 0.69, 11-K

            Mickey Jannis – AFL:        4-starts, 17.0-IP, 0.53, 0.65, 14-K

            Kyle Regnault – AFL:        6-G, 9.2-IP, 0.93, 0.93, 13-K

            Enderson Franco – LVBP:   13-G, 15.0-IP, 1.20, 12-K

            Tim Peterson – AFL:          5-G, 7.1-IP, 1.23, 0.95, 4-K

But we got hitters too…

           

Gustavo Nunez – LIDOM:  .484/.500/.484/984

Kevin Kaczmarski – AFL:   .375/.426/.482/908

Luis Guillorme – AFL:        .324/.343/.382/725

David Thompson – AFL:   .311/.340/.533/874

I’m being asked what I think of the Mets’ Hot Stove effort so far this off-season.

   1.     Even though there has been no major new addition on this team… yet… I think the Mets are off to a good start. They have changed their manager, revamped their coaching staff, and upped up a few key players to round out the 2018 roster.

   2.     Phillip Evans, Jerry Blevens, and Astrubel Cabrera will have to buy a ticket to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but they still are good additions for a team in tradition. Evans can shore up shortstop in Las Vegas, allowing Luis Guillorme to continue to grow at second… Blevens will continue his 7^th inning relieve role that he has mastered these last two seasons… and Cabrera replaced Jose Reyes as the Jack Of All Trades in the infield.

3.     You need 40 ballplayers to build a team. Evans, Blevens, and Cabrera are perfect members of that ‘team’.

I’m getting a considerable amount of ‘source chatter’ on Mets prospect outfielder, Kevin Kaczmarski.

The 25-year old had a decent season last year for Binghamton… 452-AB, .274/.371/.369/740, 18-doubles, 5-HR, 52-RBIs… and is projected to start the 2018 season as one of the Las Vegas corner outfielders.

 I’m being told that we should never expect much power here, but he has all the other assets needed to make it someday to the show. ‘Kacz’ is a contact spray hitter who plays excellent defense and has a cannon arm. He also has the speed to run and steal a few bases (15 last season).

I’m also being told by multiple sources that this guy will be seen in Queens come September.

 Carter Stewart -

Carter Stewart, one of the most interesting prep arms in the class, thrives off of this trait.

Many star pitchers have the ability to blow that ball by guys, getting them to fear the fastball and getting ugly swings on everything else as batter try to adjust. Stewart, on the other hand, is a true pitcher. The master of one of a curveball with the highest spin rate in the class, evaluators call his ability to use the offering elite and have bestowed upon it the title of the best breaking ball of anyone available to clubs this June.