10/9/18

Mack - From The Desk... and More Cuts




Good morning.


I'm having some tests done at the Charleston VA hospital today, so I will be unable to leave any comments here. 

Carry on without me.



New York Mets Top 10 Prospects Updated  


3. Andres Gimenez | SS | AA —> Previously a glove-first player, Gimenez started to show more potential with the bat in 2018 while reaching double-A. He doesn’t have the best approach at the plate (His BB-K leaves something to be desired) but he has natural athleticism that allows him to succeed and he’s starting to grow into more pop, too. There is more gap-pop than over-the-fence power but he could hit 30 doubles, steal 20+bases and play excellent defence at short in his prime.



More cuts per MiLB.com

PC - Ed Delany 
OF Ian Strom – The 23/yr. old Strom was a 22nd round draft pick in 2016. His best year was 2017 (Columbia: .294) and he hit .224 this past season for St. Lucie. The Mets considered Strom a 4th outfielder at best. He never had more than 255 at-bats in one season (2018). In defense of the Mets, Strom never ripped the cover off the ball. His time was probably properly over here.


PC - Ed Delany

C Anthony Dimino -  I really don’t like this one. Dimino was a 28th round pick in the 2015 draft.  Had a 4-yr. BA of .303 (???). Minor league teams need 3 catchers per team. This isn’t good enough? I had Dimino as a blue prospect for the entire 2017 season. 2018 was not a great year for him but he still hit .265. .265 for a Mets catcher? That’s an MVP season!
No sense. No sense at all.



C Tyler Moore  More was a 6th round pick in 2014. Hit .301 for LSU as a junior. Played for 5 teams over 5 years, finishing this season in NY State. The bed news here is his combined .204 professional batting average for a backup role for all 5 teams.
I don’t think the Mets promised Tyler anymore than this and he did a good job in this very limited. I try to remind readers. Minor league teams need three catchers. At the same time, it’s hard to find 20 catchers a year enter this game as a full time .300 hitter. There’s not much money here. Just the love of baseball



C Kevin Hall – Hall was undrafted in 2016 out of U. of Northern Alabama. The 24/yr. old played 3 seasons as a backup catcher, a very important role in the minors. Had only 140 at-bats over 3 seasons. Really never given a shot. Here’s the string part… he gets 38 at-bats with the GCL-Mets in 2016 (.158) and 41 at-bats with Brooklyn in 2018 (.224). In between, his at-bats went up to 61 and his batting average went to .246. So, the more at-bats, the higher batting average. In three measly backup seasons. Come on guys.


PC - Ed Delany


IF Dale Burdick – The 22-yr. old Burdick was a 40th round pick in 2014. Has been a backup infielder for 6 teams over 5 years. His 5-season collective batting average is .192. His best season was… well… can you really have a ‘best’ season if your average was ,192? He had a 12.24-BB% but he also had 28.78 strikeout percentage. I think Dale has played out his options here and should move on to greener pastures.






IF Dylan Snypes – The 22-yr. old Snypes was a 15th rd. pick in 2017, just 2 drafts ago. Played only 122 games in 2017 for Brooklyn and was out for the entire 2018 season. No injury info on him so ??? In defense of the Mets, he only hit .180 for the Cyclones after hitting .335 for Oral Roberts the same year. This sure reeks of being an injury settlement.




OF Champ Stuart – The 25-yr. old Stuart was a 6th round pick in 2013. The boy could run. Had 147 stolen bases over 6 seasons for 4 teams. The problem is he also had a 6 season .219 batting average and an amazing 633 strikeouts in 1654-AB (32.93 SO%). 


OF Gene Cone – The 24-yr. old was the 10th round pick in 2016 out of the University of South Carolina. Played three years in the Mets pipeline including 380 ABs with St. Lucie this past season. But I always try to remind people the difference between college and pro ball and sometimes it all a crap shoot. Gene’s last Gamecock year in 2016 generated a .363 batting average. His 3-year pro batting average was .225.

12 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Hope you pass those tests with flying colors, Mack.

Gimenez - they are nitpicking - I think he will be huge next year.

The cut guys - Hall unfortunately fanned at an extreme rate. The others were uninspiring in terms of lack of a power hitting tool - DRAFT POWER.

Dimino being cut is a real puzzle - maybe he just was an awful defensive catcher with little hope for improvement. He should catch on with another organization if he decides it is still worth it to keep trying. His .265 in 2018 was much higher than the team average, too.

Champ Stuart - I wonder if he ever tried enough to adopt a workable model to go with his blazing speed - I had in the past suggested trying the Matty Alou model - contact, bunting, getting on base by any means necessary. His strike out rate was indeed prodigious.

Curious, in seeing NL teams get swept out in the first round - do you think a Mets rotation in a first round of Jake, Wheels and Thor would have beat the NL teams that advanced? I do.

