Before Michael Conforto there hadn’t been a whole lot of players who succeeded, offensively, for the Brooklyn Cyclones. Then, there’s Desmond Lindsay. At the age of 19 (two years younger than Conforto had been) he’s putting a major stamp on the New York-Penn League and is looking like a fast riser within the Met system.
This isn’t Lindsay’s first time in Brooklyn. In his first year with the Mets, he played 14 games for Brooklyn and had a pretty abysmal line of .200/.308/.267. In those games he struck out 19 times. The good news was that his time in the GCL (21 games) went a little better. He ended his 2015 GCL campaign with an .864 OPS,
In his second pass things have gone remarkably better. In 15 games his line is an impressive .347/.458/.592 with 3 HR and only 9 Ks. He’s done a little bit of everything and it should make Met fans wonder how long it might take this talented right-handed outfielder to reach the majors.
Based on his level of success in Brooklyn it would make sense for the Mets to have Lindsay advance directly to Port St. Lucie and having him skip Columbia. If his success in 2016 isn’t an aberration, he will be able to advance to Binghamton and, who knows, perhaps follow Conforto’s path. More likely, Lindsay is looking at reaching the majors in 2018 or later but his early returns look very good.
AAA: Las Vegas 51s
Brandon Nimmo is just playing ball – Whether the Mets need him in the majors or the minors, Nimmo has been happy to be there. His results in AAA have been solid all year.
Gavin Cecchini hasn’t slowed down – That’s a .400 BA over the last 10 games.
Kevin Plawecki is good – The question is if he is good enough to be an everyday major league catcher.
AA: Binghamton Mets
Amed Rosario shows his weakness – 11 strikeouts in his last 10 games remind fans that he’s not quite a “perfect” prospect.
Phillip Evans is still banging around – He’s had a solid showing for Binghamton in 2016 but he’s not really relevant anymore.
Dominic Smith showing modest power – 2016 has seen more power out of the Met prospect but still not as much as would make scouts happy. He hasn’t seen many home runs in August by 6 doubles in the month is reason to smile.
Matt Oberste is making a case – His ability to hit isn’t in question but now that he’s playing 3rd and with David Wright’s future in question, it makes you wonder.
A+: Port St. Lucie Mets
David Thompson is figuring Advanced A out – After starting his year strongly for Columbia he’s found his footing in the higher level.
A: Columbia Fireflies
Nabil Crismatt has Ace potential – He’s got the goods and has proven the Mets should have started him in Columbia to begin with.
A-: Brooklyn Cyclones
Peter Alonso picking up with a big bat – Not to be left behind by Lindsay, Alonso is the second hitter who is keeping NYPL pitchers honest.
Harol Gonzalez has been crisp – In his last 4 outings he’s managed 7.0+ innings and that is what you need from your #1 pitcher.
Yes, I’m still talking about Thomas Szapucki – I will likely never stop talking about a starting pitcher who has a 14.88 K/9 rating and a WHIP under 1.00.
R1: Kingsport Mets
Anthony Dimino is an everyday player – He’s a catcher by trade but his bat is keeping him in the lineup every game. It’s a good thing for a catcher to come with the ability to play first base already.
I remain convinced that Conforto will hit—and I still have hope that it’s at/near allstar level.
Plawecki–I also continue to believe that his bat will be “Catcher Competitive” with a solid career as a starting/rotational catcher
Nimmo— I like what he’s trying to do… He’ll get a shot to be a Rotational OF’er… He doesn’t have a huge Talent/Kkill anchor to his game. LH hitters who can filed CF or even Almost field CF get a lot of slack.
I would like to see Nimmo and Lagares platoon CF in 2017 (with the split more 50% than lefty righty)
I think the Mets should consider having d’Arnaud and Plawecki specialize with their pitchers in the pre-season and split the rotation between them.
I think Conforto will hit but the Mets are really bad about fixing problems with a player’s swing mid-season.
I haven’t followed Nimmo’s MiLB career, but do you really think he could be a competent CF? Lagares of course is more than just “competent” — I happen to think he’s the second coming of Andruw Jones, for specific reasons that were unique to Jones among CFs of his day.
But that’s one of the problems with Alderson and the “Moneyball” approach. (Thanks to the people I attended yesterday’s game with for pointing this out.) Because defense is less susceptible to sabermetrics, people who think that way tend to undervalue it. But at least for CF, SS, and catcher, it should be the *primary* consideration. As Abbott told Costello about a SS, *I Don’t Care* if he only bats .260 (or even .240) with no HRs. If he can get to balls up the middle and in the hole, and throw people out from on his knees or his back, that’s my SS.
Sometimes “Fixing” a hitter is about getting out of the way and living with some pain for awhile… “Experience is the Only Experience”.
I’m sorry, ive been biting my tongue for a while, but this is the Mets 4th season in Vegas and you really haven’t learned to properly adjust and evaluate Met hitters out in the desert. Every week you say these hitters are raking (when they aren’t) and wondering when they will get their chance in the majors, when you’ve already seen them fail or bomb miserably.
Conforto’s 1.100 OPS translate to mid 700s in the majors, TDA’s and NImmo’s 900+ marks are sub 700 in the majors, and other guys like Campbell/Kelly/Plawecki 800-900 OPS become sub 600, and where the team OPS including pitchers is the 800s… yet you continue to effusively praise every hitter to the high heavens.
