5
2011
Mets Farm Report: June 4th, 2011
An article by Former Writers
A little introduction since this is my first Mets Farm Report for MMO. Each night I plan to bring a recap on the news and notes on the happenings for all of the Mets minor league affiliates, as well as bringing some other analysis on the state of the farm.
I do a three stars of the game that is very similar to that of NHL games. Prospects receive three points for being awarded the No. 1 star, two points for the No. 2 star, and one point for the No. 3 star. The complete leaderboards can be found here over at my blog.
Buffalo Bisons 1 | Gwinnett Braves 7
You gotta love the Mets’ farm system. The Braves throw out the best pitching prospect in baseball and the Mets counter with 29-year-old journey man Pat Misch. With that in mind, the game went just as expected. Misch continued to struggle with his command, either missing wildly or catching too much of the plate, and Teheran dominated. Even with a Gwinnett team that was laboring at the plate they were able to make hard contact all game long against Misch.
A Kirk Nieuwenhuis sighting! This was Nieuwenhuis’s first game back after needing to sit out 10 days due to a bruised shoulder he suffered while making a highlight reel catch. Lucas Duda did some damage against a very good pitcher by picking up both his double and walk off Teheran. Since returning from the DL a little over a week ago Duda is hitting .429/.529/1.036 with two doubles, five homeruns, nine runs scored, nine RBIs, and a spectacular 6:7 K:BB. If there was ever a time to call him up and give him a shot at first base, his natural position, the time is now.
Stars of the Game: 1. Lucas Duda – (1-for-3, double, walk, run, K) (26pts) 2. Fernando Martinez (2-for-4, 2 singles) (17pts) 3. Michael Fisher (1-for-4, single, stolen base) (15pts)
Binghamton Mets 7 | Akron Aeros 4
Oy vey. Every game Brad Holt starts seems to follow the same pattern. He begins the game cruising along (as he did tonight giving up a single in the 1st inning and homerun in the 2nd, but getting through the inning with relative ease) and then he just implodes. The runs didn’t pile up on him tonight, but it wasn’t pretty. He loaded the bases with no outs in the 3rd by walking the first two men and then giving up a single before some how flipping a switch in his head and striking out the next two batters then inducing a weak fly out to get of the jam. He labored through the 4th and then let the first two men on in the 5th and needed Roy Merritt to come in and bail him out. Holt has shown no progression this year and these constant jams are going to catch up to him eventually. A move to the pen should be in store soon for him.
This game was a good example of Allan Dykstra‘s ultimate ceiling. A first baseman who can work the count, get on base, and hit the ball hard somewhere. His power numbers haven’t been great, but he has hit the ball with authority as even on his two-out groundball single up the middle, he hit the ball so hard that neither middle infielder had a chance to get the ball. He just needs to cut down on those strikeouts.
Stars of the Game: 1. Allan Dykstra (2-for-3, 2 singles, 2 walks, 2 RBIs, 2 runs) (20pts) 2. Reese Havens (2-for-5, double, run) (6pts) 3. Roy Merritt (Win, 2 IP, SO, Left 2 stranded runners) (2pts)
St. Lucie Mets 0 | Palm Beach Cardinals 3
Something continues to intrigue me about Scott Moviel despite the less than stellar performances while repeating a league and having the second worst K-rate of any pitcher in the league. Maybe it is his 6’11″ frame that makes me think he will just need some extra time to put everything together and he hasn’t been awful while trying to do so. Or maybe it is his elite groundball rates (picked up 12 more groundball outs tonight) that has enabled him to pitch out of so many jams. He is still making a little bit of a believer out of me.
After a solid output last night the offense was abysmal today. The lone bright spot today was Jefry Marte who picked up three walks. This is an extremely hot and cold lineup, which helps explains why they were on such a tear for the first 25 games of the season and on such a downward spiral in the last 25 games.
Stars of the Game: 1. Jefry Marte (0-for-1, 3 walks, stolen base) (25pts) 2. Juan Lagares (1-for-3, single, walk, caught stealing) (23pts) 3. Scott Moviel (Loss, 6 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 SO, pickoff) (7pts)
Savannah Sand Gnats 2 | Kannapolis Intimidators 4
This was the first rough outing of the year for Gonzalez German, who has been another one of the pleasant pitching surprises on this Sand Gnats staff. What impresses me most about him is even in a game like this one where he is getting hit relatively hard he has been able to last deep into the outings. He has pitched five innings or more in the last seven outings and pitched into the 7th inning in five of those games. A rare skill for a pitcher at this level.
