Good morning.
Coach reports compromise reached after baseball class canceled –
Parents and players
cried foul earlier this year when they learned a longtime high school baseball
class was no longer an option at school. The coach claimed the class helped
students academically, but the principal disagreed.
So how has the change
impacted students?
"We've been able
to produce over 140 college baseball players since 1996," Rio Grande High
School baseball coach, Orlando Griego, told News
13 in an interview back in March. "We've graduated over 99 percent of our
kids, and so those are things that I'm proud of."
What
should the New York Mets do with Dominic Smith ? –
Dominic Smith,
one of the club’s former top prospects, has failed to show that he has the
talent necessary to be an everyday Major League first baseman.
In 310 Major League
at-bats, Smith has hit 14 home runs and has driven in 37 RBIs, but has only
managed to slash .210/.259/.406. This results in an OPS+ of 79… far below
league average.
This production is
far from his Minor League slash line of .296/.361/.426.
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| PC - Reese Kaplan |
Mack –
Smith hasn’t panned out as we had all planned him to so the next step would be
to trade him, right? Well, here’s one of the downers about social media. All
the negative stuff written about this guy can be read by scouts from other
teams. He seems to be poisoned now.
Me? I
would play him exclusively in the Syracuse outfield in 2019 (this is called
‘player development’ in case any of the Mets people out there are reading
this)and we might be able to recreate him into a viable outfield option in
2020.
The
Possible Legal Issue with MLB’s Cuba Deal –
The Office of Foreign
Assets Control could revoke M.L.B.’s license to negotiate with the Cubans. If
it does, it would signal a shift in policy that could affect many other
companies doing business in Cuba.
Mack –
I really wish the Trump WH would look at more pressing issues than this.
Inside Derek Jeter’s New York ‘Castle’ –
The former New York
Yankees’ legend — yes, legend, based on this alone — bought the
12,590-square-foot mansion in Greenwood Lake, New York, in 2002. Previously,
his grandfather owned the property, and Jeter reportedly would visit when he
was a kid. But now that Jeter’s working as CEO and part owner of the Miami
Marlins baseball team, seems like he no longer needs the Empire State digs.
Listed price for the
six-bedroom: $14.75 million, or more than $6 million less than the $21 million
Jeter made playing baseball in 2010.
Mack –
I owned a small summer house on that lake back in the late 70s. Cost me $35K
Collin McHugh: Starting again –
The Astros will have
some new faces in the rotation next season, brought upon by the departure of Charlie Morton, the expected departure of Dallas Keuchel, and an injury to Lance McCullers (elbow). McHugh isn't actually a new
face. He was a starter for the Astros from 2014 to 2017 before a strong season
as a reliever in 2018.
26 comments:
Some rumors of Lugo to the Astros. Makes no sense to me.
I am sure Smith must have a plan to come in fighting for his career. Must be working out like a beast. No oversleeping this spring, for sure.
I think that is about the size of Jeter's garage in Tampa.
Any school canceling baseball class has no class at all. Probably replaced with a Transgender Sensitivity class.
I differ in regards to Smith.
Smith had a reputation of being a great defensive 1st baseman.
His reputation in the outfield was lacking.
Since he is young and the minor league system is not jam packed at 1st base in the minors, I would play him every day at 1st in the minors in the non Vegas park of Syracuse
I would keep Dom at first base. That’s where, if he remembers how to use his bat, we will get the most for him in a trade.
I disagree about Smith.
We need outfielders.
I want to solve my internal needs with internal players if I can.
The Smith Conundrum - created and brought to us by Dominic Smith. Can he find a real solution now?
Unfortunately this is the price the Mets are paying for inept decision makers over the past few years.
There will be no potential help in the outfield until the players from the lower minors graduate upward. Even this is questionable.
This is why major league help is needed in the outfield like Harper and Marwin, so that the depth is already on the major league roster.
Another reason why holding the line until Cespedes returns is fool-hardy
Other teams allow their pipeline to mature by signing established free agents to fill their immediate needs.
Like: IF - Robinson Cano
C - Wilson Ramos
RP - Jeurys Familia
OF - TBD
Loss - 2 red prospects
Hey guys... we're going in the right direction.
