MLB Update – Exciting Trade

The Trading Deadline was exciting, but not exciting enough for the likings of a lot of people including me. The headline deal is Zack Greinke, he went to the Astros, for a couple of top prospects. Another buzzer beater deal was Nick Castellanos going to the Cubs that really gives the Cubs some depth in the corner outfield positions and in the infield and a lot of power there. Another big one was the Indians getting absolutely jacked on offense, acquiring Franmil Reyes and Yasiel Puig, both absolute barrels and great at hitting, for this, the Padres improved their minor league system (I mean they really needed more good young players). That about tops out the trading deadline, there were other ones, like Jesus Aguilar to the Rays, which will help bolster the offense. Marcus Stroman, who the Mets shocked everyone with acquiring will help the Mets rotation be pretty much the Avengers.

The Mets are kicking up a notch, only a game out of the wild card and they’re really hot, one of the hottest players, Robinson Cano is out with a torn hamstring and will not need surgery but will be back in a couple of weeks. The Mets have amazing team chemistry and they just keep on winning in the most clutch situations. Their offense is working like a really-well-oiled machine, their starting pitching has been great (like always) and even their bullpen stop having their woes, except for Edwin Diaz. Right now they’re putting in Seth Lugo who is good, don’t get me wrong, but Edwin Diaz and burn in up there at about 101 MPH and he has an above average slider, I think he’s just in a hole and will obviously get out of it. Pete Alonso is tied with Cody Bellinger’s 39 in 2017 for the NL Rookie HR record.

First I want to start off with the rookies, Yordan Alvarez has been a literal god-send to the Astros, as if they need more power (My saying is, there is never too much power). Yordan has literally hit three homers in a game and has 17 overall, in his first 46 games, that’s amazing, but what’s more amazing is Aristides Aquino has hit 9 taters in his first 13 games a big leaguer, I’m telling you right now, the Reds are looking at 2020 and they’re prepared. Ronald Acuna Jr. is really good, when he first came up, I thought he was going to be an above average left/center fielder with speed and power. He has become to be so much more than that, he joined the 20/20/20 club (In case you’re wondering, that’s the 20 homers, 20 bags and 20 doubles), he’s also two bags away from getting into the 30/30 club and he might have his sights on the 40/40 club. The Rookie of the Year for 2018 is the outfielder that everyone would want, durable in the field, (he hasn’t gotten injured yet and he hasn’t missed a game either), power and speed. What I think is crazy is that Pete Alonso has been pushed to second place in the Rookie of the Year voting, Alonso has 19 first place votes but is somehow in first place and shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. who probably has the most swag in baseball behind, shortstop Javier Baez. What was probably the most clutch hit of the night, Carlos Santana hit a walk-off homer against the Red Sox to put the Indians in sole possession of the AL Central Division.  This stat is just getting funny, Gleyber Torres has hit 13 homers against the Orioles which is half his home run total right now (26). This guys is just a really big slugger, who can hit for contact, power and he has a lot of speed. The Yanks still play the O’s twice more so maybe Gleyber can beat out Lou Gehrig’s 14 against Cleveland in 1936. Elite closer who’s had a bunch of speed bumps Greg Holland has signed with the Nats. His baseball in saves in 2017 with 41 and never really got his elite stuff back.

Meet the Mets …

Art Shamsky and Erik Sherman with me.

On August 1 I had the privilege to go to the Yogi Berra Museum in Montclair, NJ, for a book signing by former Met and 1969 World Champion Art Shamsky. He and fellow author but not former Mets player Erik Sherman wrote a book titled After the Miracle. All in about a half hour he explained the chemistry of the Mets in ’69, how he wrote the book and took questions. Later we had a chance for them to autograph our book and any other things that we have. I took a picture with the duo and asked after that they gave me a tip, “Don’t practice bad habits in practice because it will translate into your game.” It was a great experience.

Nelson Figueroa, Tim Teufel and me.

Then, on August 10 my family and I went up to the Long Island Arena near Hofstra University where they play all kinds of sports. There we met Nelson Figueroa and Tim Teufel, if you’re hearing those names for the first time in your life, Nelson was a pitcher for the Mets from 2008-09 and is now the host of Mets Pregame Show with Gary Apple. Tim Teufel was a player for the Mets from 1986 to 1991 and was a third base coach and now is the infield coach for the minor leagues. They explained how they got to the bigs and gave us motivational speeches and made us ready to run through a brick wall. Then we did batting, pitching and hitting clinics which gave us some tips and just some practice. I think it was really cool.

