From The Desk... 7.19

Good morning.

     1.    Roster Moves -  IF Blake Tiberi was kicked upstairs from A-Columbia to A+ - St. Lucie. The 23-year old Tiberi has been on fire the past 10 games, hitting .390 for the Fireflies. His promotion made Lucy make an adjustment and they sent IF J.J. Franco to AA-Binghamton. The 26-year old Franco has led the A= Mets in hitting this season (.296)…

      2.    I want to take a moment to draw back and take a look at the Dodger-Orioles trade for IF Manny Machado. Machado is easily one of the top players in the game, but this is only a three month loan for a player that is most probably going to sign somewhere else for the 2019 season. The object of looking at this trade is to compare it to what a trade for Jacob deGrom could bring.

Here, acccording to John Sickles’ Minor League Baseball’s pre-season rankings of prospects the Dodgers sent to Baltimore for Machado:

7) Yusniel Diaz, OF, Grade B/B-: Age 21, signed out of Cuba in 2015, hit .278/.343/.414 in 331 at-bats in High-A then .333/.390/.491 in 108 at-bats in Double-A; line drive hitter with a fair batting eye that can improve further; lacks huge power at this point but there’s enough bat speed that I think you can project more pop; Texas League sources concerned that he may end up as a “tweener” if the power doesn’t come; needs improvement with fielding and baserunning skills which are raw; he had a pretty good year but there’s the potential for more. ETA 2019.

Rylan Bannon, 3B – not in Top 21… ranked as an ‘other than noted’ prospect

Zach Pop, RHP – not in Top 21… ranked as an ‘other than noted’ prospect

Dean Kremer, RHP – not ranked at all

Breyvic Valera, IF – not ranked at all

On the surface, it sure seems to me that the Dodgers won out in this trade. Sure, the five-for-one trade seems in favor of the Orioles, but just hom much did they lose here?

This may be a warning on a poor trading season coming up.

     3.    Through 7-18… last 10 games… Jarred Kelenic:  .194

     4.    Eric Longenhagen - @longenhagen - Francisco Mejia is one of the most entertaining hitters in baseball. Elite hand-eye and bat control somewhat undercut by an over-aggressive approach. Below average receiver with elite arm strength. Source with SD says he's going to catch for them. – Mack – Woe. I never expected this kid to be traded. Sure, he’s not going to be the best defensive catcher in baseball, but this is the perfect bat we need behind the plate for a reboot. The problem is we could never have pulled this deal off. There was no way we were going to trade our ‘all star pitcher’, plus another player, for an untested minor leaguer hitting .279. Zack Wheeler yes, but that’s about it.

      5.    Nick Francona - @NickFrancona - These guys are the real deal. I think (Sherven) Newton will be fine defensively. He cares, is smart, and has the tools to do it.  (Luis) Santana is a monster! He’s the type of players fans would absolutely love. The guy plays like a maniac, full speed smash mouth baseball. – Mack:  Francona was the Assistant Director of Player Personnel for the Mets until last week, so I take his comments very seriously. There is so much good going on with K-Port bats this season. For the record, Newton received a $50K signing bonus in 2015. Santana got $200K the next year. My guess is Santana will go to Brooklyn as soon as Walter Rasquin is moved to Columbia. 

      6.    NYMets945 - @nymets945 - Dominic Smith career .298 hitter, Rosario .291 career, and Conforto .333 in minors but they get to majors and none of them can hit... people can feel how they want about Conforto but he has had 2 horrible seasons of 4 no confidence for me there until I see it again – Mack: I’m so happy my buddy ‘whatever his name is’ wrote this on Twitter. I could add so many more names to this… having great minor league numbers doesn’t mean you are going to be as equally dominant at the major league level. Are the Mets at fault because they signed or drafted these studs who may wind up to be duds? Major league batters face the top 150 starters on the planet Earth. How many people are on the Earth that throw a ball? All you can do is build layers of talent in your pipeline so if one guy falters another can step up. We are seeing this kind of talent in the lower levels. Two more years of doing the right thing could turn the corner for this team.