It is about time to highlight Albert Cordero, who I thought was a big sleeper entering the year. He had success in the VSL, but didn’t really burst onto the scene until he had a breakout year last year in Kingsport. He didn’t walk much, but the hit tool looked above-average and the power was very good for a catcher his age. This year, there has been no positive way to spin his season. He has just one walk in 122 at-bats, the strikeouts have doubled, and the power has vanished. He is still just 21-years-old this season so there is time for improvements, but the future isn’t looking too bright.
Stars of the Game: 1. Aderlin Rodriguez (2-for-4, double, strikeout) (26pts) 2. Rafael Fernandez (1-for-4, triple, RBI, strikeout) (10pts) 3. Luis Nieves (2-for-3, double, walk) (3pts)
About the Author: Former Writers
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 25 | 18 | .581 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 21 | .523 | 2.5 |
| Phillies | 21 | 23 | .477 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 17 | 24 | .415 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 12 | 32 | .273 | 13.5 |
Last updated: 05/19/2013
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I don’t get to witness Brad Holt on the mound. But the reports are all the same — start out great and then collapse. Maybe Brad (I’m not kidding with this) needs a good sports psychologist. I think some of his shortcomings probably come from between his ears. Anyway I wish him well. Toughen up Brad!!!
Reese Havens has had a couple of games in a row where he hits line drive after line drive. It bodes well if he can stay on the field. So far, so good.
Holt has good stuff, but serious command issues.
One thing about Met announcer Gary Cohen is that he really knows his stuff. Knows the rule book inside and out. Strategy, other teams players, Met history probably better than anyone or at least equal to Howie Rose. but he was caught totally off guard by Justin Turners winning NL’s rookie of the month. Said he had never even heard of that award. Couldn’t believe it when he found out it had been around for TEN YEARS!
Guess why he never heard of it? No Met had ever won a rookie of the month before. That’s a little hard to believe. Reyes never got one I guess because he came up in June and Dontrelle Willis (1) and Miguel Cabrerra (2) had great rookie years then Reyes got hurt.
Wright never got one in 2004 because he came up in June and Jason Bay won 3 times. Well at least we have Bay back now.
Astounding though. 62 times the award has been given out and 62 times no Met rookie has won it until now.
Great job though giving away our top draft picks every year and avoiding the best players when we do keep them in order to put the savings into guys like Bay, Perez, Wagner, Alou, Schowenweiss………
Ten years agee, and 60 opportunites to win the honor once. The law of averages says the Mets should have won at least 4 in that span, but to win none is shocking to say the least.
Tell me about it OMF. It certainly says a lot about our owners committment to putting out a quality team.
It’s not that hard to believe that no one won ROM since it is a relatively recently created award.
Relatively recent? You must be kidding with us again Metsie. You consider ten years to be relatively recent?
61 opportunities pass to get one over a ten year period between 14/15 other clubs and the first one we get isn’t even by a guy we drafted or signed as an international amateur.
Who’s in charge of all this scouting anyway…….
You forget that the last time we started rookies was when Wright and reyes came up, and they didn’t win it either!
MOST rookies don’t win that award. How many rookies start in any given year in the MLB? What percentage actually get that award? How many times in that season does the singular ROY win those?
Your all about how bad Omar is…Well who brought him here?
Who brought you Gee, Davis, Turner, Pagan (Who you gloat over like a son of yours) Niese, Dickey, and was even on the team 2nd in command that brought you Jose reyes and David Wright?
Note all the additions Sandy made this season…Whats his track record on finding talent so far?
What you fail to take into consideration is that for the last 10 years we have been a team looking to win the division.
Not like the Phillies in the 90′s who lost so much between the time of 1984-2002 (.469 Win Pct with one WS win in there) that they got to pick before us in most every draft. since 1984 and Unlike the Braves who from the time between 1984-1990 (when they became dominant) had a win pct of .415 and also got to pick before us in most every draft.
Our Win Pct over the last 15 years is by contrast .511! Win Pct .517 since 84. We are now in year three of our decade of decline…MAYBE!
You give the Braves and Phillies credit for a decade of dominance but you fail to take into account the decade of DISASTER they were to help them GET the players needed for a decade of dominance.