Reese Kaplan said...

And lose 1-0? Ask deGrom about that. He's quite familiar.

Tom Brennan said...

Somehow, I though Dale Burdick would progress further.

I called that one wrong.

Most 40th rounders like Dale are last rounders for a reason.

Reese - no question - even with getting some hitters back and McNeil's emergence, this team as constructed will need a whole lot to go right to be even an average offense team in 2019. 23rd in scoring in 2018 and (despite McNeil's hitting .330) tied for last in BA at .234 in 2018.

Heck, moving on from Reyes will add a point or two, maybe 3.

Tom Brennan said...

Arizona Fall League, headlined by Pounding Pete and Andres the Great, kicks off today. Gerson too.

Tom Brennan said...

Mets other than McNeil: .230, baseball's worst. That can't continue.

Tom Brennan said...

Astonishing stat of the day: the 2018 Mets at home were dead last with 274 runs (3.4 per game) and .215.

On the road? Beasts. A 6th best 402 runs (5.0 per game) and .252.

The curse of Citifield in full display.

Anthony Carnacchio said...

AFL will show Alonso rakes and will play a good first base

Anonymous said...

I agree with MM's Tom Bergman, instead of trading 1B Peter Alonso, why not use Andres Gimenez or Amed Rosario for Miami's JT Realmuto instead, since Andres and Amed are basically interchangeable and the NY Mets "desperately need" to hang onto all the homerun hitters (like Peter Alonso) that they can get. So keeping Alonso does make incredible sense.

I realize that the Mets are saddled with 3B Todd Frazier. But his numbers were always subpar. In 2011 while on Cincy, Todd hit .232, 2013,.234, 2016,.225, 2017, .213 with CWS, and in 2018, .213BA. His homeruns have declined and he is having a hard time staying on the field now. Todd's fielding is and sort of average and his pension for hustling on the field and being clutch remains somewhat questionable.

Trading this awful one more year contract to another team for whatever thing you can get back, does now make some sense now.

If the Mets were to trade a package to Miami, which Miami still does need for 2019, that might work too. A package like Justin Dunn, Robert Gsellman, Dominique Smith, Robert Mazeika, and Juan Lagares (eating some of Juan's contract first) for Miami's JT Realmuto and two AA picks? Who knows. Keep Lugo and Gimenez for a Boston trade, for 3B Michael Chavis and lefty starter Darwinzon Hernandez.

Every team will be vying for JT Realmuto because there are not very many decent catchers in MLB today and the price tag will soar for him.

Free Agents, Wilson Ramos is damaged goods at the knee, and Yasmani Grandal absolutely played horribly last night for the Dodgers and did not impress, made like three stupid errors in one inning behind the Dodger dish. No thanks there!


Another idea is to make a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays for catcher Dan Jansen, age 23, .275 BA in 2018 AAA, 12 HR, 58 RBI's, .390 OBP. He's a big catcher with developing pop, and he has tasted the bigs already. Blue Jays have several slots to repair.

Anonymous said...

I am hoping that David Wright decides to go into coaching and managing. I know he does need to, but wants to anyway because he has a lot to impart onto the younger players. The nuts and bolts, and the personal demeanor stuff.

Is it unrealistic on my part to wonder if David could be the Mets bench coach in 2019? I just think that he has all the baseball skills and know how down fine, and he just needs to get his share of experience as a bench coach.

To me, David Wright could be another Alex Cora. Maybe even better, who knows. David is just a positive influence to have around.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it is me here, but Andres Gimenez looks a little bit older than just 20 years old.

Anonymous said...

One free agent starting pitcher that does catch my eye is lefty Arizona's Patrick Corbin, age 29.

Mets need a number three starter left handed, to go with what they have here now.

Stats for 2018:

11-7, 3.15 ERA, 246 strikeouts in 200 innings, a 1.05 WHIP.

I really like the Mets three right handed starters returning. But with a potential Corbin addition, that could push Steven Matz down to a five slot starter where he may relax better and win a lot more games.

1. deGrom 2. Wheeler 3. Corbin 4. Syndergaard 5. Matz 6. Oswalt (if necessary)

Also puts Jason Vargas into the long left handed reliever role where he could prove to be most beneficial.

Might be possible to get Patrick Corbin on a three year/$32-$34 million contract.

Anonymous said...

On the bullpen side it is still unclear which way the Mets will go.

But it could include some of these names depending how the cards fall: Vargas/Oswalt/Roseboom/Mejia/Bashlor/Bautista.

I think that Gsellman and Lugo may be more likely to be used as tradebait pitchers, since they are better known than most Mets relievers here and are very well known about from 2018.

Could probably use a later inning lefty reliever more added into the mix.