Tom Brennan: Weak Hitting in Mets Minors; “I'm Venting Here"

METS MINORS HITTING HAMPERED BY BAD INJURIES TO PROSPECTS LIKE R MO

Mets minor league hitters are operating in mostly drought conditions in 2024. 

Excluding the older AAAA vets, let’s name the more impressive ones: 

Luke Ritter in AAA has hit really well. Over 80 RBIs.

Luisangel Acuna has put together a solid season in AAA after a slow start.

 

Brett Baty? Not a rookie, has been good, but not great, since demoted to AAA.

High A-Nick Morabito is having a fast, strong, low power offensive season. 

Low A? Boston Baro is your guy. Ronald Hernandez has hit OK, too.

After that, it's ugly, frankly.  

Just as one for-instance, 11th overall pick Kevin Parada has fanned a terrible 117 times in 347 AA plate appearances.

Every day, when I glance through the box scores, there are so many low .200 hitters AND below .200 hitters.  

In part, this offensive drought is due to key injuries:

The four Mets hitting prospects in their top 5 have taken way too much time off: 

Drew Gilbert through Saturday was hitting .185 in 88 ABs with just 3 XBH.

Jett Williams had 39 ABs and 7 hits before his wrist injury put 2024 on a Wrist Watch. 

Jacob Reimer missed almost 4 months. .260 in 50 ABs with no HRs.

Ronny Mauricio missed the entire friggin’ season. 

Those 4 have totaled 12 RBIs this year. TWELVE. Ritter has 81 RBIs, by comparison.

Syracuse? It has hit well,  due to a heavy dose of veterans and 80+ RBI Ritter. 

- In a 20 team league, the S Mets are first in HRs (157) and 4th in runs scored.

But, through Saturday, the other 6 Mets minors teams? I’d prefer to Kvell ….but….

Not exciting with the bats, whatsoever, are those squads.

Binghamton in a 12 team league has hit .229 and scored 430 runs (10th in both), and 7th in HRs with 89, but still well under a HR per game.

Brooklyn in a 12 team league has hit .220 (11th), and scored 427 runs (last).

St Lucie in a 10 team league has hit .222 (8th) and low in HRs (43, vs. the league leading team with 94); last in runs (.428), and 9th in steals with 111.

The FCL Mets season is over. They hit .238 (9th of 15); 12th in runs with 235 (Rays team scored 349); 7th in a low HR league with 30; and were 14th in steals with 62 (Marlins team swiped 208 bases (146 more) in 55 games, although the Marlins were worst in HRs with just 16).

 - FCL Met Simon Juan hit a solid  .273/.337/.459 (7 HRs, 29 RBIs in 50 games). 

The two DSL teams in a 50 team league have hit far more poorly than last season.  

As of Saturday, the Orange were 38th in runs scored and 47th in average. 

The Blue?  20th in average at .241 (league lead was .294), and 31st in runs scored.

A MLB team of course can only incorporate so many bats per year. 

36 NY Mets pitchers this year vs. just 21 hitters. (No equity, I tell ya).

But the Mets minors hitters, excluding the AAA veterans, are not causing jaws to drop with their plenteousness of their offensive juggernauts, Few and far between.

The stats above amply demonstrate sub par hitting at all levels below veteran-laden Syracuse in AAA. 

And the top Mets hitting prospects as a group undoubtedly lead the majors in one category (absence slips).

METS? Losers of 4 straight. Blackburn pitched like Houser.

The Mets were rallying hard in the 5th having cut the deficit to 7-4, no outs, 2 on.

In came…righty Austin Adams, who threw 6 2/3 innings in spring training for the Mets, allowing 4 runs but fanning 13. You may remember I wrote about him early this year. He is a very high strikeout, high hit batsmen guy.

He has thrown 40 innings for Oakland this year, fanning over 50 but hitting FIFTEEN BATTERS! He has now hit 44 batters in 155 MLB innings, amazingly. Jake deGrom by comparison has hit just 21 hitters in his 1,356 career innings.

Anyway, he retired 3 straight, fanning 2, thereby snuffing the rally, and by his reaction, he looked overjoyed to have stuck it to theMets organization. 

JD Martinez was nailed on the left elbow by a 100 MPH FB, and pulled from the game. Naturally.

ALVAREZ DISAPPEARING; NIMMO OR WINKER?

For whatever reasons, he is disappearing. Last 30 games, .202, just 1 HR, 7 RBIs.  Francisco, be FRANCISCO 2023 again, please. This 2024 powerless version is NG.

Also, Brandon Nimmo makes much better commercials than he has played in his last 30 games…just .171, with a very troubling 39 Ks. Winker needs to take some of his games. Or we can just keep playing the .171 guy and miss the playoffs again. .171 doesn’t get you to the playoffs. I’m used to not making the playoffs, so if they miss out, I’ll not shed a tear. I’ve adapted.

WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING SOTO

Remember Blazing Saddles, with its “Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges?” 

Well, the Mets avoided trading for Senor Soto, and the other guys got him instead. 

Juan Soto hit 3 homers yesterday. Mets did not want to surrender their great prospects, who have essentially sucked this year, to take a run at Soto. He has a huge 7.3 WAR already this year (Alonso: just 1.9 WAR), and Juan has 33 HRs. 100 runs scored, and 86 RBIs, with 6 weeks to go. 

There are mistakes…and then there are big, stinking mistakes. Well, we did sign Greg Soto once and he was (no) good.

TINKERS TO EVERS TO CHANCE?

When the Mets make trades, they normally turn out to be of a slightly different variety: 

TINKERS TO NEVER TO NO CHANCE.

Well, since you did tinker, at least play Winker, to try to avoid a 2024 stinker.

BRANDON SPROAT IS OUR GOAT, BUT…

As exciting as we find Mr. Sproat, MLB has him ranked as their 7th best righty prospect.  What’s a guy gotta do to get higher on that list, fan 11 straight or something?

WHAT KEEPS THE GM COHORT UP AT NIGHT THE MOST

The Dodgers announced that top pitcher River Ryan will undergo Tommy John surgery, leaving the Dodgers up the river without a paddle. 

He’ll miss the remainder of the 2024 season and possibly all of 2025, too.  This is why the Mets are concerned with trying to keep Scott and Sproat healthy.  TJS is not a 2 week stint on the IL.  It can be two years.

SWEET FIFTEEN

That's how many combined starts Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Kodai Senga have this year, when, if both were healthy all of 2024, they'd have 3 times as many starts by now.

BINGO BOMBERS

That heading is disinformation. Binghamton played 2 games, lost 2 games, and had 2 runs on 5 hits in both game. Here we are, in mid-August, and in the second game, the entire line up is averaging a collective .220. Simply bursting with offensive excellence.  

SATANIC E.R.A.

After last night’s beat down, in which Dom Hamel surrendered 3 HRs and 9 hits in 4.2 innings, he ended the night with a 6.66 ERA.  

And a dandy 1.72 WHIP. Now THAT is a Mets prospect. 

Me? Divide that ERA by 2, and you get 3.33, a decent prospect ERA.  Half that WHIP would be 0.86. I’d love that.   As a 2024 starter, he is full of bull, so try him in the bullpen.  Maybe he has good penmanship.

I am at the same time puzzled as to why poor Joander Suarez, who pitched well again in AA last night, and has allowed just 2 earned runs in his last 4 outings, is not promoted to AAA, and Hamel demoted.   

In fact, Suarez is a 2nd half guy: in his most recent 4 outings, and his last 6 outings of 2023, combined? 

56 IP, 28 hits, 6 earned runs, 12 walks, 67 Ks.  

Dorothy Hamel was impressed with those numbers.  Me, too.

 - Give Joander a AAA gander, David Stearns.

Junior Santos was excellent when he was a 16 year old “Junior” in the low minors in 2018. Since then, in 6 years including the 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 seasons, not so good at all. 

A 5.00+ ERA from for the 5 seasons spanning 2019 thru 2024. A 5.27 ERA in AA this year, too. 

Pretty soon, at this rate, Junior will be a senior. 

Which is good. In one sense. The early bird specials for seniors are quite a bargain. I love early bird senior specials. 

My brother is a pest, and he keeps asking me when we will someday get our own home grown Junior Griffey. He says we've never had one of those home-grown in Queens.  I tell him "never, so just get used to it".  He says I’m right. 

He doesn’t say that I’m right very much, but when you’re right, you’re right.  

Even Junior Tilien is hitting just .225 with Brooklyn, and so it appears he won’t be our very own Junior Griffey, either. Tilien can’t blame hitting in hellacious Brooklyn for his .225 average, as he is somehow hitting in the .270s in Brooklyn, but just in the .170s on the road. Head scratcher.

Colin Houck in St Lucie was up 4 times and fanned 4 times. Last year’s first rounder, he has fanned 149 times in 94 games.  Which first rounders typically (never?) do. That projects to 257 Ks over 162 games. He’s young, to be sure, but Juan Soto was already in the majors for two months at Houck’s current age. It appears Houck won’t be our very own Junior Griffey, either.

Marte meanwhile played LF for Syracuse and was 1 for 4, the same as Drew Gilbert. Star Man Marte hitting 1 for 4 yesterday warrants not only a prompt return to Queens, where he belongs, but also to be inserted in the clean up spot in the Mets’ batting order, since no one else does much cleaning up these days.

Lastly, Syracuse’s best hitter is Austin Allen, who is not to be confused with Austin Adams.

 

OK, I’ve had my rant. Time for you readers to rave. You can rant, too, if you wish to.