The Mack Report - Friday, July 29th

 

Yesterday’s Trade 

The Mets traded pitchers Jose Acuna and Hector Rodriguez to Cincinnati. In return, they received LHH OF Tyler Naquin and LHRP Phillip Diehl. 

Acuna is a 21/year old international free agent, out of Venezuela. This season for Brooklyn, he is 3-0, 3.16, 1.01, with 36-K, in 25.2-IP. 

Rodriguez is 26 years old and also hails from Venezuela.

This season for Syracuse, he is 1-3, 7.56, 41.2-IP, 39-K, and 21-BB. 

The veteran Naquin is 31/yrs. old and was a first round pick in 2012 by Cleveland, out of TAMU. 

Stats:

2022: 0.1-WAR 187-AB .246

Career: 3.6-WAR 1536-AB .269 

Diehl is 28/yrs old and was a 27^th round draft pick by the Yankees in 2016, out of Lousiana Tech. He has spent a limited amount of time in the majors so far. 

Stats:

2022: -0.2-WAR 0-0 11.12

Career: -0.5-WAR 0-0 9,67 

Thoughts - First, this won’t be the biggest trade made this off season, but it does improve the offensive output on the RHH bench. 

The adding and subtracting Diehl or Rodriguez is a gain for the Mets. Yes, Diehl hasn’t had any success at the major league level, but he can strike people out: 

Minors stats 

2022: 23.1-IP 30-K

Career: 452.1-IP 533-K 

Naquin is not a good defensive outfielder, but he is fast in the base paths. Replacing Travis Jankowski with Naquin keeps the pinch runner option intact and greatly increase the projected outage from the bench. 

Acuna is a talented mid-range prospect, but the Mets are deep in them and his loss is, well, fine in a pennant race year. 

The Mets still need a successful major league reliever and a LHH DH bat.

 

Francisco Alvarez 

One of the trusted members of the Mets group text feed went to the Syracuse game that Jake deGrom pitched in the other night. Naturally, he kept us up on developments during the game. 

I don’t remember any of those thoughts being positive. Obviously, they were directed at Jake’s performance and both his lack of control and velocity, but what we didn’t expect was a scathing report on the defensive woes of our top prospect, catcher Francisco Alvarez. 

Forget his under .200 hitting. The person viewing this saw one wild pitch that he thought could have been caught and I think, SEVEN successful stolen bases against Alvy. 

SEVEN, 

He did confirm the fact that he did have an arm like a canon, but it lacked any accuracy and direction. 

I write this to all of you that think this kid is ready to be called up. He isn’t both offensively and with a glove on his hand. 

The first thing he needs to do is adjust his offensive game while facing ex-major league pitchers. There are plenty down there to, hopefully, tee off on. 

But he shouldn’t be hid as a DH. Catch him daily and teach him to be better. Get him to come to the park earlier and throw 50 balls a practice to second base. 

In essence, make him into a major league catcher.

 

 BPJ  - 2023 MLB Draft: 10 College Players to Know 

Will Sanders RHP  South Carolina 

Sander is a 6-foot-6, 215-pound righty known for his exciting combination of size and pitch mix. The righty has solid command and has plenty of projection remaining. 

He boasts a mid-90s fastball and a putaway slider. He also shows a solid feel for his changeup. 

 

2023 MLB DRAFT - TOP 100 HIGH SCHOOL PROSPECTS HERE - 

13  3B Aidan Miller JW Mitchell, Trinity, FL 

Miller is one of the most physical preps in the 2023 class. He's big and athletic with explosive power that stems from a combination of raw strength and excellent bat speed. Miller is a consistent high-performer on the amateur circuit and his mammoth power finds it way into games already. He can run a fastball into the low-90s on the mound, but his future is likely swinging a bat. The body is already very thick and muscular, so he'll need to maintain his athleticism as he gets older. For now, it's comfortably a third base profile, with a corner outfield or first base role possible as he ages. 

