Tom Brennan: International Top Prospect Update; Draft; Mother Ship Status

Jose Quintana surrendered 5 runs in 4.1 innings in his latest AAA rehabber.

When I wrote the following on June 23, in blue, these 5 were floundering early on:

2022 signees of note: 

* Simon Juan signed for $1.9 million, 

* Willie Fañas signed for $1.5 million  

* Jesus Baez signed for $275,000. 

* Dangelo Sarmiento signed for $700,000. 

* Jefrey Rosa signed for $100,000.

4 of those 5 are now playing in the Complex League, and Rosa is in the DSL.

How are the 5 doing?  

Well, OK, you asked….

- Combined, they are just 23 for 150 (.153) through Thursday. 

I know, be patient.

What have they done since?

Well, Sarmiento hasn’t played since and is 4 for 26. Maybe they feel he needs more tutelage before his resuming play in games?

But Fanas, Juan and Baez have all quickly jumped a long way, into the .220’s.

And Jefrey Rosa?  

He is the DSL co-lead in HRs (7), but accomplished that in a mere 16 games. Amazing. Rosa looks like a possible bargain. Of course, it is super early. But he has as many, or more, HRs than 8 DSL TEAMS. (Weirdly, a Rockies team has 30 HRs, while the Nats team has just two. How do you spell “disparity”?)

So…back on topic…”being patient” has been the exact right approach for us to have regarding these still very young players - they’ve all (with the limited playing exception of Sarmiento) gone into hitting surge mode.

2023 DRAFT - THE ABRIDGED VERSION:

Gotta sign this kid Houck, whom we picked at # 32 but who was 15th ranked on Mack’s posted selection projection list hours before he was drafted. 

And they must think hard-throwing Brandon Sproat is the G.O.A.T. since they drafted him for the second straight year, and presumably will sign him this time. 

Time will tell…we must be patient.

Mack can handle the rest via his draft thoughts, given his expertise in all things “draft”.

MOTHER SHIP UPDATE:

The mother ship known as the NY Mets, unfortunately, hasn’t sufficiently surged. 

They un-amazingly went from 14-7 to 36-46 with a whimper here, and a sigh there. A 22-39 brutal stretch. The Great Depression.

Then…

Winners of 6 straight thru Friday, suddenly; two more wins going into the break would have made a successful Wild Card run more likely. 

But, naturally, 2 pre-ASB losses occurred instead. 

So, hitting the ASB break…

42-48. 

To win 90, 48-24 (.667) would be necessary. To win 87, 45-27 (.625) would be needed. And the supposed mid-season savior, Jose Q, has thrown 7 AAA innings, allowed 7 runs, and fanned 7.  Yeah, baby.

I think, having said all that, that a modest sell-off, and promotion of Vientos ASAP and Mauricio once he is playing again in the next week or so, would make sense. 

But Billy and Steve may decide to go for broke. Boz Scaggs intoned, “ He'll be makin' like a bee line, headin' for the border line, goin' for broke. Sayin' one more hit ought to do it.” Had the Mets won Saturday and Sunday instead, to run their streak to 8 straight wins, I’d be 100% in the “Go For It Camp”.

Why All Star Pete is hitting .211 is anyone’s guess. Above my pay grade. Not a helpful pace in the attempt to pursue a Wild Card, for our Polar Bear to be hitting a polar-unbearable sub-.180 since April 21. And, rather than rest the wrist, he participated in, and got trounced in, the HR Derby.

If we has a guy named Deli Ella Cruise, Tom Cruise’s faster brother, we’d have a real shot this year. Not to mention a nice deli sandwich.

I’d trade Pete and Jeff, and Vientos, to get the real Elly D. 

The Reds of course would just say no.

Statcast is a joke.  There, I said it!

I watched that first career Elly De La Cruz homer against Noah Syndergaard. 

They said it went nearly 460 feet, but it was to the back row of the stands about 40 rows up in an nanosecond or two, and it was hit at 115 miles an hour - but it only went 460?? 

Statcast Joke. Probably 520 feet if the stands didn’t intervene. He very nearly hit it entirely out of the stadium, just not quite high enough.

But wait, there’s more. He apparently got on first and then stole second, third, and home in another game recently. Alvarez has huge competition for ROY from this freak, who is hitting .325 with 16 steals and 15 XBH in his first 30 MLB games.

Elly is the fastest man in baseball, has shown he has prodigious power, and can hit. Apparently, he stole 2nd, third, and home in a single time on base recently, and I saw two clips of him beating out infield hits that no one else would have beaten out, and another clip where he scored from 3rd on a normal grounder right at the shortstop in a drawn-in infield. 

Very possibly the fastest major leaguer ever. He’s just 21, too, like our Francisco. Game on. Of course, they face Corbin Carroll also in the titanic tussle for the ROY prize.

Kodai Senga better not win ROY, though.  Since he really isn’t a de facto rookie, even if the rules say he technically is. He started pitching, most likely, when Elly was still in diapers. Senga is great, just not a rookie.