Good
morning.
MLB.com posted their top 6 Mets
International Signings. Number two, behind Jose Reyes, was –
2. Edgardo
Alfonzo Country:
Venezuela
Career WAR: 28.8
Signed as a 17-year-old out of Venezuela in 1991, Alfonzo was
never a chart-topping prospect during the early part of that decade, but he
developed into one of the most accomplished players in franchise history.
During eight seasons in New York, Alfonzo hit .292 with 120 home runs and an
.812 OPS -- numbers he punctuated with four more homers and 17 RBIs in 24
postseason games. Alfonzo also hit a key home run in Game 163 to push the Mets
into the playoffs in '99, demonstrating a knack for clutch hitting that
continued into the 2000 postseason; overall, his .318 average with runners in
scoring position remains the highest in franchise history.
After leaving the Mets following the 2002 season, Alfonzo
played four more big league seasons, though he never replicated his success in
New York.
Mack – I could have picked any one of the six
highlighted Latin stars featured in this article, but I particularly chose the
one that our Albany boy could get in one more rant.
So…
take it away John!
BA wrote a series of posts this week on
the Draft Preview of each team. It included what they thought were the plus and
minus of the team in question’s past actions.
Here was what they said was the Mets weakest position in the
chain:
Outfield.
None of the Mets top 15 prospects are outfielders, and their
No. 1 outfield prospect is a 16-year-old yet to play his first professional
game. With Jeff McNeil, Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo
and J.D. Davis in tow, the Mets might not
need any additional outfielders for a few years. That’s a good thing, because
no one is coming from the farm system for a long time.
Mack – No one agrees more here than I do. For
this reason alone, I still can’t believe they traded away a stud pick like Jarred Kelenic. There wasn’t a single
Mets coach that wasn’t over the moon about this kid.
This trade will always go
down as our General Manager’s folly.
No one ever expected the Mets to sell themselves to A-Rod and
J-Low. And anyone can try to raise money to buy anything.
I think we can agree now that the Wilpons will not let loose
of the highly profitable SNY network. It will never be part of a deal to sell
this team.
I shake my head when I think about decisions like this. The
team is heavily bleeding cash and… look, make believe this is a house you want
to sell. Do you try to sell it without the built-in pool outside? The pool is
the sale enhancer. SNY is the sale enhancer for a bleeding Mets team.
None of this makes sense anymore. It seems to me that we are
stuck with these guys until the MLB steps in someday.
If we didn’t know it was real, Joe Mauer’s career with the Minnesota Twins might strike us as
being more like a fairy tale than an actual story. That is, until August 19,
2013. That was when Mets first baseman Ike Davis hit
a foul tip that hit Mauer square in his helmet.
… the foul tip to his head ended up being the major
turning point in his career. Placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list,
Mauer didn’t play for the rest of the 2013 season. Until the last game of his
career, Mauer didn’t play another game at catcher, as the Twins moved him
permanently to first base to protect his health. Entering 2014 with a career
wRC+ of 134, Mauer didn’t put up that number in a single season as a first
baseman. And it wasn’t a coincidence; Mauer dealt with blurred vision for
years. From a star to a league-average player at best after a single pitch,
Mauer continued to play for Minnesota until his retirement after the 2018
season.
Lastly, so the 2020 draft will be limited to five rounds.
Houston
will only get four picks. The Yanks… three.
It
will be critical that the Mets get this right. All 30 teams will be scrambling
once the five rounds are up, all trying to sign at least 10-15 more players
with a very limited bonus check. Probably $20,000. Peanuts vs. past years.
My
guess if most of the top high school players will go college this time if they
are not picked in the first five rounds. This will be an intelligent plan to
plan for a healthy bonus check three years from now.
My
question to you…
Should
a team still approach this kind of draft with a ‘best player available’ policy
or should they target key positions that their chain shows weakness?
12 comments:
I would go with best players available in the draft. Say that outfield was a strength and shortstop was a weakness. Would you then draft Gavin Cecchini over Kalinic? That would clearly be a mistake.
Sad for Joe Mauer that Ike did not do what he usually did on that swing...swing and miss. Jayson Bay feels Mayer’s pain.
Play ball. Those who don’t want to play should be allowed to sit out 2020 with neither pay nor penalty. Major cities could remain risky, so have contingency plans for the Mets to switch games from high risk Citifield to a low risk locale like...oh...Binghamton.
I agree Tom.
Stick with best players. If the talent pool gets too high on one position in the system (example: SS) then you adjust accordingly (postion change or trade).
Good Morning, Sad News. Raul Reyes has passed away. https://twitter.com/RumblePoniesBB/status/1259105840927137797
Mack, Fonzie was the best Mets Manager I saw since Gil Hodges. No joke.
Fonzie was the only manager to ever win an outright championship in 19 years in Brooklyn.
More than Fonzie won, it was the way he won, how the team played, the emphasis on fundamentals, the emphasis on defense, the emphasis on the running game and the emphasis on manufacturing runs. They scored runs on outs time and time again. Brooklyn was a flat-out exciting team all year.
They hit against the shift. Took extra bases when the shift had players out of position and bases uncovered. Scored from third if the ball got by the catcher. Even when they were thrown out by being a little too aggressive, it was great to watch.
It was the type of baseball that helped the Royals beat the Mets in the 2015 World Series and those Cardinal teams in the 80’s beat the great Mets teams though those 80’s Mets were much more talented on paper.
Fonzie had the team working on fundamentals and defense everyday including daily bunting drills. Remember last year when Mickey Callaway was asked why he didn’t have Dom Smith bunt in a given situation and Mickey answered something like “I don’t think Dom has ever bunted before”.
In Brooklyn last year, they all could bunt. Even catcher Jake Ortega was able to bunt. In the ninth inning of the deciding game in the first playoff round, Jake bunted over what proved to be the winning run.
They played hard. They played baseball the right way.
Of course he is no longer managing in the system.
And outfield prospects? Give some love to Ranfy Adon. He has power and has been called the fastest player in the organization. He was also Rule 5 eligible last year and no one picked him as he has not gotten past Rookie level yet.
He has way too many tools to be ignored. Let's give the guy a chance.
I'll 2nd J/A's Fonzi thoughts. A favorite since I saw him take over a game offensively & defensively (SS at the time) in Pittsfield early 90's. Never okayed AAA I think.
Can't fathom his departure.
Raul was a loyal Mack's Mets reader. This is horrible news and my thoughts and prayers go out to him family.
Go out on the field Raul and do what do did best.
Sadly Fonzie is gonzie so we need to move onzie.
I'm still not clear on the reason for the firing of Fonzie except, perhaps, that he didn't want someone getting more accolades than he did.
John From Albany's opinion of Alfonzo cost him his job.
Word got back to our General Manager of all the praise John constantly lavished Edgardo and he just couldn't let this guy come off better than, at the time, an undetermined Mets manager.
My source is my dog Maggie May.
I also would not have traded lefty relief pitcher Blake Taylor and outfielder Kenedy Corona for Jake Marisnick who is a free agent at the end of this year. Blake proved to have the ability to get out both righties and lefties and Corona hit .301 with 23 extra-base hits and 19 stolen bases in his first professional season that spanned the Dominican Summer League, the Gulf Coast League and Class-A Brooklyn. It further deflates the system for a type of player that could have been signed as a minor league free agent (Lagares, Billy Hamilton) or filled by a minor leaguer already in house, like Braxton Lee.
And a trade for Marisnick looks worse due to a compressed season, which could not be foreseen..
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