The Mack Report - Friday, June 24th

 First up, yesterday, we talked about the Mets bullpen. Today, I wanted to look at the current ERA of all the lefties in both Syracuse and Binghamton, in case I might have missed someone. 

Now I'm just stating the ERA here. I don’t consider it perfectly shows the ability of a pitcher, what with inherited runs and all that. And Tom can give you the strikeout ratio while the analytical guys on the site can breakout the percentage of sliders hit foul outside third base, on a cloudy day. 

Me? Well, if you ain’t able to control the amount of runs cross the plate when you are pitching, you have a problem on my team. 

So, through Tuesday’s games: 

Syracuse: 

Alex Claudio 15-G 3.80

Nate Fisher 16-G 4.43

Mike Montgomery 12-G 6.90 (IL)

Locke St. John 14-G 5.06

Thomas Szapucki 11-G 3.38

Josh Walker 21-G 3.73 (IL)

Rob Zastrysmy 13-G 4.25 

Binghamton: 

Anthony Edwards 12-G 4.50

Andrew Mitchell 15-G 5.48

 

I remember the days you promoted minor league pitchers when they had ERA’s like 1.50. The best we can do here is two guys, Claudio and the starter Szapucki, with a stat under 4..00. 

Any questions?

 

SNY put out their first 2022 mock draft this week here - 

Mets picks in the first round: 

11. Mets – 2B Jace Jung, Texas Tech 

Jung is the younger brother of Texas Rangers prospect Josh Jung. He may have one of the stranger pre-swing set-ups you will see, but he gets the bat through the zone in plenty of time with good bat speed. He is an all-field hitter who projects to hit for both average and power. He walked more than he struck out in college and had a career slash line of .328/.467/.647. His future defensive home is a question, but whoever drafts him likely sends him out as a second baseman and adjusts potentially to the outfield if necessary. Some other names I have heard linked to the Mets early on are Jett Williams, Justin Crawford, Connor Prielipp, and Daniel Susac. 

14. Mets – RHP Dylan Lesko, Buford HS (GA) 

The Mets can go a lot of ways with their five picks in the top 90. It is clear they could use pitching in their system, but some scouts believe the smart play would be to take bats in the first and load up on arms after Round 1, where there will be depth in high school pitching and the ability to dip into the college arms coming off injury who otherwise would have gone higher. The counterpoint would be that with the extra picks and bonus pool, the Mets might be the team best set up to take the risk on Lesko. It would be the first time they have used a true first round pick on a high school arm since Scott Kazmir in 2002. 

Lesko likely would have ranked inside of the top four prospects for me on my board, and would've been the best prep pitcher I have seen since MacKenzie Gore. However, he left a start with forearm tightness and underwent Tommy John surgery at the end of April. This would likely push his pro debut into mid-summer 2023. When healthy, he has a plus fastball that will touch 97 mph and the best changeup in the class. He was showing flashes with his curveball before the injury. You want to take a swing at a potential frontline arm? This is that swing.

 

Mack - I would put one of Mrs. Mack’s dresses on and go to a biker's bar if this turned out to be true. 

Jung is the top pure second baseman that can also play third and Lesko was easily the top pitcher in this draft before he went down for TJS. 

He is worth waiting until 2024, but only if the Mets do their injury physical on him prior to the draft. We don’t need another Rocker fiasco.

 

 We shifted to pitchers a few days ago as the possible Mets pick at either 1.11 or 1.14. I’ve mentioned his before… all the great bats go early in this draft and you need to scoop one if them up before you turn to the deep pitching talent pool. 

That being said, here’s the “other” Tennessee outfielder that is going to go in the first half of this draft. 

6-3, 225 RHH Jordan Beck is the power bat that helped carry the then number one team into the CWS. 

MLB.com says - 

 Scouting grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 55 | Run: 55 | Arm: 60 | Field: 55 | Overall: 50 

Several evaluators draw parallels between Beck and former Mississippi State star Hunter Renfroe. Both were physical, tooled-up right fielders in the Southeastern Conference, and both were drafted by the Red Sox as raw high schoolers (Beck in the 14th round in 2019). Renfroe slugged his way into the first round after improving in his third college season, and Beck is doing the same this spring. 

Beck uses his bat speed, strength and the leverage in his 6-foot-3 frame to create well above-average raw power to all fields. He gets too aggressive at the plate, however, and he struggled to make contact and drive the ball with wood bats in the Cape Cod League last summer. Developing more discipline and making adjustments against breaking balls and changeups has helped him make the leap Renfroe did. 

