Minor League Report: Familia with B-Mets, New Bisons Additions, Other Notables

Last week, my colleague Craig Lerner reported that the Mets promoted Jeruys Familia to Double-A Binghamton, as he was pitching really well in Port St Lucie for the St. Lucie Mets.  During his stint in St. Lucie,  Familia was 1-1, with a 1.49 ERA, 36 K’s, and 8 walks. 

Now that Familia was called up to Binghamton, its time to see how Familia will hold up.  As I’ve said about Matt Harvey, when he (I’m now talking about Familia) gets called up to double-a, we will be able to see whether or not he will continue the same success as he had in St. Lucie. Last Tuesday, Familia got his first taste of double-a hitters as the B-Mets faced the New Britain Rocket Cats in Binghamton. Familia tossed seven innings, let up two runs and struck out six. So far, so good.

Bell, Figueroa Join Bisons

The Mets announced on Friday, that they acquired outfielder Bubba Bell from the Cleveland Indians for cash considerations. Bell was assigned to Triple-A Buffalo. In 8 games with Cleveland Triple-A affiliate Columbus, he was 7-24 (.298 AVG), with 6 HRS, 49 RBIs, and and 13 SB’s. The Mets also signed infielder Luis Figueroa to a minor-league deal and assigned him to Buffalo. Figueroa was playing in Triple-A Nashville, the Brewers affiliate, and in nine games with Nashville was hitting .296, with 3 RBI.

Lucas Duda placed on 7-day DL

As the Mets announced the latest roster additions to the Buffalo Bisons, Lucas Duda was placed on the 7-day DL with an undisclosed injury.

Injury Updates on Armando Rodriguez and Nick Carr

Toby Hyde from MetsMinorLeagueBlog.com spoke to Mets Director of Minor League Operations Adam Wogan about injury updates to pitchers Armando Rodriguez, and Nick Carr.  According to Wogan, Carr has been throwing bullpen sessions and is “close to returning”.  He hasn’t pitched since April 20th, as he was out with an AC joint sprain.  Hyde says that this year, Carr has had trouble throwing strikes because of his delivery. 

As for Armando Rodriguez, he was expected to pitch in an extended spring training game on Friday.  Rodriguez has not pitched at all this season, because of a strained oblique.   For more on this, and other information about the Mets Minor League System, you can visit Toby Hyde, and Michael Diaz at Mets Minor League Blog.

Matt Harvey Struggles

After pitching very well during the month of April, Matt Harvey is now starting to struggle a bit. In his last three starts, Harvey has given up 12 runs and 16 hits. His ERA has risen to 2.97. Matt Harvey is definitely someone to watch, but for now it’s better that he pitches down in St. Lucie, and any talk of a promotion to Double-A should be shelved for now.