Syracuse
McNeil 1-4 2 k's (just missed a granny)
Blankenhorn 1-4, 2 BB
Lee 0-4, BB, SB, 3 k's
Almora 1-3, BB
Nogosek....1.1 innings 6 hits 7 runs 1 walk 1 k (arguably the worst line from any Mets P this season, yikes)
Bing
Cortes 2-4, BB (OPS up to .911)
Mangum 0-4, 2 k's
Vientos 2-4, BB, K (He's struggled but over his last 5 games he's reached base 8 times)
BK
Mauricio 1-4
Baty 1-4, 3 k's
Alvarez 1-4, K
Lasko 6 innings 3 hits 1 run 0 walks 4 k's
St. Lucie
Ramirez 1-4, HR, BB, K (First professional HR)
Suozzi 2-5
Palmer 1-5, K
Ginn 4 innings 1 hit 0 runs 0 walks 5 k's (To me, easily the player of the day in the system)
I know Lee is still young, but I am worried they missed on him, and would be better off having Winckowski and Valdez. Being in Marlins country, he strikes me as too similar to Harrison and Brinson. Toolsy players who never put it together because they can't make contact in MLB. In full disclosure, I thought Jazz Chisholm would be similar, but was dead wrong. Hope I am wrong on my concerns with Lee
Did they say what position McNeil was playing at SYR ?? He may have to think about 3B when he comes back.
Luis G has been lights out at 2B. Did you see him get in position for that relay throw late in the game last night ??
Stuff is run of the mill. 89/92, CB/CU neither considered plus. He’s pitching well but he’s not viewed as much of a prospect. Ya never know.
Did they say what position McNeil was playing at SYR ?? He may have to think about 3B when he comes back.
Luis G has been lights out at 2B. Did you see him get in position for that relay throw late in the game last night ??
2B, will see some time in the OF as well. No mention of 3B
@djshort
·
6m
Amed Rosario taking some legit steps forward
- Lowest swing rate of his career
- Career-low chase rate at 30.9% compared to 40.3% in '20
- More disciplined, swinging at better pitches, leading to a career-best 42.2% hard-hit rate
- .284 BA fully backed up by a .290 xBA
20 homers
80 rbis
30 doubles
his isolated slg% is right at .200, which is basically Conforto/Dom Smith territory (higher than a typical McNeil/Nimmo season, lower than Alonso).
his 8% walk rate is also decent, and again comparable to Dominic Smith (who has typically been between 7-9% as a big leaguer). With his performance being most comparable to Dom, if we go back to Dom's first season at AA (also at age 21) Vientos' numbers actually project to both more homers and more doubles, however Dom put his numbers up while also hitting .300.
So where is Vientos struggling? 2 places. He is K'ing a lot right now (34% of the time, more than double the rate Dom Smith K'd at that age in AA) and he only has 12 singles on the year. He actually has as many XBH as he does singles. Dom had 101 singles in his a21 season at AA, Vientos projects to about 50 (but with the aforementioned more XBH).
Now there's certainly a built in excuse for all minor leaguers after last year, and especially those that had to make bigger jumps up in competition level. But over the 2nd half of the season imo the key thing to hopefully see is enough bat control that his K% that comes down into the low to mid-20's and a BA rising over .250. Even if it's at the expense of some of those XBH. We know the raw power and exit velocities are there. Better bat control is what will take him from an interesting prospect to an exciting one.
@djshort
·
6m
Amed Rosario taking some legit steps forward
- Lowest swing rate of his career
- Career-low chase rate at 30.9% compared to 40.3% in '20
- More disciplined, swinging at better pitches, leading to a career-best 42.2% hard-hit rate
- .284 BA fully backed up by a .290 xBA
He proved he can hit a few years ago and not sure if you saw the article from SIS but it turned out their defensive grades for all players at citi field and a few other stadiums were wrong because of the camera setups, and when they went back and revised their numbers to fix the error Rosario had been negatively impacted more than any other player in the sport. So it turns out his defense was closer to league average all along (which is funny because I think we all often remarked how strange it was that his defense graded out so poorly when he seemed to not be that bad, and for some stretches like 2nd half 2019 pretty good).
Did they say what position McNeil was playing at SYR ?? He may have to think about 3B when he comes back.
Luis G has been lights out at 2B. Did you see him get in position for that relay throw late in the game last night ??
