Luke Ritter
Week: 6 G, 19 AB, .474/.583/1.105, 9 H, 3 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 3 BB, 8 K, 0/0 SB (Triple-A)
2024 Season: 98 G, 352 AB, .270/.375/.520, 18 2B, 2 3B, 22 HR, 49 BB, 122 K, 3/4 SB, .349 BABIP (Triple-A)
Coming into the 2024 season, myself, Lukas, Ken, and Thomas all made predictions for the year, and one of mine was that no Mets minor leaguer would hit 20 or more home runs. In 2023, three players did so: Luke Ritter, who hit 27, and Stanley Consuegra and Ronny Mauricio, who both hit 23. My rationale was that Mauricio was injured, Consuegra was too hot-and-cold to reach the 20+ mark again, and Luke Ritter was having a career year that would not be able to be replicated with as much oomph. As I write this, I am happy to report that I was wrong, because Luke Ritter reached the 20 home run mark on Tuesday the 30th, hit number 21 on Wednesday the 31st, and hit number 22 on Thursday August 1st. The infielder hit his 20th home run of the 2023 season on June 9th, so he is about a month behind the pace that he set last season, but given the fact that his season also ended roughly a month prematurely due to an injury, it all evens out.
When Luke Ritters swings, he doesn’t get gypped. He swings a lot, he swings hard, and when he makes contact, he puts a jolt in the ball. He has averaged a 93.3 MPH exit velocity on singles, a 100.9 MPH on doubles, a 102.7 MPH exit velocity on triples, and a 103.4 MPH exit velocity on home runs. He likes to swing, offering at nearly every other pitch that he sees, but has pronounced deficiencies against secondary pitches. Against 931 fastballs, he has a 45.5% swing rate and a 12.9% whiff rate, resulting in a 28% whiff/swing ratio. Against 495 breaking balls, 44.2% swing rate and a 16.8% whiff rate, resulting in a 38% whiff/swing ratio. Against 217off-speed pitches, he has a 45.2% swing rate and a 24.9% whiff rate, resulting in a 55% whiff/swing ratio. As a result of these swing decisions, Ritter is a .318 hitter with a .554 slugging percentage and a .236 ISO against fastballs, but a .239 hitter with a .523 slugging percentage and a .284 ISO against breaking balls and a .140 hitter with a .360 slugging percentage and a .222 ISO against off-speed pitches.
MLB fastballs are not MiLB fastballs, and the two mile per hour difference in the 92 MPH International League fastball to the 94 MPH Major League Baseball fastball is just the beginning. This fact would seem to be why there is very little internal movement to promote the 27-year-old Ritter.
Brandon Sproat
Week: 1 G (1 GS), 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 13 K (High-A)
2024 Season: 6 G (5 GS), 25.1 IP, 12 H, 4 R, 3 ER (1.07 ERA), 16 BB, 33 K, .216 BABIP (High-A) / 11 G (11 GS), 62.1 IP, 39 H, 17 R, 17 ER (2.45 ERA), 15 BB, 77 K, .246 BABIP (Double-A)
Normally, Pitcher of the Week is fairly cut-and-dry. Whoever has the best Game Score is the Pitcher of the Week, and that’s that. This past week, Joander Suarez had a 79 Game Score when he utterly dominated the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, blanking them over six innings with 1 hit allowed, no walks, and 9 strikeouts. That 79 Game Score was actually the second best of his career, the only other better one a game that added up at an 80 Game Score on September 7, 2023.
Brandon Spoat did something this week that can’t be overlooked, despite the “lesser” Game Score of 76. The right-hander struck out a career-high 13 batters and at one point struck out 11 batters in a row. Every New Hampshire batter struck out at least once, with second baseman Michael Turconi, DH Charles McAdoo, and centerfielder Garrett Spain all striking out twice apiece, and shortstop Josh Rivera striking out three times. The right-hander allowed just two hits, an RJ Schreck double in the first and a Rainer Nunez single in the second, and did not walk a single batter, reaching a three-ball count only once on the evening.
Coming into the year, Sproat had an above-average fastball, an above-average slider, above-average changeup, and an fringe-average curveball. Over the off-season, the Mets worked with the right-hander to modify his fastball to be a four-seam grip rather than a two-seam grip, and to add a sweeping slider to his repertoire in addition to his almost cutter-like gyro slider. His fastball is now almost certainly a plus pitch, his slider is arguably an above-average-to-plus pitch, and his changeup is arguably an above-average-to-plus pitch; his curveball is still a fringe-average offering at best.
Sproat was just recently promoted to Triple-A, so it will be interesting to see how he does. Various Mets pitchers who have thrived or better in Double-A have almost all hit a brick wall of sorts upon promotion to Syracuse and the more offensively-charged International League. Hopefully Brandon Sproat follows in the footsteps of former teammate Christian Scott, who posted a sterling 2.76 ERA in 42.1 innings over 9 starts rather than the cumulative 5.00+ ERA of the rest of Syracuse’s starters with 9 or more starts. Ironically, while the Ritter prediction I made is completely wrong, I also made a prediction that Brandon Sproat would be the Mets’ top pitching prospect; that one, I might’ve gotten.