A year ago, Smith was a "Red Prospect" , a lot closer to the majors than those we traded. Others in the recent past were Wuilmer Becerra and Cesat Puello.
Better to build with ML-proven talent than rely on the "futures".
As to Dom, would he have been eligible to play Winter ball in VZ, DR or PR leagues? IMO that would have helped him to prepare for ST. As is, I agree with those who want to leave him at 1B. His trade value is greatest there, and he could be called up if Alonso struggles. Who else will play there for 'Cuse
I don’t think you take a player with a reputation for being an above average first baseman defensively, and try moving him to an unfamiliar position because of organizational need. I would go into spring training claiming that there is a competition for the first base job between Smith and Alonso and when the latter ultimately wins the job, play Smith every day at Syracuse to build trade value. He’s never going to be a starting corner outfielder for the Mets, considering that Nimmo and Conforto are under contract for several more years. Rajai Davis and Gregor Blanco are already better options as backups.
If we sign Robertson or a reasonable facsimile, trading Lugo (for equal value) makes a lot of sense. Without those FA moves, Brodie would have to be very drunk or drugged to do it.
He's not stupid.
Jack Flynn, I agree. Except Dom would know it is a long shot for him with the Mets.
He could get a 3-week trial starting at 1B but more likely it will be Frazier.
I was at a game last year in the left field bleachers when Dom was put into LF. Nice guy, interacts with the fans, threw balls to kids, but he's not a LF. I like the idea of making 1B a competition between Smith and Alonso, loser goes to Syracuse to play 1B. Smith might just need to get back to his regular position and get a steady diet of AB's. It might also help the Syracuse relationship to put players there that can help win games. Besides, aren't we trying to trade Frazier to clear some more salary space for Marwin?
Smith will start at 1st till Alonso gets the extra year of control. If he lights it up great,problem to have?
Eventually I believe the DH will be in both leagues,so having Smith and ALONSO
together is not a problem.
Lugo to Houston, for BEER plus. Then sign Gio Gonzalez
On Dominic Smith and All Things Mets
I always have to chuckle slightly when I read posts and hear commentaries trying to summarize definitely players who were not only rookies in 2018, but only got a chance to play second half. They must have mystical type powers (or something).
First off, Dominic Smith. He plays a really nice first base and for someone who probably never played left field much, I thought he handled himself. This kid can hit, has some power and was a second half barely used at all brand spanking new rookie. I think it wise to remember this. I have watched and played some ball for awhile and to be quite frank here, there is no real way I could get a fair read in such a short sample on Dominic Smith. My advice here, get a larger sample size of his capabilities and then decide.
Secondly, Peter Alonso. This is the type of player the NY Mets no longer have anywhere (right now) on their team. David Wright is retired and Yoenis Cespedes is mending and hopefully will be back whole second half of 2019. Maybe bring Peter into Spring Training and see how he does there. I personally don't care about his contract control, instead this 2019 NY Mets team needs a true power batter more now and Peter Alonso could be that for them.
I may be the blind one here, but all this talk everywhere about the Mets needing another lefty reliever added makes me scratch my head some. I'll try to say this as briefly as possible now.
The 2019 Mets rotation holds three ace starters in deGrom, Wheeler, and Syndergaard. We all agree on that. But their four and five starters had a 2018 won/loss record of 12-20. This is a problem. I might suggest here moving one of these "lefties" to the much needed lefty more role, keeping one in the rotation. Instead of adding another lefty reliever from outside, this situation is handled this way. I think either Vargas or Matz would be more than suitable for this role with Vargas in the long relief, or Matz in a harder throwing set-up type role. The other lefty would be of course Daniel Zamora, who I think is awesome.
Second part to this coming up...
Part Two
Houston interested in Seth Lugo it appears. Houston has probably one of the top few improved MiLB systems in baseball right now. I like there several players including lefty starters Framber Valdez and Ryan Hartman, both very young and very promising.
With this type move, the Mets get younger, add in a really good lefty starter to their rotation, and provide the Mets bullpen with a solid choice in either Vargas or Matz.
