Tom Brennan - Two Righty Hitting Binghamton Star OFs; Durability; Why I Don’t Go

"ANYONE HAVE AN OPINION ABOUT THESE TWO?”

 YOU TELL ME….WHICH IS BETTER? 

Stats may give us a clue:

1) Stats for player A, a 22 y/o right handed 5’10 hitter:

.273/.348/.385, 115 Ks in 118 games, 49 of 60 in steals in 492 PAs.

He hit .136 in the post season.

2) Stats for player B, a 24 y/o right handed 5’9” hitter:

.282/.345/.417, 76 Ks in 101 games, 31 of 34 steals in 406 PAs.  

He hit .273 with a HR this post season.

Pretty even, huh?

Player A is Nick Morabito, who came into 2025 with 807 pro plate appearances.

Player B is D’Andre Smith, who came into 2025 with just 485 pro plate appearances.

Smith has excellent speed, and it would be interesting to see the two in a foot race. Morabito is noted for his elite speed.

Smith earlier in his career, as I seem to recall, had several injuries which reduced his playing time in 2023 and 2024 to just 111 games, after his short pro debut in 2022.

This year, what limited his playing time is that Binghamton was so darned excellent and deep, until promotions of Jett and Benge to AAA allowed for more playing time for him and WyattYoung, Binghamton’s hottest hitter in their successful playoffs.

Smith also hit better in the second half than in the first half.  

Morabito tailed off in the second half.

Smith can play both 2B and the outfield.  Morabito has just 5 games at 2B.

All told…

I wonder which of these two players has a higher ceiling?

If you could pick just one of these two to make his MLB debut later in 2026, which would you pick right now, if you could have just one?

Me? I never speculate (LOL)

I just hope D’Andre Smith has a better MLB career than Dom Smith.

P.S.  Smith is to be playing this autumn in the Arizona Fall League, and so is Nick Morabito.  How about that? 

Along with them and a few pitchers, speedy catcher/1B/LF Chris Suero is also going to be hanging out playing in Arizona, gazing at cacti this fall.

May all three hit .400.

AMAZING DURABILITY

Remarkably, it was reported that despite Brett Baty’s oblique pull on Friday, he would only miss 2 games…

I don’t think the oblique had been invented during my first 20 years of watching baseball.  The first one I ever recall was Keith Hernandez pulling one in the mid-80s.

Nowadays, everyone pulls an oblique or gets Tommy John surgery.  

Some get both injuries. Ahh, the good old days.

NOTHING LIKE NY PLAYOFF BASEBALL IN OCTOBER

I had a dream the Mets missed the playoffs. I shrugged it off, rolled over and went back to sleep. Anyway, that is the extent of my commentary on 2025. A bad dream.  I also dreamt that Mike Francesca called them gutless bums. Only a dream.

I will say this:

Fans live for the playoffs. You can probably go to a scalper to get tickets to go to a game in the Bronx.  Not my thing. I like a full head of hair.

I have been to two Yankee games in the Bronx in the last 48 years. One just happened to be ex-Met Reggie Jackson’s 3 homers in 3 swings legendary game that won the Yanks the crown. He, to be clear, became an ex-Met the moment they stupefied the baseball world by not drafting him as the consensus overall #1 pick. He went on to hit 563 HRs, and an additional 18 HRs in the playoffs.  None hit while playing with the Mets.

We had Helmsley Spear as a client back then. The head guy on our team got along great with them, and Ken Griffey Sr’s sister told him that Ken had dropped two tickets to each game with her, and would we want to buy them. He was a Yankee fan and said SURE! How much? She said, the price on the ticket, which happened to be $15! 

The four of us drew straws….and I got GAME SIX.

The other game was in 1998.  I went with a bunch of Chase co-workers.

I lived in Stony Brook at the time, and didn’t have my car, so I had to take a subway train downtown from the House That Ruth Built and then cross over on the Grand Central Times Square shuttle line to get to the seventh Avenue line to get to Penn Station.

Problem is, when I got to the shuttle, it sat there for nearly 10 minutes, something which they could’ve told me. I could have walked instead.  When I got to seventh Avenue and 42nd St. and had to take the subway downtown, that was delayed too. I miss my train to Ronkonkoma by two stinking minutes. The next train left a full hour later. It ran local. It was eternal.

So, I left the game at 9 o’clock, very early, knowing I had work the next day. I left after the 5th inning, and I got home at 12:30. 

Three and one half exhausting hours. 

With the next day a work day back in downtown NYC, not far from where (at the time) two towers still proudly stood. 

Two hour morning commute.

It crossed my mind that night that I could’ve hopped a flight from MacArthur airport to Miami in less time than it took to get home from the game.

That was my last Yankee game. I can’t foresee ever going to another one.  “See ya!”

Being a Mets fan, I went to very few Bronx games. In the last game prior to the Reggie legendary classic, I think around 1975, in a game where I think the Yankees clinched against the Red Sox. Fans poured onto the field, which was still needed for the upcoming playoffs. Fans were tearing it up.  

Cops on foot and horseback also poured onto the field. And some fans got the crap kicked out of them by cops. There were no cell phones back then.

This playoffs flashback is done. Have a great day.

Yes it got by Buckner.

It’s gotten by us ever since.

Play the song, To Dream The Impossible Dream.  And reflect.