First…
some thoughts…
The
Mets promoted AAA-Syracuse P, Walker Lockett. He
will start Thursday’s game vs, the Cubs.
I
like this Wheel of Fortune approach for the remainder of this season. Nothing
the Mets are going to do will produce a team that can stand up to the Braves,
no less the Dodgers, so you might as well try to find a couple of diamonds in
the rough, like they did with Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso,
and even going back a few years, Jacob deGrom.
None of these three were ever ranked in MLB.com’s Top 100 prospects.
From
Reese Kaplan: “saw Lockett dominate a bad Las
Vegas team and held Alonso hitless in an August series last year”.
Lockett
has a combined 2019 Syracuse/St. Lucie stat line of 6-G, 5-starts, 1-1, 3.69,
1.20. He’s a ground ball guy, producing only 15-Ks in 31.2-IP.
He
spent some time on the IL this season (who hasn't).
Lockett
came to the Mets in the Kevin Plawecki deal.
While I’m on the subject…
We
‘found’ deGrom, McNeil, and Alonso because they stepped up and developed their
skills. DeGrom’s increased velo made him a factor. McNeil’s ability to play
multiple positions increased his value. And Pete’s work on defense got him the
first base job.
We don’t have a lot of red prospects in the system right now, but we have a
ton of blue guys that could step up like the
three mentioned above.
Syracuse has Mazza, Gilliam
Binghamton has Peterson, Villines,
Zanghi, Mazeika, Carpio, Gimenez, Toffey, Broady
St. Lucie has Dibrell, Mitchell,
Ramos, Vasquez, Cortes
Columbia has Szapucki, Tavares,
SWR, McGill, Newton, Mauricio, Vientos, Lagrange, Rasquin
Any of these talented ballplayers
have already showed the ability to play above the level of those around him.
Now, they need to make that extra effort to work on the portion of their game
which weakens their chance of making it.
All we need is five of these guys
to become the likes of deGrom, McNeil, or Alonso and our future immediately
changes.
Draft wise, the best I can determine is the following #1-20 draft picks still haven’t signed:
#3 P
Matt Allen
#4 CF
Jake Magnum
#12 OF
Antoine Duplantis
#13 CF Blake McIntosh
#19 P
Hunter Parsons
Through
the top 10, the Mets have reportedly dished out $6,092.000 in bonuses verses
the $8,224,600 allowed. That’s a $976,800 savings that can be added to the
$667,900 in Matt Allen’s slot. That, plus the saving you would have on the Magnum pick would total $2,050,000 offer to Allen.
#13
McIntosh is going to Vanderbilt
LSU has
now exited the playoffs so look for Duplantis to come aboard.
I saw
that OF Brandon Nimmo has been sent to Los
Angeles to see Dr. Watkins, the same spine specialist that both David Wright
and Bobby Parnell went to see.
You have
an ulnar problem, go see Dr. Andrews. You have a neck problem, hand it off to
Watkins.
Bulging
discs are one step below stenosis, but both are considered career threatening.
The Mets
need to play a long game here. Shut Brandon down for the season and give him
close to 10 months to work this out, or un-bulging the bulging. Do it right.
Oh… and
for Christ sake, keep him away from holes in his path.
Monday,
June 17th –
There
are no reported transactions –
Kudos –
DSL-2 C, Derwis
Troconiz (born 1999) – 3-3, R
DSL-2
SP. Enmanuel Almonte (born 1997): 4.1-IP, 0-ER,
0.82
DSL-2
RP, Eiler Hulzi (born 2000): 2.2-IP, 0-R, 1.08
DSL-2
RP, Antonio Villaba (born 1999): 1.2-IP, 0-R,
0.00
DSL-1
C, Jose Hernandez: 2-2, .375
DSL-1
RP, Jhonfran Escalona (born 1999): 3-IP, 0-R,
0.00
The
guy to watch here is Escalona. This is now 6.1 scoreless innings in four games
and he’s starting to trend towards a trip stateside before the end of the
season.
A+ 1B, Jeremy
Vasguez: 2-3, RBI
A+ SP, Kyle
Wilson: 6-IP, 0-ER, 4-K
Low-A 2B, Luke Ritter: 1-4, R, HR, 2-RB!
Low-A SP, Nathan Jones: 2-IP, 0-R, 5-K, 0.00
I
have no idea why they pulled Jones after two innings.
Tuesday,
June 18th –
No transactions
Kudos –
DSL-2 2B, Cesar Berbesi: 4-5, R, .322
DSL-2 RP, Marco Villegas: 2.2-IP, 0-R, 0.00
A+
St. Lucie SP, Dedniel Nunez: 5-IP, 1-ER, 5-K
Rookie-K-Port
C, Andres Regnault: 3-5, R, HR, 4-RBI, .600
I’ve
got Regnault as a blue prospect. The 20-year
old hit .333 last season for the DSL-1 team.
Rookie K-Port SP, Michel Otanez: 5-IP, 0-R, 8-K, 0.00
Otanez
turns 22 in July. He’s throwing baseballs to batters that are 4-5 years younger
than he is. Not good.
AA-Bing SS, Andres Gimenez: 3-5, .242
Is
the bat heating up? We will see.
AA-Bing 1B, David Thompson: 3-3.
2-R, .340
David
is doing everything he can to get back to, at least, the AAA level, even if it
takes playing a new position. Patrick Mazeika returned
to catching full time, leaving first open for Thompson. He’s hitting well above
the .189 he hit earlier this season for Cuse, but he continues to not produce
the power numbers the Mets hoped he would develop when they drafted him as the 2015
NCAA leader for RBIs (90).
