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Here's what happened in Mets Land on Friday, in case you missed it...

• The Mets came out of Thursday's doubleheader sweep with a much-needed 8-3 comeback win over the Royals
• Mark Vientos looked to break out of the doldrums with a three-RBI go-ahead double in the eighth
• Kodai Sengafelt good after dealing four scoreless innings with four strikeouts in his return from the IL
• Manager Carlos Mendoza was most pleased with those two players' performance
• Not to be overshadowed, Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto both homered in the ninth

• Sean Manaea said he's ready to make his highly anticipated season debut: "Feels good to be back"

• SNY's Andy Martino wrote about the time Pete Alonso and Pete Crow-Armstrong was a trade conversation
• Down on the farm, Jett Williams socked two homers and Jonathan Santucci had a strong Double-A debut

• In a flurry of moves, Jesse Winker landed on the IL and Jared Young was called up

• Mendoza had injury updates for Winker, Starling Marte, and Paul Blackburn

• Who will the Mets take at No. 38 overall in Sunday's draft? Joe DeMayo had names to look out for

• Danny Abriano argued the Mets’ reliance on bullpen games is flawed and costly, and must end now

• Who is the Mets' best option at third base? That was debated on Baseball Night in New York

• WATCH: Francisco Alvarezhomered and drove in two at Triple-A Syracuse
• The Mets Pod discussed when the Mets should bring Alvarez back to the majors
• WATCH: Jim Duquette talks offensive needs entering the trade deadline

Lately, while watching the Dodgers play, losing streak and all, I am reminded of something the great Benoit Benjamin once said: “Bad team, man. Bad [bleeping] team.”

Brian Lipson
Beverly Hills

The signing of closer Tanner Scott will go down as the worst in Dodgers history. It's even worse than the signing of outfielder Michael Conforto. Scott has already blown six saves, has two losses and has an ERA creeping up to 4.00. He is the third-highest paid relief pitcher in history. What makes his signing far worse than Conforto's is the fact the Dodgers are stuck with him for four seasons.

Geno Apicella
Placentia

After beating up on cupcakes — Colorado, Kansas City, Chicago White Sox — in the previous nine games, the Houston Astros came to town and showed the Dodgers how a good team plays. Even more disturbing was manager Dave Roberts' continued mismanagement of his pitching staff. On top of his inept pitching decisions, Roberts actually sought to have the weak-hitting Michael Conforto pinch-hit on Saturday.

Roberts is too prone to cede games when his team falls behind by allowing clearly ineffective pitchers to stay on the mound. Enough already. Replace Roberts with a manager who actually understands the nuances of the game. With their prodigious talent, the Dodgers should not be swept in a series. And they certainly shouldn't be outscored 29-6 over three games.

Brian Gura
Redondo Beach

Ten runs in six games! That must be a new low for the Dodgers. Although Shohei Ohtani is leading the league in home runs, he is not even in the top 10 in RBIs. This is what comes from having him hit leadoff. It makes no sense. Did any of the great home run hitters ever hit leadoff?

Mike Schaller
Temple City

Messed-up Mookie

Regarding "He's (Ohtani) swinging to get his balance back." What about Mookie Betts? His offensive production is way off since he switched to the more physically demanding position of shortstop. Why not move Mookie back to right field (where he won multiple gold gloves) to get his offensive output back to his lofty standards? Play Tommy Edmon at shortstop, Hyeseong Kim at second, with Miguel Rojas as backup. Now you have three great arms in the outfield while improving the infield defense. Just a thought.

Michael N. Antonoplis
Sherman Oaks

Mookie Betts' bat has suffered since he has struggled to adapt to playing shortstop. It's time to move him back to right field, where he will be more comfortable in the field and at the plate.

Harris J. Levey
Venice

One last pitch

Can you stand one more letter about the Sandy Koufax-Clayton Kershaw "greatest" controversy? Koufax pitched with an arthritic arm that he soaked in ice for hours after every game. He did not have 21st century medical technology, which could have extended his career.

Carolyn Rothberg
Tarzana

Ganging up on the Jameses

Are you laboring under a misconception that there's a Bronny James fan club out there somewhere?
You seem to work him into every story, whether he plays or not. In the story about the Lakers' win over the Spurs on Tuesday, you rightly credited Darius Bazley with leading the team with 27 points, with Dalton Knecht adding 25.

Then you felt the need to add, "Bronny James, still working to ramp up his conditioning, played just over five minutes and scored two points." Who cares? Other than his parents, whom do you presume is clamoring for stats on a bench warmer?

Steve Rutledge
Beaumont

A week after signing a $52-million option for next season, LeBron James still owns the acronym of GOAT, only the descriptor has changed slightly: Greediest Of All Time.

Ron Ovadia
Irvin

Talking like a winner

I enjoyed Broderick Turner's article on Deandre Ayton coming to the Lakers. I liked Ayton a lot at the beginning of his career. I thought Ayton had a lot of potential. I hope that LeBron James and Luka Doncic, with their assist skills, can bring that potential out of Ayton this season. I liked that during the course of Turner's article, Ayton was quoted 15 times using "win" as part of a word, like "wins," "winning," "winner," etc. We will have to see if Ayton can convert his words to deeds and be a winner for the Lakers this season.

