Mack – Sunday Thoughts: A-Rod and J-Lo, Loss of 2 Teams, Prospect Projections, Jose Reyes, HS Draftees

Good morning.

This begins a new weekly feature. I will give you my spin on all the things that happened during the past week regarding baseball, in general, and the Mets, in particular.

First up…

Tony Plate wrote earlier this week that Alex Rodriguez and his fiancée, Jennifer Lopez, were meeting with bankers in hopes of raising the funds needed to buy the New York Mets from Sterling Equities.

This is classic. Only in New York could a dysfunctional family sell a billion dollar business to an international top 40 singer and her current fiancée. Hey have even retained JP Morgan to find investors here.

A couple of thoughts:

1.    Bankers don’t laugh at jokes. I tried to raise money to invest in a new broadcast company. Had four great partners. We paid a NYC headhunter to set up two days of meetings with bankers that invested in speculative situations like this. Failed miserably. I could only project positive cash flow, not show what was already in the till.

2.    Investing in the negative cash flow Mets adds additional banker challenge, especially during a period when they are bleeding their own cash due to the shutdown. Add to that the current Mets financial picture and the only people that could be interested in something like this are Mets fans worth well over one billion dollars and living on Long Island.

3.    Hollywood couples don’t stay together. These two can’t even take the time to get married, no less find a major lending institute to back a back a venture with both these two signatures on the bottom of the agreement. How would the team be split up when they, like their past relationships, go in separate directions?  A-Rod gets the infielders?

The probable reduction of two minor league teams (AA-Binghamton, Rookie-Kingsport) is going to really upset the apple cart for the Mets.

How this works is still a question and one can’t begin to determine or project what players will fall where.

I will say this… it is safe to say that the Mets will NOT operate without a AA team.

 Promoting A+ St. Lucie would be a travel disaster. The easy fix would be adding Low-A Brooklyn to the same league Binghamton was in, but will the league approve the addition to the same league you just killed a Mets affiliate in?

And what about player assignment?

Well, there will be 60 less jobs in the system, so that means less filler choices, both present and future.

One thing that is safe is the Top 30 prospects currently in the system. They will be assigned to meet both the team’s needs and their growth potential.

Currently, I would project them as:

            AAA – Syracuse

                        SP David Peterson

                        RP Ryley Gilliam, Stephen Villines, Stephen Nogozek, Adonis Uceta

                        C  Ali Sanchez, Patrick Mazeika

                        SS Andres Gimenez

                        OF Quinn Brodey

            AA – Brooklyn

                        SP Thomas Szapucki, Kevin Smith

                        RP Yeizo Campos, Darwin Ramos, Andrew Mitchell

                        2B Carlos Cortez

                        OF Wagner Lagrange

            A+ - St. Lucie

                        SP Jordan Humphreys

                        SS Ronny Mauricio

                        3B Mark Vientos

            A – Columbia

                        SP Matt Allen, Josh Wolf

                        C Francisco Alvarez

                        SS Wilmer Reyes

                        3B Brett Baty

                        OF Jake Mangum, Freddy Valdez

Players like Allen, Wolf, Alvarez, Baty, and Valdez are going to have to step up their game early. Makes for a stacked Firefly team.

MLB.com featured their top all-time shortstops by team:

            Mets: José Reyes

Key fact: Produced 27.9 bWAR with Mets, 10th most in franchise history

Reyes busted the top off what historically has been the weakest position in franchise history, making four National League All-Star teams, winning the NL batting title in 2011 and setting franchise records for triples and stolen bases by wide margins. Before Reyes came along, Bud Harrelson was the only shortstop in Mets history to post at least 5.2 career bWAR with the team.

This is just me, but don’t be surprised if an increased percentage of the top high school seniors eligible for the draft choose to go to college for three years instead.

The signing money just isn’t going to be here this year, especially of kids not picked in the first five rounds.

In 2019, the Mets bonus was worth $277,100.

In 2020, it will be $20,000.

If I am one of these kids, I go full tilt college and enjoy the experience until the world starts turning on its axis again.