The Mack Report - 7-18-22

 

First, my thoughts on yesterday’s Mets draft picks.

-The Mets first round was a bipolar moment to me. 

First the ups… Kevin Parada is the kind of player you build a franchise around. His defensive game is excellent and… think about this… he was 6^th in the nation with 26 home runs (60 games), and  3^rd in the nation with 88 runs batted in, and he did this for a team playing against some of the top teams in the nation. 

Parada could easily be ready for the majors in 2026; however, the Mets rarely push their prospects this fast. An indication will be if he is assigned for the remainder of this season and which team it is. 

The Parada pick also (at least to me), screams of an arranged agreement with Atlanta that the Mets would include Francisco Alvarez in a package for Juan Soto. We will have to see on this one. 

Still, joy at the Mack house. 

Rating:  A+ 

Then came the crash. 

Don’t get me wrong. Jett Williams is a great player. He can play both second and short, was projected by someone in the Mets organization as a future centerfielder, is a hit monster, can run like the wind, and plays + defense, but, is he a 1.14 pick when you left players like Brock Porter, Dylan Lesko, and Cam Collier on the board? 

I’ve never heard the three words Jett, Williams, and centerfield said in the same sentence before so the jury is still out on this one. 

This reminds me of the Brandon Nimmo pick. A great pick but just not worthy of an early first round pick. I was wrong about Nimmo. Maybe Williams becomes the leadoff hitter for the Mets for a decade, leads the league in steals, and earns a Gold Glove either in center or on second. 

I hope so, but, for now… 

Rating:  Incomplete

 

I have to upgrade another pitcher into Red Prospect status. 

Normally pitchers that are promoted to the next level get off to a slow start. They need to adjust to the elevated amount of talent they are facing. 

Not Dominic Hamel. 

After posting a 4.12-ERA in 14 games (13 starts) for A-St. Lucie, he’s off to the races in A+ Brooklyn, posting a 2-70-ERA in two starts, with 17 strikeouts in 10 innings pitched. 

Regular Mack’s Mets readers will remember how excited I was when the Mets drafted this former Dallas Baptist Friday night starter. 

My hopes is he keeps dominating at this level for the remainder of this season and becomes the SP1 for AA-Binghamton on opening day 2023. 

 

Molly Moore @MollyMo32 

16-year-old throws 100 pitches. Gets two days rest before getting run out to pitch again. 

Help me understand how this is okay. Or, I’ll save you the time. 

It isn’t. 

    -Mack - I saw this all the time I covered high school baseball live. Fat, overweight, managers making their star pitcher throw until his arm almost fell off. 

They also taught them how to throw sliders before their young body was fully developed. 

The last time I saw this was LAST MONTH  when I attended the final regular season game of a travel team that had a member I knew. 

The starter, the start of the rotation, was made to throw 100+ innings… three days before he started the first playoff games. 

Nothing has changed. 

 

The AA-Binghamton Mets have signed RHP Brooks Hall, from the Landcaster Barnstormers. 

Hall was drafted in the 4^th round of the 2009 Draft, by the Brewers, out of the powerhouse T.H. Hanna HS in Anderson, South Carolina. 

He pitched parts of eight seasons in the Brewers chain, and then moved on to Arizona in 2017. After that, he went to Perth in Australia, and then Landcaster, where, this year, he went 2-1, 2.20, in six starts. 

I assume he will enter the under performing Rumble Ponies rotation. 

 

Yesterday’s Tweets -

 

Tebby3000 CYJUAN WALKER SZN 

NICK CASTELLANOS HAS A -1 WAR- 

 

Michael Mayer @mikemayer22 

Mets on the road in 2022: 30-19 

Mets on the road in 2021: 30-51 

 

Buster Olney @Buster_ESPN 

Per Fangraphs, playoffs chances in the NL: 

Dodgers 99.9%

Mets 99.7%

Braves 98.6%

Padres 81.6%

Brewers 76.7%

Cardinals 51.4%

Giants 47.3%

Phillies 40.8%

Marlins 3.8%

Rockies 0.1%

Nationals, Cubs, Pirates, Reds, D-Backs 0.0% 

 

KOZ THE TRUTH @mr_relevant7 

Edwin Diaz has 12 more strikeouts than

Noah Syndergaard  in 38 less innings 

 

Locked On Mets @LockedOnMets 

Edwin Díaz over his last 19 appearances: 

- 18.2 IP, 10 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 41 K, 0.49 ERA, 0.71 WHIP 

Simply unfair stuff from Sugar! 

