Cuban prospect Victor Victor Mesa, the consensus top prospect on the International circuit, held a showcase for all 30 teams yesterday at Marlins Park with his brother Victor Mesa, Jr., and made a strong impression, reports Jesse Sanchez of mlb.com. Victor Victor, the older of the two by five years, posted top marks in the 60-yard dash, flashed plus arm strength, and hit “with authority” during a live batting practice session against current Marlins minor leaguers. One top-level American League scout left unimpressed with the eldest’s power projection and noted that Mesa, Jr. could have higher upside, though the prevailing notion, according to Yahoo’s Jeff Passan, is that Victor Victor is the superior prospect and may only need “a year” in the minor leagues. The Orioles, who boast the most international bonus pool money for the upcoming signing period at $6.7MM, are considered the “likely” favorite to sign the 22-year-old Victor Victor, according to the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo, though the market remains nebulous.
In other news from around the league . . .
- The Giants haven’t yet been bit by the returns for offseason acquisitions Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria, writes Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. The McCutchen trade was dually headlined by reliever Kyle Crick, whose substantially improved command still falls short of the threshold for sustained success, and outfield prospect Bryan Reynolds, who turned in a solid, if unspectacular season as an old-for-the-level 23-year-old for Double-A Altoona. Reynolds, who dealt with hamate issues at the beginning of the season, still faces questions about his ability to stay in center field and whether or not he’ll possess enough thump should he be confined to a corner. For Longoria, the Rays’ lot was headlined by the 23-year-old Christian Arroyo, who again struggled this season after a disastrous MLB debut in 2017. Arroyo’s strikeout rate ballooned to a career-high 27.1% at Triple-A Durham, and his coveted versatility won’t much matter if he continues to be inept at the plate.
- The Rays are preparing for an about-face this offseason, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Tampa’s startling turnaround, headlined by an embarrassment of pre-arbitration riches and unanticipated minor league breakouts, has left the team with a litany of options as they enter the winter. “The expectations are up,” GM Erik Neander said. “We go into next year off the season we had, we want to improve. And to improve on the number of wins we had this year should put us in the territory where we’re expecting playoffs.” Neander did add that the club isn’t necessarily expecting an “active winter,” but with only $32MM in payroll commitments for the upcoming season, the Rays figure to be a team to watch as we enter the Hot Stove.
- Sean Newcomb will start tomorrow’s game three for Atlanta, reports Mark Bowman of mlb.com. The club had originally tabbed righty Kevin Gausman for the outing, but abruptly changed plans after dropping the first two games in Los Angeles. Newcomb, who was shaky at best for the Braves in the season’s final weeks, perhaps will get the nod merely for his status as a left-handed arm: the Dodgers, after all, destroyed right-handers to the tune of a 117 wRC+ this season, the top mark in the league.
I doubt Tampa cares about the return for Evan Longoria. His defense is not what it used to be and his only offense is the long ball. His cost of almost $75 million over the next 4 years makes him a very bad contract. For tampa it was more of a addition by subtraction than who they received.
That’s why they finished with a better record than the Giants.
No it isn’t.
How much you bet the “unimpressed” top level scout was with the Os?
No need to look at the medicals.
The O’s don’t have any TOP level exec’s
Ha, I was gonna say Twins but it turns out they didn’t even send their Scout. He was busy.
He was in the bathroom
The Braves are a mess. No pitching at all. Guess people are still content with another first round exit.
How are they a mess? I feel like people are so unrealistic, especially without acknowledging the major fact that this is their first run through the playoffs. Sure guys Folty, Newcomb, and Gausman/etc.. need to continue to develop, but to call them a mess when their core is barely getting their feet wet seems ridiculous. Just consider Folty was at a career high IP, Newcomb same at it was truly his first season. Acuña, Albee’s, & Canargo are basically in the beginning stages of their career. They are getting beat by veteran starting pitching that’s pretty darn good. They are a year ahead of schedule clearly. I’m not even a Braves fan and can see the upside. This just seems unrealistic trying to just fast track their development to WS contenders.
