11/4/17

Tom Brennan: HRs by Mets Minors Infielders



Tom Brennan: HRs by Mets Minors Infielders

In 2017, the major leagues set a record for homers in a season (6,105, per Baseball Almanac), Stanton just missed 60 and Judge hit 52, and the Mets hit a team record 224 HRs.

How exactly did the Mets Minors Minions do in homers? 

Are we developing HR hitters to joint that HR Hit Parade?

Well, that is kind of a broad question, so on Thursday, I put out an article focusing on Mets minors outfielders – not at all a pretty picture.  Plenty of Duds.

While the majors had bushels full of HRs, the Mets minors outfielders were clearly stuck in the dead ball era.

Today, let’s focus on the 7 Mets minors teams' infielders.

One would expect to have 1st and 3rd basemen and perhaps catchers with real power if the organization is truly looking to develop legit big leaguers from within.  In that regard:

I’ll save my comments – mostly – until the end.  You, the reader, can evaluate my listed raw data first for yourselves.  I listed guys who were predominantly infielders (IFs) and excluded purely journeyman short term signee types, since whether they hit a bunch of HRs or not, they'd have no future MLB impact.

As the list of all 7 teams' IFs would get quite exhaustive, for the 3 rookie league teams, I listed each squad's top IF HR hitters, then summarized the rest.

For the 4 full season squads, I listed guys who hit 10 or more, and summarized the rest:

LAS VEGAS 51’S (56-86) – AAA:

Dominic Smith 1B – 16 HR in 114 G (9 more for the Mets).

Phil Evans – IF – 11 HR in 127 G.

Kevin Plawecki – C – 9 HR in 64 G (3 more with the Mets).

Amed Rosario – SS – 7 HR in 94 G (4 more with the Mets).

Others: Xorge Carillo – 9 HR (70 G - some pop there); Gavin Cecchini (7 in 530 minors/majors ABs); others: very few. 


BINGHAMTON PONIES (85-54) – AA:

David Thompson – 3B – 16 HR in 133 G.

Others: C Tomas Nido – 8 HR (102 G); all others – just 16 HR in total in 139 games.  How do you spell "DEAD BALL ERA"? 


ST LUCIE METS (63-75) – HIGH A:

Peter Alonso – 1B – 18 HR in 93 G.  BOOM!

Jhoan Urena – 1B/3B – 14 HR in 135 G (may switch to OF).

Others: C Pat Mazeika – 7 HR; Burdick 7HR (217 ABs).

All others had 9 HRs total. Punch and Judy laddies.


COLUMBIA FIREFLIES (68-70) – FULL A:

Brandon Brosher – C – 13 HR in 217 ABs (but 103 Ks).

Dash Winningham – 1B – 13 HR in 114 G (but .237).

Michael Paez – 2B/SS – 10 HR in 127 G (2 in 63 G in St Lucie).

Others: Andres (the Great) Giminez 4 HR; Luis Carpio 3 HR.


All others had 0 to 2 HRs.  Slap hitters, or crap hitters?   


BROOKLYN CYLCLONES (24-52) – ROOKIE:

Jose Maria – C – 5 HR in 39 G.

Rest of Cyclone IFs: 8 HRs, total.  Edge of your seat stuff. 


KINGSPORT METS (29-37) – ROOKIE:

Jeremy Vasquez – 1B – 8 HR in 67 G.

Juan Uriarte – C – 5 HR in 52 G (hopeful).

Hansel Moreno – SS – 4 HR in 57 G.

Other Kingsport Mets IF: 12 HRs. 


GCL METS (19-37) – ROOKIE:

Mark Vientos – SS – 4 HR in 47 G. There's hope here.

Robbie Kidwell – C - 4 HR in 21 G (but a .172 hitter).

All other GCL Mets IFs, total: 5 HRs. FIVE? REALLY?  
BP MUST BE FUN TO WATCH, EVEN RIVETING.

Summary: 

Very few home run hitting threats other than Smith, Rosario, and Plawecki, the trio who've already been called up.  Pounding Pete Alonso is the sole near-term legitimate power threat in the system not yet promoted, and maybe Downtown David Thompson.

Further down the dusty trail, Vientos is likely to develop into a power threat.  Uriarte could, too, as could Giminez and Paez.

Many guys (names not listed) who hit 0 HRs on 1 HR. Come on!!!!!
Prescription from Dr. Brennan: Weights, gentlemen, lift weights.

NOT MANY BOPPERS – OVERALL, NOT PRETTY AT ALL.
PLENTY OF DUDS.

SANDY, PLEASE - DRAFT MANY MORE POWER HITTERS:

INFIELDERS AND OUTFIELDERS.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE (METS PEOPLE)!

13 comments:

Mack Ade said...