 

Yesterday’s Tweets - 

Michael Mayer @mikemayer22 

Starling Marte is hitting .300/.349/.465 to start his Mets career. 

Leads Mets position players with his 3.1 bWAR.

 

Tyler Gallo @TylerAGallo 

Pete Alonso on ESPN broadcasted games this season: 

.437/.590/1.125, 3 HR, 8 RBI 

With that win, the Mets are now 5-0 on ESPN games this year.

 

Subway To Shea Podcast @SubwayToShea 

Last 15 games for Brandon Nimmo: 

.180, 2HR, 2RBI

 

Minor League Press Releases -

 

Syracuse, NY – Francisco Álvarez, the top prospect in minor league baseball, had a magic moment at NBT Bank Stadium on Thursday night. The 20-year-old catcher launched a two-run home run deep into the summer night in the bottom of the ninth inning, propelling the Mets to a 5-3 win over the Omaha Storm Chasers. 

Syracuse (43-53) entered the bottom of the ninth inning with the game tied, 3-3, setting the stage for the signature moment of the 2022 season for the Mets. After a Tzu-Wei Lin lineout to start the frame, Robertson nearly end the game on his own, tripling off the top of the centerfield wall to put the winning run 90 feet away with one out in the ninth. Álvarez would do better than just ending the game, taking a hanging breaking ball and pounding it off the light tower beyond the left-field wall for a walk-off, two-run home run that gave the Mets a 5-3 victory. The 20-year-old catcher from Venezuela has two home runs in his Triple-A career, the other a grand slam at Worcester on Saturday afternoon. 

The game started quickly with both teams scoring in the first inning. In the top of the first, Omaha (48-47) manufactured a tally when Drew Waters walked to start the game, stole his way to second, then to third, and scored on a groundball out by Michael Massey as the Storm Chasers took a 1-0 lead. 

In the bottom of the first, Syracuse scored twice to take its first lead of the night. Kramer Robertson began the inning with a single, followed by an Álvarez walk that put runners on first and second with nobody out. Daniel Palka struck out, but a Mark Vientos walk loaded up the bases with one out. Travis Blankenhorn followed with an RBI groundout that plated Robertson to tie the game up, 1-1. Then, with Álvarez at third base and Vientos at second, a pitch crossed up Omaha catcher Freddy Fermin, skittering to the backstop for a passed ball that scored Álvarez and made it 2-1 in favor of the home team.   

It remained 2-1 until the fourth, when each team scored one more time. In the top of the fourth, Nate Eaton singled with one out and swiped his way up to second. The Storm Chasers ended up stealing eight bases overall in the game. After a Brewer Hicklen walk and a Clay Dungan lineout, Fermin looped a soft single into center field to score Eaton and make it a tie game, 2-2 

In the bottom of the fourth, the Mets regained the lead. After a Blankenhorn single, a walk by Khalil Lee, and a Deven Marrero fielder’s choice groundout put runners on first and second with one out, a throwing error by the pitcher Austin Cox on a pickoff attempt advanced Lee to third and Marrero to second base. Michael Perez then lofted a fly ball to the left-field wall just shy of a home run, but it certainly was deep enough for a sacrifice fly to score Lee and give Syracuse a lead again, 3-2. 

Omaha came back once more, this time in the eighth. With nobody on base and two outs, Michael doubled down the right-field line to extend the inning. Nate Eaton promptly brought him home, slicing a single into centerfield to plate Massey and make it a 3-3 game late in the contest. Eaton finished the game 2-for-4 with a run scored, a stolen base, and a run driven in.   

Even with the run allowed in the eighth inning, the Mets bullpen was rock solid on Thursday night. Adonis Medina, Rob Zastryzny, and Bryce Montes de Oca allowed just two earned runs in six innings with nine strikeouts. Montes de Oca had six strikeouts on his own, working the eighth and nine innings for the Mets on Thursday night to put Syracuse in its position to win the game in the bottom of the ninth.

