6/25/19

Tom Brennan - ODD AND INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS IN THE METS MINORS




Over a long season, one sees the odd and the interesting everywhere.  

We certainly see lots of odd stuff in Queens, and some mighty interesting ones, like Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil, tearing up major league baseball even more than they were tearing up AA together in the first few months last season.

Let's look at just a few of the many odd and interesting tidbits of 2019.

ODD:

Before 2019, if you were asked quickly about the hitting of two excellent AA defenders for the upcoming season, Andres Gimenez and Ali Sanchez, most would have said: 

Gimenez is our # 1 prospect, he'll hit; Sanchez is a reputed light hitter, who knows?

Through Sunday, though, Sanchez was hitting .289/.349/.348 in 45 games.

Gimenez?  52 games, just .226/.293/.337.  Go figure, right?

How does the # 1 prospect (Gimenez) compare to other shortstops in the system right now?

AAA Luis Guillorme is hitting more like a # 1 prospect: .297/.408/.392 in 549 games.

And former Met Ruben Tejada in AAA is hitting .351/.432/.553, kinda Mike Trout numbers.

2nd year SS in St Lucie, Manny Rodriguez, is hitting .263/.347/.321.

And 18 year old SS Ronnie Mauricio is hitting .286/.326/.382.

So the Mets # 1 prospect is the # 5 shortstop in their minors statistically right now.

Heck, now that Gavin Cecchini (remember him?) started his rehab with Brooklyn finally, Andres might be both # 1 prospect and # 6 SS.

Pretty odd.  If you ask me. 

Now:


INTERESTING:

Mets top rising minor league starting pitchers were expected to be Anthony Kay, David Peterson, Simeon W R, and Tony Dibrell.  

Record, including Ks and WHIP, for each in 2019:

Kay: 76 Ks, 71 IP, 1.02 WHIP

Peterson: 73 Ks, 65 IP, 1.45 WHIP

Simeon: 65 Ks, 50 IP, 1.29 WHIP

Dibrell: 58 Ks in 67 IP, 1,28 WHIP

All pretty solid.  

Then there is unheralded starting pitcher guy:

Dedniel Nunez: 82 Ks, 66 IP, 1.05 WHIP

I guess we all ought to be paying attention to Nunez, huh?  He's been pretty interesting this year.


ODD:

While the NY Mets pitching staff is hitting over .200, Tim Tebow in AAA is hitting .147 in 177 at bats, with  4 fewer homers than the Mets pitchers.

Maybe Tebow should take up pitching.


INTERESTING:

One start does not a career turnaround make, but former 2nd rounder Andrew Church, still only 24, caught my attention.  

In a career marked with a lack of memorable performance levels (441 IP, just 295 Ks, 4.79 ERA), Church came into this past weekend's start with only two 2019 outings: 4.2 IP, 15 H, 2 Ks.  Seems like washed up pitcher's numbers to anyone. 

But numbers are. sometimes just numbers.

I watched him for a bit as he threw 7 innings in his last start in AA on good old MILB TV, and after allowing a 2 run jack in the first inning, he allowed just 1 earned run over his final 6 innings, fanning 7, hitting 94 pretty consistently and flashing a nice curve.  

Hmmm...could Church be ready for a career renaissance? 

Finally...


ODD:

Well, really, not so odd.

The young Columbia Fireflies couldn't hit their way out of a paper bag early in 2019, hitting just .194 through the first 35 games.  Was it youth?  

Not sure, but I will say this, happily:

In the next 35 games, they've hit nearly .260.  A sixty six points differential is odd, but when its a PLUS 66, that's GOOD!



That's all for today, folks.  I need time to go scream at a reporter right now - maybe I'll punch him, too.  What the heck.   In Metsville, doing that is NOT odd - it's ordinary.

The Mets hitters (except No-Show Robbie Cano) showed again on Monday night that they are more than ready to be part of the solution in 2019.  

The pitchers, however, have not gotten the memo.  

The ice under Mickey's feet just got a little thinner.


12 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

If you polled Mets' fans right now, a high percentage would say they hate Robbie Cano.

In 54 games, 16 RBIs, .223/.270/.361.

Gimenez, except he is only in AA?

In 54 games, 16 RBIs, .231/.305/.354.


Gimenez is our # 1 prospect who is hitting exactly like Robbie Cano, who we hate, except two levels lower.

Yeesh! How ODD!

Tom Brennan said...

More oddities:

Syndergaard is tied with many others for the major league shutout lead, with 1.

Matz, who allowed few homers in the minors, leads the NL with 18 homers allowed, without having to face Pete Alonso.

Wheeler surprisingly is tied for the NL lead in earned runs allowed, without having to face Pete Alonso.

Anonymous said...

The habits cano is displaying are learned over time. AT This point in his career and life those are not going to change.While the young prospect is learning on the spot to be a better ball player and young man.Cano is a sunk deal so we have to deal with the withering of his talent.

Reese Kaplan said...

There must be a reason for Cano's sudden drop off the cliff...I can't quite put my finger on (the plunger).

Tom Brennan said...

Cano of course hit .450 + in spring training and had the great game 1 with Scherzer. Then...nothing. Baffling.

Some people get old in an offseason - he got old overnight.

Mack Ade said...

Reese -

this game is half mental

Cano ain't feeling it anymore.

Maybe he needs a shot of....

confidence

John From Albany said...

We need to get people that can catch the ball and stop playing people out of position. Last night's game in Philly was full of defensive gafs. Conforto is not a Center Fielder. McNeil is not an outfielder. Trade Frazier now tgat he is hot and pick up as much of his salary as possible to get a giid player back not a Ryder Ryan, Eric Hanhold, Jacob Rymes, etc.

Cano, the sooner you dump him the more likely you won't have to eat all that salary. If you pay half of what he is owed maybe an American League team will take a chance. Otherwise you will need to include Alfonso to get someone to take him. Wonder how that would go over.

Gary Seagren said...

Yes and frankly we should throw in BVW as maybe he can negotiate a new deal with both of them in it. Whats really sad is if his off season moves weren't such a disaster we would probably be a WC team and when does Brodie start taking the heat here?

Tom Brennan said...

John, I still think the most alarming Brodie deal was the Keon Broxton trade - because the guy had such a bad strikeout history, unless they felt they could fix that by turning him into more of a pure contact hitter, that trade made absolutely no sense.

Broxton has 59 Ks in 127 at bats! Basically one every 2 official at bats.

Expecting a full time Nimmo and a mid season Cespedes after trading for a bum like Broxton, they probably felt they had an outfielder surplus.

The Rajai Davis and Carlos Gomez signings were seemingly fair back up plans, but "only break glass in case of emrgency" types. And break the glass they had to. And Gomez (.198) is only slightly better than Broxton at age 33, as he declines. I did like the Matt Kemp signing, but he is hurt.

End result, when NO ONE ELSE in the Mets minors was close to outfield-ready - putting infielders in the outfield. Sad, but true.

Oh, by the way, as Gomez declines at age 33, we have Cano, 38 months older than Gomez....so should anyone be shocked by the decline of Cano? Don't think so. I was hopeful a great hitter like him would defy the age slowdown process - apparently the decline was late, but STEEP.

Roger said...

John, you forgot to include Amed on your list of players out of position.

John From Albany said...

Agreed Roger plus a Pitching Coach playing Manager and Agent playing GM and Owner's son with continued mis-management and micro management errors running a baseball team.

Tony said...

It was different that The Mets signed a few former players to minor league contracts such as Dilson, Ruben, & Carlos, I don't recall them signing that many former players