From The Desk – Andres Gimenez, Ryley Gilliam, Gurriels, Jed Lowrie, Robinson Cano

Good morning.

           

Fangraphs https://blogs.fangraphs.com/top-25-prospects-new-york-mets/  Top 25 Mets Prospects –

            2. Andres Gimenez, SS 

Signed: July 2nd Period, 2015 from Venezuela (NYM)

Age     20.3    Height 5′ 11″  Weight            165     Bat / Thr         L / R     FV       50

Tool Grades (Present/Future)

Hit       Raw Power     Game Power  Run     Fielding          Throw

45/55     40/45                30/45            60/55    50/55              55/55

While evaluations of his defense are universally strong, assessments of Gimenez’s bat vary significantly depending on when he was seen. He looked like a well-rounded, first-division player while he was hitting with pleasantly surprising power (.282/.343/.432 with 30 extra-base hits in 85 games) at Hi-A St. Lucie during the season’s first half, but like much less of one during a rough six weeks in the Arizona Fall League. In Fall League, Gimenez looked physically overmatched at the plate, likely due to exhaustion. He was still 19 when the Mets promoted him to Double-A for the season’s final six weeks, and his sophomoric body had endured a 122-game season against older, more physically developed athletes before he had even set foot in Arizona. It’s fair to project Gimenez to add strength, but because his frame is small, it’ll probably be just the kind of strength that gives him season-long stamina, not huge raw power. But while big raw power is unlikely, if his feel for contact is refined in a way that prioritizes lift, it’s possible that Gimenez will end up hitting for more power than we project in the same way Ozzie Albies has. Gimenez has excellent natural bat control and can pull his hands in to get the barrel on pitches that would jam other hitters, and he has feel for fully extending on balls away from him and roping them into the opposite-field gap. If he does, he might end up hitting a ton of doubles and out-slug our projections without hitting a lot of home runs, or he may naturally start lifting the ball like Albies did. In general, we like Gimenez as an above-average defensive middle infielder with advanced contact skills. We think he’ll be a solid-average everyday player, and while we think it’s unlikely, we can see a developmental path that leads to better production than that.

The hardest-throwing prospect   https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-prospects-with-the-best-fastballs/c-302576888 in each organization -

Mets: Ryley Gilliam, RHP - While Jose Moreno might be the hardest thrower in the system, touching 99-100 mph, Gilliam gets the nod because of his combination of velocity (96-98 mph) and life to his fastball. The fifth-round pick in the 2018 Draft out of Clemson struck out better than 16 per nine innings in his summer pro debut, though he also averaged 6.8 walks per nine.

Mack – I live in South Carolina. I live Clemson sports. I have followed this kid throughout his Tigers career. I said this the day we drafted him and I will say it again now… if Gilliam can cut down his BB/9 rate, this is your future Mets closer someday.

Gurriels  https://www.mlb.com/news/yuli-and-lourdes-gurriel-jr-live-dads-dream/c-302419012  are first family of Cuban baseball –

                        The way Lourdes Gurriel Sr. introduces himself these days -- "I'm the father of three beautiful sons: Yunieski Gurriel, Yulieski Gurriel and Lourdes Gurriel Jr." -- belies the exploits of a figure known in his homeland as El Hombre de los Grandes Momentos.

The Man of the Big Moments.

Long before his two youngest sons broke into the Major Leagues -- Yuli with the Astros and Lourdes Jr. with the Blue Jays -- the patriarch of the Gurriel family established himself as a beloved baseball legend in his native Cuba.

Jose Altuve atop 2019 Top 10 second basemen https://www.mlb.com/news/jose-altuve-atop-2019-top-10-second-basemen/c-302581346   -

                        3. Jed Lowrie, Mets

Lowrie hit .267/.353/.448 (122 wRC+) with 23 homers, and he turns 35 shortly after Opening Day, but he's coming off two of the best seasons of his career, a pair of campaigns that look oddly similar. (In both years, he had a .448 slugging percentage and a .347 wOBA, though in 2018 he turned a few of his doubles into a career high in home runs.) He maintained a slightly above-average hard-hit rate and is a competent defender at second, so we're betting on at least one more season of strong production -- and so are the Mets.

4. Robinson Cano, Mets

When the Mets traded for Cano (and Edwin Diaz), it was reasonable to worry about how a 36-year-old would age over the remaining five years of his contract, but fortunately for us, we don't have to worry about that here. We're considering only 2019, and there's little to indicate Cano won't keep hitting at a high level this season.

Cano's .303/.374/.471 (136 wRC+) was about the same as his career line, and while it's true enough that his season was marred by an 80-game suspension for violating the MLB drug policy, it's also true that he hit .317/.363/.497 (140 wRC+) in 41 games after returning. We don't know how he'll hit in 2022, but for 2019, there's no reason to expect anything but success.