*albies & Camargo.
Throwing out this arbitrary “year ahead of schedule” argument does make this team any more likely to compete for a title in the next 5 years. While the Braves continue to showcase their fake unproven talent, other teams in the division will actually get talent through trade and signings aka the Phils, Mets, and maybe the Nationals. Until they start to spend money, they will continue to be a laughing stock in the playoffs (if they can manage to get in again).
I disagree entirely, the Braves have maybe the most longstanding firepower of young players of any team in the NL. They are perfectly situated – along with a desire to spend – to fill the holes they have this offseason and come back even better in 2019. Similar thing with Oakland. Unlike Oakland, there is a clear route to the #1 spot in the NL, where LA/Cubs/Milw are battling it out currently. Braves arent that far off from those 3.
You are delusional.
I’m sort of astounded by the short sightedness of this comment. Literally the whole idea behind the rebuild stage is to introduce and develop fake young unproven talent. That talent gains experience and becomes proven. If you can’t see the upside and the trajectory of that talent then that’s on you. Look around the playoffs and you’ll notice the young base of talent is littered among it. Even in the same division. Atl has some needs to address in the offseason, yes. That’s not a question, but AA is a good GM with a pretty damn good plot of talent. And for me to throw out the arbitrary a year ahead of schedule doesn’t make it untrue, especially if Acuña, Albies, and Camargo surround their one star in Freeman to help lead them to a playoff birth. Unless you want to argue reliance on two young rookies and a second year player was destined to lead you to a WS. On the pitching side they made some big steps in the rotation and two young guys took steps as they were stretched out further than ever before and made a good trade to obtain a 3-5 guy with some filthy stuff. They need to continue to take steps, but the talent is pretty evident.To be that down on a young core with pitching talent in the rotation and upper minors to trade/keep and their young positional guys seems well significantly short sided. Fault AA if you’d like, but less than a year in he was never going to complete substantial trades until there was a full understanding of what they had. I’m still astounded to be quite honest.
Coppy is that you?
Agree
Braves not a mess
May not win first round
Giants are a real mess
But upper management think giants are two players away from contention
Joke
Thank God Giants fans don’t have you for a G.M! Bahahahaha!
I will put in a resume for San Francisco Giants Gm
I work fir minimum mlb wages
In five years I guarantee contenders
Yeah I mean these guys weren’t expected to compete till next year, the fact that they are where they are is impressive
question will Braves win division in 2019 no.They had many players that had surprising years and wont repeat. Some will be 1 year older then but the league will have book on hitters most wins 2019 85 or less
Who the hell had a surprising year? Suzuki and Flowers were down from last year. Camargo hit .272, down from .299 the year before ( with nearly identical slugging numbers), Inciarte was a total dud in the first half, Dansby Swanson was only marginally improved offensively over last year. Albies has a beast of a first half, but failed off hard in the second. Freddie Freeman is who he is. So I guess Acuna is your surprise who won’t repeat?
Can’t wait for you to hold his beer next year.
I would just stop being a Braves fan if I were you if you’re upset with a season that had them pegged at 4th place in the beginning of the season! They are way advanced, would love to see that youth over in San Fran!
Who cares what these fake experts predicted in the past off season. Most of them don’t think for themselves and just go with the textbook prediction. Regardless, the team is filled with holes everywhere and they need to fill them out with free agents and trades if they plan to compete next year and beyond.
So you are the expert everyone SHOULD listen to?
Which holes to you have in mind? This is a young team that wasn’t even expected to go 500. THIS year was supposed to be the end of the rebuild so of course there will be some holes. But hey since you know better than all the fake experts I thought maybe you would share your sage wisdom with us lowly masses.
I don’t know what holes there are.
The “Braves are a mess”, but they won Game 3 with “no pitching at all”. Laughable are the comments of some ‘baseball fans’ who know absolutely nothing about the game at all.
Next please.