We however have not had a near 10 year cycle of under .500 Win Pct
Which is why those guys get to pick all the players before we can get them and look SMART to you! And now they are dominating while we start our suck cycle and get the picks!
The 86 season was preceeded by a 7 year stretch of .403 Win Pct in case you were wondering ! Wonder if that had anything to do with guys like Gooden and Strawberry?
The Yanks?
Hmmm they became what they are in 1995 with the addition of their CORE…
Well between the years of 1989 – 1993 the yankees had a .464 Win Pct. Hmm I wonder when and where they picked to get Jeter in 1992 (.469 Win Pct by the Yanks that year!)
You don’t seem to get it that to do what you propose to do is all about sucking for the best part of a decade so you get the chance to pick the CREAM OF THE CROP, where YOUR INTELLIGENCE is the ONLY limiting factor in picking a good player because there are not 15-20 teams picking before you and stealing the guy you KNOW is good!
You fail to see the cycles of how those guys GOT as good as they are and why they could draft while we had to buy because we were in a fight that wouldn’t wait 3 or 4 years for those picks to make a difference.
You continue to want to add TWO the wasted 1st rounder count of Omar because you THINK Wagner was a sure thing Type A which was 50/50 at the time because he was hurt and there were health questions. You do that because you KNOW the Phillies and Yankees have done the same exact thing AS MANY times.
Well there are the Win Pcts you need to maintain for at least half a decade to do what you want this team to do. Omar as bad as you would like to make him out is the guy responsible in part or in whole EVERY PLAYER performing well on this team!
Pagan, Davis, Niese, Gee, Harvey, Nieuwenhuis, and Havens
Considering where we picked each year we are lucky to have even ONE of those guys around!
SO I don’t see why you continue to blame Omar for the problem when the problem is that Omar didn’t LOSE ENOUGH GAMES to be able to snatch all the guys you would have liked him to have drafted and given him credit for because WE WERE PLAYING FOR A PLAYOFF! As DOMINANT and you believe the Braves were and Phillies are now…You forget who the team was who was always their greatest threat each year!
And thats been the NY METS!
We were playing well and like it or not when you win you don’t get a chance to pick all those guys you wanted them to get because someone else was picking them before us!
We’ve had more 90+ loss seasons than the Braves and Phillies combined over the last two decades. We’ve been to the Series once. The Braves five times and the Phillies three times.
We were never as dominant as the Braves and Phillies have been. Are you really being serious?
Atlanta went to the post season twice as often in fifteen years as we have in fifty! Philly’s gone four straight years. We’ve never gone more than twice in a row.
Not even close to the same thing.
You keep sayiong 90+ wins as if ignoring the facts posted on Win Pct will go away if you refuse to acknowledge it!
But yes over the last two decades? Yes Why? BECAUSE THEY DRAFTED THIER CORE 10 YEARS AGO! After SUCKING for a decade while we were the #2 team in the division and winning at a .517 clip during that time!
Back in Brooklyn when I watched him every single game he was sitting 93-95 mph and touching 96 mph and now the reports are he is sitting 90-92 mph. His fastball was always a little deceptive (think John Maine at his best) so that velocity is still pretty good.
Holt was quoted as saying his legs “gave out” in the 5th inning of a perfect game so conditioning could be a big reason for his struggles. I agree that most of it seems mental so they could try sending him to a sports psychologist like they did with Nick Evans last year, but that quote from Holt is worthy of keeping an eye on.
Nice roundup Nick. Teheran vs. Misch huh? What a mischmactch.
After the Braves graduated Hanson, Beachy, Venters, Kimbrell they still have Minor, Vizcaino, Delgado and Teheran plus a few more arms no doubt. They get so many terrific players who have their best years in the Braves uniform because of outstanding scouting and development.
They have a well developed scouting network in Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic as well as here in the US and they scout everywhere. Amateur summer leagues, HS, Other teams farm systems, all 30 MLB teams, they even have a relief pitcher they nabbed off the Australian team in the WBC. A guy (Moylan) who wasn’t even playing pro baseball. They got Kerry Litenberg years ago out of an unafilliated semi pro team. They look every where before they go free agent. We go free agent first then when the well runs dry stick a rookie in an unfamiliar position or another teams reject and proclaim ourselves all set.
I thought back in 2005 that players like Teheran, Delgado, Prado, Escobar, Furcal, Andrew Jones, Jair Jurjens ect were going to be coming out of our system.
