Tom Brennan - Mets’ Minors Thrivers and Barely Survivors: Syracuse

Thrive - or perhaps Not Survive - baseball is a tough taskmaster.

HEY, BUT BEFORE I GET STARTED, HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY THAT I LOVE NIMMO, MARTE, EDWIN, JAKE, AND OTTAVINO?  CATCH OF THE YEAR BY THE TOTALLY PUMPED AND ALWAYS HUSTLING NIMMO.  MARTE PROVIDES CONSTANT OFFENSE. 2-1 WIN.  YES. 

Now, moving on:

Some guys have had great 2022 years, showing real promise. 

They are thriving, or at least have had great stretches where they have thrived at the plate or on the bump in 2022.

So here is where your writer finds himself. MILB season's almost over, dye is pretty much cast - let's see who's thrived and who is seemingly approaching career life support, starting with AAA:

AAA THRIVERS

Daniel Palka - it seems that having crossed the age 30 threshold, his very good but not flat-out stunning stats have not elicited any phone calls, but I will recognize it as a thriving season.  Anyone who in 93 games hits 25 HRs and knocks in 71 runs is doing something very right.

Mark Vientos - after his annual slow start for the first month, he was last seen hitting roughly .290 with 23 HRs and 71 RBIs.  Thriving 22 year old bat.  Stats would look more imposing if he played more games.

Francisco Alvarez - hit just .180 in 32 games before spraining his ankle(?) - tough adjustment - but still managed a .340 OBP.  Overall, in AA and AAA, 24 HRs, 68 RBIs in 99 games.  The latter 2 numbers drastically exceed 2022 NY Mets' catcher hit-totals, but you knew that. 

Jake Mangum - special category, because he was out for a long time with injury, but hit .333 in a handful of AAA games pre-injury, and overall, .293/.361/.419.   His injury may have cost him a 2022 call up to Queens.

Travis Blankenhorn has had a solid year. Thrived at times. Saw a post that he had recently dislocated his elbow - ouch. Heal up quickly, TB.

AAA - BARELY SURVIVORS:

Khalil Lee - after a brutal short debut with the Mets in 2021, Lee racked up a .450 on base % in 2021.  I assumed he further thrive in 2022, but he has instead hit .213 with tons of strikeouts (125 in 89 games).  I fail to see how that is a resume that is calling for an outlook of long term thriving.

Nick Plummer - he had a sensational debut with the Mets, for a few short games, but he fanned 12 times in 29 ABs with just 4 hits, and in AAA, his old bugaboo, the K, persisted.  78 in 63 games, just .234. He has not made me a believer.

Dom Smith - besides hitting a buck ninety four in 58 Mets games, with home runs only recorded in batting practice, Dom's first 32 AAA games produced a mediocre .279/.380/.434.  Good numbers in the majors, but not in AAA. That does not bode well for an MLB comeback, although at his age, someone will offer him an opportunity.  Maybe with losing a lefty bat in Baty, Smith is a September 1 call up.  I wish it was Drew Smith instead, who is not yet ready.

Other hitters who failed at AAA and bounced between levels (AAA figures shown):  Cody Bohanek .176, 70 Ks in 56 games.  Quinn Brodey, .200/.241/.409.  Carlos Cortes, just .168 in Syracuse, .228 overall between AA and AAA in a season of regression for Cortes.

AAA Pitching:

Lots of “barely surviving” pitchers.  5.23 team ERA leads to FEW Thrivers.  The latter are:

Bryce Montes de Oca has been fanning them by the boatload and saving lots of games lately. 102 on the gun is hard to minimize.

Nate Fisher’s 46 innings and 3.30 ERA is a major success story for 2022. So was his Mets 3 scoreless inning debut.

Steven Nogosek has been exceptional in relief. 

Rob Zastryzny has been solid, with 57 Ks in 49 IP.  But he is 30, with just 36 MLB innings under his belt.  At that age, hard to survive even when you thrive.

Eric Orze - a bad stretch or two, plus time lost due to injury, but he had hot streaks out of the pen in 2022, high K totals, and should be in the Mets’ pen chit chat in 2023.

My topic for next time? Thrivers and Barely Survivors....

In AA.

P.S. 

Brooklyn's Sherveyn Newton won SAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK. Nice. 

Jose Peroza has a 29 game on-base streak. Wow. An incendiary August at the plate. .376/.478/.538 in August in 26 games.

OLLER THE ACE:

Last year’s Mets minor league pitching ace, Adam Oller, threw 8 scoreless innings allowing only 1 hit for the Oakland A's against the NY Yankees.

He’s been great the last 3 starts, after prior season-long struggles in his major league debut season. Congrats to a guy I wrote a lot about last year, finally finding MLB success.

OF Matt Rudick - drafted in 2021, in early August, the Cyclone was hitting just .198 in Brooklyn - another bum, I was (wrongly) thinking.

Since then, he has been absolutely ON FIRE, getting on base nearly 50% of the time and jumped to .240. A stunning 26 hits and 12 walks in his last 20 games!!

And I often overlook defense when I scour the players' stat lines - but this time I said to myself: don't get defensive - just LOOK! So I looked.  

I discovered this: Rudick's next pro error will be his first pro error. Add in his 15 of 18 steals in 2022, plus a low K rate?

Way to go, Matty. Keep up the incredible recent surge. I didn't go to a Top 40 Prospects, maybe after the season, but he belongs somewhere in there. Even if almost no one has heard of him.

THE CHASE IS ON: 9th rounder in 2022, Chase Estep, has stepped right out of draft night into Low A ball with the St Lucie Mets. So far? .276/.403/.536 in his first 17 games, with just 12 Ks. Well, he is a 3B, and he does hit lefty, and he hits good, and lefty hitting 3B Baty is hurt, so...it's simple...call up Chase Estep!

OMAR TURNS 70 - that is an amazing steal total in just 107 games - which projected over 160 games is 105 steals. Great milestone.

ORZE ON THE REBOUND: after missing 4 weeks, the rehabbing righty fanned 4 in 2 scoreless IP in a St Lucie game Wednesday night. A 2023 Mets pen arm in my view. Why? 129 Ks in 94 pro innings.

May you thrive today and forevermore.