Tom Brennan - June 5 Rocks; Parada Speed-Up? Mauricio Pace; Mets' Starter Length

What Real Mets Fan Doesn't Love the DSL? ("Duh…What's a DSL?")

First, though, last night, fiery little Marcus Stroman beat on the taller Mets.  

Why, one might ask, is the Mets' best hitter, Frankie Alvarez, not hitting clean up?

 - Alvarez had 2 of their 4 hits, his 6th HR, & both Mets RBIs in a 4-2 loss,   

Mighty Matt Rudick had his 7th HR, another hit & a walk last night. 

 - OBP .468. 

 - On base 12 times in his last 4 games. 

 - Slug % .582. 

 - OPS 1.050.

 - An unacknowledged hitting machine is Mighty Matty. 

 - Barry Bonds had a career .444 OBP and .607 slug %. OPS 1.051.

 - Don't dismiss Matt, even if he isn't Barry Bonds and instead is little, like Marcus.

Now on to my article du jour.

June 5 is Cinco de Juno.

It is also opening day in the dandy Dominican Summer League.

The Mets will have two (count 'em, two) teams: 

DSL Mets Blue, and DSL Mets Orange.

It should be a colorful season.  And hopefully very dandy for the players.

The Florida Complex League Mets start June 5 too!

Hopefully, not much that is complex, but much that is simply winning.

Three more teams to look for signs of hope in.

So please, mark your calendars and take your pom poms out of the closet.

Celebration time.

Hopefully, some of the 3 teams' players will be the next Francisco Alvarez or Ronny Mauricio.

JUST A THOUGHT INVOLVING ACCELERATED MINORS LEARNING:

I sometimes wonder...what would happen if you signed a kid like Kevin Parada and put him right in AAA?

Sure, he'd likely do poorly at the plate, jumping to far more talented pitchers than he faced in college.

But after, say, a few months, would he begin to hit AAA caliber?  

As Jamie Foxx said in the movie "Collateral" when thrust into an impossible situation and he realized that to survive, this had to be his approach:

"ADAPT, DARWIN, I CHING. WHATEVER MAN, WE GOTTA ROLL WITH IT".

So would Kevin Parada adapt, and accelerate his path to the bigs, or just fail by going too far, too fast? It would be fun to see it tried out in baseball. 

In football, and in hoops, guys go right from college to the NFL and NBA. I’m just suggesting college to AAA for your elite prospects.

MAURICIO PACE

Sometimes, when you ignore the static on your black and white TV set and simply DO adjust your dial, you see things with blinding clarity.  

The clarified subject today? DOUBLES.

Yeah, yeah, chicks dig homers, I know, but doubles are babe magnets, too.  

And Ronny Knows Doubles, my friends.

Dig this:

The MLB record for doubles in a season? 67.

Mauricio has 22 two baggers in 47 games.

At that pace over 162 games, that would be 76 doubles.

SEVENTY FRIGGIN' SIX.

So stop with the" But..But..But" stuff.

This dude is totally smoking. Totally ready. No buts about it.

Maybe Billy Eppler needs to adjust his dial just a little bit, too, like us.

Clarity is paramount. Especially when you've got a player heading for...

The Outer Limits.

DSL KEY SIGNINGS:

This info, from an article of mine a few months back, might be useful.

NY Mets ($5,284,000 total pool) - most of it spent on 4 players:

Daiverson Gutierrez, C, Venezuela (27th overall - $1.9 million bonus): a Mets' website article by a gentleman named Jesse Sanchez said the following about him and the next two players: Gutierrez can hit, and his above-average power potential is noteworthy. His power has drawn comparisons to Francisco Álvarez at the same age.  On defense, Gutierrez has a chance to have an above-average arm along with other emerging skills behind the plate. He has been praised for his plus makeup and his leadership skills. 

Anthony Baptist, OF, Dominican Republic (29th overall - $1.1 million bonus): For those of you who crave speed, Sanchez says this: Baptist is one of the fastest players in the class and also one of the most exciting. He is expected to start in center field and stay at the position as he develops, primarily because of his speed, but also because he has the potential to be an above-average defender. He can chase balls down in the outfield, and like all prospects his age, he is working on fine-tuning his routes and angles.  

The hope is that his speed -- he has been consistently clocked at 6.1 seconds in the 60-yard-timed run -- will also come into play on the bases and he can develop into a base-stealer in the future.

Christopher Larez, SS, Venezuela (43rd overall - $1.5 million bonus): Sanchez writes: He is one of the most polished shortstops in the class and has a chance to be a five-tool player at a premium position.  He already shows good bat-to-ball skills and has a chance to be a plus hitter in the future. There’s a chance he develops more power as he grows and his body matures. 

Defensively, his instincts are noteworthy, and he features all of the skills an emerging middle infielder needs to make his way through the Minor Leagues and eventually the big leagues.  

Daviel Hurtado, LHP, Cuba ($640,000 bonus) - I had read that the lefthander has a fastball up to 95 mph and a big curveball. Pretty HOT for a young hurler.

27 guys were signed in mid-January, and shown here in this article are the names of 20 of them:

Misael Lopez, LHP, Dominican Republic

 

Heriberto Rincon, OF, Dominican Republic

 

Enderson Asencio, OF, Dominican Republic

Julio Zaya, 3B, Dominican Republic

Derek Rodriguez, OF, Venezuela

Osiris Calvo, LHP, Dominican Republic

Wilmer Lugo, LHP, Venezuela

Henry Pizani, C, Venezuela

Jean Brito, RHP, Venezuela

Elwis Mijares, RHP, Venezuela

Jonathan Perez, OF, Venezuela

Leydeman Ruiz, SS, Venezuela

Keiver Garcia, SS, Venezuela

Jesus Anton, RHP, Venezuela

Misael Lopez, LHP, Dominican Republic

Vladi Gomez, SS, Dominican Republic

Brennan Thoughts: 

Most will never see the light of day in the major leagues, and perhaps most will never even make it to stateside minor league ball, but the annual cycle goes on and on and on.  Teams tend to spend the most money where they see the most potential, so I would imagine the top 3 especially, plus Hurtado, have good potential to climb to the major leagues in 4 to 6 years.  

Interesting, too, that almost all of the internationals come from VZ or the DR.  Guatemalans and Hondurans likely too soccer-focused.  Only baseball is a REAL sport, though.  Stop kicking balls and start hitting balls. I did also see that Baseball America apparently had Gutierrez higher, as # 20 and Larez higher,  as # 25, with Baptist also in their top 40.

Sanchez adds this, also informative: An international player is eligible to sign with a Major League team between Jan. 15 and Dec. 15. He must turn 16 before he signs and be 17 before Sept. 1 the following year -- in practical terms, that means players born between Sept. 1, 2005, and Aug. 31, 2006, will be eligible to sign in the upcoming signing period. Players have to be registered with MLB in advance in order to be eligible to sign.  Teams are allowed to trade international bonus pool money starting Jan. 15. 

LASTLY, IN THIS LENGTHY ARTICLE: 

METS STARTER LENGTH: 

In 1969, Mets' starters averaged 6.8 innings, while in 2023, until a few days ago, it was a mere 4.8 innings.  Brothers, this should not be so.  

It was good to see Max and Justin finally banging out some real innings last week, after Kodai the Friendly Ghost threw 6 brilliant innings in last week's start.  

More innings?  Ya gotta start somewhere, and this trio's last outings feel like the start of more Mets starter innings per start.    

Don't start in with me now - just start having a good day.  

And once you start your day, don't forget to relieve yourselves.