1. Toby’s HWB Wrap
2.
Toby’s AFL Wrap
3.
BA’s HWB Top
20 Prospects
4.
BP’s HWB Top 10 Prospects
5.
Sickels’ Top
20 Mets Prospects
6.
Evan Meek
1.
Monday before Thanksgiving, Hawaii
Winter Baseball had its championship game between the North Shore Honu and the
Waikiki Beach Boys rained out at Hans L’Orange Field in
I love the
HWB as a developmental tool for major league teams. Some teams sent younger players, some sent
rehabbing players, and some like the Mets sent lots of players. It’s a great step between A-ball and double-A
and the more advanced levels of competition beyond. My worry is that while the developmental
value is clear, the league’s finances will prevent it from being a long-term
fixture in the baseball world. Working
against the league’s long term success are facility problems and fundamentally,
although beautiful,
Lucas Duda – I was impressed by Duda, more so than I expected to be. He’s big, but is reasonably athletic for his size. At the plate, he drove balls to all fields with a line drive stroke. There’s some action, a wiggle, in his hands as he loads, but he seemed to catch up with everything just fine. One of his homers sticks with me. It was a line drive just to the left of straightaway center. The centerfielder, Austin Jackson, one of the best defenders in HWB, started retreating on the ball as though he would have a play. The drive just kept carrying and carrying, eventually clearing the wall by 15 feet. Duda, one of the few guys in the HWB who worked counts, put together good at bat after good at bat. Even when he fell behind, he still made pitchers work. He murdered righthanders, but had a tougher time against lefties, chasing breaking balls off the plate and taking strikes. A big guy, he’s learning to play first base to go along with leftfield. He’s a below average runner, but moves fine under way, and showed some range at first, to go along with solid hands on a few tricky picks.
Dan Murphy – I wrote about Dan Murphy a bit when I posted a lengthy interview with him. I like his game. Murphy has a short lefty swing that generates above average raw power. He hit some of the longer homers in the HWB. Murphy isn’t all power; he knows how to work a count and use the middle of the field. The major questions concern his defense, and whether he’ll be able to stick at third as a regular. Will he hit enough to be a starting firstbaseman? Tough to say, but at the least, I could easily see Murphy as a big league utility guy able to play first, third or a little outfield.
Brant Rustich – When I saw Rustich, I didn’t see the “premium” fastball that Baseball America wrote about. I saw a fastball that was average, or just plus in terms of velocity. At times it had excellent sink and some run, but that disappeared when he threw it up in the zone. The slider had plus velocity, hitting 85, settling around 83 or 84, but, like the fastball, played down due to inconsistent command. He almost never threw his changeup. Rustich is BIG and he admitted to fatigue after nearly 12 straight months of baseball. The Rustich I saw didn’t match some of the most optimistic things written about him elsewhere on the web. I’m looking forward to his 2008 results.
Nick Carr – When I first saw him, his heater was sitting at 93-94 in the first inning. The final time I saw him throw, he was working at 91-92. He struggles to locate the fastball. He doesn’t trust his offspeed stuff, which he also doesn’t locate well, and doesn’t throw it enough. I saw a slider (80-81) and a changeup from him his first time out and then in his final appearance, something that looked like a cutter at 84-85 that was neither fastball nor slider. I’ll stand by what I wrote a month ago: “Carr is still, as a scout I was sitting with put it, “raw.” However, the arm strength is there. At just 20 years old, he’s a long way away from Shea, but is one of the most interesting arms in the Mets system.”
Manny Garcia – The
Hector Pellot – Pellot
really didn’t stand out in
Sean McCraw – The
catcher didn’t play in the final few weeks in
Jose Coronado – I
just didn’t see much from Coronado who hit .118/.211/.147 in 11 games in
Jose De La Torre – blew out his arm so I never saw him throw in the 50th state.
Donovan Mitchell
(Manager) – The Beachboys manager, Mitchell managed in
2. Toby’s AFL Wrap
In looking over the final statistics put up by Mets farmhands in the Arizona Fall League, there are painfully few surprises. In fact, that’s the dominant theme: everyone did just about what could have been expected of them. Adam Bostick, Caleb Stewart and Eddie Camacho’s desert numbers do leave room for modest optimism.
Adam Bostick –
Coming in, we knew he had trouble throwing strikes, but could be tough at
times. In 23 innings, in
Caleb Stewart –
The outfielder has flashed power in his pro career, but had trouble staying on
the field. That was precisely what
happened in
Eddie Camacho – soft tossing lefty has succeeded without overpowering stuff. True again in the AFL where he was 0-2, 2.31 in 10 games and 11.2 innings. As always, he attacked hitters, walking just one, but gave up 15 hits, over a hit an inning.
Eddie Kunz – Made
a huge jump from
Carlos Muniz – Righty has steadily worked his way through the system. More steadiness in Arizon as he was 0-1 with a 3.27 ERA in 11 innings, fanning nine, walking five. Two homers and a gb/fb ratio below one give one pause.
Mike Carp – had trouble in double-A and had trouble in the AFL going .243/.317/.327 in 29 games. Carp didn’t homer, settling for nine doubles. Carp did finish well, hitting .314 in his final ten games.
Mike Nickeas – hasn’t hit much as a pro and hit .196 in 13 games in the desert.
3. Baseball
Baseball
4. Baseball Prospectus’
HWB Rankings
No Mets cracked Bryan Smith’s HWB top 10 at Baseball Prospectus.
5. Sickels’ Mets Top
20 Prospects
John Sickels posted his 2008 Mets Top 20 Prospects here. There are actually a few surprises for me here. I’m surprised he put Brahiam Maldonado in the top 20, included Hector Pellot over Manny Garcia and left Nick Carr out of the top 20. The final omission is perhaps the most surprising. Here’s his list and grades:
- Fernando Martinez, OF, Grade B+
- Deolis Guerra, RHP, Grade B+
- Carlos Gomez, OF, Grade B (undecided, may raise to B+. You guys are right about the injuries, but you also need to be more wary of Mets propaganda.) – this is a note he wrote in response to the comments on his site.
- Kevin Mulvey, RHP, Grade B (may raise to B+)
- Jon Niese, LHP, Grade B
- Eddie Kunz, RHP, Grade B
- Phil Humber, RHP, Grade B-
- Brant Rustich, RHP, Grade B-
- Joe Smith, RHP, Grade B-
- Nick Evans, 1B, Grade C+
- Stephen Clyne, RHP, Grade C+
- Scott Moviel, RHP, Grade C+
- Brahiam Maldonado, OF, Grade C+ (deserves more respect)
- Nate Vinyard, LHP, Grade C (although I like him)
- Robert Parnell, RHP, Grade C
- Mike Carp, 1B, Grade C
- Hector Pellot, 2B, Grade C
- Dan Murphy, 3B, Grade C
- Ezequiel Carrera, OF, Grade C
- Greg Veloz, 2B, Grade C
He added:
“There are 15 other Grade C
prospects in the book who are interchangeable with these other guys. There are
some toolsy players like Francisco Pena and Juan Lagares with dismal
performance records that I cannot rate highly at this point, no matter how much
the Mets talk about them.”
6. Evan Meek
This isn’t
strictly Mets, but I wanted to point out a nice Lisa Winston piece
on Devil Rays minor league reliever/reclamation project Evan
Meek. Meek played for
By the way, as far as I know, the Mets have not added a single minor leaguer to their 40-man roster since October 1.
Toby Hyde has written Toby’s Mets Minor League Report
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