5/3/18

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 

         
  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.


8 comments:

Eddie from Corona said...

Mack with Barts rise is he a viable option for us... Would you be happy with him?

Tom Brennan said...

Eddie, Molina has not pitched well this year, including last night. I want guys to show they can dominate. Flexen and Oswalt are definitely ahead of him, and in a pinch Drew Gagnon too. Probably even PJ Conlon.

Tom Brennan said...

The NBA has its 3 point lane to prevent a million blocked shots. Hits lost to the shift are ridiculous.

I would not let teams shift more than 2 guys on either side of the infield until the pitch is released. So, the SS would have to keep both feet on the left side of the IF until the pitch. That is still a shift, but not as severe.

Mack Ade said...

Eddie -

Yes, I would.

He has excellent pop and power and he is a decent defensive catcher as well.

Anonymous said...

This Joey Bart Simpson sounds like the real deal.

It has almost gotten to the point, where I have totally forgotten what a really good offensive power hitting catcher even looks like in a Mets uniform.

In the upcoming draft...

Would it be entirely precocious of me to say..."Just draft a couple of left handed starters so that Boston does not monopolize the left handed pitcher market again. They have like four decent left handed starters right now in their rotation, with two more good ones getting ready in AAA Beeks and Groome."

Tom Brennan said...

Anonymous, as a lefty, I say you can never have enough great lefties (that's why Mack signed me LOL).

But we do have Matz (we'll know soon enough if he is back as a Dream Teamer, or a suspect or reject).

We also have David Peterson, Anthony Kay, and next year (hopefully) a 100% Tom Szapucki. All 3 are high end and could show up in 2020.

Throw Conlon in too, more or less ready this year.

And that ain't bad. At all.

Anonymous said...

Very funny Tom. I have no hands. Rub it in why don't you! I have to sit here with a damn pencil between my teeth, press the keyboard buttons, and it takes five hours just to write a posting this long!

Good one!

Anonymous said...

Was that a good one or not above! God, I love good humor!

The post today regarding the Mets 25-man roster upgrade I contemplated over the weekend between strip clubs. No I don't dance either.

But anyway, I spent a lot of thinking on it. Many will just gloss it over probably, but it has a nice balance with veteran and younger players. I think this team is just a little bit too old overall.

All the players going down to AAA or AA kind of need to. If there name isn't on this 25-man roster there is a reason(s) why and they need to go get straightened out performance wise from the minors because this team has lost too many games within the first two innings and it simply cannot keep happening.

This posting took me twelve hours to write! LOL