The Mets Police

METS SIGN INF COLIN HOUCK AND RHP BRANDON SPROAT

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FLUSHING, N.Y., July 14, 2023 – The New York Mets today announced that the club has signed first-round selection (32^ndoverall) INF Colin Houck and second-round selection (56^th overall) RHP Brandon Sproat. Both players will begin their professional careers at the Florida Complex League in Port St. Lucie, FL.

Houck, 18, was named the 2022-2023 Georgia Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year after leading Parkview High School to the Class 7A State Finals in 2023. The Lilburn, GA native batted .487 with eight home runs, 50 RBI, 16 stolen bases and posted a .587 OBP this past season. The No. 12 prospect according to MLB Pipeline and the No. 21 prospect according to Baseball America, Houck became the fourth-ever player from Parkview High School selected in the first round of the First-Year Player Draft joining 12-year veteran OF Jeff Francouer (2002, 23^rd overall), All-Star 1B Matt Olson (2012, 47^th overall) and INF Josh Hart (2013, 37^th overall).

The 6-foot-2, 195-pounder is also a three-star quarterback recruit and received several offers from Power 5 programs after throwing for 2,189 yards and 24 touchdowns during his senior season. Prior to signing with the Mets, Houck was committed to play baseball at Mississippi State.

Sproat, 22, was previously drafted by the Mets in the third round of the 2022 First-Year Player Draft. The No. 54 prospect byMLB Pipeline and the No. 56 prospect by ESPN, Sproat was a Second Team All-SEC selection in 2023 after recording 134 strikeouts over 106.1 innings and held opposing batters to a .222 average. The Pace, FL native struck out 28 batters in four postseason starts this year, including 14 over two starts in the College World Series. In 56 career games over four seasons at the University of Florida, Sproat went 19-8 with a 4.27 ERA (106 ER/223.2 IP) and 242 strikeouts.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pounder was the third Gator taken in the 2023 First-Year Player Draft joining OF Wyatt Langford (fourth overall) and RHP Hurston Waldrep (24^th overall).

In addition, the Mets have also signed the following players: RHP Austin Troesser (4th round, University of Missouri), RHP Jack Wenninger (6th round, University of Illinois), RHP Noah Hall (7th round, University of South Carolina), INF Boston Baro (8th round, Capistrano Valley HS (CA), INF Nick Lorusso (9th round, University of Maryland) and Catcher Christian Pregent (10th round, Stetson University).

The first thing I look for is a weekend series at Wrigley…and there is one in June which s AWESOME.  Chicago on Late June is a good time.  Call the Army and lets get some T-Shirts,

I am also considering heading to London.

Also look at the June schedule….looks like that ince again will be when Mets Season effectively ends.  Oh well.   I don’t go to games and now I don’t even get SNY so whatever….

Reports are that former New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey is dating Monika Clarke, the head of membership at the ultra-exclusive Noho members club Zero Bond. The couple has known each other for years, but they only recently started dating.

Clarke is a model and Wilhelmina agent with over 200,000 Instagram followers. She is also the gatekeeper of Zero Bond, which is where everyone from Elon Musk to Tom Brady and Mayor Adams go to party in privacy.

Harvey, 34, retired from MLB in 2021 after a tumultuous career. He was banned for 60 games in 2015 for violating MLB’s drug policy, and he was later diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, which forced him to miss several seasons. Some Mets fans called him “The Next Seaver” and one time Angels GM Billy Eppler gave him $11,000,000 to pitch!

Since retiring from baseball, Harvey has worked as a real estate agent at Newmark. It is unclear how Harvey and Clarke met, but they are said to be very happy together. They were recently seen attending a party at Zero Bond together.

 

You may recall that for the first round, the Mets used “Mailing List A” which goes to newspapers (even though the NY Times can’t be bothered to have a sports section now) and ignores bloggers.   The second round info went to “Mailing List B which includes the likes of me and Ceetar.

For the third round, they also used “Mailing List B” but couldn’t be bothered to write any actual copy.  Presumably the senior staff with access to “Mailing List A” were all out in Seattle watching Pete Alonso strike out.

It was good to see Vulgar Pete repping the blue and orange weird blue with black pants and making Mets fans proud by…

Alonso entered in the seventh inning, when he struck out against the Tigers’ Michael Lorenzen. Alonso later also went down swinging against the Twins’ Pablo Lopez. (via NY Post.  I had gone to bed.)

Nobody at MLB thought to have Senga face Ohtani.

Nobody at MLB thought to have Elly De La Cuz in the All Star Game.

Some are saying Pete Alonso is actually Kendall Roy.