Vaughn Hardenberg
Westwood

Practice squaring up

Thank you for the article on the Angels interim manager Ron Montgomery. I have one bit of advice for him. Practice bunting. There are a bunch of games the Angels have lost in extra innings because they (along with most of the other major league teams) don’t bunt the player on second base over to third with no outs. So much easier to score a run if the runner is at third base.

Steve Shaevel
Woodland Hills

Title says it all

USC eliminated the position of executive senior associate athletic director. The fact that a position with such a convoluted title even existed tells you all you need to know about administrative bloat in the Trojans’ athletic department.

Gerry Swider
Sherman Oaks

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

As a tour group gathered in the press box at American Family Field on Monday, the stadium guide looked down at the diamond and tried to identify the hitter in a Dodger blue T-shirt taking thunderous swings in an afternoon batting practice session.

“I’m not sure which player that is,” the tour guide said.

One knowledgeable Dodger fan in the group recognized it wasn’t a big-leaguer at all — at least not yet.

“That’s Dino Ebel's son,” the fan said. “He’s gonna be a top draft pick next week.”

Brady Ebel might not be a household name yet around the sport but in Dodger circles, the rise of the Corona High infielder, and 17-year-old son of longtime third base coach Dino Ebel, has long been a proud organizational story in the making.

Six years ago, Brady and his younger brother Trey (a 16-year-old junior on a loaded Corona team last season), first started tagging along to Dodger Stadium with their dad after the Dodgers hired him away from the Angels at the start of the 2019 season.

Back then, they were like many of the other children of players and staff that the family-friendly Dodgers would welcome around the ballpark. Not even teenagers yet, Ebel's sons would be taking ground balls and shagging in the outfield during batting practice before the start of Dodger games.

Now, they are both standout prospects with major college commitments (Brady to Louisiana State, Trey to Texas A&M) and expected futures in pro ball.

On Sunday, Brady is expected to be a Day 1, and very possibly first round, pick in the MLB draft — a rise borne of his own physical gifts, but also aided by a childhood spent growing up in the presence of big-league players.

“I’m so blessed, me and my brother,” Brady said this week, after accompanying his dad on the Dodgers’ recent road trip in Milwaukee. “It’s my favorite thing to do. Come to the stadium with my dad. Get better. And watch guys go about it. Because I know I’m gonna be here soon. This is what I’m gonna be doing.”

The physical traits that make Brady a coveted prospect are obvious: His 6-foot-3, 190-pound frame; his smooth, compact left-handed swing; his defensive feel and strong throwing arm from the left side of the infield.

What sets Brady apart from the typical high school prospects that populate draft boards this time of year is his unique upbringing in the game, having absorbed countless lessons on his trips to work with his dad.

“Watching those guys do it every day, just being able to be in the clubhouse and walk around and see how guys act, has helped me and my brother a lot,” Brady said, shortly after peppering balls all over the outfield stands at the Brewers’ home ballpark. “I take pieces from everybody.”

The Ebel sons first got an up-close look at major league life in Anaheim, marveling as young boys at superstars such as Mike Trout and Albert Pujols during Dino’s 12-year stint on the Angels' coaching staff.

When their dad was hired by the Dodgers, their first-person education continued at Chavez Ravine, where many Dodgers players and staffers have marveled at their own evolution into coveted recruits and MLB draft prospects.

“As a dad, I love it, because I get to spend more time with them, and I get to watch them get better,” Dino said. “The process of watching them work with major league players is something I’ll never forget.”

Many days in recent summers, the pair have been a constant presence at the ballpark.

There have been ground rules to follow, as Dino noted: “Stay out of everybody’s way. When you shag, get in the warning track. When you go eat, if a player is behind you, you get in the back of the line.”

The fundamental lessons they've learned, from watching players hit in the cage, to catching balls at first base during infield drills, to talking to other members of the coaching staff during quiet stretches of the day, have been endless. The fingerprints it has left on their game have been profound.

“Process, approach, work habits, how to respect the game, how you go about your work every day,” Dino said. “For them to see that, from guys at the top of the chain of elite superstars in the game … that’s what I’ve seen them take into their game. Trying something different. Listening to what the players are telling them in the cage, on the field.”

Brady, for example, has become a keen observer of Freddie Freeman’s work in the batting cage during recent years.

“There’s stuff he grew up doing that he still continues to do,” Brady said of Freeman. “Different drills. Keeping your hands inside. Driving the ball up the middle. I’ve been doing that since I was 8. And he’s 30-whatever, still doing it. It’s the simple, little stuff.”

As the Ebel boys have gotten older, Dino noticed how they would get home from the stadium, go to a practice field the next day, and replicate specific drills and techniques they’d witnessed the night before.

“It’s pretty special for me, as a dad, to watch them go through this process,” Dino said. “And then, as a coach, how they’re getting better each day they come out here.”