I wonder what we could have done in the Caribbean and South America with Bay’s 80 M, Castillo’s 24 M, Wagner’s 44 M, Schowenweisses’ 10 M, Mota’s 5 M, Alou’s 15 M.
I wonder what a real talent evaluator would have been able to do down there instead of these flunkies Omar brought in and then had to dump in 2009.
Well at least we can look forward to seeing Teheran Vs. Misch up here probably next year.
Just remember that after the draft you better not saying anything negative about any of Alderson’s picks because you will be roasted by those who are under the hypnotic trance of this guy.
I’ll say whatever I feel because I am sick and ****** tired of having a lame *** team every ****** year.
I am so sick and tired of the moron Wilpon bringing in yet another Coleman, Alomar, Burnitz, Bonilla, Saberhagen, Vaughn, Castillo, Schowenweiss, Alou, Mota, Bay, Wagner, ect…….and then cheaping out on the draft and IFA market to pay for all these lame brains.
All that does is guarantee a **** team this year and a **** team down the road.
No wonder this team has only one NL East title in the last 23 years.
Even the Pittsburgh Pirates have more than that and they haven’t even played in the NL Eastern Division for the last 18 years.
If Fred and Jeff were so hot and heavy to have a team stink up the place year after year they’ve done a great job of it.
If Alderson is not going over slot at least 10 times (doesn’t have to be WAY over in most cases) then you know the purse strings are tied and we’re hosed for years to come. Time to take up golf or competative lawn darts or something
The thing about going over slot is that your asking a kid to give up something (Scholarship) Something potentially a much better choice for the long run so you have to make it worth his while. Other teams do this routinely. That’s why other teams rarely go through periods of time with postions unfilled on their team while we go through decades without a LFer, RFer, 2B, C. This years draft has lots of guys. Other teams might not be allocating more than usual to this years draft so if we do, we can really get 4 times as much out of the draft and finally start to fill some of these positions from within instead of signing so many Bay’s, Wagner’s, Schowenweisses, Mota’s, Castillo’s ect.
The player you have to go over slot on is a player in demand. The kind of player most scouts agree is a best bet to make it and make it big. The kind of guy who has options. The kind of guy who can go back to school and get re drafted the next year or in three years. The kind of guy everybody wants. Thole, Duda, Evans, Murphy, Parnell, were not overslot guys.
Combining a great draft (and signings) with the absolute highest top shelf international talent could start a prospect flow that results in five or more ROY candidates coming up here every year.
You just cannot make up for the difference in talent at every position in anyway other than the draft and IFA.
The draft this Monday night and the July 2 INT’l signing period and then the negotiations with our draftees right up till August will tell us if any GM has a chance or not under the Wilpon and if that answer is yes then how good a job Alderson/Depodesta/McDonald did with both of those things.
That will be an early clue as to whether this franchise is coming out of the hole it’s dug for it’s self or if we have another 23 years of winter ahead of us.
Safe, high floor, low ceiling, college seniors (who’s only option is to sign for slot) isn’t going to bridge the talent gap between us and the Braves, Phillies or the rest of the league and will lead to nothing more than a continuation of relying on just whoever happens to be available every off season that we can over pay to stink up the joint or other teams rejects.
Ignorance continues……….
harry, I think you are misreading the situation. Dont mistake those of us who want to give Alderson at least one full season before being critical as blind loyalty.
Very cool. I like your scoring method and it looks like Kirk Nieuwenhuis is blowing away the field and it’s not even close. Satin is kicking some ass too which is weird because nobody ever really writes anything about him.
I dont know if you caught it, but Nieuwenhuis racked up all those points despite missing the last ten games according to what I just read. That’s pretty rematkable. I cant wait to see him playing for the Mets. I have a feeling that Jason Bay is going to block players from getting promoted though.
I’m all for getting rid of some dead wood, and bring big Duda up to play 1B. He is absolutely slaughtering the ball at Buffalo. Inside Pitch compiled these stats:
“Duda, conversely, has not had any problems driving in runs. His best night of the week came on Wednesday when he went 3-for-3 with two home runs, four RBI and three runs scored. Duda has been killing the ball since his return from the disabled list, hitting .428 (12-for-28) with five home runs, nine RBI, a .525 OBP and 1.492 OPS. He has homered eight times in 111 at-bats for the Bisons this season. He is hitting .304 with runners in scoring position.”
