The Mack Report - Tuesday, June 21st

First up, on Monday, the Mets signed veteran outfielder, Ender Inciarte, to a minor league contract. 

The 31-year old, 5-11/190 LHH Inciarte can play all three outfield positions; however, he has played the most in center during his career. 

Arizona signed him as an UDFA in 2008, out of Venezuela. 

He has played eight years in the majors, including six years starting for the division rivals Atlanta Braves. His best years were for Arizona in 2015 (.303) and the Braves in 2017 (.304). 

From MLBTR - 

The Mets have agreed to a minor league deal with veteran outfielder Ender Inciarte. 

The longtime Braves center fielder spent the first portion of the season with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate but was released last week. 

Inciarte has yet to crack the major leagues this season after signing a minor league deal with the Yankees over the offseason. He generally played well over his Triple-A time, posting a .252/.336/.408 line with four home runs and stolen bases apiece through 116 trips to the plate. Inciarte walked at a robust 11.2% clip while going down on strikes only 14.7% of the time, and his overall offensive output was about league average. 

This one is a little strange to me. I know the Mets are continuing to look for that 5^th outfielder off the bench, but that usually goes to someone with a big bat. Inciarte never hit for power, even in his best years. 

 

I’ve decided to suspend my daily profile on a Mets minor leaguer. Tom and I keep stepping on each other with dueling prospect posts and he does a much better job in this area than I do. 

Look for his separate posts or a minor league tag on to this post. 

 

The return of both Max Scherzer and James McCann will have an immediate impact on the Mets dugout. 

McCann has been out top ace this year and should fit in perfectly with an ever changing rotation. McCann, who I never counted on as a productive bat, is still the bext catcher we have to place behind the plate until Francisco Alvarez is ready. 

My hopes now is we leave Houston with a split, begin to watch the Braves play the west, heal up both Jeff and Jake, and begin the task of locking up this season. 

It’s been a long time since I have had a warm and fuzzy feeling about this team. 

 

Let’s go back and focus on a pitcher that could be picked by the Mets at either 1.11 or 1.14. 

6-2/180, LHSP Brandon Barriera comes out of the powerhouse American Heritage HS in Florida 

MLB.com says about Brandon: 

Scouting grades: Fastball: 55 | Slider: 55 | Changeup: 55 | Control: 55 | Overall: 55 

American Heritage High School in Plantation, Fla., has churned out a good number of professional players, from All-Star Eric Hosmer to Red Sox prospect Triston Casas. Pitchers have been tougher to come by, with Shaun Anderson the one big league arm to come from the school, via the University of Florida. Barriera -- a smaller lefty with electric stuff who threw very well on the summer showcase circuit, including a perfect inning at MLB’s High School All-American Game in Denver -- has a very good chance of being the next. It was more of the same for him this spring, though he made his last start on April 19 as he shut things down out of caution, not injury. 

While there are high school pitchers in this class who are more projectable, there aren’t that many who have better stuff than Barriera. His fastball sits in the low-90s and touched as high as 96 mph over the course of the summer. He has a low-80s slider that misses a lot of bats, and his changeup, which he sells with excellent arm speed, has the chance to be plus in the future. 

Barriera, who reminds some longtime scouts of former Yankee great Ron Guidry, throws a ton of strikes and goes right after hitters. The only concern around the Vanderbilt recruit is about his size and whether he will hold up as a starter, but his stuff and feel for the strike zone have had scouts running to south Florida all spring and puts him firmly in first-round conversations talent-wise. 

 

Collegiate Baseball @CBNewspaper 

CB's National H.S. Player of The Year is SS Jackson Holliday of Stillwater H.S. (OK). 

He hit .685 over 40 games with 29 doubles, 6 triples, 17 homers, 79 RBI, scored 74 runs and stole 30 bases. 

 

Tuesday tweets - 

GENY Mets Report @genymets 

Francisco Lindor is the first SS in MLB history to have 50 RBI in 66 games or less since Alex Rodriguez in 2000. 

Mack - Hey! I thought this guy sucked? 

Michael Mayer @mikemayer22 

How Mets top prospects are faring recently: 

AAA Mark Vientos 1.010 OPS last 26 G 

AA Francisco Álvarez 1.276 OPS last 21 G

AA Brett Baty .876 OPS in June

AA Ronny Mauricio .854 OPS (6 walks) in June

A Alex Ramirez .364 OBP in June

 

Matt Eddy @MattEddyBA

Triple-A wRC+ leaders

Filters: qualified, 22U

134 Luis Garcia WSN

127 Ji-hwan Bae PIT

121 Mark Vientos NYM

 

BetMGM  @BetMGM

Interesting market:

The Mets to beat Yankees in the World Series:   +2200

The Yankees to beat the Mets in the World Series: +2500

 

Mathew Brownstein @MBrownstein89

Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor have 116 RBIs combined this season.

