At 6’5” and 215 Lbs, Allan Dykstra is a big guy. Having seen him in person, he stands out in a crowd. Currently, he’s playing first base for the Las Vegas 51’s and looking like his AA MVP award from 2013 was not a fluke.
He’s not related to Lenny Dykstra if that’s what you were thinking. He was, instead, the 23rd overall pick for the San Diego Padres back in 2008. A few disappointing seasons later he’d be traded to the Mets for the equally disappointing Eddie Kunz. For the Mets, Dykstra has slowly but surely re-established value through his power and ability to draw walks.
Through the first 14 games of the season, Dykstra has managed an OPS of 1.264 with 6 doubles, 2 home runs and 12 walks. The high batting average (.389) isn’t likely to last into the majors, but the OBP (.542) and SLG (.722) are signs that he would easily maintain value with a lower average.
Should Lucas Duda not continue to earn his keep at first base, the Mets could be well off with a platoon of Dykstra and Josh Satin.
AAA:
Bobby Abreu continue to hit – Abreu could be the next guy called up if an injury occurs in the outfield. He certainly seems to be succeeding in Vegas.
Wilmer Flores is waking up – He started poorly, but his numbers are on the rise in recent games. He’ll be up in the majors again sooner or later.
Jacob deGrom still the best pitcher in AAA – Right now he’s outpitched Montero and Syndergaard. Right now, he looks like he’s got a major league future.
Rafael Montero hits a bump – Bad starts will happen. In the grand scheme of things his 4 inning start wasn’t even that bad.
Noah Syndergaard is giving up too many hits – Opponents are hitting .291 off of Syndergaard in 2014. That’s too much.
Zach Thornton is nothing special – Ike Davis wasn’t worth a ton, but there is nothing special I can find about Thornton.
AA:
Matt Reynolds making waves in AA – Reynolds doesn’t have home run power, but he’ll hit plenty of doubles and can play shortstop pretty well. He’s currently hitting .383 so we’ll see if he can keep it up.
Darrell Ceciliani is still hitting – Unfortunately he’s also striking out a lot. Ceciliani needs to improve his OBP to have a future in the MLB.
Darin Gorski looks sharp but does it matter? – He needs to do this in AAA for it to matter.
Matthew Bowman, say hello – 12.0 IP, 7 H, 2 BB, 15 K. That is a mighty big jump in results for a player who was only so-so in lower levels.
A+:
Brandon Nimmo still hitting – He’s got to show some more speed or power to get us truly excited, but a .988 OPS has us paying attention
Dilson Herrera is getting better – With 3 doubles, a triple and a home run, Herrera is starting to show why scouts were happy about the Met trade last year.
Steven Matz looks great – He’s striking out batters at a high rate and looking every bit as promising as we were hoping.
A:
Jeff McNeil makes himself known – This 12th round pick from 2013 is hitting with a lot of power for a second baseman.
Stefan Sabol is still hot – He’s been good all season and he’s showing both speed and power.
Robert Whalen has a masterful start – Only 5.0 IP but only 2 hits with no walks and 6 strike outs.
Lots to like! The Mets seem to be accumulating a vast array of talent and could be quite deep at the major league level for the next few years. Permitting most things pan out.
Fingers are crossed
The two for one deal with Ike will help bring organizational depth to the organization liks SA said which means that if a AAA player is brought up, there is someone who can take his place at Las Vegas.
*sigh* so… organizational filler and sub-MLB level talent. Yippee…
Bobby Abreu up, Andrew Brown down.
Abreu deserves it
If Duda should get hurt I could see Dykstra getting his chance. If Satin were to get hurt it would give Campbell a chance. Of course I hope neither get injured. Poor Zach Lutz keeps putting up numbers but there is always someone ahead of him.
Nimmo and Herrera at Port St Lucie also with the “old man” TJ Rivera (who is having a nice start but too late to salvage his career)are hitting well.
Is it true that deGrom is a two pitch pitcher? Is he developing a third pitch? Can he get away with just two or is he destined to being a relief pitcher?
I did a scouting report over the summer. I’ll look it up.
I checked, he does have 3 pitches. I think it is getting to be time to bring him and Montero up and have them pitch multiple innings in relief and even finish games like Torres did in the past week and Matsuzakis also adding a three inning stint. We won’t be subject to TC striving for the elusive perfect matchup with inferior pitchers if they brought these two up and utilized them in this way.
I actually believe that Jacob deGrom might have a future as reliever. His fastball is already a little bit above average and if he is doing it over shorter stints, he might be able to pump it up another couple mph. I continue to think that the reason Alderson hasn’t made a move to bring them up is that one or the other is going to be traded. I’m going to start working on a piece for Saturday about the trade value for our secondary prospects.
The first step in that article will be defining what is “secondary”.
