Tom Brennan - DJ Stewart, Superstar; Mets Minors Hitters Losing Ground in 2023

Productive Competitors Will Crowd Out Weaker Performers

BEFORE MY REGULARLY SCHEDULED ARTICLE:

Lindor, Alonso, Nimmo, McNeil?

Pretty decent players.

DJ Stewart?, though?

SUPERSTAR.

2 HRs, a terrific, fence-banging catch, and a walk off HBP.

We’ve tried the rest….now, we’ve tried the best…DJ Stewart.

And Vogelbomb hit another.

Slow and Burly wins the race.

ARTICLE TIME!

July came, and with it brought trades - and the trades, and the draft, brought in several stud prospect hitters.

So, the pre-existing prospects suddenly find a more crowded field of competition.

Which has to be dispiriting.

But it is also a call for prospects to up their game.

Who are some of these? (Stats as of August 21).

ALEX RAMIREZ: 

A-Ram had a 6 for 6 game this year - but otherwise has hit .223 in Brooklyn this year. He hit .278 in 54 games there last year at age 19. Something is wrong, and perhaps it it learning to work more walks, as his OBP in Brooklyn in 2022, and in 2023, is .329 both years. He needs to up his game big time, given all the competition. Do whatever it takes. If it means adding 30 pounds of muscle this off season, do it. And 19 steals this year…nice. But…Why not double that?  Pick it up, Alex.

JOSE PEROZA: 

He missed time early this year, started out hot in AA, but .173 in July, .146 in August. He is listed at 6’1”, 249. Not knowing Jose, my guess is he needs to go all-out to lose 30 pounds by getting in Rocky Balboa vs. Clubber Lang shape. Or just hang it up, due to too many competitors. Zach Lutz had much better numbers in the David Wright era, but never succeeded. Jose will have to do MORE.

MATT RUDICK: 

He was the AA OBP leader by a wide margin, until injuries set in several weeks ago.  He was as lofty as .326/.468/.582 in late May. He began to fade in mid-June and went on the injured list June 21. Played very little since. Now, the competition is far more fierce. Not sure what Matt’s malady has been, but he needs to get back on the field and pick up where he left off pre-injury, since he is already 25.

ROWDEY JORDAN:

The prospect field pre-trade was downright Rowdey. Now it’s  downright Crowdy. In mid-July in AA, he was rising fast, up to .261/.375/.434.  But a cold August has him down to .236/.356/.412. With the increased competition, the drops have to be fewer, the rises have to be greater, especially since he will turn 25 this winter.

LUKE RITTER:

The Mets’ minor league HR leader in 2023 , with 26 in 362 at bats, and he has jumped his average to the low .240s vs. .204 last year, but his Ks (1.25 per game) are still way too high. How to fix that, I don’t know, but the competition has made a major league debut in his future less likely. The Ks must come down at least 25%. Still, .243/.372/.489 is good, but his output feels very Travis Taijeron-like. And that didn’t end well.

JUNIOR TILIEN AND WILLIAM LUGO:

Both showed impressive results at a young age last year. But the 21 year old Lugo is hitting just .225 in Brooklyn, without alacrity on the basepaths.Gotta do better. 

Junior is on the IL and, yes, he is just 20, but has hit .243/.325/.406 between Lucie and Brooklyn. Good for his age, but he lacks speed, so he will have to ramp up the bat in 2024 to stay legitimately in the competition, which has been recently crowded by newly added infielders Acuna and Colin Houck, Marco Vargas, and Jeremiah Jackson, as well as the ascending Wilfredo Lara. Not to mention Baty, Vientos, and Mauricio. 

Quite the infield crowd, one might say, especially when Pete Jeff, and Lindor are already there.

If infielder Jose Peroza does not keep pace, that will be one less obstacle for Junior, the lad who vaulted to a modicum of notoriety in 2022 with his 3 home run game in St Lucie at the tender age of 19.

There are more in the fading-in-2023 category, but I’ll leave it there for now. They all know the competition has gotten fierce.

The fiercer it gets, the harder you’ve got to work. Fierce requires fierce.

Carlos Cortes gets it. Rip roaring, fiercely hot lately in AAA.  For guys like him, I wish the roster expanded to 32 on September 1, not 28.

PETE CROW TIME?

Petey Boy has been doing good in AAA lately, Spanky and Alfalfa told me, and Crow might just be called up on September 1, if he hasn't already.  I will be wearing sackcloth and ashes that day, when it comes, since the call-up will be to the Cubs, not to the Shlubs who traded him so very stupidly. Crow Mania will begin in the Windy City.

For whom? Julian Javier Baez, who for 2 years after his brief but very costly drop-in with the Mets in late 2021 has played like a washed up has-been bum at ages 29 and 30 for Detroit. Has anyone on the Mets been fired for that bonehead trade?  No?  Why the heck not?

Last Nite In The Mets Minors:

Cortes on twice, and the hot McIlwain hit another HR. Lucchesi Loses.

AA?

JT Schwartz had 2 more hits (.298) and 2 more RBIs.

Paul Gervase faced 4 AA hitters and fanned all 4.

Red hot Rylan Thomas (yeah, him again) had a hit and 3 walks. On base 8 times in his first 3 AA games. .328/.413/.434 this year.