After watching these first 2 games what I see the biggest difference between the Braves and Dodgers is Grandal.
I seen pitches from both teams hit the exact same spot and LA gets a strike & ATL is a ball. I am very antianalytics on a lot of things and before this series I didn’t give a damn about a pitch frame but Grandal has made me a believer and I really hope ATL opens the purse strings for him. Up until this series I wanted Sally Perez or Realmuto but now I hope they snatch him up.
Resign Markakis and let him and Duvall split time in the OF and trade prospects for a top of the rotation arm like MadBum, Greinke, Price or somebody like that. Somebody to lead these young impressive arms that is better than Sanchez. They are not that far off. What Brave fans are suppose to be embarrassed because we got shut out by Ryu & Kershaw ? Ryu been dealin all year & Kershaw is the best. Would I have liked some runs of course but no shame in a young team with opening jitters and you learn more from failure than success so the future extremely bright.
The Braves didn’t win the division the mess of the Nationals lost the division. They were playin with house money.
And all the Dave Roberts haters out there it was brilliant to pitch Ryu game 1 knowing the young ATL players could be a factor which I believe they were in game 1. Kershaw doesn’t need that extra little bit he is the best in the game.
But wasn’t that a no brainer with Ryu at the top of all pitchers regarding his performance since he returned? Be carfule how great he is with beating the lowley Braves who are pathetic. Had he pitched Kersh game 1 probably same results. LA did what they had to and it’s all good. Hope it continues vs Milwaukee soon..
Giants picked up monster contract that will haunt them like their other contracts of Crawford, Shark, Cueto, Belt. They are free of the ridiculous one for Pence but unless new GM pulls off miracle Giants in for years of mediocrity. They traded nothing away because they had nothing — got fleeced taking on Longoria contract.
You say Pence was a ridiculous contract? Fool! Two rings later? Crawford too? Lol, uneducated in baseball I guess. Crawfords one of the best defenders at the position with two rings!
6.2 WAR over the life of the 5/90 million dollar contract. It was market rate but he didn’t perform up to it. The Giants have been terrible for 2 1/2 years. The championships they won 4,6, and 8 years ago are completely irrelevant now. As a Giants fan, I’m so sick of hearing people talk about the rings like it somehow makes the team suck less now.
Not that it makes them suck less it’s the reality that teams need to retool at some point and guys get older and their contracts become over priced. The key to it is having underpriced guys coming up at the end of the overpriced contracts
Minor league development is the most import part of a baseball organization imo
Pences production was not worth close to 90 mil. after 2014 it was one of the worst deals in baseball. Giants have handed out some really bad contracts
Isn’t Crawford had three rings???
That is why they moved out from under the tax. The sunk cost on the contract of Cueto isn’t important to them, shark.. it was dumb to give him full no trade since he was heavily pursued and could have been moved, belt they have already talked moving.
Cuban players – gotten away with raking over how many owners – not worth the money and they should be in the draft…. crap they get more money then our athletes that can only be drafted
They are overrated.
Giants gm sucks
Reds stole Adam Duvall
Giants didn’t get Christian Yelich
Now possible mvp
And giants pick up Johnny cueto option
And sign mark malencon
Last 20 months of disaster
Cueto had an opt out, which he declined. Not the Giants’ decision.
Giants gm should try Cueto after he decided
Then???
Ty, really? “Victor Victor, the eldest of the two”. Go straight to 7th grade English class. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
A set of two is comparative. So Victor Victor (I love that) would be the elder. You don’t use “eldest” until you reach three. Or more.
You really have no life do you
I think Newcomb is getting a start simply for the experience. Almost like we are throwing the game cause we know we can’t win so we might as well get some value out of this entire thing. Something tells me this MIGHT be a sign that the braves MIGHT not see KG in their future. Although I’m can’t think of why. Trade him for better hitting? Let him walk? Idk
You call yourself a ‘bravesfan’. Fans like you are laughable, and really you should change your screen name as it’s embarrassing to the supporters of the Atlanta Braves.