(Written prior to Thursday night AAA action)
One would assume that every organization has their own Joey and Mark.
Herman’s Hermits knows that most teams, though, wouldn't have a Willy or a Sam, but I digress.
You know, guys who should be on a big league team right now, but are not.
Joey Lucchesi:
He was not sufficiently ready for battle for a spring training battle, it seems, despite my having read that he employed a weight reduction strategy with the intent to be tip top and ready to go. Why he was not more ready, I do not know.
He got his first and only outing in spring training 2+ weeks in, and it wasn’t pretty: 4 outs, 4 hits, 4 runs, a walk and zero Ks.
So, he ends up in Syracuse and in his first two starts in cold-to-frigid weather, he registers 9 innings, 2 earned runs, 5 hits, 9 Ks. Control not as sharp as usual, but otherwise signifying he is ready to pitch for the mother ship.
But they called up Butto and signed (and quickly fired) Julio Teheran, rather than calling up Joey. Why?
I speculated it is due to him having no options left if he is called up (not true - he apparently has 2 left, per Spotrac), or that they wanted him to lengthen his outings. His first stellar outing in temps in the 30s was 65 pitches. His second (not quite as good) was 83 pitches. He is lengthened.
But the guy who was 4-0, 2.89 in 47 innings for the Mets in 2023 seems deserving of starting somewhere in the big leagues right now.
His current problem is that Mets starters, while only 1-3, have the 7th best ERA in baseball for starters, at 3.33. Meanwhile, the bottom 16 teams have starter ERAs ranging from 4.10 to 6.61, with the median ERA of those 16 being 4.80.
So, it’s early, but only time will tell if Stearns will call Joey up. Maybe a great start in AAA tonight will influence that decision. It does not help Joey that the Mets are very possibly getting 3 straight rain outs (Wednesday in Atlanta, Thursday in Atlanta, and Friday in NY). All he can do is dominate.
But a wrinkle has been added. Christian Scott in his first two AAA starts has fanned 19 in 9 innings, with impeccable control. Is he a quickly emerging Mets ace? Could be. Might Scott be called up to start even next week? It’s possible. If so, one more blockage to the Mets for Joey
Another emerging dark horse, besides impressive Jose Butto, to Joey’s reemergence with the Mets is Joander Suarez. Unlikely anytime soon, as he still is in AA, but he was brilliant in AA last year once the calendar turned from June to July, and his first AA start of 2024 was strong. Lastly, Max Kranick may be ready to return soon.p, but he stunk in a St Lucie rehab game last night.
Maybe Joey will end up getting traded to one of those 16 teams with poor starter ERAs. There must be a number of those teams that would gladly add Joey to their rotation right now, even as a sixth starter.
MARK VIENTOS?
In the “what have you done for me lately?” scenario, I looked at Mark’s 3 more recent subsets of work:
1) Sept/Oct 2023 with the Mets. 20 for 87, 6 HRs, 11 RBIs, 4 walks, 27 Ks
2) Spring Training 2024 with the Mets: 13 for 56, 5 HRs, 9 RBIs, 2 walks, 19 Ks
3) Syracuse regular season 2024, AAA:11 for 36, 3 HRs, 9 RBIs, 6 walks, 11 Ks
Add those 3 up, 44 for 179 (.246), 14 HRs, 12 walks, 57 Ks.
His power numbers are inescapably impressive. A homer every 12.8 at bats.
One can assume he will get better still, but his career is facing a bit of a crisis, having started his minor league tutelage at age 17 all the way back in 2017.
Yet his numbers in some respects compare to highly paid Phillies regular Kyle Schwarber, who is hitting .208 with 2 HRs, 5 RBIs in 48 at bats this year, with an average of a similar HR every 12.5 official at bats in 2022 and 2023, admittedly lots more walks than Mark but a dreadful 415 Ks in 315 games, and a .207 average over those 2 years. Again, in making this comparison, I find it hard to fathom that some teams in MLB wouldn’t right now be able to carve out significant at bats for Mark if they had him. He might just become the next Schwarber.
I had an argument with my brother Steve, who badly wants JD Martinez to be the Mets’ DH in both 2024 AND 2025, which would preclude Mark Vientos, unless Pete Alonso leaves and Mark assumes the first base starter’s role in 2025.
I said that JD Martinez is starting to feel to me like Michael Cuddyer, who was a similarly strong hitter to JD Martinez before Cuddyer joined the Mets in 2015.
He hit .331 at age 34 in 2013, .331 but with far less at bats due to injury in 2014, then .259 in 2015 as an achy, aging Met at age 36. He admitted his body was failing him as a major leaguer and graciously walked away from his 2016 $10+ million contract and retired.
JD could very well be the next Michael Cuddyer. Bad back etc.
Baseball, much more often than not, is a tough taskmaster for aging hitters. Maybe JD will hit the ground blazing after he recovers from his current back woes, and I will want him in 2025, too.
I would, right now, hope Mark works his butt off, hits 45 HRs if stuck in AAA all year, which I think he is capable of producing, and is the Mets DH next year. (For the record, in 682 AAA at bats, Vientos has 89 extra base hits, including 46 homers, and a .290 average, and history shows he does his best hitting when frigid April ends).