It is so easy to call for a team to draft more power hitters. Let us look what the Mets did early in the last 5 drafts -

2013 -

1st Rd. 1B Dominic Smith - developing into a potential major home run hitter

2014 -

1st Rd. OF Michael Conforto

2015 -

4th Rd. - David Thompson - 19/90 For the U. of Miami

2016 -

2nd Rd. - 1B Peter Alonso - 14/60 Univ Florida

2017 -

2nd Rd. - 3B Mark Vientos - supposed high power potential .. 4/26 in 2017

This is a pretty good effort in the above rounds.

Unknown said...

If the front office is to blame for the “thin” farm system where does the majority of the blame fall upon ?
Sandy ?
Tanous ?
Riccardi ?
The scouting department ?
I know drafting young talent is a crapshoot but is it wiser to go after the “sure thing stud” that might have an easier path to the majors - or going for the high risk high reward kids that might never reach their ceilings ?

Mack Ade said...

Ed -

Sandy doesn't participate in picking the players in the draft.

Riccardi does but Tanous trumps him.

Unknown said...

Wow .. I always was under the assumption that the GM has a say in who is drafted .. thabk you for clearing that up

Tom Brennan said...

Mack, very true on those - but they draft for power far too rarely. They need to draft fewer Mazzilli types in the early rounds, more lumberjacks. Because the Mazzilli types need EVERYTHING to go right for them to even have a chance at a modest major league career because of the lack of power in the bat.

As my series on the draft is beginning to outline, is there ANY sense to drafting a low power Robbie Shields in the 2nd round of 2009 while fast, powerful Paul Goldschmidt got picked by Arizona in the 8th round? Why he slipped that far down, I have no idea - but he was there.

Mack Ade said...

Ed -

Sandy is in the room and he gets rankings updates of players on the board, but it is NOT his draft.

Tom Brennan said...

Mack, if I were the GM, I sure the heck would want to be heavily involved in selections. Deferring that is sheer idiocy.

I saw the great Costner movie DRAFT DAY where he is an NFL GM for the Browns and Dennis Leary was his high paid coach. His line to Leary and the team's QB about who he should draft? "When we start winning, I'll listen to you, but for now, I'm doing the picking."

Makes sense. The buck should stop at Sandy on the drafts.

Unknown said...

What is your opinion of TNous then as a talent evaluator ? I know he’s well respected in the industry but I guess his track record recently has been lacking ?

Mack Ade said...

Ed - Tom:

Kevin Costner is an actor.

Alderson has always deferred the draft to his VPs and draft guys. Don't let anyone tell you different because it just isn't true.

Regarding lightweights drafted in drafts, there are always some Tom, but going back to 2009 is just not fair.

On paper (and I am the last defender of Sandy and Company), they have done fine in the early rounds of the last 5 drafts Re: power

Perfect examples are Conforto and Alonso. Neither were on the Mets board at that point in the raft because they were sure each one of these guys would be gone earlier. When they weren't, they halted all plans on drafting someone else and scooped these guys up.

Tom Brennan said...

I agree on the very early rounds, Mack, although in Alonso's case, with him having the same "slow, 1B only" positional skill set as Dom Smith, I wonder why they picked him and not Bo Bichette, who went two picks after Alonso (who I am really high on, as you know).

But let's ignore Vegas power output in 2017 for a second. Except for Alonso, the other 6 minor league team's collective power was undoubtedly the worst of any minor league organization, in a game of MLB ball where home run power is so prized, that baseball teams AVERAGED 200 homers per team this year.

Power-wise, they CAN draft a lot better, as a rule.

Mack Ade said...

Tom -

They picked Alonso for two reasons -

1. The Mets were not convinced that Smith would develop into the power first baseman they wanted to replace Duda.

2. His bat trumped his defensive liabilities to play a corner outfield position.

There is always at least one person in this process that thinks they can teach a player to play better in the outfield. It usually does not work.

Alonso does pay like he has galoshes on rather than baseball cleets, but he would be good enough on first if Smith did not pan out. The bat is legitimate.

Tom Brennan said...

Mack, I hear you on Alonso defensively. and doubts on Smith. Unfortunately for Peter, you can't teach speed very much. Very slow is very slow. I still wonder about Bichette being passed on - he is a SS now (and apparently a solid one), but with the power and bat to play any position, including 1B or the OF. Mets may soon (say next off season) have to trade Alonso or Smith if both can only play 1B

Hobie said...

Agree with Mack here. OK, we all scratched are heads with Nimmo, but IMO the jury is till out there even.

To wag on about a standout overlooked by EVERYBODY (Goldschmidt, Piazza, etc.) is not even interesting.
And I'm still pissed we picked Harvey over Sale. :-)