Mack’s Apples – Jacob deGrom, Adrian Hernandez, Tre Todd, Casey Mise, Tim Tebow

Fangraphs on Jacob deGrom –

       

    Since his emergence amid the Matt Harvey-less void in 2014, deGrom has been the rock of the Mets’ rotation, making 114 starts, 19 more than any other Met (Bartolo Colon is second) and compiling 18.0 WAR, exactly as much as the more celebrated and controversial Harvey (5.8) and Noah Syndergaard (12.2) combined. He did his time on the DL in late 2016 due to an ulnar nerve problem that required surgery, but other than that, his availability has rarely been a concern.

Fangraphs   Top 18 Mets Prospects -

        16. Adrian Hernandez, OF

       Signed: July 2nd Period, 2017 from Dominican Republic

      Age   17       Height           5’9      Weight          210     Bat/Throw   R/R

     

        Tool Grades (Present/Future)

          Hit     Raw Power     Game Power    Run    Fielding    Throw

          30/45      50/55              20/50            55/50      40/50      50/50

Hernandez is a power/speed corner-outfield prospect who signed for $1.5 million. His frame is less projectable than the typical IFA signee, but he’ll likely add strength as he matures and already has natural lift in his swing that could result in big pull power. He’s an above-average runner, and scouts think the combination of speed and instincts might lead to 40/45 defense in center field or 50/55 defense in a corner.

Draft Prospects Trending up   -

    

       Tre Todd (Liberty) - Todd is on a mean streak and just this past weekend he hit 3 home runs and a triple. The 6’1 catcher/LF has pushed his average back up to .348. He also has an insane 30% walk rate. On defense he has NOT committed an error yet and only 1 runner has attempted to steal a base, in which they were successful (please note there are 2 other catchers on the team with more innings caught than Todd).

Baseball America’s Top 500 Prospects -

       

    1 – Last: 1 - Casey Mize  School: Auburn

Ht: 6-3 | Wt: 208 | B-T: R-R | Committed/Drafted: Never Drafted

Scouting Report: Mize has established himself as the top player in the 2018 draft class thanks to a deep and talented repertoire that is made mostly of 60-grade or better offerings and exceptional control that allowed him to lead all college pitchers with a 12.11 strikeout-to-walk ratio as a sophomore in 2017. Through 10 starts this spring, the 6-foot-3, 220-pound righthander had improved his K/BB to a ridiculous 15.67 mark with a 2.25 ERA in 68 innings. Mize pitches off of a fastball that gets up to 97 mph but sits in the 93-95 range and a 70-grade splitter that’s among the best offspeed offerings in the country. Typically a difficult pitch to control, even for professional pitchers, Mize locates the 86-89 mph splitter remarkably well, with powerful downward action. He also has a slider that is in the mid- to upper 80s that he’s thrown with a different grip this spring than he had on previous occasions. He has two variations of the slider—one that is more firm and used as an out pitch and another that’s softer with more of a curveball shape and used as a get-me-over strike. He has also added a cutter to his repertoire this spring that’s in the 88-91 mph range and scouts have already graded it as a plus offering. On top of all of that, Mize also throws a slower changeup from a different grip than his power splitter, which falls in the low 80s with fade and sink. While technically he has a four-pitch mix, the variations to the splitter and slider give him six different offerings to attack hitters, each of which grade out as plus offerings for most scouts, headlined by the plus-plus splitter. The stuff, pitchability and performance give Mize the ceiling of a future ace, with his medical history being the only knock on his resume. Mize was shutdown with forearm issues during the spring and summer of 2017 and has had trouble staying healthy dating back to his time as a high school prospect in Springville, Ala. He’s avoided injury issues the spring of his junior year, however, and if he continues to make his starts and nothing crazy shows up in his medical this June, he should be the first player off the board.

Tim Tebow Comes To Hartford: Baseball Has Long Been Fascinated With Football Heroes –

        

   “I’ve never looked at him as a football player,” Mets general manager Sandy Alderson told The Courant this week. “I certainly recognize that he is a celebrity. Perhaps the grit, the determination shows through in baseball, but I’ve never thought about him being a football player in terms of what that all means in terms of success or failure.”