Did you get a load of that OPS? 1.492. I’ve never heard of such a thing! I like that he hits with runners in scoring position, and I like that despite the prodigious homerun hitting, he also draws his walks. With the total power outage the Mets are going through, don’t you think we could use a big Dude in the line-up?
Part of the reason Kirk is blowing away the field is that there hasn’t been much room on the Bisons roster to take points away from him, but that increased walk rate has benefited him greatly and he has been as consistent of a performer as anyone in the system. Just about everyday he does something to help the team.
Satin tends to get overlooked because of his age (26), but he was drafted as a college senior so it is not entirely his fault and his has hit at every level he has been at. He needs to be challenged at Triple-A and with Luis Hernandez and Chin-lung Hu “blocking” him I don’t see what’s holding the Mets back from promotion him.
I just want to go a little bit off topic if you folks dont mind. I’m not a big believer in Thole. He seems miscast as a catcher and doesnt get in front of the ball, pitchers have said things about his game calling, baserunners steal at will against him, and too many passed balls. Is there anything he does good as a catcher? He can barely hit a lick and he has no power. I just dont see what all the buzz is about him. Is there anyone in our system that we can look to as a future catcher right now? If so, who is he?
He was drafted as a 1st baseman, so he actually is miscast as a catcher. His power didn’t play at 1st, but the Mets like his bat so they moved him to catcher full-time in 2008. That’s not a lot of time to learn one of the hardest positions in baseball to play.
It sucks that there really isn’t any future replacements. Francisco Pena is still there, but he seems like a long shot and Albert Cordero was the only other catcher with real major league potential. Kai Gronauer has a chance to make it as a backup because of his defensive skills, but he probably will never come close to hitting enough for a starting position.
The lack of depth in the system is a big reason the Mets should take a long look at Blake Swihart and Austin Hedges in the draft if the fall down to pick No. 44 or even the to the 2nd round.
There is ZIPPO that ever projects right now to ever make it to the Majors as a catcher. Probably the best guy we have right now at any level is Mike Nickeas (cut by the Braves) in AAA along with Dusty Ryan (cut by the Orioles)
There was some hope for Kai Grouneur (out of Germany) in AA right now but it looks like he’ll never hit enough and he’s getting on in years. Fransisco Pena (Tony Pena’s son) can’t even get playing time from his father in the DWL, is once again not hitting at all and was apparently signed primarally because his uncle (Ramon Pena) was the scout wanted him to get a nice bonus.
Through our history we have had some good catchers that came from other teams (Grote, Stearns, Trevino, Piazza) but have done a very poor job of drafting, signing and developing our own.
Duffy Dyer was probably the best one we have developed and Thole reminds me quite a bit of him.
Thole could improve his game quite a bit and become an average catcher because he is just 24 but he was never properly developed in the minors. He even spent two of his seasons down there learning 1B. Now tell me how did Josh’s bat ever project to play 1B up here? It didn’t. They just needed a 1B so they stuck him there because he wasn’t considered to be that much of a prospect. Then he started to show something and they tried him back at catcher but obviously got fast tracked up here long before he was ready because we had no one else.
Same old story.
Draft the lessor talented players, fast track anyone who shows anything and add them to a cast of expensive, under achieving veterans riding out their last contract.
We’ll start to see on Monday night if any money is finally going to be put into the future by what types of picks we make. The next checkpoint will be on July 2nd with the IFA signing period where you can sign as many players as you want (possibly for the last time with the CBA expiring in Oct.)
There is no draft, no slot guidelines, absolutely nothing to prevent a team from signing guys like Miguel Cabrerra, Pedro Martinez, Vladimir Guerrero, Jose Reyes, Rafeal Furcal, Jair Jurjens, Martin Prado, Ubaldo Jimenez, Miguel Tejada, ECT.
You are limited only in your scouts ability, judgement, connections cash and your own committment to winning.
The Wilpon’s committment to the international amateur has been something much less than even luke warm despite two of the best players we have ever produced came from here. (Reyes and Alfonzp)
We’ll see what happens on July 2nd.
I don’t remember seeing you post here before Nicholas. If this indeed is your 1st post then let me be the 1st to say welcome.
This is my first post. Thanks a lot.
Welcome to the team Nick! Glad to have you aboard. Your definitely going to enjoy it here.
Again, Welcome!