Put another way, those two Mets have 63% of what the entire Detroit Tigers team has posted this season

Tom's Minors Mish-Mosh:

Four starters tonight: Szapucki, Scherzer, Seymour and...HAMEL? Christian Scott would have made it 4 starters with the letter S.

Did the 4 starters end up with W's, though?  No, but it was quite an interesting night.

Well, Scherzer was good, 1 run in his first 3 innings, and after Wyatt Young walked and McCann got on with an error, you know who - FRANCISCO "NOT READY" ALVAREZ hit a 3 run "mammoth shot" very far beyond the left center wall.  Baty infield single, Mauricio DP, Cortes walk, McIlwain single, Vasquez walk, and Ashford cleared the bases with a double.  Young lined to the track to end the inning at 6-1.  Max came back out for the fourth, retired the first batter, then a guy named Ortiz clocked one off him as if his name was Alvarez.  Max then came out to a standing O, with 6 Ks.  A good night's work.

Bottom 3, back to back walks to McCann and Alvarez, but Baty (12 game hit streak) lined into a double play.  

Butto came in and surrendered 2 runs, making it 6-4 in the 5th. And then 2 more in the 6th on a homer and it was 6-6.  Then another homer and Bingo trailed 7-6.   Yamamoto got in to start the 8th.  He pitched effectively.  But no miracle 2nd HR from Mr. Not Ready (.288), although he was 2 for 4 and a walk, so Bingo lost 7-6.  

Brandon McIlwain had 2 more hits - that kid can sure hit. Now .306 on the year, in 173 ABs, 7 doubles, 6 triples, and 4 HRs, and a .391 OBP. Now 5 for his first 12 in AA.

In Syracuse, Tom Szapucki gave up a first inning run and then settled in very nicely and went 5 innings, 3 hits, 2 walks, 5 Ks.  Khalil Lee doubled in Marky V to tie it at 1-1. Former Met Logan Verrett (now 32) went 5.2 innings for the opposing team.  Quinn Brodey continued to hit better, cracking a 2 run shot to put Syracuse ahead.  He has a 5 game hit streak, 2 doubles, a triple, 2 HRs and 7 RBIs over that span.  

Nogosek closed things out - 3-2 win. 2 innings, 5 Ks, 1.15 ERA in 10 outings for Nogo, who deserves to be in Queens, where he had an 0.71 ERA in 7 outings.

In St Lucie, Hamel went 6.2 innings, 2 runs, 7 Ks, but left trailing 2-1.  Junior Tilien 2 hits, a steal, and a walk.  Ramirez (12) and De Los Santos (37) stole bags, too.  Heading into the 9th....a rain delay!  Rain stopped, hitting remained stopped, 2-1 loss.

Brooklyn trailed 3-0 after 5, a steep hill to climb.   Clawed back to 3-2 in the 8th, one on a Tanner Murphy long ball, and it was 3-2  heading into bottom of the 9th.  Palmer singled, O'Neill walked to start off the inning. A wild pitch made it 3-3.  Runners moved over to 2nd and 3rd on a fly to right.   Matt Rudick sac fly brought a dramatic, come from behind 4-3 win; Acosta 5 shutout innings in relief, and picks up the win.

Mets' game?  8-2 loss in Houston.  It wasn't jet lag - 4 guys forgot their bats.  

You will lose games when Lindor, Marte, Davis and Mazeika go 0-15.  JD and Francisco struck out 3 times apiece.  Was JD's hand bothering him?  Lindor down to .235.  Is it the finger injury?  He is in an 11-60 skid.  

MVPete was 3 for 3 including his 20th HR and RBI # 65.  Mazeika plummets down to .167, while rehabbing McCann laced a double and walked in 5 AA plate appearances.  There are devices called planes - put Mazeika (in a 2-23 skid, hitting .167) on one to the minors and McCann to the majors - today would be not a day too early.

The plane should fly Mazeika to Binghamton.  Alvarez should hop in a car and head to Syracuse - today would not be a day too early.  

He could also fly to Houston with James today - just saying - Mr. Not Ready is actually Quite Ready.   After all, Mets catchers are a thunderous .204 with a .250 OBP and .265 slug % this year.  Go radical - McCann and Alvarez should be the Mets' catcher tandem NOW.