The Mack Report - Tuesday, July 12th

 

Kramer Robertson and Patrick Mazeika have arrived in Flushing as reinforcements. 

I assume that Robertson was sent there in case Sterling Marte had to go on the IL. Now that Marte has been designated day-to-day, we may never see this guy on the field. Still, here’s a small review on KB: 

Robertson is a 27-year old RHH infielder that can  play all three field positions. In 2017, St. Louis drafted him in the 4^th round, out of LSU. 

His 2022 (and career) majors stat line is: -0.1-WAR, 1-AB, .000 

So far this season, for AAA-Syracuse, Robertson has 33 at-bats and has hit .212. 

 

There are a few players we need to start watching that play for either the FCL Mets, in the Florida Complex, or both DSL teams in the Dominican Republic. 

One would be 19/year old, 6-3, 220 RHRP, Layonel Ovalles. 

Ovalles was signed as an international free agent, out of the Domincan Republic. 

He pitched for both DSL teams last year and posted a combined stat line of: 12-G, 6-starts, 0-2, 2.83, 35-IP, 34-K. 

This season, he has exclusively came out of the pen and, after 7-outings, has posted a 1-2 record, with a 2.50-ERA, and put up 29 strikeouts in 18 innings pitched. 

Tom particularly has targeted this guy early on. 

 

Next up, the draft is less than a week away. 

We continue our search for the Mets 90^th pick in the 3^rd round this year. Second up as one of the players that might still be on the board here: 

Michael Kennedy is a 17/year old 6-1/205 LHP, out of Troy HS (NY). 

MLB. Com says this about Kennedy: 

Scouting grades: 

Fastball: 55 | Slider: 55 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 55 | Overall: 45 

Upstate New York may not seem like a place to look for high-end baseball talent, but in the last several years, scouts have found some, from catcher Joe Mack, taken at the end of the first round in 2021 to Ian Anderson, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2016 Draft. The top talent from the area in 2022 is Kennedy, a young lefty with projection and a really good feel to pitch. That was on display across the summer, landing him a spot on USA Baseball’s 18U National Team and helping him stand out at events like the Area Code Games. He was slowed a bit early with a non-arm injury, but threw well once he got going in mid-April. 

Kennedy has a solid three-pitch mix and a very advanced idea of how to use it. The 6-foot-1 southpaw doesn’t light up radar guns now, with a fastball that tops out at 92 mph, but it has good riding life up in the zone, he hides it well and he’s not afraid to go after hitters with it. He’ll miss bats consistently with his slider, a breaking ball he will throw in the upper-70s more often than not. He’s not afraid to throw his changeup to lefties and righties, thrown around 81 mph with good arm speed and deception. 

A good athlete who exudes confidence on the mound, Kennedy holds runners well and repeats his delivery consistently, leading to excellent overall command. There’s more in the tank to come as he physically matures and that, along with the fact he’ll still be 17 at Draft time, should add interest in this LSU recruit. 

Mack - The Mets love local players in the later rounds. 

 

Draft Tweets - 

Jon Heyman @JonHeyman 

Braves acquire 35th pick in MLB draft from Royals for OF prospect Drew Waters snd 2 more prospects

 

digs - 

(I created DIGS to get closer to a "true talent" score for single starts, but the metric does a lot more than that. Using what I call Advantage (similar to B-R's and FanGraphs' runs above average metric), I can convert DIGS into a WAR score. Like the base score, Advantage is adjusted so league WAR totals closely match those posted for each season on FanGraphs. And since the DIGS formula closely resembles the FIP formula, individual WAR scores are often very close to their fWAR counterparts. In fact, I compared WARs for over 125 starters in 2019, and the correlation (r^2) was .922. That's a very reliable trend!)

 

D1 BaGS | OF (Power 5)

 

1. Gavin Cross VTU

2. Dylan Crews LSU

3. Jud Fabian FLA

4. Vance Honeycutt UNC

5. Chris Alleyne UMD

6. Enrique Bradfield Jr VAN

7. Brock Jones STAN

8. Jacob Melton ORST

9. Davone Brown NCST

10. Wyatt Lanford FLA

11. Dylan Rock TAMU

12. Joe Lampe ASU

 

D1 ISO+BB Leaders

 

1. Max Wagner CLEM .610

2. Luke Franzoni XAV .598

3. Ivan Melendez TEX .597

4. Michael Carico DVD .590

5. Sonny DiChiara AUB .560

6. Tyler Locklear VCU .537

7. Dalton Rushing ULV .536

8. Jud Fabian FLA .534

9. Matt Coutney ODU .529

10. Brett Johnson SIUE .517

 

Top D1 1B, by BaGS:

 

1. Ivan Melendez @TexasBaseball

2. Sonny DiChiara @AuburnBaseball

3. Nick Kurtz @WakeBaseball

4. Matt Coutney @ODUBaseball

5. Andrew Jenkins @GTBaseball

 

Top D1 Catchers, by BaGS:

 

1. Kevin Parada @GTBaseball 73.4

2. Dalton Rushing @LouisvilleBSB 69.3

3. Tatem Levins @Pitt_BASE 66.8

4. Michael Carico @DavidsonBASE 66.8

5. Brendan Tinsman @WakeBaseball 

 

Other tweets - 

Michael Mayer @mikemayer22 

Baseball America updated their Top 100 list. Three Mets are on it: 

6. Francisco Álvarez -up from 10

31. Brett Baty - up from 36

91. Alex Ramirez- previously unranked 

Ronny Mauricio no longer on list. 

 

Lastly, hospital visits for both me and Mrs. Mack will prevent me from giving you a report tomorrow or Thursday. Just my luck during pre-draft week. 

We will be back Friday morning.