You can't move Villar off of 3rd. Guillorme will be the supersub at the 3 IF positions.
yup. his teammate Carlos Cortes is having a really strong run at AA and he's a year and a half older, and he played CBB, and he got time at A+.
power numbers are typically late arriving so the fact that Vientos is showing good power now gives me some confidence that he will be able to make some adjustments as he ages into more normal territory for the levels he's playing at. he's checking the more difficult box, literally all he needs to do is replace a few K's with singles each week.
The Team 980
@team980
Former MLB clubhouse manager alleges giving foreign substance to #Nats' Max Scherzer.
Dom was a higher profile prospect, no question - that's why he was a first round pick and Vientos wasn't. He was a more polished hitter with raw power that hadn't showed up in games yet - which is why he was mostly considered disappointing as a prospect by fans (recall a lot of discussion about him projecting to be a light hitting 1b).
Vientos is the reverse. But we've seen how Dom's power has developed, it's not nothing that at 21 years old Vientos' game power is ahead of where Dom's was. Not sure how their raw power compared at the same age (both were considered plus but not sure whose is better).
The Team 980
@team980
Former MLB clubhouse manager alleges giving foreign substance to #Nats' Max Scherzer.
Wainwright openly said he used stuff, as did Glasnow, basically as has most pitchers in baseball. This won't ding Scherzer at all.
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Love Ginn's line, Love Lasko's line.....hate Nogosek's
Did they say what position McNeil was playing at SYR ?? He may have to think about 3B when he comes back.
Luis G has been lights out at 2B. Did you see him get in position for that relay throw late in the game last night ??
You can't move Villar off of 3rd. Guillorme will be the supersub at the 3 IF positions.
Agreed, though subject to change should players struggle. No issues having too much depth when players are healthy.
One good thing about all the injuries is it has gotten a lot of depth guys some playing time, and they have upgraded the depth as a result. A fully healthy IF with Villar, Lindor, McNeil, and Alonso and Davis and Guillorme on the bench gives them some options. Davis can play vs some lefties. Guillorme can be a defensive replacement and get some starts to give players rest.
Same thing with the OF with Smith, Nimmo, and Conforto, as well as Pillar and McKinney backing up. Smith/Alonso come out for defensive purposes if need be.
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use Dom as a comparison, Dom was a dominant HS hitter (top 3 in the nation) and at 19 was already ranked #63 by BA and at 21 (Vientos age) was #71 on BA's list and 63 on MLB's list
Dom was a higher profile prospect, no question - that's why he was a first round pick and Vientos wasn't. He was a more polished hitter with raw power that hadn't showed up in games yet - which is why he was mostly considered disappointing as a prospect by fans (recall a lot of discussion about him projecting to be a light hitting 1b).
Vientos is the reverse. But we've seen how Dom's power has developed, it's not nothing that at 21 years old Vientos' game power is ahead of where Dom's was. Not sure how their raw power compared at the same age (both were considered plus but not sure whose is better).
I think you have this reversed. Optimism for guys who have yet to hit for power but have hit for average, walked at a decent rate, decent K rate but the power is "yet to come". It's less common for big power guys without the other stuff to "develop" a strong eye at the plate or cut down on k's significantly. It happens but the Dom Smith profile is far more common.
Fortunately, I don't think the Mets need to do anything major barring injury. I see them adding another reliever possibly and a backend SP. And the SP could always be a guy like a Hamels or a Porcello.
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unfortunate that the Mets don't have many guys outside of the "big 3" putting up numbers to this point. It will make it harder to pull off trades.
Fortunately, I don't think the Mets need to do anything major barring injury. I see them adding another reliever possibly and a backend SP. And the SP could always be a guy like a Hamels or a Porcello.
Sounds like Hamels isn't even ready to schedule workouts so he's not really an option. You're looking at likely 2 months before he's on the field for anybody.
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but not sure it should be (even if Mets get caught up in it).
The Team 980
@team980
Former MLB clubhouse manager alleges giving foreign substance to #Nats' Max Scherzer.
Wainwright openly said he used stuff, as did Glasnow, basically as has most pitchers in baseball. This won't ding Scherzer at all.
It should is my point.
and Glasnow sounded very whiny in his press conference
I don't get why players ever felt it was ok to put sunscreen on the baseball for a better grip because they didn't get busted for it. It was never ok to do.
and then it morphed - just like sign stealing into putting a new/different substance on the ball to help spin rate.