Unless you say something like “everyone not nicknamed Thor or Montero”, I’m not sure anyone can rank the prospects anymore.
Typical ranking of AA starting pitchers: Lara, Robles, Bowman. Production so far: Robles, Bowman, Lara. You could go on and on.
The second problem? What do you do with it? What the Mets need, they will never pay to keep. Period. They need Freddie Freeman, they need Adrian Gonzalez or Hanley Ramirez. They need Paul Goldschmidt. They need David Ortiz, or Trout, or Cabrera, or Votto. A #4 hitter that puts the fear of God into the opposition.
The bottom line is that player, no matter how you value your prospects, is not someone Sandy wants or more importantly is willing to pay to keep.
Naturally, Ike Davis is hitting like one of those guys now.
How was Matt Bowman only “so-so” in the lower minors?
His ERA was solid but his WHIP was less impressive and his K/9 was only in the 8.0 range. Nothing bad, but nothing that I get overly excited about.
Dude I’d look at his stats again. If you can call them just “so-so”, you have absurd standards..even for a contrarian. “Only” a K/9 in the 8.0 range? Really? Look at his WHIP, his h/9, his ERA, FIP, his innings/start. He’s been VERY good ever since putting on a Met uniform. Now his Princeton stats? Those are so-so.
And his WHIP is 1.08 for his minor league career. That’s “less impressive”. Okay, David. That would have ranked 12th in all of major league baseball had he done it in the bigs last year. Take away his fast start and let’s say he’s at 1.15 for his career, that would plummet him all the way down to an extremely so-so, less impressive 21st in all of baseball and ahead of every Mets starter not named Harvey. Yea, nothing to get excited about there. A young pitcher who throws strikes, pitches deep into games, and limits base runners.
Perhaps you are right, though I don’t see Bowman listed as a top prospect on any list of top Met prospects. I’d be thrilled to have another stud pitcher. Thanks for reading.
Prospect rankings mean nothing. Here’s the quick scoop on Bowman:
– Small righty (listed 6’0″ 165, I’d say the 6 feet is generous but he looks thicker than when he was at Princeton).
– Throws five pitches and intends to continue to throw 6 pitches (4-seam, 2-seam, slider, curve, change, split) but perhaps not start to start (he’ll throw the slider and not the curve one day and the split but not the change another).
– Touches 95 MPH with the fastball but typically sits low-90s.
– Has a Lincecum-like delivery…something he had before Tim Lincecum burst on the scene.
– Frank Viola really reallllyyy likes him.
– 11th round pick out of Princeton in 2012.
– Like you would expect from an Ivy League graduate, he is very brainy and uses his intelligence on the mound with great effect.
– Frank Viola on Bowman:
“Let me tell you, this is my third year back in professional baseball, after my career was over, I coached ten years of high school, three years of summer collegiate, and three years of professional. And he’s the first pitcher after all that time, who wanted me to critique him after each outing. So I go home that night, review the game, so when I see him at the ball park next day, I can tell him, here’s the positive, here’s the things we can work on. He’s the first pitcher to make me think like that, to actually have an answer for him the next day. That’s how in tune he is with what he needs, and where he wants to go.His delivery is solid. He keeps his body back. He’s driving through. He’s using his whole body. It looks funky, but it gets the job done and is correct. When you’re going to any Ivy League, the brand of baseball compared to the rest of the country is not considered fantastic. I don’t think he has doubt in his mind. But he needs somebody to tell him, ‘hey you’re doing it the right way’. When push comes to shove, I would take him out at any time.
I don’t understand,at 24 Dykstra tore up AA so the Mets…send him back to AA the next season.He get’s hurt but puts up excellent numbers in the games he played,next season he goes to AA again.
The Mets always had someone blocking him. He should have been in AAA two seasons ago but he didn’t project as a true prospect anymore.
I’ve been following Dykstra a bit since last year, and was somewhat surprised he wasn’t mentioned more last year. Today, it’s probably more likely he’s the right handed platoon hitter instead of Satin.
Yea I agree. If anything, he’s pressing Satin. Duda’s looked good.
Apart from him being a lefty.
funny guy, David.
I don’t see first as a platoon scenario. If it is, then you’re right. I see first as Duda getting the vast majority of at bats and a backup who sees time here or there. Also with an .863 OPS against lefties in his minor league career, it’s not like you couldn’t use him against the tough lefties that do give Duda trouble at times. I still think if he’s pressing anyone’s job, it is Satin. That being said, Satin has looked patient and smooth at the plate. I don’t know why so many fans are worried about first base. Perhaps it is because we have not have consistent production there since Delgado but I see no problem with Duda/Satin for the rest of the season or Duda with Dykstra as a backup/PH. If Duda really struggles, sure, Dykstra should be the guy. I see no reason to think Duda will.