We all love tall tales, don’t we?
There once lived a giant, a wild man by nature, who encountered a Cyclone and suddenly, and amazingly to all, became more well controlled…
At the start of 2023, 6’9” righty giant Jace Beck was either striking out, or walking, nearly every batter he faced.
In his first 16 innings, he walked 21 and fanned 35. Nuts. Like Steve Dalkowski II.
But he has turned into a control freak, relatively speaking.
In an 11 outing stretch, spanning 8 weeks, he walked 3 in one outing, but in the other 10, just 6 walks in 14.1 innings. Very nearly the work of a control freak.
His K rate is down just a bit, but he still had 57 Ks in 31 innings as I wrote this in the latter days of August.
The 23 year old Brooklyn pen arm thus has been making great progress on the control front. Keep it up and move on up.
A fellow former extreme wild man, pre-2022, Brendan Hardy, is another 2023 transformation story.
He had gone 27 innings in relief in Brooklyn, fanned 39, walked just 12, sported a 1.69 ERA, and was promoted to AA in late August.
Good luck to both in 2024. I can hardly control my excitement.
(I noted that Beck, of course, had been added to the 7 day injured list as I wrote this in late August. Can’t walk anyone when you’re on the IL). Tyler Stuart, also 6’9”, joined him on the IL. Has to be a height-related pandemic.
Anyway, since the season ends soon, if Beck does not return, he will finish 6-5, 3.73, with an amazing 57 Ks in 31 innings. On to 2024.
Between Jace Beck and Paul Gervase, 147 Ks in 85 innings. How do you spell “sit the heck down” and “you brought a bat to the plate, WHY, exactly?”?
Special K mention to Nate Lavender here. The lefty has fanned 72 in 48 innings, most of that in AAA. Best reliever not yet called up.
LUISANGEL ACUNA UPDATE:
In 28 Binghamton games, .255/.346/.273. No that last # is not a misprint. Two doubles.
He did previously have 34 XBH in 362 at bats this year in AA with his prior organization. Nerves, perhaps, or unfamiliarity with pitchers from a different league (now Eastern, was in AA Texas league). In part, Texas is a league where hitters overall hit better.
Texas League high and low teams: .273 and .237.
Eastern League high and low teams: .249 and .227.
So, Texas League hitters hit about 15 points higher.
Naturally, the .227 low team is Binghamton.
Acuna is 54 in 64 in steals this year, too. Superior stuff.
And, just 1 error in 28 Binghamton games, mostly played at SS, rest at 2B, so that is superior, too.
18 comments:
Tom
The thing I am going to miss the most when the.minoe league season ends this week are your posts about the future of this team
The good news is AA ends Sept 17, AAA on Sept 24, so it is a staggered withdrawal.
Yeah
Stand corrected
Long winter ahead w/o BB so I better start preparing now but I do have the Jets and Giants to lean on and surprise surprise they BOTH might make the playoffs! I know I know settle down Gary.
My hoped were my Clemson Tigers
Until last night
Jace Beck was very interesting to watch this year. Unfortunately he had Tommy John last week and will likely miss all of next year.
Bummer, John. I was wondering…very sad news on Beck.
John, what about Tyler Stuart?
My contacts with the Rumble Ponies are very tight regarding injuries. However, Paul, Bill (Remember 1969), Dallas and I were at the Binghamton game last week and saw Tyler Stuart in the Dugout. I saw Christian Scott with the team another time.
I think both were shut down for the year due to being converted from the pen to the starting rotation this year and throwing more than double the amount of innings this year. I look for them to both be there for Spring Training unless they decided to have them throw in the AFL.
This year's AFL Met contingent will be interesting.
Are the Mets having the Instructional League this year? Does anyone have a team roster if they are doing so?
Thanks, John. Say hi to everyone.
We need pitchers to stay healthy. Geesh.
AFL should be awesome this year.
This will be the off season that more than starts the NYM run to the W, possibly as early as in 2025 or 2026. Not kidding.
It's obvious too.
The Mets need first, to say "goodbye" to a few "star players" who seem to have only fully showed up in mid-August 2023. The "Sleeping Beauties" I call them. High-priced players that had really solid 2022 seasons, but slept-walked the first half of 2023 until August chimed in with trade rumors involving their names. It's time to let them go play elsewhere in my opinion, no matter how well they played from mid-August on here. A team cannot be championship caliber with that mentality.
Peterson, Megill, Hartwig, Marte, McNeil, Lindor, Alonso, Butto, and Orze...tradebait.
1B JT Schwartz
2B Ronnie Mauricio
SS Luis Angel Acuna
3B Brett Baty
LF Shoehni Ohtani
CF Brandon Nimmo
RF DJ Stewart
C Alvarez/Parada
DH Mark Vientos
Starting Rotation: (6 starters)
SP: Trade acquisition from another team (Lefty)
SP: Trade acquisition from another team (Either a Lefty or a Righty)
SP: Kodai Senga
SP: Yoshinobu Yamamoto
SP: Blade Tidwell, Tyler Stuart, Christian Scott, or Mike Vasil (pick two for the fifth and sixth starter roles)
Bullpen: Jose Quintana, Drew Smith, Phil Bickford, Brooks Raley, Adam Ottavino, Edwin Diaz, and one more trade acquisition set-up.)
I’m a JT fan but starting 1B seems like a bit of a stretch.
Would Shohei want to go that team? Doubt it.
Pete and Shohei would be Mays/McCovey.
A lot of Bloggers
Are trying hard to make a case for these NY Mets to keep Pete Alonso.
They obviously love the homeruns. But this is a team game, not an individual player's stats game. Pete has hit for a lower average here all season long. Yes, the homeruns went up with him. But the times on base went down with a lousy .225 BA right now, his highest batting average all season long. So what happened with him you ask besides getting homerun happy after NYY's Aaron Judge's sensational 2022. A Pete injury or what. Last season Pete hit .271 BA. And the season before .262. He is a .254 career MLB batter.
The real reason to trade Pete this off season, for another teams top young starter which this Mets team needs badly at the top of their 2024 rotation, is because by ST 2024 Pete Alonso will be 29 years old and the Mets have someone else younger for first base 2024 in TJ Schwartz, who hits for higher batting averages and gets on base more often. Plus, Pete's trade value will never be higher than right now.
Baseball is a team sport.
The Mets were not as good this season offensively as last because their hit production went down. Next season the Mets should have starting: Ronnie Mauricio, DJ Stewart, Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, Francisco Alvarez, Brandon Nimmo, TJ Schwartz, and someone new for left field uncertain at present. There will be homeruns for certain with this group, and a much higher team batting average as well. Hit production will go back to 11-12 hits a game as it was in 2022 when the team was winning a lot.
Pete Alonso's homeruns will not be missed herewith team wins.
Some valid points on Alonso, but Schwartz hasn’t made it to AAA yet. Also, Alonso has improved on defense as well. Just because he isn’t supposed to be a cleanup hitter with that average, doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have value.
Also, you are trading away all your proven veterans and relying on prospects? You have drank too much of the Kool-Aid on the kids, scale back.
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