Beck runs very well for his size, displaying solid speed and the ability to steal an occasional base. His plus arm strength adds to his profile in right field, where he's a better-than-average defender. Though he doesn't play center field for the Volunteers because they have Drew Gilbert, he did see some action in center on the Cape and may merit a look there in pro ball. 

2022 stat line -  66-G, 252-AB, .298/.391/.595, 18-HR, 61-RBI 

 

Thursday’s tweets -

 

Carlos Collazo (@CarlosACollazo) 

Kumar Rocker through four starts with @ValleyCats: 

1.80 ERA, 15 IP, 25 K, 3 BB, 9 hits allowed. 

 

Michael Mayer @mikemayer22 

Pete Alonso ranks among NL hitters: 

1st - 20 HR

1st - 65 RBI

2nd - 1.317 OPS w/RISP

4th - 156 wRC+ 

 

Mathew Brownstein @MBrownstein89 

Among 307 minor league hitters with a min. 600 PAs since 2021, here are the top 5 leaders in wRC+: 

Jonathan Aranda: 153

Vinnie Pasquantino: 150

George Valera: 150

Francisco Álvarez: 150

Jose Miranda: 149 

 

Carson @MetsfanOnYT 

Josh Edgin in 2014 

27.1 IP

21.2 K-BB%

1.32 ERA

2.69 FIP

2.83 xFIP

2.44 SIERA

50.7 GB%

85.6 LOB%

28.1 CSW%

28.7 HH%

1.2 fWAR/60

1.1 bWAR/60 

I don’t think enough Mets fans realize how elite this man was before brutal injuries completely destroyed his career.

TOM’S MINORS MINI-METROSPECTIVE:

Syracuse: 10-9 losers, after 4 rallying runs in inning no. 9. 

Vientos had 2 hits, two walks. Too ready? Dini (catcher) grand slam, Quinn Brodey 2 hits, 3 RBIs, as his recent resurgence continues. 

'Cuse Pitching? Not much. Lastly, the bottom 2 dudes in line up, who shall remain nameless, were 0-9 with 9 Ks…not a good night. 18 Ks in all for the Syracuse Swishers.

Binghamton: Brett "Boom Boom" Baty has gotten mad at me. Good, I poked the bear and like it when he roars…. 3 for 4, 7th HR. Alvarez 0 for 2, 3 passes - getting the Bonds treatment.  .343/.418/.529 in 18 June games so far after coming off the 7 day DL.  Just 21 RBIs in 204 ABs, but that is picking up this month.  Why so low, I wondered out loud to no one who would listen?  

A poor 7 for 48 with runners in scoring position, and 24 strikeouts and 7 walks.  

Hopefully, the latter "poke" will cause an RBI ROAR!

 5-4 Bingo win. The elite McIlwain bat produced a game winning single in the 10th.

Brooklyn: Just 3 hits, but 3 runs, 3-1 win. Vasil 6 fine innings, Hartwig save.  The Cyclones have been close to league average in runs, HRs, and average this month, but due to their very slow start, are still second to last in hitting and runs and last in HRs (34, league leading team has 97).  You know, Rome wasn't built in a day.  Funny, though, Rome is one of the teams in their league and is averaging 2 more runs per game than the Brooklyn Boys. 

St Lucie: Top 4 guys in the lineup got on 8 times, but the next 5 got on just twice.  

Junior Tilien had 2 hits and 2 RBIs (26 in 31 games) and "just" 26 Ks (more on team Ks later).

Last two fellas in last night's line up are both sub-.100 for St Lucie.  The duo, that I won't name, are 8 for 85.  Three other guys have gone 5 for 53 for St Lucie this year.  That combined 13 for 138 is not only tough to do, it is why the team's average has dipped to .241, which is still tied for the league's team lead.  The rest of the team is hitting .251.  They lead in OPS (.722).  

Mack's (unnamed here) favorite Lucie slugger is 4 short of 100 Ks, and most likely will enter July 100+.

The entire Lucie team has 685 Ks in 2,149 ABs, not good, but Tampa has an astonishing 797 Ks in 2,061 at bats.  That entire team is fanning once every 2.6 at bats.

Lastly, despite Omar De Los Santos' 39 steals in 55 games (take that, Lou Brock), St Lucie is only 6th among teams in steals.  Run, Omar, Run!

Oh, yeah....7-3 Lucie loss last night.