Tom Brennan - Friday Mini-Recap and Random Thoughts

“Hey, nothing like a good “mini” recap!”

Shohei the Great Ohtani arrives with barking elbow, and nonetheless doubles and walks 3 times in a 3-1 win over Kodai Senga’s Mets. Senga was really good, fanning 10 in 6.2 IP. We have an ace there. SS Francisco homered. Closer to a great draft pick, as the Yanks cooperated and won.

Catcher Francisco Alvarez meanwhile is scuffling: 

.122, 2 RBIs in his last 15 games. 

Someone pushed the “Superstardom Pause” button. Whoever you are, please remove finger from button.

Meanwhile…

Mendick hit .290 with the White Sox last year, .190 as a Met this year. Typical.

Arauz is 6 for 49 (.122) as a Met, and 23 for 152 in the majors the last 3 years (.151). The verdict is in.

Locastro is .143 (3 for 21), but boy is he fast, huh? It’s been a few years since he hit over .200, which is what made him attractive to the Mets.

Meanwhile, last year’s speedy bum, Travis Jankowski, who hit .167 for the Mets, in 221 at bats for Texas this year is hitting .281 with 17 of 18 steals. Funny how that happens a lot, huh?

Locastro is a .400 hitter vs. Texas, and wants to try that next, too, after 3 straight seasons hitting below .200.

The Angels’ Brandon Drury was NOT kept by the Mets, as they clearly knew better, knew that he was a bum. We thought otherwise, of course.

Drury in 872 ex-Mets at bats in 2022 and 2023 has hit .265, with 53 doubles, 46 HRs, and 144 RBIs. 

Very astute of the Mets, wouldn’t you say? The brilliance oozes out of every pore.

Vientos AAA rehab game, double and a walk at DH. McIlwain homered twice - nice year. Baty 1 for 5.

Carlos Cortes, the forgotten AAA man, is .292/.420/.583 in August after 3 AAA hits. 

Ronny Mo doubled (29), walked, and was errorless last night. Nine walks in 20 games this month, indicating improved strike/ball recognition.

St Lucie lost two. They lose early and quite often, and in novel ways.

Layonel Ovalles was great, as he allowed 1 run in 5 innings in the opener, but he lost. That happens to Mets pitchers a lot, said Jake deGrom.

Layonel’s relievers allowed 5 runs in the final inning, which was but a prelude to the nightcap, when Lucie hurlers walked 18 in 6 innings in a 15-2 loss, which might be a futility record, but I’m not researching that. 20 runs allowed in the last 7 innings of the doubleheader - priceless.

In AA, Drew Gilbert continued his fine ways with 2 hits and a walk, and right after I wrote that JT Schwartz needed to boost his power game, he hit a grand slam. Kudos.

Hamel threw 5 solid, if unspectacular, innings, allowing 3 runs on two homers, fanning 6. But the rest of the bums that followed him to the mound allowed 11 runs, and each of the latter returned to the hotel, and smartly updated their resumes.

In the Brooklyn game, the Majestic Golden Jett homered, singled, and walked. The 5’6” freak has a .350/.480/.638 slash in his first 22 games in High A. Is he ready? 

Joander Suarez has had an uneven 2023, but may well be a diamond in the rough, as in 2 of his 3 last games, he totaled 12 shutout innings, 4 hits, 17 Ks. Watch for him to rise in 2024.

Brooklyn had not one but 2 De Los Santos dudes in the line up last night, and they both went 1 for 4, 2 Ks, and a walk. Weird. 

Omar DSL is super fast, but has a super high 133 Ks in 88 games. 

He wants to play for Texas, where struggling Mets speedsters thrive.

Sammy Tavarez almost blew the game with poor relief. He has allowed 36 walks in 24 innings this year, noted Steve Dalkowski. Sammy updated his resume last night, and he walked it down to the mailbox.

ELI ANKENEY, though, got a 2 IP, 4 K save in a 6-5 nail biter. ELI ROCKS!

The 5 minors games showed Mets pitchers surrendering 47 runs.  This is a pitching-rich organization. They just need to all go to Seattle to show it.

Kevin Parada did not play last night. Shockingly to me, he is not listed in the MLB list of top 10 prospect catchers. Surely an oversight?

Now for the “mini-recap” part: 

To make a long story short, #1 Acuna is 5’8”, #2 Gilbert is 5’9”, #3 Jett is 5’6”, #5 Parada is 5’11”., and # 27 Rudick (he of the bad shoulder) is 5’6”. Cortes used to be in the top 30, and he is 5’7”. 

Odd, huh? The NY Mini-Me’s.

Thus ends the recap I had no plans of writing. Except…

Just a side note: 

My brother Steve blew his shoulder out as a teenager, because he loved to pitch and was in 3 leagues and literally started (and threw complete games) almost daily. 

Told me in HS he fanned 19 in back-to-back 7 inning games. Fireballing lefty.

An Oriole org pitcher he knew locally, can’t remember the name he mentioned, who made it to AAA, came into a Bellerose bar one night when my brother was there, unplugged the juke box, and yelled out in the bar, “my friend Steve here was a better pitcher than me.”   

Steve added he had a big local following, and people cheered whenever he walked out on the field. 

I was 14 years his senior, not around, and unfortunately only saw him pitch once, against a Canadian All Star team of 17-18 year olds in Montreal.

The first guy singled off him.

You didn’t do that to Steve. 

Next batter, screaming in from the mound in a manner that made Al Hrabosky seem genteel, Steve hit the guy very intentionally in the ribs. He screamed at the opposition a lot during his 3 innings, which ended with 9 straight strikeouts. He was a mound psycho who psyched the other guys out.  I think at the time, he was 17.

He also told me he hit .560 as a HS senior. Then his anatomy gave out. No one told him to pitch every 5th day, not every single day.

Mets-wise? 

He recommends that the Mets stop going cheap on the bullpen each year, noting it kills them annually. He’s right. He watches many games where the Mets roll in their latest dozen scrubs, and thinks, these guys simply aren’t major leaguers. The ERAs of these Back End Boys each season support his assertion.

He also notes how many guys the Mets use over time who never play again in the majors after their final Mets appearance. He refers to it as a talentless organization with a few exceptions. He was all for the Lindor deal, because he immediately became their best player in a talentless environment. He says that if they don’t give Pete a multi-year deal, their organizational heritage of idiocy will continue.

Bashful he is not.

He goes in for a second upper spinal surgery procedure this coming week. Tons of pain after the previous one 2 months ago. Please keep him in your prayers.