Mack’s Apples - Tyler Dyson, Shifts, Mid-Season Farm Grades, Marysol Castro, The Wilpons

MLB Draft 2019  -

          

  Tyler Dyson, RHP, Florida

Though his stats have trended down this season and he was moved to the bullpen halfway through the spring, Dyson is a prospect to keep an eye on in the 2019 draft, as his fastball has a chance to be one of the best in the class. Dyson can get his heater into the mid-to-upper-90s with relative ease, with some scouts thinking there’s more in the tank of the 6-3, 225-pound righty. His move out of the starting rotation this spring was predicated on a loss of control that saw him walk 12 batters in 11.2 innings before the switch. While his secondary stuff is average, MLB clubs are not too concerned with his development, as Dyson only began focusing on pitching prior to his senior year of high school and should progress quickly with more time spent concentrating on the craft. Even if his off-speed pitches do not rise to an above-average level, his fastball is lively enough to allow him a career as a closer in the professional ranks.

SHOULD THE MLB LIMIT SHIFTS?  -

        

   As shifts have gotten more and more out of control in recent years, a topic I have heard talked about frequently is whether or not the MLB should create a rule that places a limit on shifts. Some people believe that the MLB should do this because the game has become fairly repetitive, as so many at bats result in a walk, strikeout, or home run nowadays. Shifts have gotten extremely frustrating too, as line drives up the middle are now often routine outs. Others believe that the MLB should not do this because professional hitters in the league should be able to hit the ball the other way or simply lay down a bunt when the shift is really extreme, and I couldn’t agree more. If you are talented enough to be in the MLB, you should absolutely be able to go the other way and get hits or lay down a bunt every once in a while in order to force the third baseman to play near his normal position. Unfortunately though, I have completely lost faith in the players changing their ways and learning to hit the ball the other way, and for this reason, I think the MLB should enact a rule that limits shifts. The problem is, even if the MLB agreed with me and other fans of the game, what should the rule be in order to limit shifts?

Midseason farm system  grades: NL –

        

   New York Mets - Grade: B

This is far from a top-to-bottom loaded group, but the Mets have made plenty of positive strides in 2018. They had no players in MLB.com's Top 100 rankings to start the season, but 19-year-old shortstop Andres Gimenez has emerged in St. Lucie while Peter Alonso might be one of the biggest breakout stories in the Minors this year after mashing his way through the Eastern League with 15 homers before moving up to Las Vegas. Top pitchers in Justin Dunn and David Peterson have each earned midseason promotions as well, and Anthony Kay is healthy after elbow surgery. Jeff McNeil might not be ranked but joins Alonso as one of the Minors' best hitters in the first half. Though the expectations might have been low, Mets farmhands have been able to accomplish plenty this season.

Marysol Castro , Mets' first female PA announcer and MLB's first Latina, hits it out of the park       -

        

   Sporting feminine wedge sandals and bright red nail polish, Castro is petite, yet she speaks with an authoritativeness and power that shows she's used to hanging with the guys and isn't afraid to speak her mind.

Castro was ambitious at an early age; she recalls first wanting to be the shortstop for her hometown team, the Yankees, and then wanting to go into politics. At 12, she decided on her own that she would get a full scholarship to boarding school, and she did. Castro says she knew the world was bigger than the Bronx, and she wanted to see it and learn about it.

The 15 Worst Owners in Sports –

      

     The Wilpons are the only baseball ownership group to share a factoid with the nation of Albania, in that they were both nearly ruined by a Ponzi scheme. Twice.

The Wilpons repeatedly structured deferred payments into player contracts and handed over the funds to fraudster and family friend Bernie Madoff to invest in the meantime, making money before the bills came due. Whoops. They also built the cavernous Citi Field at the tail end of a high-offense era, then were surprised to find that fans were pissed they didn't get to see any dingers. At the same time, Fred Wilpon is so enamored of old Ebbets Field – he played with Sandy Koufax in high school – that he designed Citi Field to celebrate Ebbets and was further surprised when Mets fans suggested he should think of having any Mets memorabilia there instead.

Thanks to wise investment, the Wilpons have lived on a shoestring budget for six years, taking profits from their ownership in SNY to make up team shortfalls and hoping that a tight budget and crossed fingers can arrest the team cratering that began in 2009. The Wilpons have seemingly never met a problem for which an absence of a solution will do, unless they have a solution worse than the problem, and that solution is invariably "them." As a distraction, they've repeatedly used the Daily News as their mouthpiece to trash players and deflect attention from complaints. The limits of that strategy were exposed when a former team executive sued Jeff Wilpon for allegedly firing her for having a baby out of wedlock.