All these guys cheated. Hey I corked my bat to make it lighter. I took steroids so I could swing faster and recover quicker. I took greenies so I had more energy.
it's all the same bullshit.
it's all cheating or none of it is.
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Love Ginn's line, Love Lasko's line.....hate Nogosek's
Did they say what position McNeil was playing at SYR ?? He may have to think about 3B when he comes back.
Luis G has been lights out at 2B. Did you see him get in position for that relay throw late in the game last night ??
You can't move Villar off of 3rd. Guillorme will be the supersub at the 3 IF positions.
Yes indeed and a good 'problem' to have. The improved defense at almost every position has been a pleasure to watch.
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In comment 15287437 DanMetroMan said:
Quote:
use Dom as a comparison, Dom was a dominant HS hitter (top 3 in the nation) and at 19 was already ranked #63 by BA and at 21 (Vientos age) was #71 on BA's list and 63 on MLB's list
Dom was a higher profile prospect, no question - that's why he was a first round pick and Vientos wasn't. He was a more polished hitter with raw power that hadn't showed up in games yet - which is why he was mostly considered disappointing as a prospect by fans (recall a lot of discussion about him projecting to be a light hitting 1b).
Vientos is the reverse. But we've seen how Dom's power has developed, it's not nothing that at 21 years old Vientos' game power is ahead of where Dom's was. Not sure how their raw power compared at the same age (both were considered plus but not sure whose is better).
I think you have this reversed. Optimism for guys who have yet to hit for power but have hit for average, walked at a decent rate, decent K rate but the power is "yet to come". It's less common for big power guys without the other stuff to "develop" a strong eye at the plate or cut down on k's significantly. It happens but the Dom Smith profile is far more common.
I don't disagree with your point but we have to start with the fact that it tends to be uncommon for younger players to show plus game power at a younger age. So he starts in a relatively uncommon subset.
Of guys who show power you are correct that it's rare that they can then develop bat control - but prior to this year Vientos has shown bat control over his career when he was playing at levels more appropriate to his age. In his first 3 years as a minor leaguer his K% was in the low to mid 20's. His BA was always over .255 and ranged up to .294. His walk rates bounced around but his current 8% walk rate is close to what is considered league average so that's down the list of concerns.
So there are reasons to believe the current 34% K-rate and .220 BA are outliers due to jumping up to an advanced level after a full year interrupted. We don't need to hope those abilities appear out of nowhere because we've seen it before.
then change the rule. otherwise it's black and white, pitchers put illegal foreign substances on the ball. I'm sure not all of them did - so it's the same PED argument.
Canseco says 75% (at least) of players took PED's - how is it different?
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it's mostly because "everybody" was on board with it. Hitters felt more comfortable in the box with pitchers having some improved command. Even Donaldson (something of a whistleblower) flat out said he was fine with rosin and sunscreen but not this new stuff. I have no clue if deGrom used it (his teammates swear he didn't) but I can flat out guarantee members of the Mets rotation did. Stroman's spin rate notably dropped for one.
then change the rule. otherwise it's black and white, pitchers put illegal foreign substances on the ball. I'm sure not all of them did - so it's the same PED argument.
Canseco says 75% (at least) of players took PED's - how is it different?
Agreed 100%. Drives me nuts. And the most annoying is all the hypocrites on the issue. Fans who have blasted the Astros for cheating are now defending this shit and criticizing MLB for cracking down on it. Be consistent. Either you want to allow cheating in the sport or you don't. This "this cheating is really bad, but this one is acceptable because my ace pitcher does it" bullshit is nauseating.
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it's mostly because "everybody" was on board with it. Hitters felt more comfortable in the box with pitchers having some improved command. Even Donaldson (something of a whistleblower) flat out said he was fine with rosin and sunscreen but not this new stuff. I have no clue if deGrom used it (his teammates swear he didn't) but I can flat out guarantee members of the Mets rotation did. Stroman's spin rate notably dropped for one.
then change the rule. otherwise it's black and white, pitchers put illegal foreign substances on the ball. I'm sure not all of them did - so it's the same PED argument.
Canseco says 75% (at least) of players took PED's - how is it different?
Well first and foremost, they gave them the rosin bag to do exactly what these guys are trying to do. Pitchers often said the rosin bags did not help unless it was warm and/or they had enough sweat to "activate" the rosin. Use of sunscreen for grip is nothing new and even the umpires were aware of it.