Stearns may disagree, and trade him. And trade Joey, too.
What say you?
WHO EXPECTED A METS HITTING JAMBOREE?
I have to admit it. I felt dread when the Mets were going into Atlanta for a four game series. The rain shortened that the three game series. And the Mets scored like it was a seven game series, with 29 runs and nearly 40 hits in the three games. Feels real real good.
Jose Quintana picked up the fourth win of his Mets career. He’s looking good.
Tyler Jay made his major league debut and needed 5 outs to get out of the 8th, but he persevered. Five? Yes.
With 2 outs, Baty made an absolutely Brooks Robinson brilliant play, and throw, from behind the bag. OUT! On replay, though, the runner beat the throw by a whisker. Why?
Pete was in a weird 45% off center stretch position, rather than straight towards the ball, and as a result, he was at least a foot further away from catching the ball than he should have been. Stretch out correctly and it is inning over.
Back on the field they came after out 3 which wasn’t. Jay got Michael Harris to bounce to first, but was a tad slow coming off the mound to cover first. The blazing Harris beat the throw by a scintilla of a whisker. Out # 4 was ANOTHER infield hit.
But, with the bags full and a run in, Jay induced a pop up. Out # 5 and inning over.
A relatively easy 9th for Jay and Mets pummeled the Braves 16-4.
The Cinderella story of Jay thusended on a very happy note…a big win.
Monsoon here in NY started last night, but should subside before game time on Friday. Good. You don’t want hot hitters getting rained out again.
HAMEL? HE WAS WAS ONE SCARY CAMEL MAMMAL LAST NIGHT
Dom Hamel was a pummeled in his earlier AAA debut.
Then Christian Scott fanned 10 in 5 innings the other day.
Hamel must have been pissed, because he went out and also fanned 10 in 5 innings last night in a Syracuse 4-3 win.
St Lucie meanwhile got pummeled 11-6 last night.
11 comments:
Mets surge up to .233, and exclude Lindor from those stats and it is .253.
A few things:
- Pete made two lazy defensive plays back to back. Besides a stretch towards CF - that Hernandez jumped all over and before he did, I wondered what he was doing - he also fielded Harris’ grounder and made up his mind to flip to the pitcher. He could have ran it over, but elected to toss to a left handed pitcher that falls toward third base and has to recover and race Harris to first. Alonso is really way too worried about pulling a hammy and losing his free agent year. And that stretch to CF when the ball is coming from third base? What the heck was that?
- Forget Gamel. He’s 33 and playing against kids that can’t spot an off speed pitch. He will just sit in a fastball. No.
- It’s hard to count spring training stats for Vientos because they come against all types of pitchers, including minor leaguers. If he can’t improve his chase rate, MLB pitchers will make him chase. And chase. And chase.
- The Braves pitching seems to be falling apart after Strider’s injury. Hope to see that all year.
- In AAA, that automated strike zone make life harder for pitchers like Hamel, that don’t have the elite fastball and need to spot the secondary pitches better to succeed. Those strikeouts were very impressive. Too, they came against Boston’s strong AAA team.
Gus, good points.
Boston’s team is hitting about the same as Syracuse right now. Cold weather sucks. The two teams racking up huge runs are Norfolk and Durham, several hundred miles to the south in balmier climates where fingers don’t turn blue.
For the most part Pete's defense has been OK. Let's enjoy a 16-4 win.
Ray, good point. I was highlighting one thing, primarily. This guy Jay really had to get 5 outs in the 8th to get out of the inning. I was impressed he kept his composure against an Atlanta offense that was ready to rock his world.
Man, Lindor must have been depressed when Guillorme got him out. He swung and missed at a 60 MPH curve for strike one, then grounded out to second on a similar pitch. He needs to stop pressing.
Taylore fattened his season stats up nicely with that grand salami off Luis.
Was I the only one who noticed that Lindor batted RH vs Guillorme? Was it a one & done, or is he thinking of giving up SHing due to his incredibly weak 1-31 from the left side so far?
What a wonderful problem to have: Joey is worthy of a call-up, but there are too many good players in front of him. Mark is worthy of a call-up, but Stewart is hitting for power suddenly and we have JD Martinez on the roster.
What I don't want to have is high expectations. Stop with the 16-4 routs of our primary division rival. We are not going to be that good in September. Stop raising my expectations and play down to what is expected of a 5-7 team!
Bill, I saw that. Matbe he felt he was less apt to not hit slow stuff, or maybe he felt, “if you put in a joke pitcher, I’ll go righty v. Righty.
Something off with Lindor who hit .145 with a .197 OBP IN nearly 60 spring training plate appearances.
Paul, there is a real possibility this could be a 2015 replay team. Once JDM (if he is healthy) and Lindor start hitting, this team will score lots of runs.
To continue that thought, if a few of these call up pitchers impress, we could be looking real good. Maybe 1969 is a better comparison, as they were 18-23 before going 82-39 the rest of the way.
Not buying it yet...they have been fortunate to evade good pitching. Last night's 14 hits against Michael "Wached up" Wacha does not prove they can hit. If that was against Max Fried it would be a different headline.
Severino's walks did not hurt him, but if he continues to give out free passes, it will mark his demise.
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