Tom Brennan- SOME THINGS THAT CATCH MY ATTENTION

Tom Brennan- SOME THINGS THAT CATCH MY ATTENTION

I like players who surge, who outperform, who do something special.

I could probably come up with a long list, but here are some (based on performances through August 13).

Brandon Nimmo now has played basically the equivalent of a full 162 game season in his career, with 582 ABs, and is hitting .255/.371/.420, with 31 doubles and 21 homers.  Time to firmly conclude he is a QUALITY starting major league OF, don't you say? (But that pitch off the hand yesterday? Ouch!)

Through last Monday's game, Jeff McNeil has proven he can make contact, with just 6 Ks in his first 60+ plate appearances. That high contact level bodes well for success.

Peter Alonso has heard all the "40 man roster, so we'll see you in 2019" chatter.  I am sure he'd like in rebuttal to throw out a few #'s of his own....like 30, the number of his HRs in just 115 games.  Like an all-of-baseball-leading 107 RBIs. Like 55 RBIs in 50 games in AAA.  I like those #'s more than ownership likes that "excluding # 40".

If I told you I have a player who is third in his league in HRs with 24 (league leader has 26), first in runs scored (82), 5th in doubles (27), you'd probably be interested, but first ask, "what's wrong?"   That player is Zach Borenstein who, in the "what's wrong?" category, has fanned a way-too-high 158 times in 115 games.

Speaking of league leaders, Drew Gagnon leads the PCL with 147 Ks in 131 innings.  The # 2 guy (Josh James, 34th rounder with Houston' org) has 122 in AAA, but across two minor league levels has 160 in 105 innings (13.7/9).  Pretty darned good for a (non-Met) 34th rounder, but getting back to Gagnon, one might wonder if/when his major league 2nd chance will arrive (he had one bad MLB debut start earlier this season for the Mets).  He's tossed a lot of very good starts.

Kyle Regnault is overlooked but successful as a reliever with Las Vegas.  After pitching to an 8.25 ERA for the LVs in April, he has tossed 42 innings since at around 4.00, and fanned 56 in that stretch.  The last 2 years, he is an eye-catching 10-1, with a 3.78 ERA, mostly in Vegas, with 138 Ks in 119 innings.  Will he ever get the call up to the bigs?. 

Will Toffey is hitting .286/.458/.460 in 20 games since the Mets got him in a trade in July.  That'll play quite nicely.

In the fast riser category, righty Steve Villines is now in AA after tossing 22 innings of 7 hit, 1 run, 25 K relief, that after starting the season effectively in Columbia.  He has 120 Ks in 82 career innings.  Drafted last year in round 10, the same round that Paul Sewald was picked a few years prior.

Matt Winaker was a 5th round outfield selection last year, and he did to-do through this June.  In July, with Columbia, the OF had a .357 OBP and 3 homers. In his first 12 games of August, .350/.421/.733 with 4 home runs.  NASA is now tracking Matt on its radar.  (He hit # 11 Thursday night, as one of his 3 hits).

IF Luis Carpio thought that Jeff McNeil going from slap hitter to home run hitter was fun, so he is trying it himself.

The just-turned-21 Luis has struggled with his hitting this year at times, but stopped a recent slump with a homer on both August 12 and 13, giving him 12 on the season, after hitting just 4 in his first 250 career games. And 8 of this year's 12 homers have come over the past 6 weeks.  KA-BOOM!

OF Dave Miranda was a 25th pick this year, and started out weakly...but in his last 5 games, he went 12 for 19 with Columbia, including a 5 hit game on August 13, to jump to .313 with a .422 OBP.  Nice surge. I have been told that until he becomes a free agent, the Mets hold his Miranda rights.

In 32 games since his promotion to St Lucie, 21 year old defensive catching whiz Ali Sanchez is hitting .283/.305/.407.  Showing much more pop this year, NASA is starting to track him, too.  Just 36 Ks in 82 games.

Jarred Kelenic, who turned 19 in July, wasn't getting hits during his slump, but he said he hit lots of hard shots right at people during that stretch.  Happens...that's baseball sometimes.

Lately, they've been falling again, as he went 9 for 20 in a 4 game stretch thru August 13.  Like I've said, he will be fine.  Hopefully, he will be great.

On a Cyclones team that starved for wins the past 2 seasons, it is nice to see Jaison Vilera (5-1, 1.30 in 10 starts) and Billy Oxford (6-1, 1.74 in 18 relief appearances) making sure that 2018 would be a better Cyclones season...30-25 so far.  Also, Brooklyn was anemic hitting-wise in 2016 and 2017, but is roughly 45 points better in 2018 to sit at .262. I love good hitting almost as much as a good meal.

DSL:

Everyone talks about 17 year old bonus babies Adrian Hernandez (DSL) and the now-slumping Ronnie Mauricio (GCL).    

Sure, sure, but what about 17 year old 2B Felix Valerio?  

This 5'7" dude in the DSL is getting an A++ lately.  How so?

Over his last 73 at bats, 29 hits (.397), 11 walks, and a mere 5 strikeouts.  Wow.

And in the error-prone DSL, he has made just 5 errors all season.  And has 13 for 18 in steals over 57 games.  

I am a Fan of Felix, I don't know about you.

2 more neophytes of note, both SIXTEEN at the time of this writing:

Junior Santos was just promoted from the DSL and debuted in the GCL with 2 scoreless innings, and just turned 17 on Thursday.  He is 6'8" 220, and was clocked at 92 at the time he signed for $250,000.  Amazingly for a dude his size at his age, he has walked just 6 guys in 47 IP, and is 1-1, 2.68, 0.89 WHIP.

Dave Marcano, who turns 17 later this month, was signed for $500K.  Listed at 6'3", 180, he was clocked prior to signing at 93, and in his last 3 DSL outings, 14.2 IP, 10 H, 6 runs, 12 Ks.

Hope you are having a great summer, and that some things are catching your attention, too.  

Share them if you'd like (remember, though, that this is a PG-13 site).