MACK – THOUGHTS & OTHER TIDBITS

                                                                 

MACK – THOUGHTS & OTHER TIDBITS

 

Thoughts

 

I think I saw the beginning of the development of the 2027 Mets bullpen.

Monday brought a wonderful start by Nolan McLean (6-IP, 1-ER), but the highlight for me was the three scoreless innings tossed by Jonathan Pintaro, Nate Lavender, and Daniel Duarte… combined 3.0-IP, 1-H, 0-R, 1-BB, 2-K. Add to this existing 2027 contracts Kodai Senga and Devin Williams and you now have five potential members of the 2027 pen. The return of both Tylor Megill and Reed Garrett off the IL move this number up to seven, leaving Tobias Meyers, Dedniel Nunez, and Austin Warren to flght it out for slot #8.

 

Whattayathink?

Promotions

 

AA-Binghamton IF Émilien Pitre to AAA-Syracuse

AAA-Syracuse 3B Christopher Morel to MLB-Mets

A-St. Lucie SS Elian Pena to A+ Brooklyn

AA-Binghamton Billy Amick to AAA-Syracuse

A+ Brooklyn RHP Luke Gabrysh to AA-Binghamton

A+ Brooklyn IF Jamari Baylor to AA-Binghamton

AAA-Syracuse INF Eric Wagaman promoted to MLB-Mets

MLB-Mets RHP Austin Warren was reinstated from the 15-day IL

A-St. Lucie IF Branny De Oleo promoted to AA-Binghamton

AA-Binghamton OF D’Andre Smith promoted to AAA-Syracuse

AA-Binghamton LHP Gabriel Rodriguez activated from DL

 

Prospect Color Changes

A-St. Lucie OF John Smith III - BLACK to BLUE.

A-St. Lucie IF Vladi Gomez – RED to BLUE

 

Minor Tidbits

It is getting harder, as the season begins to wind down, to determine  which starting pitchers in the chain are ready to help Nolan McLean, Christian Scott, and Zac Thornton in the 2027 starting rotation. A scouting friend of mine currently has McLean, at best being an SP-2 candidate, mainly due to his on-again, off-again dominance this year. “He just can’t seem to get this number of pitches thrown thing down this year” was the actual text sent me. As for Scott, he has him in the SP-3/4 range and Thornton, at best an SP/5.

So, my question to you… after watching the piss poor performances by Jonah Tong and Jack Wenninger, throw in the same kind of review for Jonathan Santucci, the failure of both Tobias Myers and Dakota Hawkins, and all other prospect starters being, at least one affiliate away… what are your suggestions going forward???

The Amick/Brennan debate continues… Tom is stuck on who should be accredited with being the Met minor leaguer with the most home runs. 1B Billy Amick/AA-Binghamton is now up to 7-Mets homers in 46 at-bats… but he came to the Mets from another AA team, where he hit 23 home runs also this season. When asked the question, Tom does not give Amick for having the most. Me? Amick has 30 AA home runs this year which “leads” the Mets. So, I ask you… what Met minor leaguer has the most home runs this season? 

And… why is someone that has hit 30 AA home runs and 94-RBI this season still playing at this level?

 Well, the bottom line is the fact that this debate is now over. Amick was promoted to AAA-Syracuse before the start of this week’s games.

 

Simply put, you can’t get excited with the stat-lines of the DSL bats because the pitching at that level is so undeveloped. And yet, there is 19/yr old DSL-Orange SP Abner Meza. On this past Friday, Meza went 5.0-IP, 1-H, 0-ER, 4-K, raising his seasonal stat line to 11-G, 5-2, 1.81, 0.97, 49.2-IP, 50-K. This raised his 2/yr. DSL line to 23-G, 9-5, 2.24, 1.04, 88.1-IP, 82-K. So I ask… why isn’t this hombre eating dinner at Duffy’s tonight?

 

Jefferson Rojas. Mitch Voit. Elian Pena. Jacob Reimer. Sammy Stafura. Emilien Pitre. Wandy Asigen. This is far too many infielders for the future Flushing infield. Let’s remember, Francisco Lindor is going to play one of these three infield positions. Let’s say 2027 is an experimental year. So I ask you… what two of seven players I listed above will be in the starting 2028 infield? Me? Have no friggin idea.

 

So, what is the Mets going to do about AAA-Syracuse 1B/OF Ryan Clifford? 

He finished off last week 0-9, 8-K, which created a 1-14, 26-K stat-line over his last 11 games. If this guy was a racehorse, they would shoot him on the track. The current Syracuse first base situation is Clifford, Nick Lorusso, and Billy Amick. Are we to expect that the homerun hitting crazy guy would be promoted there and sat down, so Clifford could strike out. No way, Jose. 

On my team, Amick and Lorusso will split 1B/DH duties while Clifford is designated for assignment, released, or euthanized… I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but once I recognize that something was wrong, I more on and never think about it again. The Cohenstearns Boys need to do more here than placing him on the DL.

 

In Closing

I really wanted the Mets to have one of the six worst records this season, but that just doesn’t seem to be in the picture anymore. To me, the resurgence has been centered around the steady hitting of Benge/Ewing, the steady Eddie at-bats of Jared Young, the resurgence of Francisco Lindor and Bo Bichette, and the return of Sean Manaea and his rotation buddies to being relevant.

In addition, it’s now exciting to follow the chain, especially the Binghamton Mets. Just about every move David Stearns made is proving out to be a good one.

Most field positions have so many future options right now and my guess is that 2027 will be the only year that all of you have to sweat the small stuff anymore. There seems to be a kind of ballplayer that is taking over this team.  Kind of player like the psycho-twins Carson Benge and AJ Ewing. Have you ever seen more fan excitement for two .260 hitters? Well, .260 in 2026 is a good thing in this game and expect all future major league additions on this team to be designed in this mode.