Mack’s Apples – Marcos Molina, Joey Bart, Mets Selling, The Shift, Baseball Is Dead

Fangraphs   Top 18 Mets Prospects -

       12. Marcos Molina, RHP

       Signed: July 2nd Period, 2012 from Dominican Republic

        Age   23       Height           6’3      Weight          188     Bat/Throw   R/R

       Tool Grades (Present/Future)

        Fastball    Slider  Curveball   Changeup    Cutter          Command

           60/60      60/60     40/40            45/50        45/50               40/45

Molina rehabbed from TJ in 2016, then picked up a few innings of work in the Arizona Fall League. In 2017, he threw 106 pretty efficient innings split between High- and Double-A. His velocity was in the 90-91 range, touching 94. That was down from the 92-94 he showed (touching 96) in the 2016 AFL. Molina’s kitchen-sink repertoire and strike-throwing ability would fit in a rotation, but his injury history and violent delivery make relief a real possibility. The best of his wide array of secondaries is a nasty mid-80s slider. An uptick in velocity out of the bullpen and singular focus on that slider might make Molina a late-inning reliever. He has big-league stuff and is likely to debut this year when a Mets need someone to take the ball, but it’s unclear what kind of role he’s going to play long term.

College player stock 

trending up -

         

  Joey Bart (Georgia Tech) - At the beginning of the season, Joey Bart was seen as the best catcher in the draft and a 1st round pick. Now he’s making the case to be a top 10 pick. He’s displayed hitting (.376 avg), power (12 HRs), arm (53% CS%) and defense (.994 FLD%). His pop times of 1.85-1.90 would put him top 5 in MLB today. Everything is going right for Bart.

The Mets are selling shares  again following grim report on Citi Field revenues –

         

  The stadium’s prospects are not looking good for this season and beyond, and, by extension, perhaps not for the New York Mets either.

S&P Global predicts the stadium will make very little revenue while operating costs rise, according to Forbes. The report also forecasts costs will increase by 2 percent annually until 2035.

Unaudited documents obtained by Forbes, however, show revenues have been rising since 2015 when The Mets made it to the World Series: Citi Field’s overall revenue in 2016 was more than $167 million, 10 percent more than the year before.

The Shift has given the shaft to our enjoyment of baseball –

        

   Go to a baseball game now and you can expect dozens of swings and misses, would-be base hits that become easy infield outs, the total inability to put a ball into play when it matters, home runs or nothing, and stupidity.

People walk out of bad movies. Why would anyone want to consistently watch this crap? It is not — not — entertaining, unless you’re a direct descendant of Marquis de Sade. Baseball never was meant to be painful.

Major League Baseball Is Dead, As You Know It –

          

  This is not on baseball. What has changed is the times around baseball. Simply put, distractions are everywhere and attention spans have waned. From concerts where artists are beginning to make you check your smartphone in so that it forces fans to actually watch the show, to movie theaters reminding you to silence your phone, the culture is now one of on-demand and instant gratification.