Read more:Sondheimer: Meet the Dodgers of high school baseball: the Corona Panthers

Such roots haven’t been lost on evaluators. Most scouting reports of Brady note his advanced approach and discipline at the plate. MLB Pipeline’s write-up of him ahead of the draft lauded his baseball IQ, and that “his experience working with big leaguers for a long time was clearly on display” as a prep player.

In Baseball America’s latest mock draft, Brady is projected to go 33rd overall to the Boston Red Sox — where he could join Corona teammates Seth Hernandez and Billy Carlson as the highest-drafted trio of high school teammates in the event’s history.

Looming seven picks after that, however, are the Dodgers, a team that would need no introduction to a player that grew up before their eyes.

“That would be really cool, just to be with my dad’s organization,” Brady said of possibly winding up with the club. “We’ll see what happens on draft day. You never know.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

What to know about Giants' outlook, first-round history ahead of 2025 MLB Draft originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — On the day that he traded for Rafael Devers, Buster Posey spoke passionately about what the power hitter could bring to the lineup and organization. But in talking about the cost of acquiring Devers, Posey also acknowledged that it put some extra pressure on the front office. 

“It’s going to be on us as an organization to do really well in the draft and other avenues as far as being able to develop talent through our system,” he said last month.

The Devers trade sent Jordan Hicks and three young players back the other way, including Kyle Harrison, who was the No. 1 left-handed prospect in baseball a year ago, and 2024 first-rounder James Tibbs III.

Tibbs was the sixth and final first-round pick of the Farhan Zaidi Era. On Sunday, the Posey-led front office will attack a draft for the first time, although there might not be much that’s noticeably different. The head of a baseball operations department is always involved with a draft, particularly with the first-round pick, but when Posey made his evaluations in the offseason, he decided to keep the draft in the hands of senior director of amateur scouting Michael Holmes, who was hired by Zaidi. This is mostly up to Holmes and his scouts. 

As Posey and Holmes prepare to embark on their first draft together, here’s what you need to know about where the Giants stand:

The Details

The draft is a two-day event this year, beginning Sunday at 3 p.m. PST with the Washington Nationals on the clock. They’re expected to select either LSU lefty Kade Anderson or prep shortstop Ethan Holliday, the son of former big league star Matt Holliday and younger brother of Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday. 

The first three rounds will air Sunday on ESPN and MLB Network. The next 17 rounds will start Monday morning and be available on MLB.com. 

The Giants’ Picks

There’s a draft lottery at the Winter Meetings now, and the Giants saw two teams pass them. They’ll pick 13th for the third time in six years, and while they’ve struggled in the first round overall, they have at least fared well from that spot. 

The lone first-rounder under Zaidi to reach the big leagues thus far is Patrick Bailey, who was taken 13th in 2020. Tibbs was 13th last year and became a key piece in a blockbuster. 

For a second straight year, the Giants will get a bit of a breather after their first selection. They sacrificed their second- and fifth-round picks to sign Willy Adames, which looked like a savvy move on Friday night. 

About Those First-Rounders …

Posey was a first-round pick out of Florida State in 2008. He’s now running the Giants in part because of the prior regime’s failure to develop first-rounders over the last six years. 

In 2019, the Giants selected power-speed blend Hunter Bishop, who has dealt with injuries and is now in his second season in Triple-A. Two years later, it was right-hander Will Bednar, who also dealt with injuries and is now a reliever in Double-A. Reggie Crawford was a swing for the fences in 2022, and he underwent shoulder surgery late last season. He’s said to be doing well in his rehab, but he won’t get back on the mound until the end of this season. 

The big hit appears to be Bryce Eldridge, who was taken 16th overall in 2023 and is now the organization’s top prospect and the 20th-best prospect in the game, per MLB Pipeline. Last year, the pick was Tibbs, the lone Zaidi first-rounder who is no longer with the organization. 

The 2024 Group

The Giants gave up their second and third picks in last year’s draft after they signed Matt Chapman and Blake Snell. The Chapman part of it all worked out extremely well, and they seem to have done a nice job of salvaging the top of that draft despite not having much to work with.

Tibbs helped them get Devers, and after sitting out two rounds, they went over-slot to get outfielder Dakota Jordan, a tremendous athlete who dropped because of concerns about his whiff rate at Mississippi State. Jordan is now their No. 5 prospect and has a .841 OPS, nine homers and 27 stolen bases for Low-A San Jose. The front office is thrilled with his outfield defense and all-fields power, and he has made notable strides with his plate discipline. 

Who Will They Take?

There’s really no such thing as drafting for need in baseball, so throw out any thoughts you might have about what this organization is lacking. After getting a lay of the land, Zaidi decided the Giants were well short on pitching depth, so they took nine straight to begin the 2021 draft. But generally, teams pick the best player available, and because there are so many players in the draft pool compared to other sports, there can be some wild swings. 

Posey played with Joe Panik, who was considered a massive reach when the Giants took him 29th overall in 2011. Panik ended up helping them win a ring three years later. 

Just for fun … MLB Pipeline has the Giants taking Oklahoma right-hander Kyson Witherspoon, and ESPN has them selecting Arizona outfielder Brendan Summerhill.

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