Mack - When Will We Finally See the Rebuilding of This Team Begin?

Well, it may be starting with the 2017 class on our DSL teams.

I have been covering Mets minor league baseball for over 15 years now and I have never seen the kind of stat lines that were produced last year by our two DSL teams. Sure, we have had good individual performances over the years, but 19 of them?

The DSL-2 team had the 2nd best BA in the league (.277) while the DSL-1 team was 11^th out of 40 teams (.251).

But it was pitching that stood out. The DSL-1 team led the 40-team league with a combined 2.42-ERA. The DSL-2 team was ranked 5^th (2.74).

Read this again… 2.42 and 2.74 TEAM ERAs.

Was this lucky? Did the Mets strike it gold in the recent International signings? Well, I can speak first hand about this because I follow it and there is more time and money being spent in this part of the baseball world.

Four signings stand out over the past three signing period:

           2015:

                       SS Gregory Guerrero                    $1.5mil

                       SS Andres Gimenez                       $1.2mil

2017:

                       SS Ronny Mauricio                      $2.1mil

                       SS Adrian Hernandez                   1.5mil

None of these four were on the 2017 teams, but look what we came away with at the end of the 2017 season?

Guerrero is off to a disappointing start (2017 GCL Mets: .217), but the 18/yr. old Gimenez is doing just fine this year for St. Lucie (.262). Remember… this is an 18/year old playing A+ ball.

As for Mauricio and Hernandez, neither have faced a professional pitcher. It is expected that they will play shortstop this season for both DSL Mets teams.

So what did our two DSL teams produce?

3B Yoel Romero (20/yrs. .364), 2B Luis Santana (18/yrs .325), CF Jhoander Saez (20/yrs .320), 1B David Lozano (20/yrs .313), SS Shervyen Newton (19/yrs. .311), 3B Jose Peroza (17/yrs. .300), C Willfred Astudillo (18/yrs. .291)

SPs Miguel Ramirez (21/yrs. 1.76), Jorge Cespedes (21/yrs 2.03), Malky Mena (21/yrs. 2.13), Willy Tavares (20/yrs 2.31)

RPs Miguel Pinedo (20/yrs. 0.47), Williams Valencia (17/yrs. 0.66), Jose Guerrero (22/yrs. 1.04), Ramon Guzman (21/yrs 1.25), Hector Rodriguez (20/yrs. 1.86), Jefferson Escorcha (18/yrs. 1.86), Nelmerson Xavier Angela (20/yrs 1.90), Gregori Advincola (20/yrs. 2.16)

It’s hard to project what percentage of these guys will make it to Queens, no less be successful there (cue Hansel Robles). Is 25% a fair and conservative projection?

Well, that’s somewhere between four or five from this team alone.

My guess is we will have two very successful short season teams, in Kingsport and St. Lucie (GCL Mets). Both these teams will be seeded with the best of what we produced last year ‘down under’.

So... will you have the patience for this to happen by. oh, let's see... 2022?