A doubleheader win last night - hey, don't screw around with my draft slot!!
An Ecclesiastes might say, a time to win...AND A TIME TO LOSE!
Anyway, a question to ask, as the Mets’ season circles the bowl in Flushing:
How good, exactly, is the Mets minor league system?
I think the bottom line is, if you had to start the NY Mets over from scratch, could you do that internally from the minors, when it comes to fielding a legitimate line up in 2023, after another full year of seasoning in 2022?
In other words:
Would the following lineup have a reasonable chance of MLB success in 2023?
Khalil Lee - RF. A roughly .450 OBP, by far the best in the International League.
Jake Mangum - CF. Hit nearly .300 in AA, with some pop and speed. And 39 for 97 since the beginning of August, which was over .400.
Alex Ramirez - LF. Easily holding his own in A ball at 18, a very high level for an 18 year old to start his career - he hit .258 after a slow start, and seems to be super-talented.
Brett Baty - 3B. Many believe he is an All Star MLB talent in the years ahead. .292/.382/.503 season speaks to his promise as a player.
Ronny Mauricio - SS. Developing big power. 20 HRs, 64 RBIs in 423 at bats, and would I'm sure have had several more HRs were it not for playing many home games in hard-to-hit-in Brooklyn.
Carlos Cortes - 2B/OF. Highly regarded extra base hit bat. 41 XBHs in 304 at bats - wow.
Mark Vientos - 1B/3B/OF. To borrow a Terry Collins term, Mark has “Power Supreme.” His season continues until October 3 in AAA, and he has started very strongly in his delayed AAA debut in September.
Francisco Alvarez - C. Seems like a true superstar catcher in the making. Light tower power. 19 years old, and 24 HRs and 70 RBIs in 327 at bats is amazing, especially considering most of his home ABs were in tough Brooklyn. He hit like a beast outside of Brooklyn.
Utility dudes:
Wilmer Reyes - IF. This dude is talented, versatile, and scrappy. Just 16 late season games, but hit .345/.409/.483.
Pat Mazeika - C. Decent enough # 2 catcher. Too much MLB time for you to consider I'm in this list? Then try Hayden Senger, who faded bat-wise down the stretch, or Nick Meyer, whose bat also faded.
Jose Peroza - IF. He ought to be largely ready with another full year of stick work. 64 RBIs in 357 at bats. Faded a bit at the very end.
Carlos Rincon - OF. Big power, with 22 HRs and 77 RBIs and a .496 slug % in 382 ABs - a steadily improving talent. 114 Ks not terrible, but needs continued focus.
SO…WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Me? I am intrigued by this home-grown potential line up.
We'll never see it happen - but it would be fun for me to see them get a full extra year under their belts in 2022 and see them all in Queens on Opening Day in 2023.
AND BEFORE I GO - A FLASHBACK:
This year's bleak, bottom quintile Mets team scoring is not an aberration.
As I was looking in our archives for something else, I came across the following article I wrote back in 2018, which shows that bottom quintile run scoring is, for the Mets, a familiar rate of non-production (and a nice call me on Wilmer Flores!):
Tom Brennan - WHY ARE THE METS 28TH IN SCORING?
The Mets throughout their 56+ seasons have been a bottom half offense far more than a top half offense.
Believe me, I've been there since 1962, I know.
I especially enjoyed 1968, when the Mets managed to score 473 runs, or 2.92 runs per game. How exciting!
Even in early July 2015, the Mets team that went to the World Series was averaging just 3.5 runs per game.
This team wears its lack of hitting as a badge of honor.
This year is no exception - through Monday, they were 28th out of 30 teams in scoring.
Why?
First of all, to be fair, one must consider the number of games played...a few teams like San Diego that have scored a few more runs have also played more games....but that still leaves the Mets in the bottom 5 instead of just the bottom 3.
Back to reasons:
Yoenis Cespedes has played hurt recently, no doubt impairing his offensive output. He started slowly this year, but was quite clutch driving in runs.
Then he decided to steal twice in one game, hurting his thumb, presumably not badly but who can really be sure. We heard about quad discomfort shortly after that.
Stupid teams fail to restrain a leg-injury-prone slugging cornerstone star from unnecessary running. Bad legs to Yoenis is like Samson after a haircut....not the same dude.
Let's hope he heals without a DL stint and starts hitting like Manny Machado.
Amed Rosario is progressing, but in nearly 2000 minor league plate appearances, he never really learned pitch recognition. Which leads to paltry major league on base percentage. How paltry?
Out of 26 major league shortstops with qualifying numbers of at bats, he is 25th at .273 in OBP. The lowest guy is at .271. Such futility contributes to the Mets' being 28th in scoring, certainly.
Two decent hitting catchers hurt at the same time, IN THE FRIGGIN' FIRST HALF OF APRIL, with no Rene Rivera to fall back on this year.
The injury curse of the Mets - only plausible explanation.
Lobaton and Nido went 12 for 80 (.150) in their absence thru Monday; Devin Mesoraco just 1 for 13 as a Met. Ugh!
Adrian Gonzalez was supposed to be a stop gap, really, until Dominic Smith, the future, was quickly ready. Smith promptly missed all but 2 plate appearances in spring training, resulting in his abdication of the first base job.
Smith is now, he says, acclimating himself to his svelte 215 pound body, so Gonzalez's "stop gap" is becoming a Grand Canyon sized gap.
Todd Frazier has hit as advertised, but not like Manny Machado has. Of course, being a bit of an older fella, Todd sustained a disabling leg injury. See you soon, hopefully.
Wilmer Flores finds not playing often difficult in terms of being effective....so far, he is not. 7 RBIs in over 80 plate appearances - I imagine he wants to be traded to San Francisco so he can become the next Jeff Kent.
Jose Reyes was impotent in spring training and still is, yet the Mets won't cut ties even now, 1/4 of the way through the season. Tomorrow could always be different, right? Wrong.
Michael Conforto, coming off a very serious shoulder injury, was rushed back, and has hit far less than Manny Machado, or whomever you might choose to compare him to.
The tong-less MC Hammer is 58th in average (under .210), and 79th in RBIs (9), among qualifying MLB outfielders.
Jay Bruce has been sluggish at the plate. He is not hitting at all like, oh, Manny Machado. Jay is 50th in average among OFs (.233) and 51st in RBIs (14) in 34 games.
He is also signed for 2.75 more years. Just the pertinent stats, Ma'am.
And the pitchers aren't hitting much either. 10 for 75, 1 RBI. Matt Harvey helped (2 for 7), but they traded his bat away.
Juan Lagares and Brandon Nimmo have done well, with an on base % of over .400 so far combined, but not been up enough at the plate to make a real difference.
And in about 125 plate appearances, just 6 RBIs, so appearances can be deceiving.
Asdrubel Cabrera is hitting really well....thank heavens SOMEBODY is.
That, ladies and gents, is how we're a bottom 3 scoring team.
Oh, and the fact that the Mets hit .227 with RISP.
But not to worry....Tim Tebow is looming on the horizon.
Hitting .260 in AA with 17 RBIs and a .452 slug % - take THAT, Jose and Jay and Michael and Wilmer.
He wouldn't be looming for any team but a bottom 3 scoring team, but the Mets are such a team. So he looms.
Hurry up, Tim. This team needs a hitting miracle.
(WELL, THE TEBOW PROJECTION WAS A LITTLE OFF, HUH? LOL)
4 comments:
Noticed you left out short.
Fixed. Thanks, Mack.
No wonder I had that feeling of deja vu.
LOL
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