HEY, HEY! WHAT'S EXCITING DOWN UNDER. MATE?
The DSL season started a few weeks ago, and the Cyclones and K-Mets have only just gotten rolling.
While very early results are not all that indicative - we've seen, for instance. the guy who hits .600 for 3 games and ends up hitting .200 - but here is who is hot in the lower regions of the Mets minors thru Tuesday.
BROOKLYN:
Wilmer Reyes - 4 for 10 - of course, Reyes has a classic Mets name and of course plays the infield. Wilmer II is 6'1", 160 and 21 years old.
Joe Genord - recent 9th round first base draftee started out 2 for 12 with 3 walks and 5 Ks. The 2 hits? A double and HR for the 6'1", 230 slugger. (And 2 for 4 on Wednesday).
The Tampa Bay Times noted that Big Joe (my nickname) was "USF’s lone first-team All-American Athletic Conference pick, Genord led the Bulls in average (.333), home runs (13), doubles (14), RBI (52) and slugging percentage (.618) in ’19. He also finished his career in USF’s all-time top 10 in RBI (163) (and 3rd in homers with 44)."
Pitching has been strong: Jaison Vilera had a great first start, and Malky Mena and Garrison Bryant had great outings as well. Mena is a 22 year old righty who got a late start as a pro, as a 20 year old in the DSL in 2017.
5th round righty draftee Nathan Jones was superb in his first outing in relief (2 innings, a walk, 5 Ks).
Lastly, Daison Acosta has pitched sensationally so far. The 20 year old righty has already logged 9 innings, allowing 4 hits, 2 runs and fanning 13. A big ALL RIGHT to that.
Lastly, Daison Acosta has pitched sensationally so far. The 20 year old righty has already logged 9 innings, allowing 4 hits, 2 runs and fanning 13. A big ALL RIGHT to that.
KINGSPORT:
It was only opening day on Tuesday, but how great was it to see 2 things:
1) that oft-injured Greg Guerrero played!
2) and that he had a triple and walk
One hitter who had a great opening game was Andres Regnault - the catcher was 3 for 5 with a homer and 4 RBIs. Fluke? Nah.
His stats for the DSL-1 Mets last season were superb: .333/.420/.573 with 45 RBIs in 53 games, so I would say this guy might be a REAL HITTER. The 20 year old is listed at 6'0", 250, a big boy indeed.
And 33rd round Cole Kleszcz was 2 for 5 with 2 RBIs. He wants to rip up his contract and ask for first round $$ after that fine first game.
Pitching-wise, 21 year old righty Michel Otanez was superb - 5 innings, 1 hit, 2 walks, 0 runs, 8 Ks.
DSL 1 METS:
Bonus Baby Freddie Valdez? 11 for 39, 7 walks, 2 doubles, 2 HRs - so far, so good.
SS Federico Polanco is off to a dandy start (.350/.447/.475) with just a K every 10 plate appearances. A lot bette than last year's DSL .201 debut at age 17.
Christian Olivero promises to never surrender a hit...in 7 innings, he has allowed no hits, walked 5, fanned 6.
DSL 2 METS:
No outstanding hitters to speak of for this team so far.
Decent, but not eye-catching. Names, if any, next time.
Two pitchers of note:
Antonio Villalba (19, RHP) - 11.1 IP, 3 hits, 0 runs, 14 Ks
Marco Villegas (18, RHP) - 8.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 10 K
I am sure that in another 2 weeks, more meaningful #'s for the guys on these 4 teams will be emerging.
ON ANOTHER NOTE: ALONSO COMPARISON:
I think now that the season (through Tuesday) is 44.44% over, a projection of Pete's numbers and a comparison to a former NY ballplayer might be interesting:
Pete had 24 homers and 57 RBIs through Tuesday (72 games).
Over a full 162, the rookie-in-name-only would have:
54 HRs, 128 RBIs.
What former NY ballplayer in his best year had identical numbers?
MICKEY MANTLE - 1961.
19 comments:
In the upper Mets minors, former Mets are ROCKING. Ruben Tejada is hitting the snot out of the ball, and may be hitting the best in his entire career, and Dilson Herrera is on a HR tear and has 16.
Flexen a bright spot last night, on a night that has moved the Mets into the "we'll need a miracle to make the playoffs" stage.
Tom, I hope Chris Flexen keeps up the solid relief outings but have seen far too many pitchers throw well in a blowout only to get bombed when counted on to get big outs. The most recent case in point was the recently sent down Drew Gagnon.
I suggested that Ruben Tejada is the perfect example of the Peter Principle at work. He can perform at an elite level in AAA but reaches his own level of incompetence in the majors.
John, I am far from sold on Flexen - some guys can hit 300 yard drives at the driving range but stink on the links.
Flexen reminds me of Rafael Montero, who occasionally got you hopeful before the bad Raffie returned. It is Flexen's job to prove he is more than a scrub on a bad team.
Reese, I occasionally catch an at bat of Ruben in Syracuse on MILB TV, and he looks like a stronger, more aggressive version of the old Ruben. Some team should want him, even if the Mets lack room. If I were Baltimore, for instance, I'd cut Broxton in a heartbeat and START Ruben, who can actually hit far better than the Broken Broxton.
