Mack – Random Thoughts: Connor Wollersheim, Updated Top Prospect List, NDFAs, The Loss of A Season

 

Something wrong here. The Mets released 2019 8^th round pick, LHP Connor Wollersheim.

He started 15 games for Kent State last year (6-6, 4.50) who impressed in both Kingsport (8-appearances, 1-0, 2.70) and Columbia (3-appearances, 0-0, 1.50) as a reliever. Problem was the combined 11 walks in 17 innings pitched.

I don’t have any explanation for this but my guess it is arm related.

 

 

Now that the draft is completed, I have updated my prospect list. It names only the players that I currently consider ‘red’ prospects. Three names from the draft have been added:

 

1.    SS  Ronny Mauricio

2.    C  Francisco Alvarez

3.    SP Matt Allen

4.    3B Mark Vientos

5.    3B Brett Baty

6.    SP Josh Wolf

7.    OF Freddy Valdez

8.    SP Thomas Szapucki

9.    SS Andres Gimenez

10. OF Pete Crow-Armstrong

11.SP JT Ginn

12. RP Ryley Gilliam

13. OF Isaiah Greene

14. OF Alexander Ramirez

15.SP Robert Dominguez

 

I really was excited going into the non-drafted free agent signing period last Sunday morning. Our GM and Co. once again did a top job in drafted in the early rounds, something he now has done three years in a row. He was interviewed a week ago Friday and spoke on how the city of New York was going to have a big say on where some of these kid sign, Bights lights, big city, tons on endorsements.

 

Well, what he forgot to mention was these players were not going to be eating a steak at Luger’s every night. Instead, they would share a fried shrimp basket with one of their roommates (GCL-Mets), or have a beef, three sides, and a sweet tea at a roadside in South Carolina (Columbia).

 

First, they got off to a slow start, signing no one the first day. And second, they did not deliver on one of the top names still out their on the market.

 

The whole process only once again exposed a fact we Mets fans already know… the Wilpons and how they run their business is not attractive to young players.

 

 

Most of the other writers here have already chimed in with their thoughts regarding the 2020 season. At this point, I really don’t care if they come back and have a 15-game season and 200 playoff games, or whatever the hell they are talking about now. Our Commish, Manfred Mann, can’t manage a bowel movement and the loss here will not only be a season and a couple of affiliates.

 

Late round minor leaguers played this sport for shitty wages for only one reason… to work at their dream of one day becoming a major league baseball player. Most don’t. A few, like Jeff McNeil, change their entire approach to this game and reinvent themselves at a new level, but frankly they turn out to be the exception.  

 

Forget covid. What we have witnessed this year could translate into a future strike. Kids, especially in the inner city, are turning to other sports to play in middle school. Even minor league coaches have begun to leave the game and get a legitimate job to pay their growing bills.

 

For me, after listening to Dr. Fauci’s prediction in October, I’m starting to worry about the football season. I can’t even begin to think a weekend without watching the Clemson Tigers and New York Giants without my daughter beside me.

 

This is truly a trying time for a sports fan. I would shit can the whole industry if I was around 30 years old. I’d spend more time perfecting my fiction writing (five unpublished novels) and learning how to read music and finger pick my Martin.

 

They would never fail me as much as this does.