Mack's Apples – Peter Alonso, Arkansas Prospects, Minor League Disgrace, Mack’s Sensitive People, 21-pitch at-bat

Fangraphs   Top 18 Mets Prospects -

          7. Peter Alonso, 1B

          Drafted: 2nd Round, 2016 from Florida

          Age   22       Height           6’3      Weight          245     Bat/Throw   R/R

         Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Hit            Raw Power  Game Power           Run    Fielding        Throw

40/50           60/60             40/55                 30/30      40/40          50/50

Alonso’s combiantion of hit and power (his exit velos are crazy) give him everyday upside at first base. Right/right college first basemen don’t typically work out (this century’s list of guys who have done nothing but play first since day one on campus and done well in MLB is Paul Goldschmidt, Rhys Hoskins, Eric Karros, and that’s it), and scouts have concerns about Alonso’s defense and conditioning. He looks heavy again this spring. He slashed .280/.360/.520 in the FSL last year; if Alonso does that again at Double-A this season, he’ll have convinced a lot of people that the perceived negatives don’t matter and that he’s going to hit enough to be an everyday first baseman.

Arkansas Prospects -

       

 The Razorbacks are maybe the most interesting team in the SEC and perhaps even in college baseball as a whole, going from unranked earlier in the season to a top-five national ranking. They’re getting a boost from injured pitchers returning to their staff like draft-eligible redshirt sophomore Isaiah Campbell, but the big name here is Blaine Knight, who Baseball America lists as their sixth-best college righthander and MLB.com has as the 46th-best prospect available. Long reliever Jake Reindl is also one of the better bullpen arms available. On the position player side, the most well-regarded name is probably junior Grant Koch, who had a strong summer for Team USA and projects to be one of the best college backstops available in the draft.

The Disgrace of Minor League Baseball –

         

  For years, MLB teams have played games with prospects’ service time, but the Bryant affair was a tipping point in terms of public acknowledgement, and yet nothing changed. Before this season, the Phillies only promoted Scott Kingery after he signed an extension that gives away his first three years of free agency, while Braves center fielder Ronald Acuña, the no. 2 prospect on the FanGraphs top 100 and someone who’d never met a professional league he hadn’t destroyed, did not break camp with the big league club. Now, after two weeks, Acuña’s still at Triple-A Gwinnett, working on some issue that might magically be fixed in the third week of June, when he’ll have stayed long enough in the minors to prevent him from earning another year of salary arbitration.

Baseball is for sensitive people   -

         

  Last night, Houston Astros pitcher Justin Verlander joined Club Snowflake, when he took exception to White Sox third baseman Tim Anderson broke up his no-hitter in the fifth inning (there should be an “unwritten rule about thinking no-hitters in the fifth inning are a big deal), celebrated and then stole second in a 5-to-0 game.

Giants' Belt has milestone 21-pitch at-bat –

        

   San Francisco’s Brandon Belt had a 21-pitch at-bat in an epic showdown with Los Angeles Angels rookie pitcher Jaime Barria in the first inning Sunday, the most pitches faced since records began being kept in 1988. The previous high was 20, when Houston’s Ricky Gutierrez struck out against Cleveland’s Bartolo Colon on June 26, 1998, according to Retrosheet.

Belt fouled off 11 straight pitches before flying out. Belt was greeted with high-fives when he returned to the dugout after his at-bat lasted 12 minutes, 52 seconds.