30
2012
The Binghamton Buzz: Josh Rodriguez Is Raking, Wheeler Leads League In K’s
An article by 
Ramblings from Henry and Fayette Streets
The Week That Was: April 23rd – April 29th
The Binghamton Mets played .500 ball this past week, losing two of three at home against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, while winning two of three on the road in Erie, PA over the weekend. More importantly, though, was the return of Reese Havens against Erie on Sunday (where he promptly hit his first home run of the season on the first swing of the bat in 2012), as well as Zack Wheeler’s first win at Double A ball in the same game. At weeks end, Wheeler was the top Binghamton starter as far as ERA was concerned, sitting at an impressive 1.75. He also led the team in strikeouts as well with 30 so far this season over his five starts. Also in two appearances during the week, reliever Elvin Ramirez continued his season long streak of no runs allowed, blanking New Hampshire on Wednesday night at NYSEG Stadium, as well as Erie on Friday night – a game in which he earned his first save of 2012 as well. Matt den Dekker hit safely in four of six games he played in through the week, including two doubles, a triple, and two homeruns. Juan Lagares went 4/19, with one triple to his credit, over the past week and at week’s end was hitting .240 for the season.
Wheeler earned his first Double A win on Sunday
Standings:
Club W L PCT GB
Reading Phillies 15 7 .682 -
New Britain Rock Cats 14 9 .609 1.5
Binghamton Mets 12 10 .545 3.0
New Hampshire Fisher Cats 10 12 .455 5.0
Trenton Thunder 10 12 .455 5.0
Portland Sea Dogs 7 17 .292 9.0
Player Profile: Shortstop, Josh Rodriguez
Josh Rodriguez, the latest Eastern League Player of the Week for the Binghamton Mets, has quietly produced in his first season with the team. Rodriguez was signed to a minor league deal in March of this year after spending parts of the last six seasons as a member of the Cleveland Indians and Pittsburgh Pirates organizations.
Rodriguez, 27, attended Rice University in his hometown of Houston, Texas. While playing for the Owls, he was named the Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the year in 2004, and in 2006 he was chosen as the NCAA Division I All-American Third Team third baseman. While a member of the Rice Owls, Rodriguez played in 190 games with 229 hits in 686 plate appearances for a .334 average.
In the 2006 Major League Baseball draft, Rodriguez was picked by the Cleveland Indians in the second round, 57th overall. This was actually the second time he was chosen in the Major League Baseball draft, the first being in 2003 in the 39th round by the Oakland Athletics, but he never signed with the A’s. He began his professional career as a member of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in 2006, and over the next five seasons made his way through the Indians minor league system with stops in Kinston, Akron, and Columbus. While playing for the Single A Kinston Indians in 2007, he was named to the post season Carolina League All-Star team as a shortstop.
In December of 2010, Rodriguez was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates first overall in the Rule 5 Draft held at the Winter Meetings. He played seven games for the Pirates at the beginning of the 2011 season, but was designated for assignment towards the end of April. The Indians re-acquired Rodriguez in this process, and sent him to the AAA Columbus Clippers. Rodriguez would change organizations one more time in the 2011 season, somewhat, as the Indians traded him back to the Pirates in July for cash considerations.
In 2012, Rodriguez finds himself a member of the Mets organization. Playing for Binghamton, he has appeared in 20 of the teams 22 games so far. In that stretch, he is hitting .343, with an on base percentage of .465 and slugging percentage of .471. He has two doubles and two home runs to his credit, and has stolen twice as many bases as he has been caught stealing – four and two respectively. Early in the season, Binghamton manager Pedro Lopez had Rodriguez playing second base, but after the injury to Sean Kazmar he has moved back to shortstop.
After bouncing between the Pittsburgh and Cleveland organizations in 2011, hopefully Rodriguez has found a permanent address in the orange and blue as he has been a key contributor to the Mets in 2012.
Weekly Stats Snapshot
Where the Binghamton Mets matchup against the rest of the Eastern League.
Batters:
Jefry Marte – 6th in average at .365, 8th in on base percentage at .431, 9th in OPS at .931
Matt den Dekker – 5th in runs scored with 16, 7th in hits with 26, and 3rd with 8 doubles
Pitchers:
Zack Wheeler – 1st in strikeouts with 30, 5th in ERA at 1.75
Collin McHugh – tied for 2nd in strikeouts with 26
Quote Of The Week
A little team bonding was in order in Erie on Saturday night, as Darin Gorski (@darin_gorski20) tweeted ”I still can’t hear or see from the monster truck rally. #wouldnthaveitanyotherway”
Did You Know?
In the 20 year history of the Binghamton Mets, only one player has hit for the cycle. Josh Satin completed the feat against the Bowie Baysox at Prince George’s Stadium on April 24, 2011.
About the Author: Tim Burns
A Mets fan since birth, a Binghamton Mets fan since he watched them put the first shovel in the dirt in 1991 at Henry and Fayette Streets and every season since then, Tim is a vehement supporter - and at times defender - of Binghamton and his hometown team. From the days of Isringhausen, Pulsipher, and Wilson, to Reyes and Wright, all the way to present day den Dekker, Wheeler, and McHugh, he remembers when and is proud of all those that have graduated from the ballpark formerly known as Binghamton Municipal Stadium! Let's Go (B)Mets!