 

Press releases from yesterday’s minor league game -

 

Syracuse, NY – The Syracuse Mets finished off their weeklong, six-game series against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Triple-A Miami Marlins) on the right note, never trailing in the game on their way to a 3-1 Mets win on Sunday afternoon in the Salt City. With the win, the Mets split the six-game series against the Jumbo Shrimp. Syracuse has not lost a series since June 7-12 against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.    

Thomas Szapucki got Syracuse (40-50) off to a superb start on the mound, allowing just one earned run in a four-inning start with seven strikeouts, four hits allowed, and only one walk. Szapucki had Jacksonville’s (48-42) number this week, also starting Tuesday night’s game, again surrendering just a lone run in six innings with eight strikeouts and one walk. The left-hander, in fact, fanned five of the first eight batters he faced in Sunday afternoon’s game.   

Buoyed by the superb start from Szapucki, the offense backed him up with a handful of early runs. In the first, the Mets scored the game’s first run when Daniel Palka launched a solo shot, his team-leading 17th home run of the season to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.    

In the third, Syracuse scored twice in unconventional fashion. Leading off the inning, Johneshwy Fargas dropped a bunt down the third-base line, and as third baseman Luis Aviles, Jr. fielded the ball for Jacksonville, he promptly threw it away down the first-base line. This error allowed Fargas to prance all the way to third with nobody out. After a Terrance Gore strikeout, Nick Plummer was hit by a pitch, putting runners on the corners with one out. 

Then, Kramer Robertson chopped a groundball up the middle of the infield that plated Fargas for a 2-0 edge and allowed Robertson to reach first with one out. A Palka single loaded up the bases with one out, and after a Blankenhorn strikeout, Nick Dini drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 3-0 Mets. Syracuse drew three different bases-loaded walks combined between the final two games of the series.     

From there, the Mets bullpen locked the game down. Relievers Adonis Medina, Sam Clay, Michel Otanez, and Bryce Montes de Oca worked the final five innings of the game in scoreless fashion, surrendering just one hit and two walks while fanning four batters. In its last 43 and one-thirds innings of work, Syracuse’s bullpen has fanned an amazing 55 opposing batters in the past ten games.    

Montes de Oca was particularly stellar, earning his fourth save of the season in Triple-A with a scoreless ninth inning that included two strikeouts. The hard-throwing right-handed reliever has yet to blow a save in his four opportunities at the Triple-A level. Montes de Oca has racked up 25 strikeouts in 17 innings of work with the Syracuse Mets this season. 

 

ERIE, PA – The Binghamton Rumble Ponies defeated the Erie SeaWolves 4-3 after five innings in a rain shortened game at UPMC Park in the final game before the all-star break. The game was called due to inclement weather with one out in the sixth inning. 

After Erie (11-6, 50-36) took a 1-0 lead in the first, the Ponies responded in the second inning with timely hitting. With the bases empty and two out, Jeremy Vasquez singled, Zach Ashford hit a grounds-rule double to center, and Hayden Senger belted a two-run triple off the left field wall that put the Rumble Ponies on top 2-1. 

Binghamton (5-13, 33-54) extended the lead in the third as Wyatt Young drove the first pitch from Erie starter Adam Wolf (5-3) over the right field wall for his second homer of the year to make it 3-1. 

In the fifth, with the Rumble Ponies up 3-2, Brett Baty had a two-out RBI single that drove home Cody Bohanek from third to make it 4-2 Ponies. 

Vasquez finished the game 2-3 with a run scored to extend his hitting streak to nine games. Baty had a hit in each game of the series and hit .500 (10/20) over the six games in Erie with two home runs and five RBI. 

Postgame Notes: Brooks Hall allowed one run on four hits over two innings to earn the save in his Rumble Ponies debut…Cody Bohanek hit a leadoff double and scored a run in the fifth and is on a four-game hitting streak.

St Lucie dropped two, despite Junior Tilien’s 9th. Their hitting is down since Consuegra and Ramirez were promoted to Brooklyn.

 The latter two had 5 hits in the Cyclones’win tonight.  And Nick Zwack threw 3 scoreless with 5 Ks.  BIG ZWACK ATTACK!