BTW, another ex-Mets farmhand doing well?
Adam Kolarek.
I watched him shut down the Yanks for an inning last night, looking very effective. Good for him. Hard to believe he is already 30. It was a long fight to the majors for him - he persevered.
Wouldn't you have loved to be in the room when Brodie sold the Wilponzies on why he's "the Man" and it will also be very interesting to see how he spins the sell off in a few weeks. To see how the Braves have operated to put themselves in their current position means they had a real plan in place something that for whatever reason we can't seem to do as selling the fan base on the "were not rebuilding" mantra is going to pacify the faithful. Guys a question: Why is Gimenez our #1 prospect and can Guillorme play SS?
Gary, Tejada is KILLING IT this year in the minors. If an infielder is needed, call 1-800-RUBEN...all due respect to Reese, of course.
What happened to the GCL Mets team? When does their season start? I figured thats where last year's big IFA signing Catcher francisco alvarez was gonna start with that team.
Pablo -
GCL team starts next week
The Dave Eiland move probably signals the next move. Logic dictates.
The Mets should have three All Stars and one ROY major candidate. They are obviously: McNeil 2B, Alonso 1B (ROY), and probably Jacob deGRom SP.
Is it too early now to start thinking 2020?
To me, it is never too soon to think ahead. Even 2-3 year plans can be beneficial.
I think the Mets have to begin (now) looking at the 2020 rotation and their bullpen. These two areas have been their 2019 concerns. You hope that pitchers like David Peterson, Anthony Kay, and Harol Gonzales can all finish 2019 healthy and pitching really well. These are three starters now to take note of, I believe.
For the bullpen, Gilliam and maybe Uceta could be relief arms to watch. But there are others as well still learning their craft down in the minors, but who have the necessary skills I think to be MLB relievers one day.
The key unmade move for 2019 I think was not signing (from outside) another quality starter to add into the already existent mix here. So it left the Mets relying on a fast start from their existent rotation. But when that did not happen, that quality one more starter added in was not available to them for a fix.
You start here.
The every day field seems pretty solid to me now and heading into 2020. I like the younger player mix here, a lot actually. I would go with it again in 2020. They still have over a half season to finish 2019 getting their respective feet wet and playing as a unit. This works well in their and the Mets favor.
However, the one area that I might look at with all this, is adding into the present equation one more slightly veteran homerun bat. Someone who is a constant and more consistent homerun force. The best example to what I am suggesting here, is a player the Mets have looked at before, Charlie Blackmon Rockies).
Then you have a really good top of the order, and a really dependable 3-6 battery as well. Mission complete.
The key to 2020 will probably depend on the kid starters coming up. The Mets will need most likely two. Then, two to three Mets minor league promotions for the bullpen, and a quality veteran starter from outside to be added in. This suggests a six-man, but maybe that is due now to save arm injuries.
The final piece could be a Charlie Blackmon veteran high quality homerun outfielder.
Don't give up Mets fans. We were all born to eventually win, if we live long enough!
(But what a ride.)
Topic: Chris Flexen
Not unlike other really good Mets players over the years, Chris Flexen may be more arriving now than prior, but on his own watch. I am very optimistic now with Chris, because I like his stats better than ever with him.
Maybe Chris could take over the Matz spot, when fully ready to. Matz may always be an up and down, game to game starter. He has the skill set, but it gets lost in the translation sometimes.
There is no doubt that the Mets have pieces and players here now. They just need the right maestro to put it all together and then add-in a piece here and a piece there. But I do believe that 90% of the pieces are here now.
The short list might be something like this, if we can consider at least one of the kid lefty Mets' starters (Kay/Peterson) able to actually make the rotation in 2020 ST.
The rotation "has got to go to 6 man." Wakeup on this point. "Injuries sustained season to season" and the "won/loss column" being all the evidence necessary here.
I keep Jake, Noah, and Zach intact. Let Phil Regan work his magic with them, smooth them out a little where case need be. Phil's the right man for this job, and I don't care if he is 183 years old Mr. Frankencessa!(LOL) Then add-in to this equation either lefty kid pitcher Anthony Kay or David Peterson for the fourth guy.
Two more. Good ones.
The rotation above may need to get a bit younger. Keeping it young is how you build a season to season challenging rotation. For this purpose maybe a starter from the Gonzales/Flexen/Wilson kid pool. Only need one really.
The final piece to a legitimate "six-man starting rotation" could conceivably come from acquiring a starter from outside the organization. Preferably a hard throwing lefty type.
Maybe Steven Matz could initially head to a long relief role. Hopefully this could lead him to something that this Mets team truly has needed for at least a decade or more. That is a superlative lefty set-up man to complement the later inning right handers already here. It would provide another look later inning to throw batters off.
Steven Matz has that tenaciousness about him that a team loves to see for relief, we all know that. And Steven's skill set may actually be better geared for this shorter sample size outing as a reliever. It is definitely worth a shot because this could potentially be what corrects him longer term. A competent lefty late-inning reliever would change the entire dynamic here for the Mets bullpen.
(Let Jerry and Elaine out of prison.)
Lots of thoughts from Anonymous - I will just say this for now.
The little I saw of Flexen the other day was very hopeful, and I have trashed him here a lot. He actually looked promising.
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