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Jose DeLeon, tough as hell to hit when he was on, 63. https://nypost.com/2024/02/26/sports/jose-deleon-former-mlb-pitcher-dead-at-63/

Don Gullett, the king of winning percentage, 73.

Billy Gardner, who had been the oldest-living New York Giant, 96. Gardner managed the Twins and Royals as well. Eight New York Giants remain.

Justin Dunn and Cam Maron now form a battery of Long Islanders I adopted who never made it to the Mets (save for future transactions in Dunn's case). Good luck to my Nassau County neighbor.

End-of-season MLB Pipeline prospect rankings raise Justin Dunn to No. 89 overall, fourth among Mets.

The Freeport Flash is named Sterling Organizational Pitcher of the Year.

New MLB Pipeline rankings place Justin Dunn as MLB's No. 100 prospect overall, No. 4 among Mets. Others from the organization to get noticed: Andres Giminez at No. 60, Peter Alonso at No. 65 and this year's top Mets draft choice Jarred Kelenic at No. 69.

Justin ranked No. 4 on Baseball America's most recent Hot Sheet.

Whale of a Rumble Pony debut for Justin vs Trenton: 7 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 4 BB, 9 SO

The kid from Freeport will now be the kid in Binghamton, having just been bumped up to Double-A.

Third in the FSL in strikeouts, top 10 in ERA as of a couple of days ago.

Justin's pitching lights-out at PSL and continues to be from Long Island.

MLB's Prospect Pipeline ranks Justin their No. 3 Mets comer, behind Andres Giminez and David Peterson. Scouting grades: Fastball: 60 | Slider: 55 | Curveball: 50 | Changeup: 45 | Control: 45 | Overall: 50 Dunn spent most of his time at Boston College as a reliever, albeit one with multiple pitches. A move to the rotation during his junior season greatly improved his Draft stock, landing him in the first round where the Mets nabbed him with the No. 19 pick in the 2016 Draft. After a solid summer debut, the Mets sent Dunn straight to the Class A Advanced Florida State League for his first full season and he struggled a bit there, finishing the final month of the season on the disabled list. Pure stuff-wise, Dunn was just fine with St. Lucie. His fastball was consistently in the 93-95 mph range and he was able to reach back for more on occasion. His slider can serve as a true out pitch, flashing plus with good late bite. As a reliever, he hadn't worked on his changeup much, and it's behind the other two pitches, but he does show feel for it. He'll need it to get lefties out, something he struggled with last year. Dunn is athletic and repeats his delivery fairly well, but he had command and control issues throughout 2017. A certain learning curve was to be expected, given Dunn's lack of starting experience, though being shut down at the end of his first season didn't help quiet detractors who worried about his size and durability. He still has the stuff to start and has the chance to wipe the slate clean. If starting doesn't work out, he certainly should impact the back end of a big league bullpen.

30 DeGrom 29 Conforto 28 Bruce 27 Reed 26 Cabrera 25 Blevins 24 d'Arnaud 23 Reyes 22 Flores 21 Cespedes 20 Lugo 19 Montero 18 Gsellman 17 Wheeler 16 Granderson 15 Rosario 14 Plawecki 13 Nimmo 12 Lagares 11 Duda 10 Sewald 9 T Rivera 8 Walker 7 Aoki 6 Smith 5 Bradford 4 Familia 3 Syndergaard 2 Ramos 1 Matz Honestly, could've stopped after three or four slots.

Prospect guru Keith Law not overwhelmed by Justin's progress, as relayed by Abbey Mastracco of the Star-Ledger. "Justin Dunn I think is the most glaring example of the guy who's stuff is still pretty good, at least in terms of the quality of his pitches, but was so successful in college and then comes in to pro ball his first full season this year and they probably pushed him too far into high right away, just speaking in hindsight," Law said Wednesday, on his annual top-100 conference call. "But also there were a lot of issues with his feel to pitch, his lack of command, with lack of life on the fastball." Dunn was converted to a starter his junior year at Boston College, and was then sent to low-A Brooklyn where he put up a 1.50 ERA in 11 games (eight starts). Perhaps those good numbers masked the problems, but Law is surprised that no one on the player development side recognized the issues. "You almost look and you say, 'Nobody caught that?' Nobody on the player development side looked and said, 'Hey wait a minute, here are two things we are going to have to work on in instructional league last year and spring training this yer, but we're sending you out to High-A this year,'" Law said. Law calls him "an athlete with a tremendous arm," but he's not very advanced when it comes to his feel for pitching.

