Frayed Knot

So let me get this straight, the sport and the network get Shohei Ohtani in front of a national audience AND SO THEY DECIDE TO SHRINK THE SCREEN!!!!!

BB-Ref is practically unusable to me but that's only partially due to the ads and embedded stuff. The rest is because of my ancient home computer. Put 'em together and it's a bad recipe.

=MFS62 post_id=131313 time=1689025525 user_id=60] The last Maryland draftee picked by the Mets who stands out in my mind was Jay Payton.

=nymr83 post_id=131271 time=1688994934 user_id=54] You could at least give Keith Law credit for his writing that you copied and pasted, even if I understand not wanting to link to articles behind a paywall

For some reason baseball rating system evolved into a 20-80 scale So 50 is still average but Pete or Judge might have 75-80 power numbers while Vogelbach would rate as a 20 runner.

Brandon Sproat Scouting grades: Fastball: 60 | Curveball: 45 | Slider: 55 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 45 | Overall: 50 Since his high school days, Sproat has tantalized scouts with impressive raw stuff, but hasn't always delivered consistent results. The Rangers took him in the seventh round out of high school in 2019, but he opted to head to Florida. A year in the rotation in 2022 was a little up-and-down, but was enough for the Mets to take him in the third round, but he decided to come back to the Gators for one more season, giving him one more chance to impress scouts. Sproat looks the part with his 6-foot-3 frame and has a potential four-pitch mix to use to get hitters out. He's flirted with triple digits in the past -- his fastball averaged close to 96 mph in 2022 and he was once again in the 94-98 mph range this fall. He does have distinct breaking pitches, with a mid-80s slider a potential true out pitch that misses a ton of bats and a slower get-me-over type of curve. He has feel for a mid-80s changeup that he doesn't throw as much, but it could be a fourth at least average pitch. The right-hander made strides in finding the strike zone last year and showed solid command in fall ball, though his fastball can be too straight at times and he gets hit more than he should given his stuff. Another inconsistent turn in the Gators weekend rotation has once again made it difficult to figure out where he belongs on a Draft board.

Colin Houck Scouting grades: Hit: 55 | Power: 55 | Run: 50 | Arm: 60 | Field: 50 | Overall: 55 One of the better two-sport prospects in the 2023 high school crop, Houck is a three-star quarterback recruit who passed for 2,189 yards and 24 touchdowns as a Parkview HS (Lilburn, Ga.) senior. He turned down football offers from Power 5 programs to commit to Mississippi State for baseball, though he's unlikely to get to Starkville as a projected first-round pick in July. He's the latest phenom out of Parkview, which has won three national championships and nine state titles in the last 25 years, while producing four big league hitters, most notably Matt Olson. Houck's combination of strength and bat speed give him plus raw power, and the right-handed hitter already shows a propensity for driving balls in the air to his pull side. He does swing and miss and chase pitches more than is ideal at times, though there's optimism that he can improve as a hitter once he concentrates solely on baseball. He has looked more consistent at the plate this spring and does use the entire ballpark, though most of his pop goes to left field. Gatorade's Georgia state player of the year, Houck can flash solid speed but projects as an average runner once he fills out his 6-foot-2 frame. Though he's more physical than twitchy, his plus arm and outstanding body control give him a chance to be a big-bodied shortstop. At worst, he'll move to third base and could be a plus defender while fitting the offensive profile there.

#32 to the NY Mets -- Colin Houck, SS, Georgia HS Considered a top-15 draft pick, he's also a QB with a scholarship offer for Mississippi State Same HS as current Brave Matt Olson

