Good
morning.
Yesterday...
Roster
Moves – SP Jose
Butto was promoted from Rookie-Kingsport to Low-A/Brooklyn. The 20/yr.
old Butto went 3-0, 1.93, 1.16, in six starts for K-Port. He pitched in 15
games last year for the DSL-2 team, producing a 1.44-ERA. Butto will join a
crowded Cyclone rotation that includes Jaison Viera, Briam
Campusano, Nicholas Debora, Kevin Smith, Kyle Wilson, and Christian James. My hopes is that this move pushes
Viera to Columbia… OF Bryce Brentz continued to rehab (1-2, R) in a
suspended GCL game… 3B Todd Frazier joined
Brooklyn for today’s game.
Monday
- 1B Peter
Alonso finally got back on the Las Vegas horse last night 3-5, R, 2-RBI.
.220. C Jose Lobaton (4-4, .384) and CF Kevin Kaczmarski (2-5, .357) continued to add to their
case for a September call up… on the pitching side, starter Corey Oswalt was just miserable: 5-IP, 7-ER, 6.02. The
bright start in Vegas was recently traded for closer Bobby
Wahl 1-IP, 0-R, K, Save, combined AAA ERA Vegas: 1.69, 0.94… Joey Butto
threw his first Brooklyn start: 6-IP, 3-ER, 4-K, 3-BB, 4.50… Yuedy Colon
continued his dominance out of the Cyclone bullpen: 0.1-IP, 0-R, 0.51…
Sunday came
and there was no trade.
I talked
privately about this on Sunday with David Rubin as
we both compared our sources notes. Everyone was telling us the same thing… you
call one of the three acting GMs of the Mets and ask if a certain player was
available for a trade, the Mets answer would be ‘talk to me’.
And this
included every player on the Mets roster.
Does it mean
that players like Jake deGrom and Noah Syndergaard will be traded? No, it doesn’t. But
what it does mean is the Mets are approachable for either or both.
Where am I
on this issue ‘today’?
Well,
frankly, the team has been much more competitive since the All-Star break. I
also like the addition of youth (Luis Guillorme,
Jeff McNeil) be it slow.
The Mets
have a great rotation and I hate to see it broken up, but Reese Kaplan is right when he always reminds us of the
ack of lethal bats on this team. Yes, we won last night, but look at the box
score.
If I was
rooting for a progressive team, I would have confidence that they would clear
salaries and execute insurance policies and go out in the free agency market
and secure us two more great (healthy) bats. But this team won’t.
Hang on
today… the ride could be bumpy.
Jon
Heyman - Folks like
RHP Franklyn Kilome, who came for Asdrubal. Good
stuff. “Just needs to grow into his body.” Listed at 6-foot-6, 175 pounds
Mack I truly believe that Kilome is one of those
‘rough diamond’ prospects that could go in either direction. If this guy pans
out, Thomas
Szapucki comes back in spades, and Anthony
Kay, Justin Dunn, and David
Peterson get their act together, we
could have incredible top level prospects at this position.
Amazin'
Weather - There
seems to be a negative connotation with trading for international signing money
and I don’t particularly get that. I say it’s better than getting a no-name
prospect in most cases
Interesting
article - Why Major League Pitchers Are Avoiding the Strike Zone - LINK
Beer
Alert – My favorite draft target,
Clemson OF/1B Seth Beer, was promoted again,
this time to Houston’s High-A after hitting .348 in Low-A. His total pro stats
so far this year are 40-G, .333, 7-HR, 23-RBI.
Oh… Jarred Kelenic is hitting .154 for
Rookie-Kingsport.
Buster
Olney - Mets will keep deGrom,
Syndergaard through deadline b/c they don't want to rebuild--which is also part
of reason why they aren't lowering price on Wheeler. They intend to contend
next year, and will need to round out their rotation, and looks like Wheeler
will be part of it.
Betsy
Helfand - And
finally, Tony DeFrancesco said last he had
heard, Gavin Cecchini (foot) still hadn't
started doing baseball activity.
7 comments:
Interesting point about the international signing money. In an environment where farm system prospects are usually overvalued and fans think they should only be getting MLB Top 100 prospects for impending free agents, it’s almost impossible to satisfy the fan base in veteran-for-prospect trades. If I was a GM in the current system, I’d probably want to stockpile international money allocations and go after consensus top unsigned prospects. I think it’s easier to sell the fan base on trading veterans for the right to sign 16-year-old foreign “prodigies” than on 22-year-old Double-A players not graded B or higher by John Sickels.
There have been a run of Cuban players not making the expected impact, so the already xenophobic Wilpons will be far less likely to look in this direction.
Jack -
Most fans don't realize that the majority of draft picks below the top 20 are designed to be roster fillers for the lower level affiliates. This is why very few rise to stardom.
15 years ago, young DSL talent were playing on corner dirt fields using rocks as baseballs. You might remember he writing about how Juan Lagares could take a gallon container of milk and carve and bend it into a workable glove.
Now... it's an organized business. 'Busteros' have been replaced with real agents.
And there is no football or basketball in the way here.
IMO, there is much more talent on this island than the states and the Mets are waking up to what the Yanks have known for years.
Reese -
Cuba does look a little overrated.
Can you imagine how good baseball talent would be in football and basketball did not exist? All those tremendous athletes would focus on baseball as a sport instead. Tebow is just one example - there likely would be guys who be even better and who would be superstars if not for their focus on basketball and football.
I touch on the productivity of Peter Alonso in my Friday article. He is our Seth Beer offensively.
Theres nothing wrong with trading for intl money, just look at what the yankees did, they picked up 3 mm and immediately signed one of the top players remaining. iTs that we feel like we got bamboozled, in getting 1mm, but it not feeling like it was for a specific reason or player, the way the yankees did.
the way cashman worked his surplus of pitchers who would have to be added to the 40 man this season from a crunch into future assets was/is a masterclass on long range planning. Thiose guys were going to be there next year so he got things for them now and helped his club. Its that kind of stuff that makes you feel like your team is at a disadvantage. The same way the dodgers have been using money to take advantage of things. even the braves, who are notoriously cheap, used their intl bonus money, which they were prohibited from spending (300k cap) and traded it for players that can help. It just seems like the mets are using an abacus while everyone else is using computers.
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