The desert / altitude effect that “Name” mentions hadn’t occurred to me, but since they started there, I’ve *always* wondered why the Mets have a AAA club in Vegas when the MLB-wide trend for a decade or more has been to move AAA affiliates *closer* to the parent club.
Because of the combination of territorial rights and the fact that MLB clubs most often do not own their Triple-A clubs, there’s always going to be clubs that have their top affiliate further away from them than they’d like.
The Mets top club was Tidewater/Norfolk for a number of years. But the combination of the Mets burning the affiliate plus the affiliate wanting to partner with the Orioles left the Mets out in the cold. They ended up in New Orleans. They left there the first chance they could and ended up in Buffalo. But, again, they burned the affil and Buffalo partnered with Toronto. Mets were stuck with Las Vegas and then willingly re-upped with them through the 2016 season.
There are a handful of Triple-A affiliates that are opening up in 2016 but most of them have strong ties to their current MLB partner. For instance, it’s hard to imagine Pawtucket being affiliated with someone besides the Red Sox. The best chance may be with Rochester but they’ve been an affiliate of the Twins since 2003.
So, Mets may re-up with Las Vegas again.
So David, is Oberste at a state we all need to keep our eyes on him now, or is he just having a moment?
Oberste has been doing what he’s doing for the past 3 seasons…. it’s not overwhelming, but it’s progression. He’s wearing a new glove and working on that 24-25th spot—That’s Tough for a RH Corner Infielder.
http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=643473#/career/R/hitting/2016/MINORS
A little surprising that you believe Phillip Evans to be no longer relevant, with him in the midst of a breakout sort of season. He won’t be a star, agreed; but in terms of having a major league career that involves more than 1000 Plate Appearances, I think he has at least as good a chance as Dominic Smith, who I see as the next Yonder Alonso.
Nabil Crismatt does indeed appear to have the stuff, but he didn’t have the track record to warrant an aggressive promotion. Coming into the season he had pitched 156 innings over 4 seasons. Most teams want to see a starter’s ability to deliver some innings before they consider shooting them up the system at an accelerated pace.
Despite battling injuries, Yonder Alonso has 2,197 PA in the majors.
It’s nice to see Evans producing this year. But he’s got a backlog of people ahead of him and an awful lot of things are going to have to break right for him to get 1,000 PA in the majors. At least with the Mets.
Smith’s path to the majors looks even surer now with Duda’s injury. And he’s been raking for over half the year at age 21 in Double-A. In his last 59 games, he has a .330/.394/.523 line. Sure, would like to see a little more slugging there but he’s a guy who adjusted to an advanced level and he’s passed the Double-A test.
Barring injury, Smith will likely make his major league debut next year at age 22.
“he’s a guy who adjusted to an advanced level and he’s passed the Double-A test.”
We’ve seen for multiple years now now where a player has “broken out” in AA yet to fall flat later on, so there’s very little guarantee Smith has a future.
In 2012, Mdd/Flores/Campbell raked in AA (some in their 2nd try). All 3 have made multiple seasons in the majors, but none would be considered assets.
In 2013, Cesar Puello was raking in AA. His stats were because of him doping, but he failed miserably when promoted to AAA.
In 2014, Plawecki, Matt Reynolds, and Dilson hit very well in AA. Plawecki immediately failed when promoted to AAA (and subsequently the majors), while Reynolds held his own in his first partial season in AAA but has disappeared since 2015. The early returns of Dilson aren’t great, but he’s young enough that the jury is still out on him.
In 2015, Conforto and Cecchini hit very in AA. We know Conforto’s story. Cecchini was promoted to AAA and while not failing, at best his performance could be called slightly below league average
Each level is a test. Smith has passed the Double-A test at 21 and he’ll be in Las Vegas next year.
If you’d like to place a wager on Smith making it in the majors – let me know.
I named 9 guys and 8 of them have made it to the majors. Of course i think he’s going to make it. I just question how much of an impact he’ll have.
As i learned for firsthand for this first time this year, minors fielding is horrific so i usually ignore average. He’s hitting .300 now but i highly doubt he could do that at the major league level. ISO, K%, and BB% translate much better in the majors. His K-rate is pretty nice, but neither his ISO nor his BB% are particularly impressive.
I didn’t say make it to the majors…
Yes, I know Alonso has had a fair number of AB’s. For what it’s worth, my impression of him was formed by reports from one of those fitness camps that young players attend. I remember Alonso being the slowest guy in camp, by far, and unable to do even one pull-up.
That last bit of news would have shocked me even more, only that years earlier I had read the same thing about another then-emerging prospect, Pat Burrell. I believe Burrell was able to complete a pull-up or two by the time camp broke. Of course eventually he showed he could hit, so long as a Mets pitcher was on the mound.
It seems to me that in one breath, you’re comparing Smith – in a mocking sort of way – to a guy who has 2,000+ PA in the majors. And then you’re saying that another guy, who is behind Cabrera, Walker, Flores, Rivera, K. Johnson, Reynolds, Cecchini and Rosario in the pecking order, has as good of a shot to amass 1,000 PA in the majors.
Those two things don’t add up to me.