14 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 23 | 18 | .561 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 19 | .548 | 0.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.0 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 6.5 |
| Marlins | 11 | 31 | .262 | 12.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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Like your weekly stats snapshot Tim. Good post thx for the info. By the way (Shameless plug) Wheeler leads all Mets minor leaguers in strikeouts as well. You can see how they rank here in my post today.
http://realdirtymets.com/2012/04/30/a-look-at-the-mets-minor-league-stats-week-4/
Really digging your B-Buzz posts. I love reading this kind of stuff. I’m also glad to see Dekker hitting well and joining Kirk in the outfield soon. I’m not really a big fan of playing Duda in the OF and I hope he has a good season so we can trade him to fill a need in the winter.
Zack wheeler is on fire… Too bad on lagares, i thought he was gonna be the man this year.. He shows flashes but can’t quite keep it going… needs to put a string of games together
No need to give up on him after a slow start. Especially considering they have had a run of cold weather, and some guys handle that better than others. But, I was like you, thinking he was primed for a monster year.
besides, lots of season left to get hot!
also, prospects mess with you like this. some guys start slow, and others that you aren’t expecting anything from have a monster stretch (like Marte). I assume they will both average out as the year progresses!
Is Reese Havens still not on the DL?
Thanks for the kudos guys! Love writin’ the weekly banter from Binghamton – it gets kinda addicting! Dekker has been solid, that’s for sure! And Wheeler is the real deal – the win/loss column doesn’t give a clear picture of how he’s actually been (and in his continuing development those aren’t the stat columns we need to worry about anyways) – it’s the strikouts and ERA that have been most impressive to me. We saw him on a very cold night in Bingo last week, and he was throwin’ it, low to mid 90′s for most pitches.
Reese came back yesterday with a bang! I’m really hoping he can stay healthy and off of the DL. When he first came to Binghamton, he looked like one of those prospects that was on the fast track, and by rights if it weren’t for the injuries I think he’d be giving Daniel Murphy a run for his money in New York right now. Again, if he can stay healthy, he will be part of ‘the future’ for the Mets.
If reese hadn’t gotten hurt the first time with the rib issue (a couple years beck) when he was destroying AA, I bet he would have been called up to get the PT when Castillo was out that ended up going mostly to Tejada. Classic case of incredibly poor timing.
so if he had made the trip, you likely never see Murphy anywhere near 2B
One point that hasn’t been touched upon, however, is that Zach is still having issues with his control which plagued him his first two seasons in A-Ball. In 25 innings this season he’s walked 14 and hit 4 batsmen – 18 freebies in total. He has shown that he has the ability, however, to dig himself out of holes caused by that wildness and thus control might not even be an issue regarding his development, but it is also something we should keep an eye on. nonetheless.
Hey Tim, I love this weekly feature by you. I love how much passion you put into it and it’s a pleasure having a true B-Mets expert on our team. Nice job my friend!
Thanks bossman!
Joey – we thought the same thing last week when we saw him pitch here at home. More than once I’m pretty sure I uttered ‘jeez Zack come on’ as one more pitch sailed out of the strike zone. Right now, I’ll chalk it up to age and the learning curve – right now. It’s certainly something the Mets pitching powers need to address before he ‘makes it’ though.
Great job Tim! Outstanding!!
Hi Tim,
I know the subject was also raised on MLB Network a while back. One comment made was that in Double-A his strikeouts would be less because he could not get away with more experienced hitters who would lay off pitches less experienced batters in A ball would go after.
From your observations, are his pitches just missing the strike zone or are they really way off the plate? And is it usual for top rated pitching prospects to not have shown major progress on their control after two years in pro ball?
Joe
Joe,
I’ll try and gauge it by my usual reaction at the ballpark in regards to pitch’s. Usually, my response is either ‘COME ON BLUE’ if it looked close but the ump called it a ball, or ‘Jeesh pitch, come on’ if it was WAY outside. The last time I saw Zack pitch there were more ‘jeesh pitch’ than there were ‘come on blue’. Seemed like the B-Mets catcher had to ‘reach’ for quite a few pitches. Now, to give Zack the benefit of the doubt, it was cold that night, really cold, so I almost wonder if his release point was a bit wandering because of that.
I would agree too that the Double A batters are more finicky (sp?) than those in Single A when it comes to what they do and don’t swing at – they’re a bit more selective. So, where the blazing fastball anywhere near the plate would get a swing from someone in Brevard County persay, the same pitch would only get a glance from a batter in Harrisburg. This is part of the learning curve for Zack, and being able to adjust to this will make or break him.
I really think Wheeler is still a work in progress, and the more games he gets to play in will help him refine his strike to ball ratio. He’s got the raw talent, that’s for sure, and he’ll be the real deal when he hones that talent a bit.
Hi Tim,
Thanks for getting back to me on Zach’s control. When his misses are more in the “come on blue” category me thinks he might be ready for the big show.