Tom Brennan - BIG NIGHT FOR METS LEFTIES FROM WARD MELVILLE HS ON LONG ISLAND

At draft time in June, it is good to ponder the fruits of the drafts in the past.

Especially how the Mets clones, who earlier in their clone-ships attended and pitched at Ward Melville HS in Setauket, LI, performed yesterday.

Steve Matz is a lefty drafted with the 72nd overall pick in the 2009 draft, who needed Tommy John surgery shortly thereafter, delaying his career.

Anthony Kay is a lefty drafted with the 31st overall pick in the 2016 draft, who needed Tommy John surgery shortly thereafter, delaying his career.

Matz took on the Rockies at Citifield last night and allowed just 2 earned runs while fanning 10 in 6 innings to get the win.

Kay lowers his ERA in AA to 1.49 and improved to 7-3, while fanning 9 in 5.1 shutout innings.  Hitters are scuffling at a paltry .165 against him.

If Mets prospects were re-ranked today, my presumption is that Anthony Kay moves up to # 1 on the list.

My sense is the two clones could both be pitching in Citifield for the Mets in the not-too-distant future.

One note to temper over-exuberance about Kay:

There is another Mets prospect who is having a fine year (4-2 in AAA this year in 10 outings with a 3.59 ERA and 70 Ks in 53 IP), who while in the majors is 3-10, 8.70 ERA with just 40 Ks in 60 innings...his name?  CHRIS FLEXEN.

My take?  Anthony Kay is of the same, or perhaps better, caliber of pitcher than Steve Matz when both are at their career peaks, and better than Flexen in that regard.

But...Kay will have to grind that out when he gets to the big leagues.  I firmly believe he will.

Now, moving on to:

LIGHT TOWER POWER

The good things about homers of the non-inside-the-park variety is that if a ball clears the fence by a foot, it is the same as it would be if it clears the fence by 100 feet - a HR is a HR.

Last night, Poundin' Pete Alonso showed that having light tower power can also result in home runs that for the average batter would be caught 10 feet shy of the warning track.  For Pete, though, his poke last night turned into an approaching-lunar-orbit, high-arcing homer clearing the fence by a mere foot.  Another Statcast record - fast velocity for a 48 degree angle homer.

But 1 foot or 100 feet, it was still dinger # 21 in 2019 for:

The Mets' Bambino,  the Alonzino.

Which is why I have said he has a legit chance to hit 50 this year, a ridiculous # by Mets historical standards.  

Routine fly outs for mere mortals will, with some regularity, when hit by Alonso, instead be homers because, yes indeedy, he has:

LIGHT TOWER POWER.

With his 21 homers in the first 64 games, he is on pace to hit 53.    To reach 50 for the year, he will have to hit homers at a 48 homer pace the rest of the way.  He has always improved during his career, which is still young, so I say:

WHY NOT FIFTY BIG ONES IN 2019?