Mack’s Apples – Mark Vientos, Brandon Nimmo, 142 Game Schedule, Boy Hit by Baseball, Vance Worley

Fangraphs   Top 18 Mets Prospects -

6.       Mark Vientos, 3B 

         Drafted: 2nd Round, 2017 from American Heritage (FL)

         Age   17       Height           6’4      Weight          185     Bat/Throw   R/R

              Tool Grades (Present/Future)

      Hit     Raw Power  Game Power           Run    Fielding        Throw

      20/45      50/60              20/55               30/30      30/50         55/60

For some, Vientos is a shortstop with big power projection. For others, he’s a third baseman with swing-and-miss issues. In either case, he checks a lot of boxes for a top amateur prospect and was given a $1.5 million bonus as New York’s second-round pick in 2017. Vientos was one of the youngest players available in the draft and won’t turn 19 until December. He also has broad, tapered shoulders outlining his prototypical 6-foot-4 frame and is likely to grow into considerable raw power as he fills out.

On the other hand, Vientos is already a 30 runner, and his lever length creates swing-and-miss issues. Some national scouts who have been watching Vientos play since he was an underclassman have never seen him do anything that would lead them to get as excited as other evaluators have been about Vientos for almost five years now. There’s inarguably huge upside here if everything comes together, but Vientos is pretty polarizing.

5 eye-catching April performances –

        

    3. Brandon Nimmo, .612 xwOBA, best in baseball - Nimmo has only had 27 plate appearances in the crowded Mets outfield picture, but the entire point here is to highlight interesting small sample numbers and what they might mean. He's not going to keep hitting .333/.481/.714, of course, nor is he going to keep leading the entire sport in Expected wOBA, as he's doing now.

But we knew Nimmo had showed an elite line-drive rate, a potentially elite batting eye and above-average speed. So far, he's got four barrels, the best possible combination of exit velocity and launch angle, and 15.4 percent of his plate appearances have ended in a barrel -- a top-five rate in MLB.

Major League Baseball would be better, and less vulnerable to weather, with 142-game season –

        

   I realize reducing the schedule by 20 games is something akin to heresy. The major-league season has been 162 games for 50-plus years now, the one constant as baseball has added the designated hitter, seen the Montreal Expos come and go and endured a strike that nearly brought the game to its knees.

It also will cost owners and players money, be it TV and ad revenues or ticket sales. 

But the season is too long, and the game is being hurt as a result.

Missouri university to financially help boy hit by baseball –

        

   Officials at Missouri Southern State University are working to help cover medical expenses for the family of a 7-year-old boy who was severely injured watching a baseball game.

The Joplin Globe reports that Dawson Hirshey of Diamond was struck in the head by a line-drive foul ball on Friday while sitting in the stands at Joe Becker Stadium.

The Mets signed 30-year old veteran pitcher, Vance Worley, to a minor league

contract. He was assigned to Extended Camp, though I expect he will become starter filler in Las Vegas post haste.

           Worley’s best year was a long time ago… 2011, 11-3, 3.01 for the Phillies.

           One of his worst was last season for Miami: 24-G, 12-ST, 2-6, 6.91, 1.80