Nimmo's Introduction to Pro Ball

It appears that Brandon Nimmo, the Mets first draft choice in 2011 will be joining the GCL Mets; however, I don't have high expectations about his performance with them this season. It's a big jump from high school ball to pro ball, even to a Rookie League team, as Joe Tuschak has discovered. Further, Nimmo will be joining a team that's not hitting well.

On the left below are the batting averages for the GCL Mets position players who played in the August 16 game. The average for those 11 players is just .215. The second-lowest average, .188, belongs to

Joe Tuschak, whom the Mets drafted in the sixth round in 2011 out of Northern High School in Pennsylvania where, in his senior season, he hit .473 with a .903 slugging average. And in his junior season, he hit .540.

Tuschak isn't the only GCL player struggling with the bat. The team is hitting only .227, which ranks them fourth from the bottom in the Gulf Coast League, which has 15 teams. The league average is .245.

Given Tuschak's and the other GCL Mets batters problems at the plate, I wouldn't be surprised if Nimmo's average is in the same range as theirs. It takes a lot of players time to adjust to pro ball, and Nimmo's starting his career when the season's almost over.