BINGHAMTON, NY – The Binghamton Rumble Ponies (6-17, 34-58) fell 17-8 to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (11-13, 42-51) on Thursday evening at Mirabito Stadium as the two teams paired up for 25 runs and 28 hits. 

Orelvis Martinez put New Hampshire ahead 1-0 in the second with a solo shot and he hit a three-run home run in the third. Martinez also had a sacrifice fly in the fifth and had five RBI. The five-run inning was capped off by a Chris Bec two-run double and the Fisher Cats had a 6-2 lead. 

The Ponies scored two in the second on a Ronny Mauricio solo home run and Luke Ritter coming around on an error. 

New Hampshire plated two in the fourth and fifth to take a 10-2 lead. Binghamton began to knife into the deficit scoring three in the fifth as Brett Baty’s two-run home run scored James McCann and Mauricio went back-to-back with his second homer of the night. 

The Fisher Cats tacked on four in the sixth as Addison Barger hit an opposite field three-run home run to left and New Hampshire increased the lead to 14-5. They scored three more in the seventh on Rafael Lantigua’s three run home run, his second home run in as many nights to hold a 17-5 advantage. 

Wyatt Young’s RBI double and Brett Baty’s two-run double in the eighth cut the New Hampshire lead to 17-8 and that score would hold. Four New Hampshire players had three hits. 

POSTGAME NOTES: Baty extended his hit-streak to 11 games and finished 2-5 with four RBI… Mauricio went 2-4 with two home runs. Jeremy Vasquez reached base four times.

 

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (July 28, 2022) – The St. Lucie Mets won a wild contest 9-8 over the Palm Beach Cardinals on Thursday at Clover Park. 

Both teams overcame deficits twice. The final comeback was by the Mets, who trailed 8-5 with two outs in the sixth inning but scored three times with two outs in the frame to tie the game 8-8. William Lugo hit a RBI ground out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh to plate Ronis Aybar for the winning run. 

The game featured three consecutive home runs for the Mets for the second time in team history. With one out in the third inning Fernando Villalobos, Tanner Murphy and Lugo went back-to-back-to-back over the left field wall against Cardinals starter Carlos Guarate. The homers for Villalobos and Murphy came on consecutive pitches. 

The Mets last accomplished the feat on August 11, 2011 vs. Jupiter. Wilmer Flores hit the middle home run. 

The three straight home runs provided the Mets a 3-1 lead. Palm Beach’s Adanson Cruz answered with a two-run homer of his own against Mets starter Joel Diaz to tie the game 3-3 in the fourth inning. 

Murphy hit a RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to put the Mets back in front. Junior Tilien drew a bases loaded walk later in the inning to make it 5-3. 

The Cardinals tied the game 5-5 in the fifth. Thomas Francisco hit a RBI single and Sander Mora hit a sac fly. 

Palm Beach scored three times against reliever Benito Garcia in the sixth inning. Patrick Romeri ripped a two-run double to make it 7-5 and Francisco brought in the last run when he hit into a double play. 

Cardinals reliever Jose Moreno got a double play ball in the bottom of the sixth and appeared like he would get through the inning with the 8-5 lead. However, Lugo sparked a rally with a sharp single. Tilien followed with a RBI double to make it 8-6. Raul Beracierta bashed a run-scoring single to bring home Tilien. Carlos Dominguez belted a double to score Beracierta to tie the game 8-8. 

Cardinals lefty reliever Nelfi Contreras hit two batters and gave up a single to Villalobos in the seventh to set up Lugo for a the run-scoring ground out to give the Mets the final run. 

Michael Krauza (1-0) got a strikeout and double play in the seventh inning to earn the win. 

Joshua Cornielly pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth for his second save. Villalobos threw out pinch runner Darlin Moquete trying to steal second base to end the game. 

The Mets pounded out 14 hits. Murphy, Lugo, Dominguez and Villalobos had two hits apiece. Beracierta went 3 for 5. 

Jeremy Rivas went 4 for 5 for the Cardinals.