Two outfielders I like there are Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker.
Now on the 2019 possible Mets infield.
For the life of me, I don't get this banter about Jeff McNeil being a utility/fill in player. Did everyone watch the Mets second half last year? Jeff McNeil was a huge part of the 2018 second half resurgence. His plate discipline and batting ability were Rod Carew-ish. Jeff is an amazing batter and fielder, can hit to all fields, cover a wide range, and this was his rookie short sampling too. Let the kid play, Jeff is absolutely a starting player.
The Mets have TJ Rivera and Gavin Cecchini for utility roles. Both are really good. Then too, with a little more seasoning, the Mets have Andres Gimenez as well. The infield is covered.
Four and Five Starters
In a typical six game MLB week schedule, the Mets top three starters could easily be 2 wins to one loss (at worst) going against most MLB teams today. Then, if they upgrade either their four or five starters, the Mets could very possibly be (on average) 1 win and 1 loss most likely, which is a fair assumption. The sixth game of the week goes with their number one starter again Jacob deGrom (CY Young Award Winner).
So in summation here, and not cast in granite, the NY Mets could fairly easily enough be 4 wins with 2 losses every six games in a normal six game week , and depending of course on who they are playing. Four wins to two losses every week is pretty good in my book, but they HAVE GOT TO upgrade either their four or five starters to accomplish this possibility.
Waiting on really good players to return healthy again.
To this, I say "be careful".
Case in point may be Kristap Porzingas, NY Knicks.
If you watched the Knicks thus far, they are most obviously missing a true power forward. Kanter and Kornet both need a large and strong thrashing rebounder upfront with them. But there is no one on the Knicks right now (accept the guy they cannot figure out to play Isaiah Hicks) who fits this obviously missing role. And here's the kicker, Kristap may not want to re-sign with the Knicks anyway reports are now saying.
What's the moral of these stories?
Play for right now, forget about seasons to come to some extent at least. Play and win for now, for tomorrow will either work itself out naturally, or who knows, never even come at all. Only the raven knows.
Builder a winner for right now is all there is really. I am not saying forget entirely about the next season, but this now is all there really is for anyone.
Kristap Porzingas may leave. But Zion Williamson ain't chopped liver baby. And actually, Zion is precisely what this team severely lacks right now at the power forward position and I don't care what anyone else is saying.
How's a sample size of 375 AB? That's his number in VEGAS, AKA Hitters' Heaven, where he couldn't even hit .260. Does that rate more ML ABs?
On August 9, 2017, Dominic Smith went 2-4 with an RBI against Reno. He was hitting .330/.386/.519 in exactly 500 plate appearances in Triple-A. Five years into his professional career, he had been successful at every single level he played and was on the verge of being promoted to the major leagues.
He was 22 years old at the time - younger than Peter Alonso was at the end of last season. (Smith is six years younger than Alonso, by the way.) He had been successful at more minor league stops, over a greater number of seasons, than Alonso has been.
The idea that we should throw away Dominic Smith for the latest shiny new toy, or try to convert him into a utility outfielder, or find some yet unconsidered way to devalue him even more than he already has been, just doesn't make any sense to me. Let him compete for the first base job and, if he doesn't win the job in Spring Training, let him go to Syracuse and play first base seven days a week. You never know - maybe Alonso will only hit .225 in his first 100 at-bats and the fan base will decide he has to to be replaced.
Bill is right - Smith walked 4 times and fanned 47 times with the Mets in 2018 - that gets an F.
Compare Smith's 4 BB/ 47 K ratio to Willans Astudillo this season.
Willans was up 650 + times in AAA, Venezuelan Winter League, and the Twins in 2018, and fanned just a DiMaggio-like 21 times. He hit with average and power. We speculate about Smith constantly but he is light years from that.
Smith is 6 MONTHS younger than Alonso, not 6 years. And he did post good #s in '17, but hit a wall in' 18 both in AAA and up here.
Yes, six months, not six years. I am still not willing to decide Smith's future before the age of 24, especially considering that he was jerked around by an organization that tried moving off his natural position the moment he hit a rough patch.
I like the six year thing...
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