MACK – THOUGHTS & OTHER TIDBITS

             

Thoughts

 

Carson Benge was asked last week what his approach to hitting was. His answer? “It's just see ball, hit ball." If possible, I love him more now. A refreshing thing to read from an old school guy like me…

 

Last Wednesday, the Mets told the draft pick pitchers that were assigned to the FCL Mets that none of them were going to activated and sent across the complex and join the St. Lucie Mets in A-ball. Their “professional” career so far has been to hear their name read on one of the draft days, sign a contract with the Mets, report to the Florida Complex, get assigned to the FCL Mets, then told they were not going to activated to play there, report to some kind of OJT program, watch all the draft bats be assigned to teams and activated, and now told their season is over. A steak in Peter Lugar’s aging room has been treated better than these guys.

The only difference between this year and other years under this management team is the bats got a chance to hit in August. 

Progress? Maybe for them but eff you to the arms. Seems it’s much more important to keep sending out those 8.00-ERA+ deadbeats that have been on the roster all season. Smart…

 

By the way… as of today, the Mets 2027 “payroll” is $255,031,000.

 

It’s starting to sound like Bo Bichette is going to stick around next season. This is no big revelation. I mean, who’s going to pay him more than the $42mil the Mets are contracted to pay him? This is fine with me. Bichette is a perfect fit for the 2027 season, before one of the kids take over in 2028….

 

The Mets signed infielder Gabiel Arias this week. He immediately was placed on the 40 and reported to the Mets while they played in Pittsburgh.

Arias checks all the Steans boxes…

Hit below .250 for all his five pro-seasons – check

High K/IP% - check

Low power – check

Over 25/years old – check

High K/IP% - check

On IL this season (hamstring) - check

I've been trying to get someone tell me what the minor league pitch counts on the minor league staffs of this team.

I'm not exactly at the top of the list for a free sky box in Flushing, so you can imagine how much success I've had with suits.

The only person that is willing to venture a GUESS... hear that lawyers... A GUESS... is podcast King, Ernest Dove @ernestdove,who told me he things the lower level teams are in the 80-pitch range, and 90-pitch range in the upper levels... hope that helps.

Some changes in my prospect color rating this week:

Going from BLUE to RED prospects...  

    1B Billy Amick, 2B Emilien Pitre, 2B Sammy Stafura, OF Aiden Smith

Going from RED to BLUE...

     OF Nick Morabito     

Going from BLACK (non-prospect) to BLUE... 

     SP Gary Gill Hill, SP Noah Hall, SP R.J. Gordon

The Mets brought back last year's breath of fresh air, relief pitcher Chris Devenski. Hey why not? His current ERA fits in perfectly, he's 108 years old, and his fastball tops off at 29.  My kind of 2026 Met.

Minor Tidbits

 

Let's face it... Jonah Tong is not capable anymore of producing a decent start. Tuesday, it was 94 pitches, of which 41 were balls, all in only four innings pitched.

I have no idea what his release point is, or the trajectory of his whatever. I just know he continues to suck big time. First, I can't understand how everybody out there keeps ranking him so high in their version of the current Mets prospects; however, these same people have Jacob Reimer and Ryan Clifford in their list, so maybe it does make sense.

Me?

Let him finish the season sucking in Syracuse. Then convert him to a 2-pitch back-end reliever.

We seem to talk about starter regression all the time (Wenninger… Tong). Well, it’s not the only movement going on right now in the chain regarding SPs.

First, it was AA-Binghamton R.J. Gordon, who’s been in the crapper most of the season. Only recently, he has begun punching out quality starts for the B-Mets and he has re-earned a BLUE rating in my system charting.

Now, it’s Gordon’s teammate, Noah Hall, who is turning around a bad season. Friday night, he stat lined out: 6.0-IP, 2-H, 0-ER, 3-BB, and a superlative 10-K.

Welcome back guys to being relevant again.

Me?

The 2027 rotation and future starters are shaping up like this…

Nolan McLean, Christian Scott, and Zac Thornton are established members of the Mets rotation… Sean Manaea is waiting around until someone kicks him to the curb… Kodai Senga is, at best, in the pen… Jack Wenninger will stay in Syracuse until he figures things out… Jonah Tong is my 2027 closer… my SP4 is Jonathan Santucci… my SP1 is either some guy hanging out in Los Angeles right now, or McLean… and my SP5 is a battle of team-controlled Will Watson, Channing Austin, Noah Hall, Gary Gill Hill, or R.J. Gordon.

 

First base is starting to heat up. Nick Lorusso is turning head for AAA-Syracuse without trying to be the strikeout king Ryan Clifford has proven to be. And over in AA-Binghamton, recently traded for Billy Amick is looking like the Mets answer to Barry Bonds, minus the steroids (stat line). 

I’m starting to think that the Mets have a solution growing for first… let Jared Young be the bridge player needed next season while things develop with these two. Me? My money is on the Benge/Amick personality-like Amick. I know everyone (cough, Tom, cough) keeps saying he strikes out too much. As of end-of-game Wednesday, he has struck out 129 times in 345 at-bats. High? Yes, but he also has hit 29 home runs, has knocked in 89 teammates, and is going nuts since joining the Mets (AA-Bing: 32-AB, 11-H, 6-HR, 17-RBI, .344/.462/.906/1.368). Yeah, I really like this guy.

Lastly... 19-year old Emilio Obispo is really starting to establish himself as a possible future Mets rotation piece. He had his best outing on Wednesday for A+ Brooklyn: 5-IP, 0-ER, 2-BB, 3-K and is now 5-2, 2.19 in 17-games for combined St. Lucie and Brooklyn. Put him on your futures board.

In Closing

 

There is no one more than me that wants to get past the 10-draft pick penalty shite each season, but, at the same time, that would take all the new players added recently to the rosters of our four full season affiliates to be playing like crap.

No, I like what is going on right now and, early on the Stearns moves at the trading deadline look alright to me.

I’m upgrading my overall rating to B+.

This week’s report is a wee bit short.

Most of my writing time was spent putting together a eulogy for a family funeral.

I learned first-hand this week that there are so many more important things to write about than the “Team Deconstructed By Sterns/Cohen”.

Do me a favor…

Put your Met fandom down…

Go hug your spouse…

Play with your children or grandkids…

Throw the ball with your doggy for a while…

These are the important things in your life…

Not discussing Pete Alonso