Bauer: “Allow it. I don’t see that there’s a way to enforce it, because you can’t go check a pitcher every single inning, every single pitch, and that’s currently how it is. You can get thrown out of a game and suspended for it if an umpire comes out and checks and finds out. But, it doesn’t happen. So, pick a substance that’s sticky, that gives you all the performance benefits, and just put it on the back of the mound. That way, if you want to use it you can and everybody knows it’s being used. And, if you want to use other substances and skirt the rule, whatever. Have a certain amount of outlawed substances — vaseline or whatever. But, if you want to use sticky stuff, it’s right there on the mound. Put your fingers on it and throw.
“A lot of hitters are fine with it, because like it’s been said, they don’t want projectiles flying at 100 mph at their head and the pitcher has no clue where it’s going. And over 69-percent of the league probably uses it anyway, so there’s not really a whole lot of difference. But, just make it legal, so that way it’s an even playing field. And that way, when I want to use surgical-grade stuff on my stitches on the backside of a pinky finger that’s never going to touch the ball and has no affect on the game at all, I can use it and not be thrown out of the game or whatever. Meanwhile, while I can’t use that stuff so I can pitch for my team in the postseason, you have guys using sticky stuff every single time they pitch, increasing their spin rate by 200–300 RPM and having a massive competitive advantage.”
Does Dom walk enough to justify playing 1b?
Recall his K-rate also spiked up significantly when he hit a level that challenged him (MLB), and has since improved it without his walk rate being impacted. In his first 300 at bats at the MLB level his K rate was near double what it was in his prior minor league career and walk rate was almost half of what it had been prior around 5% (and similar to Vientos' stat line right now his isolated slg% was actually higher). It took 3 years but he was able to make adjustments that brought him more in line with his prior norms.
No previous player is predictive of any other player's development but Dom's A21 AA season is likely our closest recent apples/apples comparison for Vientos. I don't know how it's anything but a good thing if he can continue to hover anywhere near that trajectory.
That is from 2014. 7 years ago. Since then the game has been trending way too much to the point of pitchers. 6 no-hitters or whatever this year so far. Batting average was down to like .237 a few weeks ago. Strikeouts have gone up every year for about 10-12 years.
MLB has every right to crackdown on it if they feel it is for the betterment of the game. MLB felt it was going too far. Just like they felt the Astros and Sox were going too far in how they were stealing signs. Just like they felt players were going too far in their use of steroids.
Logenhagen had Vientos at #130 in February and I believe he's even cracked a few top 100's (or been HM?) previously. I think Law even had him in his top 50 at one point but not sure which site he was writing on then and can't seem to find it. So being high on Vientos isn't some completely off the wall opinion - the scouting community has been high on his talent since he entered the draft.
And it goes without saying plenty of players not on top 100 lists have MLB careers and plenty of players on them don't. I think there are some very good writers in the baseball media scouting community but designating an arbitrary number of players supposedly much better than others is just that, arbitrary. There are a handful of truly elite prospects each year and then a lot of maybes. The maybes who have good statistical years move up lists the ones who dont move down the lists. The same way Francisco Lindor probably wouldn't rank as high on a top 100 players in MLB list this year as he would have last year.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2021-top-100-prospects/ - ( New Window )
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"It is a fairly well-known fact, by this point, that teams do not care if pitchers apply a foreign substance to a ball so long as it’s for purposes of grip, which hitters reason keeps them safer. MLB doesn’t seem to mind, either, rarely meting out discipline even though Rule 8.02(a)(4) says pitchers cannot “apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball.” Whether it was pine tar or a sunscreen-and-rosin combination that oozed on Pineda’s right palm, the Boston Red Sox thought so little of it that they shrugged it off. Which, considering their recent history with pitchers caught using foreign substances, was exactly how they should’ve handled it."
That is from 2014. 7 years ago. Since then the game has been trending way too much to the point of pitchers. 6 no-hitters or whatever this year so far. Batting average was down to like .237 a few weeks ago. Strikeouts have gone up every year for about 10-12 years.
MLB has every right to crackdown on it if they feel it is for the betterment of the game. MLB felt it was going too far. Just like they felt the Astros and Sox were going too far in how they were stealing signs. Just like they felt players were going too far in their use of steroids.
I'm not "defending" pitchers. (Though the game sure didn't look like it was trending towards pitchers previously, why else do you think they opted to change the balls?). But to do this in-season is farcical. Eno Sarris has been reporting on this since 2018, Bauer openly talked about this, he openly talked about working with labs on substances. What changed this week? Nothing. This should have been handled before the season and it's very possible Glasnow is speaking the truth.
