From The Desk Of...

Good morning.

1.    Both the Kingsport and GCL Mets season started this week. I am especially intrigued with the trio of DSL starters that will be playing for the GCL team. Malky Mena (21/yrs, 2017: 2.13), Miguel Ramirez (21/yrs. 2017: 1.76, and Willy Tavares (20/yrs. 2-17: 2.31) could all develop into prospect chips over the next couple of years. Frankly, I’ll take one.

2.    The GCL-Mets have one starter I want to keep my eyes on. Nelson Leon. He’s got patina (23/yrs. old), but he killed it last year for the DSL team (8-3, 2.06).

3.    Ken Rosenthal’s story in The Athletic Monday, which said that the Mets will begin to try and sell of the majority of their team (minus Nimmo, Conforto, Gsellman, Lugo, deGrom) gives us a new Mets development we can ‘follow’ this season. It’s sad to see Syndergaard name not on the list, but I guess you have to offer up some chip to get a couple back. I also wished I had saw Rosario on the list. I would keep him around at least until Gimenez matures. Seriously, I see this as no more that a typical arrogant, pompous Sandy move of putting a ‘For Sale’ sign out with your phone number on it and sitting back expecting the baseball world to knock your doors down with offers for your dumpster fire.

4.    Anthony DiComo - @AnthonyDiComo - Per Elias, lowest ERA through 15 starts of a season since 2000:  Randy Johnson 1.47 (2000), Jacob deGrom 1.51 (2018), Pedro Martinez 1.51 (2000), Roger Clemens 1.51 (2005), Tom Glavine 1.53 (2002).

5.    Jon Morosi - @jonmorosi – Red Sox interested in upgrading bullpen, but in order to acquire San Diego LHP Brad Hand, source says the Padres’ likely asking price would be a young everyday player, such as Rafael Devers.  (Familia for 2020 chip catcher Roldani Baldwin???)

6.    David Lennon - @DPLennon  -  Yankees pulled in 45,122 on a Tuesday night in June. Their attendance at year’s end is going to be huge.

7.    Mike Puma - @NYPost_Mets  -  Vargas pitching in Coors Field was probably only a slightly better concept than the Hindenburg.

8.    Some of you have expressed concern if minor league players with excellent stats are being moved properly. I decided to look at the St. Lucie pen and the stats that have been generated so far there when someone puts up a good stat line. The top three so far there this season have been Ryder Ryan (16-app., 1.77), who have moved on to Binghamton, Matt Blackham (17-app., 1.90), who has joined Matt in New York State, and Joseph Zanghi (17-app., 1.27), who is still pitching for Lucy. He needs to be moved post haste. 

9.    Chase Utley was activated on Friday in New York. It sure would have been nice if Thor was activated before this series started.

10.  There are a fair amount of players in the Mets affiliate chain that have talent, but, in my opinion, here are the ones currently standing out:

“Red” prospects – Nabil Crismatt, Justin Dunn, David Peterson, Jordan Humphreys, Thomas Szapucki, Anthony Kay, Drew Smith, Tyler Bashlor, Ryder Ryan, Jurgen Jimenez, Peter Alonso, Jeff McNeill, Ronny Mauricio, Andres Gimenez, Wagner Lagrange, Jarred Kelenic, and Adrian Hernandez

There are plenty more players that fall into the “blue” (secondary) category that could make it to Queens someday. McNeil wasn’t even a blue prospect before his bat caught on fire this season.

Still, the above list of 17 players show you that this team is far from devoid of prospect chips.

11.  Mike Puma  -  @NYPost_Mets  -  I asked Sandy Alderson in a text message if when he made the joke at the Winter Meetings about not needing Stanton because the Mets had Nimmo if he had any idea Nimmo would become this good. ... Alderson's response was a smiling face emoji.

12.  Good Fundies is short for Good Fundamentals - @goodfundies -

13.  It took a while but OF Brandon Nimmo finally has enough PAs to be added to the NL leaderboards. And boy, what an entry:  1^st in ISO, wRC+, SLG%, and wOBA. Shame he isn’t on the All-Star ballot.

14.   Tim Healey - @timbhealey - Todd Frazier on the Mets front office's looming decisions: "In my mind, I think they want to keep this team together. It’s a good bunch of guys." 

(A good bunch of guys. Let me repeat that… ‘a good bunch of guys’. You got to be kidding me. We should keep this team together because they are a ‘good bunch of guys’. A good bunch of guys would work well around a Boy Scouts’ fire camp. Or maybe a local church choir. But this is a professional baseball team that has been taking it up the rear by just about every team in baseball. I don’t want a good bunch of guys. I want a good bunch of players.)

15.  Joe DeMayo - @PSLToFlushing - A bunch of #Mets draft pick signing bonuses have been finalized. 

10th SS Manny Rodriguez $10K

12th OF Ross Adolph $125K

13th RHP Christian Tripp $125K

15th C Phil Capra $75K

16th SS LA Woodard $125K

17th RHP Allan Winans $10K

18th 1B Chase Chambers $10K

24th C Hayden Senger $125K

25th OF David Miranda $10K

26th 3B Brian Sharp $100K

28th RHP Mitch Hickey $10K

29th C Nelson Mompierre $10K

30th 2B Chandler Avant $10K

40th RHP Brian Metoyer $40K

(two more from MMs reader

   5th Rd. RP Ryley Gilliam - $550K  (slot: $399,400)
   6th Rd. C Nick Meyer  $350K  (slot: $285,200)

        (here's some of your Kelenic unspent money)