Tom Brennan - HOW ARE THE ARIZONA BOYS DOING?
Peter Alonso has cooled off, and is hitting .232 with 25 Ks in 22 games. However, on a run-starved team, he has driven in 17 runs, and has 6 homers including the All Star blast off a 104 MPH fastball.
To Mack's delight, the sure-handed Peter has ZERO errors so far. His need has been to accumulate at bats and tighten his D - and he is accomplishing both.
Ali Sanchez is 2 for 22, and further cements that his bat needs major work to see real big league time in the future. Fortunately, he is at the most forgiving poor-hit position of catcher.
Andres Gimenez is playing sporadically for the first time in his career, and perhaps it is part of the reason he is just 5 for 37 (with 8 walks).
Ruben Tejada, no doubt, still claims to be better than Gimenez - we'll see about that.
Desmond Lindsay started out with a 2 homer game, and sits at 8 for 24, SITS being the right word. In the little time he has gotten on the field, he has done well.
Scottsdale is hitting just .208, with a large dose of help from 7 for 59 Sanchez and Gimenez.
Only 1 Gimenez error between the 4 guys above, though, making Mack smile. Hoover, too, not the president, but the vacuum.
PITCHERS?
Solid, largely.
The best of the Mets' 4 slingers has been Gerson the Person Bautista, with a 2.38 ERA in 11.1 IP, with 11 Ks.
Steve Nogosek and Matt Blackham have been solid, except for allowing a combined 15 walks in 14.1 IP, with Matt allowing 9 in his 7 innings.
Joe Zanghi had a bad outing, and given that he only has 7 innings, his 0-1, 6.43 ERA is not good but not necessarily indicative of anything negative.
The 4 pitchers have thrown only 33 combined innings. So, again, not much to judge on, but at the same time, it is good their innings are limited, given what happened with Franklyn Kilome this off season, the latest Tommy John alumnus.
That's it, folks - I'm headed back to hibernation now!
I'm still not convinced Alonso is other than a 30HR, 200K, .230BA DH. There's a career in that, of course, but if he and not too much else could reel in a Salv Perez, I'd do it in a NY minute.
ReplyDeleteExcept Ruben ran like Wilmer Flores and Gimenez is fleet afoot.
ReplyDeletePeter needs some rest from a long season of baseball.
ReplyDeleteSalvador Perez is overrated, enough with trying to acquire big name- meh catchers. This team has other holes to fill. A catcher who can call a game and can catch and throw is plentiful as long as other offensive areas are fixed. Quit looking to trade talent for catching
ReplyDeleteAnthony, Ali needs to hit better. He can sure catch and throw.
ReplyDeleteReese, Gimenez has gotten almost universally excellent press, so I thought I'd compare him to the gold standard, Ruben T, just to show that while we all think Gimenez could be a star, he still has to do it as good or better than Ruben first.
ReplyDeleteMack, a former Arizona-based 1B, Ike Davis, finally retired. A formality, considering how little he played recently. A strange career that once looked so promising.
Can anyone here tell us more about how the AFL operates? I know that each team there gets 5 or so players.from each contributing ML org, but how is playing time allocated?
ReplyDeletePresumably, the ML orgs send players there to get ABs and exposure, but as Tom's article says, some play almost every day while others mostly sit, getting few ABs and little consistent time.
Do the ML teams have any say in how their players are used, or is it all up to the mgrs? And who picks the mgrs?
Bill, I do not know the answers to those questions. Like anywhere else, though, the better players play more. Sanchez and Lindsay are greener than the others and more prone to splinters from the bench.
ReplyDelete