With most of the Met world focused on the new manager Mickey Callaway or the optional contracts of Jerry Blevins and Asdrubal Cabrera, the Mets do have a handful of active prospects still playing for Scottsdale. Among them is David Thompson.
Thompson spent his 2017 season with the Binghamton Mets and suffered through multiple slumps and skids. A streaky player, he is an amazing hitter when things are going well and a strikeout machine when they are not. He ended up with a .263/.325/.429 batting line over 133 games in AA. His 29 doubles, 1 triple and 16 home runs are testament to the fact that he is a prospect who has good power but his 92 strikeouts are also a glaring reminder of his shortcomings.
The Mets wisely sent Thompson to Scottsdale where the third baseman is being given the chance to prove to Sandy Alderson that there are options at third beyond a vain hope for David Wright, the ho-hum return of Cabrera, the defensive adventures of Wilmer Flores or signing the marquee free agent, Mike Moustakas.
Thus far Thompson has gotten into 5 games for the team and is currently slashing .421/.476/.789 thanks to some prodigious power numbers. In those five games he’s amassed 4 doubles, a home run, a stolen base and a pair of walks. The 4 strikeouts are still there but there is reason to hope that Thompson might be able to step up at some point in 2018.
Other AFL Performances:
Kevin Kaczmarski stays sharp – We know he can’t maintain a .480 batting average forever but it’s certainly fun to enjoy it while he does.
Luis Guillorme quietly successful – He’s got his batting average above .300 and for a defensive shortstop, that’s all you need.
Mickey Jannis is hard to hit – The knuckleballer has 7.0 innings in his first two starts and has given up only 2 hits.
Matt Pobereyko also effective – Despite never pitching in the upper reaches of the minors, he’s looking ready for the challenge of the AFL.
Tim Peterson bounces back – After a rocky first outing, Peterson looked more himself in his second appearance this fall.
Guillorme to me is the biggest enigma: Is he Rule 5 worthy with his lack of offense? I look at him as my #41, meaning someone would be left off to add him. But, is a defensive wiz who hits for some average but has little extra base hit power, doesn’t walk much, and doesn’t have elite speed worth adding? I really don’t think so and don’t see a single player in MLB like him, and haven’t for a while.
Guillorme is like Nimmo in my mind. There’s a very narrow window where he succeeds, though it’s highly unlikely.
But like Nimmo, Guillorme has surprised me so far with his consistent knack of hitting for average and getting on base. Even at AA. He also seems to have some leadership qualities.
On the downside, the complete lack of power and speed seems awfully hard to overcome. Two years ago I wrote him off. Now, today, I’m not quite ready to do it. There’s something there. And, yes, that’s almost exactly how I feel about Nimmo.
He’s a much more interesting prospect than, say, Matt Reynolds, who doesn’t excel at anything.
Um, Jim, don’t be so hasty on Nimmo. Remember that he can’t hit lefties? He did better against them than righties two years ago when he won the PCL batting crown.
Remember how Las Vegas is so such an offensive park? Well, it was the fourth best offensive park in the PCL. So others were better. Where were those teams’ prospects?
And Nimmo’s lack of power? Well, how does someone playing with Bruce, Granderson, Duda, Conforto and Walker have the longest homerun hit in Citifield in 2016, but not have power? He may not have developed it yet not is it his game, but don’t sleep on my next buddy.
Longest HR in 2016 by a lefty… sorry
I don’t think there was anything remotely “hasty” I wrote. In fact, the entire post was the opposite of that.
I said “hasty” because he has about 45-50 days service time under a manager that suppressed him. Hard to pass judgment yet.
Regarding strikeouts David, they have been up around baseball for a number of years. If Thompson hits for power and walks, the strikeouts are not a big negative; look at Aaron Judge!
Thompson isn’t great with walks and his slump periods scare me.
For TexasGus: Maybe Louis Guillorme is a #40 on the roster that’s why he’s in the desert. Defense up the middle and athletic much like one of the needs posted a few days ago.
And Mickey Jannis. Can we dream of a RA type of player finding himself at age 30, adding value to a questionable pitching staff?
I think Jannis is an interesting dream.
I prefer the one where Kate Upton is chasing me through a bazaar in Bagdad.
Scarlett Johansen 🙂
Ha.
I watched Charlie Morton pitch the other night not knowing who he really was. Another C+/B- type of pitcher who had a successful season out of what Matt Netter called: “how can you pull a rabbit out of your hat?”
Finding a player out of no where who becomes a key piece in next year’s puzzle is going to be big.
DED: Bagdad?
The first thing that occurred. Which might be revealing, who knows.
Considering that Morton signed a 2 year, $14 mil deal this offseason, which puts him as the 44th highest SP salary this year, which means they obviously had high expectations for him.
This isn’t like when they plucked McHugh out of nowhere and he became an effective pitcher for them.