Analyzing Ballplayers …

50. Noah Syndergaard literally is Thor to all of the hitters. He throws his fire ball at them and the hitters are scared silly. His prowess has lessened this year than his crazy good four seasons before it. He finished 4th in Rookie of the Year voting in 2015 and in 2016 he was an All-Star and finished 8th in Cy Young voting. He was 14-9 in that season and, 9-7 before that and 13-4 last year, each year finishing with an ERA of 3.25 or lower. In the seasons beforehand he had a 2.93 ERA, struck out a mind-blowing 573 guys in 87 games. This season, he strikes out about a batter per inning, in his career, he’s striking out 1.08 guys per inning (718 Ks/666.1 IP). He didn’t get traded at the deadline. I think that the Mets shouldn’t deal him but deal Wheeler and get a hitter for him just because they just got Marcus Stroman so that will provide a nice starting rotation for a few years to come. I think he should move up to the high-30s.

49. Xander Boegarts of the Boston Red Sox is highly, highly underrated. I think he’s a really good player, offensively and defensively. A .302 BA, with 25 dingers, 88 runs batted in, 91 runs and a .547 SLG which ranks 8th in the AL. Defensively, he has 10 errors in 117 games and has 119 putouts which isn’t too bad for a  shortstop, it ranks 10th in the AL, which is actually really good for an offensive shortstop. The All-Star has also improved his batter’s eye, he’s one walk past his career high – and he’s played 39 games less. I think he’s also going to have the highest batting average of his life (.302 – right now, .320 career high), he’s also two past his career high in homers. He strikes out in 19% of his PAs, which isn’t too high, but he needs to bring everything up (or down) a notch if he wants the Red Sox to win the Wild Card or the division.  He has 66 XBHs which is tied for fourth in MLB with Christian Yelich. I think that he should be at 45.

48. George Springer, probably the most reliable player on the Astros, they have a great team overall but the most reliable is Springer. Springer doesn’t get injured very much, has a hit per game, he has so much raw power, he has more dingers that doubles, a reliable leadoff man, he has a .384 OBP but the only flaw in Springer is that he has no speed. He only has 5 bags stolen and three triples, he needs to improve his speed to be one of the best players in the league. It’s not like the Astros aren’t contenders, so George doesn’t really need to have speed, but where do the ‘Stros have speed? Jose Altuve? That’s one guy, even the Mets have more speed and they’re really slow. He was injured this year, but 45% of his hits (103) are XBHs (46) which is impressive. He strikes out in about a fifth of his plate appearances which isn’t up to snuff if you’re on such a great team, I’m not saying George is gonna get traded but he has to pull his weight. His walks numbers also lessened, he’s only walked 46 times and last year he walked 64 times and his career high is 88. I think he should go to the high-50s.

47.  Blake Snell is next and if I were to rank two players that were alike so much and the skill level being the same or almost the same, I would say that Chris Sale and Blake Snell are so much alike. They’re both tall, both have last names that start with the letter “s”, both have probably the most wicked slider in the AL, probably behind Brad Hand (I know, this will cause a lot of controversy), they both are great pitcher, but, where Snell is better is that he has won a Cy Young and Sale has come close, but has never won one (but this year is looking bright). Unless you’re an AL East Team, or fan, or member of the Rays organization, you never heard of him until last year. He was drafted in the first round out of college, spent 5 years in the minors and then made his debut in 2016, played two seasons as a starter and then win the Cy Young, seems unreasonable, right? His WAR last year was a gleaming 7.5, which was 5th in baseball and 1st in the AL for pitchers. He has 136 Ks this year, he’s 6-7 with a 4.89 ERA, not likely to win this year. He’s out until mid-September with a really gruesome injury, he had surgery for a loose body in his throwing elbow. I think he should stay where he is.

46. I think Trevor Story is the shortstop everyone wants, he’s got power, he’s got contact, he’s got speed,  he’s got elite defense and he’s got a pretty good eye. He’s got 27 homers, 126 hits and a .288 batting average. He has 16 stolen bases and 5 triples, not exactly Ricky Henderson but also not Kendrys Morales. He has only 7 errors and 127 putouts in 106 games, him and Arenado probably make the best all-around left side of the infield in baseball.  The first round pick out of college strikes out in 25% of his plate appearances, which is bad, he’s always had that flaw with too may strikeouts, he lead the league in Ks with 191 in 2017. He might win a Gold Glove in his time, I think definitely a Silver Slugger, his OPS is staggering, a .919 with a .568 slugging percentage. He hits an extra base hit in about 59% of his hits, which accounts for his 249 total bases, (which will smoke his career high) which means that he’s definitely a modern player. I think he has 35+ homer power with 40+ plus double power with 30+ bags speed, that’s kind of what makes a really good ball player.  He’s on pace for the most amount of walks ever in his career and he’s played in 50 less games than last year. He has a 4.9 WAR this year which means he really helps his team and last year he had a 5.6 WAR, which is nice. I think he should move up a few spots.

See you next time!