(pictured: Jarred Kelenic)
Tom Brennan - HOW ARE THIS YEAR'S DRAFT'S METS' HITTERS DOING?
I hope you had a great Labor Day.
My favorite canine after Labor Day?
A Labor Day Retriever, of course.
Hey, I gave the Mets' 2018 drafted pitchers some pretty favorable comments on Friday.
Check it out if you missed it, in our right side web page column.
What about the hitters, the boppers, the bashers of the Mets' 2018 draft?
How have they done? Overall, I'd give them a B- or C+, which is better than last year's draftees did in their debut seasons.
TOP DAWGS
Jarred Kelenic, Round 1 - came out of the gate scorching, hit a skid for a while, and then scorched down the stretch. Starts 2019 as a teenager. .288/.374/.474 with 15 of 16 in steals. High, high expectations of Mets fans that he will be a future star.
Ross Adolph, Round 12 - looking like a 12th round coup, Ross is a 21 year olf OF triple threat - 12 triples in 57 games, lots of speed (11 of 14 steals), and 7 homers to boot. His last 3 weeks, from August 10-28, he hit .330 in 67 ABs with 3 doubles, 5 triples, and 5 HRs. Almost a K per contest, so Ross needs a bit of attention there. Thru August 28, .278/.348/.512 in the tough NY Penn League.
Carlos Cortes, Round 3 - the 5'7", 200 lefty hitting 2B hit a decent .250 in his debut month in July in Brooklyn. In his first 20 games in August, much better: .313/.374/.475. Hitting over .300 in limited ABs vs. lefties too. Speed seems to not be his game, with 1 steal attempt (successful).
Chase Chambers, Round 18, 1B - a very, very solid debut in Brooklyn for the 6'1", 250 just-turned-23 year old, hitting .292/.358/.406 in 524 games, with just 38 Ks. His power should ramp up once out of homer-killing Brooklyn.
L.A. Woodard, Round 16, 2B/SS - the 21 year old 5'11", 165 speedster has only hit .236, but on base a lot at .385, plus 8 of 9 steals, and just 14 Ks in 26 games in Kingsport. He should study the path of Jeff McNeil closely.
Jaylen Palmer, Round 22, 6'3", 190 SS - just turned 18, he has hit .310/.394/.414 and 5 steals in 25 games. Last 10 games, smoking at .355 with 7 walks. Seems like a steal to me.
Hayden Singer, Round 24, catcher: the 21 year old, 6'1, 210 catcher has hit, unlike the other drafted catchers. Splitting his time between K Port and Brooklyn, in 29 games, he has hit a commendable .326/.432/.457. Thrown out 10 of 29 stealers, just 1 error. So far, so fine. Keep it up and we'll all be singers.
HELD (OR MORE THAN HELD) HIS OWN
Manny Rodriguez, SS, 10th Round: the 22 year old 5'10", 166 righty hitter has run up .237/.301/.343 numbers for Brooklyn, 5 of 7 steals, 56 Ks in 49 games. Not great, not bad, but a decent enough start to expect a promotion to Columbia.
David Miranda, OF, 25th Round: a solid, if low-powered season for the 6'0, 210, 23 year old, ringing up at .245/.352/.294. Had a 5 for 5 game in mid August, but just 4 for 35 in his next 9 games. Overall, he makes good contact.
Brian Sharp, IF, 26th Round: he seems determined to learn the strike zone, fanning 65 times in 46 games while walking 25 times. Solid .261/.362/.408 #'s in Brooklyn. 7 of 9 steals, too, for the lefty 6'2, 205 Sharp Shooter. If not for the high Ks, I'd have put him in my top category instead.
Chandler Avant, 3B, 30th Round: the 23 year old 5'11", 170 Avant has put up respectable numbers, .243/.320/.304 in 38 games, with just 15 Ks. Given his age, he needs to ramp it up in 2019, but a pretty solid debut.
STARTED HOT BUT FADED
Nick Meyer, Round 6, Brooklyn catcher. Nick was hitting .318 in his first 17 games (21 for 66), but just 8 for 61 since then, through August 28. Weak numbers at .228/.281/.276. Just 17 Ks though, and enough contact eventually means hits.
DID NOT GO SO WELL
Phil Capra, Round 15, Kingsport catcher. Phil has not joined the hitting party in K Port, hitting .152/.275/.192 in 32 games. Clearly needs improvement.
Nelson Mompierre, Round 29, GCL catcher. Nellie's bat has been smelly, so far, with a .171/.322/.329 split in 23 games for the 22 year old. Get 'em next year, Monsieur Mompierre, s'il vous plait.
I am greedy, though...I wish there was a Pete Alonso power machine in this draft, but I do not see one.
8 comments:
The lack of power leaves me feeling a bit melon-COLLIE!
I kid, I kid......
I like Kelenic's start and hope the Mets are not too conservative with him (or any other player that needs to be challenged). He was clearly killing the GCL, so the early move upward was a positive sign.
Not sure how I feel about Cortes.....is he a Javier Baez type?
I do like Ross Adolph's start, as well. It would be something if he could develop into a prospect for CF, which is lacking in the organization right now.
Overall, seems like a promising draft, so far.
I could have sworn your favorite canine for Labor Day came in a bun with mustard and sauerkraut.
Well, they don't promote power hitters. They don't promote contact hitters. Wait, I sense a trend here...I hope Kelenic is patient.
A hot dog would make the Mets more exciting, for sure. I just wished there was one big power bat in the bunch.
The thing we must remember is that late round catchers are picked because each minor league team needs 3 catchers for their in-game/bullpen/practice need.
Mack, I am surprised more decent hitters don't opt to catch. Rough job, but could be a ticket to the bigs that might otherwise never come.
Tom
Knees
Kelenic we have all read about and are super excited about...
Adolph a 12 rounder with that debut? If this was legit then we may have the best draft we ever had...
homer-killing Brooklyn? is brooklyn a hard to hit staduim? can we ever just build a staduim that plays fair to both Hitters an pitchers?
Hayden Singer would be the real steal how about just a top 10 catcher the we develop. is that too much to ask?
we dont see Alonso type power but Speed is nice to see... we need both... I hope Kelenic can be a AJ Pollack type CF....
Eddie, we can hope.
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