Still,
Thompson would make a nice insurance policy at first in Syracuse, beginning in
2020.
AA-Bing SP, David Peterson: 7-IP, 2-ER, 6-K
This
may be the best you are going to get out of this potential SP4 or SP5.
Low-A Brooklyn CF, Ranfy Adon: 2-4, R, .294
Low-A Brooklyn SP, Malky Mena: 5.2-IP, 1-ER, 5-K, 1.59
Low-A Brooklyn RP, Andrew Edwards: 2-IP, 0-R, 0.00
Similar to your perspective regarding Lockett, BVW's team should be scouring AA and AAA for a glove-first CF to acquire and give two months of playing time to. The Gomez experiment is a bust, Lagares should be released and there's no one in Syracuse who can play center.
ReplyDeleteWhile I value defense on the infield, in the outfield I find it somewhat overrated. True, there are the Todd Hundley/J.D. Davis types who are going to hurt you. However, if they can make up for it with the bat, I can live with it.
ReplyDeleteI want to see Smith, Conforto, McNeil because it gives the best chance of scoring some runs.
Reese, I agree. Especially now that the season appears to be perched on a banana peel, get Smith OUT THERE! Let the kids play, make defensive mistakes, have fun.
ReplyDeleteWhile miracles happen once every few decades, the season is virtually over.
I'm not opposed to giving the Smith-Conforto-McNeil alignment a try, but it's not the outfield alignment of the next good Mets team. Conforto seems to have found a home in right field, and Smith, McNeil and Davis all would merit playing time in left. (The "JD Davis as third baseman" experiment probably needs to come to an end, so I'd like to see him getting reps in left field and right field.)
ReplyDeleteThe next good Mets team has Conforto starting in right, McNeil starting at third, Nimmo and Davis as the backup outfielders and new starters in left and in center. I really like Dominic Smith, but unless the NL adopts a DH in 2020, there's no role for him in Queens. Alonso is a superstar now, and he's become adept enough defensively that I no longer think he needs a glove-first caddy for late innings. If there was a DH, Smith could split time at first and in left (think Brandon Belt) and then the Mets would only need a starting center fielder instead of two outfield starters.
Mack, it is very sad to me that a guy you did not list for AA, Sam Haggerty, got hurt.
ReplyDeletePrimarily an IF, the speedster (104 of 129 in steals, 25 triples in 360 career games) was killing it in May, but has (of course? inevitably?) missed 3 weeks with a ??? injury and is still on IL.
In May in 20 games, he had a .471 on base %, and has played 35 minor league games in the OF, so he is versatile.
Man, I hope they sign Matt Allen - but if he thinks he could be a top 5 draft pick next season (and if he is considered this year's top HS pitcher, why not?), he'd be leaving a lot of $$ on the table by signing for only $2 million. Would you sign?
Is it prohibited from paying a kid like that $1,000,000 in salary, to make up for it?
If they don't sign him, the # 3 - # 10 picks could have been a lot different.
To answer my last question, Craig Berman wrote this in 2017:
ReplyDeleteThe maximum first-year player salary in the minor leagues is $1,100 per month, a figure regulated by Major League Baseball. After that, annual pay is up to negotiation between player and team.
If that is true:
Why not a verbal non-binding statement of intent to Allen that the Mets will make sure that they will pay him $1,000,000 per year in 2020 and 2021 - as long as he actually plays. To make up for his bonus shortfall.
Tom
ReplyDeleteObviously, I am not as high on Haggerty than you are.
There is always some one.
Mack, that's true - I was high on Danny Muno once. That was a bad one.
ReplyDeleteI'm just disappointed that so many guys get hot - then hurt - just when you get a chance to see if they can sustain anything. For instance, Brodey got hot in A ball - then promoted to AA - and we now see how much he is struggling since his promo....6 for 34...guy stays healthy, can get a better read on the guy.
While I am on the subject of injured dudes, where the heck are Cecchini and Lindsay??
Lets not forget the forgotten man Lowrie next year another sunk cost for us and were does he play exactly? I asked on another post whether Guillorme can play SS and why he doesn't get the press Gimenez gets who can't at this point be our #1 prospect right?
ReplyDeleteTejada is hitting way far better than Gimenez this year.
DeleteThey fired Eiland I wonder if this is only the beginning.
ReplyDeleteUNDER EILAND they stopped throwinh inside and the slider seemed to go with it.. Last year staff was probably a mix of eiland and warthen magic... Plus the ball is juiced more... Did they use this new ball in minors last year?
ReplyDeleteI bet the pitchers like good outfield defense.. Degrom looked pissed when lagarges let a single drop because he was sitting in the first row
Matz too last night with JD Davis, who is interning in the OF.
DeleteThe Mets have two lefty pitchers on their 25 man. Neither Matz nor Vargas is actually a top three starter. This is where Anthony Kay and David Peterson could really help in (maybe) 2020.
ReplyDeleteAnother really good reliever that the Mets should probably consider promoting up to Syracuse is 25 year old Matt Blackham. His stat sheet for 2019 is 4-1/2.79/45 KO's in 29 innings work/ .97 WHIP. His overall MiLB stats are equally impressive.
Right now, MLB is a four horse race with NL/Dodgers and Braves and the AL/ Houston and Yankees.
ReplyDeleteBut this could change.
Mets are one more game out of first place than Boston Red Sox, who by the way are WS winners. So keep digging and thinking.