Amazin' Avenue ranks Dunn the No. 8 prospect in the system, though the writeup isn't particularly enthusiastic.

Justin's year at St. Lucie: 20 appearances, 16 starts, WHIP 1.563, ERA 5.00. Will turn 22 later this month.

No longer with us (in the MLB sense)... Shea MFYS II The Vet The Big O Comiskey Park Old Busch Stadium County Stadium The Murph Tiger Stadium RFK The Ted With us still... Citi Field Fenway Park Kaufman Stadium (then Royals Stadium) Rogers Centre (then SkyDome) Oriole Park at Camden Yards Guaranteed Rate Field (then new Comiskey) Wrigley Field Coors Field Angel Stadium (then Anaheim Stadium, aka The Big A) Dodger Stadium Globe Life Stadium (then the Ballpark in Arlington) Chase Field (then Bank One Ballpark, aka The BOB) Progressive Field (then Jacobs Field, aka the Jake) Oakland-Alameda Coliseum (then Network Associates Coliseum, which a local friend referred to as "the Ass") AT&T Park (then Pac Bell) PNC Park Great American Ballpark Minute Maid Park Citizens Bank Park Busch Stadium Miller Park Nationals Park MFYS III Also, Grapefruit League games in St. Pete (Al Lang), Tampa (Al Lopez) and Plant City; minor league games in Haines City, Fla. (Boardwalk & Baseball), Coney Island and Central Islip; and whatever was going on at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown.

Good kid doing a good thing in the fight against ALS.

Long Island's new favorite son (screw you, Matz) is starting the year a St. Lucie Met.

D'Arnaud's still here, De Aza isn't. If I've accidentally boosted Travis's confidence, it's all to the good.

I probably would have had him in Kelly Johnson-T.J. Rivera territory (my ballot) based on durability, steady incremental improvement and genuine hustle. Matt Reynolds thanks me for the oversight.

I just realized I unintentionally left De Aza out. A Rick Perry moment on my part. Oops.

Keith Law, which the Obama administration never implemented despite hysterical warnings to the contrary, ranks Long Island's own Justin Dunn as his No. 84 overall prospect in baseball. Certainly sounds impressive.

I considered Cabrera the day-in/day-out MVP of this crew, but Syndergaard's credentials, in a Player of the Year sense, are overwhelming. Somewhere in between is the indispensability of Cespedes. They are my unassailable Top Three, and Colon is No. 4 for sure. I suppose Familia and Reed could flip, but I'm still impressed at how many saves in a row -- whatever one thinks of saves -- Jeurys strung together. Granderson, flaws notwithstanding, is one of the quiet success stories of recent Met history, in there almost every game, transcending his uninspiring batting average and playing inspiring defense, give or take a throw. From No. 8 down to No. 30, I am struck by how many partial seasons were strung together to create a Wild Card entry. If I wasn't sure Collins isn't a great manager, I might think Collins is a great manager. 30 Syndergaard 29 Cespedes 28 Cabrera 27 Colon 26 Familia 25 Reed 24 Granderson 23 deGrom 22 Walker 21 Flores 20 Matz 19 R. Rivera 18 Reyes 17 Robles 16 Blevins 15 Loney 14 Conforto 13 Lugo 12 Gsellman 11 Harvey 10 Johnson 9 T. Rivera 8 Wright 7 Duda 6 d'Arnaud 5 Lagares 4 Bruce 3 Reynolds 2 Verrett 1 Henderson