So here's a list of impressive sounding (or not) prospects that we most definitely will NOT be drafting with our first pick. Personally, I don't like any of these guys so I'm glad they're going elsewhere before we draft the real prize of the group. 1) Pirates — Paul Skenes, RHP, LSU 2) Nats — Dylan Crews, OF, LSU 3) Tigers — Max Clark, OF, Indiana HS 4) Rangers — Wyatt Longford, OF, U Florida 5) Twins — Walker Jenkins, OF, N Carolina HS 6) A's — Jacob Wilson, SS, Grand Canyon U 7) Reds — Rhett Lowder, RHP, Wake Forest 8) Royals — Blake Mitchell, C, Texas HS 9) Rockies — Chase Dollander, RHP U Tennesee 10) Marlins — Noble Meyer, RHP, Oregon HS 11) Angels — Nolan Schanuel, 1B, Florida Atlantic 12) DBacks — Tommy Troy, SS, Stanford 13) Cubs — Matt Shaw, SS, U Maryland 14) Red Sox — Kyle Teel, C, U Virginia 15) White Sox — Jacob Gonzalez, SS, U Mississippi 16) Giants — Bryce Eldridge, James Madison U 17) Orioles — Enrique Bradfield, OF, Vanderbilt 18) Brewers — Brock Wilden, 3B, 3B, Wake Forest 19) Rays — Brayden Taylor, SS, TCU 20) Blue Jays — Arjun Nimmala, SS, Florida HS 21) Cardinals — Chase Davis, OF, U Arizona 22) Mariners — Colt Emerson, SS, Ohio HS 23) Guardians — Ralphy Velazquez, C, California HS 24) Braves — Hurston Waldrep, RHP, U Florida 25) Padres — Dillon Head, OF, Illinois HS 26) Yanquis — George Lombard Jr. -- SS, Florida HS 27) Phillies 28) Astros 29) Mariners 30) Mariners 31) Rays 32) Mets —

That 8th inning could have been a thing ... but it wasn't a thing and now the 9th has little chance of becoming a thing.

3 singles + 4 HBPs = 0 runs due, in large part, to 3 GIDPs Someone likely has devised a stat which doesn't merely count GIDPs but tallies them as a percentage of GIDP opportunities. And while I know it's possibly just a case of observational bias, I'm betting that the '23 NYM would be real high on that scale.

Three borderline pitches with two strikes this inning but Scherzer didn't get the call on any of them. And so even though he gets the 3rd out w/o a run, those non-calls are part of the reason he's over 80 pitches thru 4

Frayed Knot wrote: So in four pitches the Mets lost their challenge and their left-fielder (plus a no-hitter). And maybe the game. And my lunch.

So in four pitches the Mets lost their challenge and their left-fielder (plus a no-hitter).

Pete robs Cronenworth one day after Cronenworth failed to make similar plays twice in the 10th last night.

Supposedly a hitter-heavy draft. Except that those kinds of descriptions generally point only to the top dozen picks or so, so who knows.

So in the first 30 picks of Round One the Mets pick 32nd. It seems that there's a new rule where Uncle Steve going over the "suggested" salary cap (by, like, 3.2 billion dollars) means the Mets are penalized in draft slots. So, despite losing out to the Braves last September and playing, like, 50 games worse than them since, we wind up picking eight slots after them. So who's the hot commodity at #32? I have no fuckin' idea. But you can tune in Sunday night at 7 on MLBN or ESPN (wait, ESPN covers baseball?!??) to find out.

TBR thru May 8th = 29-7 (so, yeah, about the same as Atlanta's 27-5 since May 31 ) Since 5/8 (which started with two straight losses to BAL) = 28-27 Braves actually went 9-up/9-down over the first 3 innings of tonight's game (and in the time it took me to type that sentence they've scored four in the 4th to lead 4-0) Catcher Sean Murphy, who hit 18 HRs and a a 759 OPS in 612 PAs last year, now has [CROSSOUT]75[/CROSSOUT] 17 HRs/1000 in just 268 this season, his first with ATL

Probably going to have to skip this one. Not a lot of sleep last night plus a bike ride today plus the half-hour later start plus I have to be somewhere early tomorrow (though did get a nap in so maybe I'll start and see where it leads). I cashed it in after 8 last night then caught the 9th & 10th early this morning (not knowing the results ... so that was fun). As Gary has mentioned several times in the last few days, this is the final game with a starting time past 8:15 EDT for the season so it's good to get those outta the way before the ASG.

Did Pham deke him??

Phils score three in the top of the 9th, two on a two out Christian Pache 2R HR, to beat the Marlins 4-3. Two quirky stats connected with this game - it 'dropped' the Marlins to only 12 games above .500 and to 15-7 in one run games this year. For all their success in 2023, they actually have a negative run differential (-11) while the Mets have a positive (+1) - it was the phils 13th straight road win Braves beat the Rays, who are coming off getting swept by Philly, 2-1 So no five run 1st tonight just, y'know, a win. Yanx are in the midst of getting one hit thru 8 by the Cubs and by Yanqui cast-off Jameison Taillon 3-0 going to bottom 9

We keep trying to hit into GiDPs but have failed at most of them.

btw, the +9 in runs scored for the game gives the Mets a positive (+1) run differential for the season.

Orioles might not wind up with the biggest white-washing of the night.

He got his 5th AB in the 5th inning but grounded out. It blew his shot at getting a 'Rennie'