It's like the old argument, "I can't rape her. She's my wife." Um, yes you can. Just because she may have consented 9,000 times in the past doesn't mean she doesn't have the right to not allow it if she doesn't.
It is a balance that MLB has gone through throughout its history. They are always trying to maintain a balance between hitting and pitching, and rules changes will take effect when it swings much to one side. And I will say that I would assume the average casual fan tunes in more for offense, which would make MLB more sensitive to the game being way too much in favor of the pitchers.
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I really think you're being selective here. He's striking out at at an absurdly high rate, yes his walk rate is acceptable for AA if he maintains that while also significantly cutting his K rate but that remains to be seen. Pretty clearly the scouting community isn't as optimistic about this than you given his standing on the major lists.
Logenhagen had Vientos at #130 in February and I believe he's even cracked a few top 100's (or been HM?) previously. I think Law even had him in his top 50 at one point but not sure which site he was writing on then and can't seem to find it. So being high on Vientos isn't some completely off the wall opinion - the scouting community has been high on his talent since he entered the draft.
And it goes without saying plenty of players not on top 100 lists have MLB careers and plenty of players on them don't. I think there are some very good writers in the baseball media scouting community but designating an arbitrary number of players supposedly much better than others is just that, arbitrary. There are a handful of truly elite prospects each year and then a lot of maybes. The maybes who have good statistical years move up lists the ones who dont move down the lists. The same way Francisco Lindor probably wouldn't rank as high on a top 100 players in MLB list this year as he would have last year. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2021-top-100-prospects/ - ( New Window )
Vientos did not make their recent update which goes to 138 so that would suggest (at worst) his stock is down, not up or neutral. Vientos made Keith Law's list before the 2019 (#60) season, he's left him off his last 2 top 100 lists which should tell you his opinion has been downgraded no?
Pineda was ejected from the game and suspended 10 days
Red Sox shrugged it offl LOL, better scrub the internet...the justification for cheating is so selective - you can make an argument for cheating any way you want.
and like sign stealing, Cole's texts clearly took this "accepted practice of cheating" to a whole different level.
spider tack wasn't just for grip, it's almost like the guy who takes PEDs or HgH because he's recovering from an injury.
All this shit makes a mockery out of the sport and if you don't see that or say "everyone was doing it" there is your cognitive dissonance
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In comment 15287536 DanMetroMan said:
Quote:
"It is a fairly well-known fact, by this point, that teams do not care if pitchers apply a foreign substance to a ball so long as it’s for purposes of grip, which hitters reason keeps them safer. MLB doesn’t seem to mind, either, rarely meting out discipline even though Rule 8.02(a)(4) says pitchers cannot “apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball.” Whether it was pine tar or a sunscreen-and-rosin combination that oozed on Pineda’s right palm, the Boston Red Sox thought so little of it that they shrugged it off. Which, considering their recent history with pitchers caught using foreign substances, was exactly how they should’ve handled it."
That is from 2014. 7 years ago. Since then the game has been trending way too much to the point of pitchers. 6 no-hitters or whatever this year so far. Batting average was down to like .237 a few weeks ago. Strikeouts have gone up every year for about 10-12 years.
MLB has every right to crackdown on it if they feel it is for the betterment of the game. MLB felt it was going too far. Just like they felt the Astros and Sox were going too far in how they were stealing signs. Just like they felt players were going too far in their use of steroids.
I'm not "defending" pitchers. (Though the game sure didn't look like it was trending towards pitchers previously, why else do you think they opted to change the balls?). But to do this in-season is farcical. Eno Sarris has been reporting on this since 2018, Bauer openly talked about this, he openly talked about working with labs on substances. What changed this week? Nothing. This should have been handled before the season and it's very possible Glasnow is speaking the truth.
It's not that something changed this week, per se. It's how the game has continued to change for the past 10-12 years. More strikeouts. Lower BA. Less action. This year, we are more than a 1/3 of the way in and it has reached a peak. 6 no-hitters. League BA below .240. More strikeouts than ever. Less balls in play than ever.
287/.389/.489 with 12 doubles, 11 home runs with a 37/43 BB/K
2019+2020 his BB/K has been 32 walks vs. 152 k's, and his OBP has been .298, so of course his stock is different now than it was as an 18 year old coming off a nice season.