Mets Farm Report: June 6th, 2011

Buffalo Bisons 3 | Gwinnett Braves 4

I did not get to watch as much as this game as I would have liked because I was focusing on the draft, but I hope to take a closer look at it tomorrow.

From what I did see, I liked the way Chris Schwiden was throwing tonight. He was back on normal rest after going 10 days in between starts and the results were much better. He was locating the fastball particularly well and getting some good run inducing some swing and misses. His six innings and three runs was good for a quality start and at 90 pitches he could have gone deeper if he had to. 

Kirk Nieuwenhuis must not have been to happy with being moved down in the lineup because he went off tonight. He hit the ball hard all game and picked up three hits including two doubles. Before this year experts were questioning if Nieuwenhuis would hit for enough power. Well how does 25 extra base hits and a .522 slugging% through 180 at-bats sound? In a tie game in the top of the 9th Raul Chavez made a costly mistake trying to stretch a single into a double with no outs and wound up getting thrown out. Jesus Feliciano followed this with a walk, but any potential rally was already killed. Ryota Igarashi came in the next half inning and didn’t take long to blow the game, throwing just one pitch that was hit over the fence for a walk off homerun.

Stars of the Game: 1. Kirk Nieuwenhuis (3-for-4, 2 2B, R, K) (51pts) 2. Lucas Duda (1-for-3, 1B, BB) (31pts) 3. Chris Schwinden (6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO) (8pts)

Binghamton Mets

OFF

St. Lucie Mets

OFF

Savannah Sand Gnats 1 | Asheville Tourists 10

Taylor Whitenton was so bad tonight that his ERA rose by more than 1.50. He entered the game with a 2.14 ERA and after giving up nine runs in 3.2 innings left with a 3.74 ERA. You can isolate the seven strikeouts in less than four innings as impressive, but the five walks, six hits, and two homeruns overshadow that by just a tiny bit…

He is no Wilson Valdez performance, but Luis Nieves, a second baseman for the Gnats, took the mound in the 8th inning of this lopsided affair and after walking the first two hitters he faced found his groove and pitched a scoreless inning.

The four Gnats pitchers combined for 12 walks on the night, which is one more than Greg Peavey has walked all year. That is the low minors for you.

Darrell Ceciliani raised his hitting streak to six games with a 3rd inning single. Last year’s third round pick, Blake Forsythe, has shown some life at the plate the last few games going four for his last 12 with two walks. I am trying to pull some positives out of his season even though there aren’t many at all offensively or defensively.

Stars of the Game: 1. Rafael Fernandez (2-for-4, RBI) (15pts) 2. Blake Forsythe (2-for-3, BB, K) (17pts) 3. Robbie Shields (1-for-3, R, BB, K, SB) (27pts)