24
2012
A Word About Josh Edgin, Jack Egbert and Elvin Ramirez
An article by 
It’s funny how some fans view things when it comes to Mets prospects. On Tuesday, I saw some tweets regarding reliever Josh Edgin and that he’s somehow nearing a promotion to the Mets bullpen. Really? That’s news to me. I know this isn’t something they read anywhere because it’s simply not true so I have to assume it’s just this perception that surrounds him and a few other prospects.
I’m not going to go into another diatribe on why Josh Edgin isn’t ready like I did a couple of weeks ago, but I wonder how many Mets fans realize that among pitchers who have thrown ten or more innings this season for the Bisons, Josh Edgin (5.02 ERA) has the worst ERA followed by Matt Harvey (4.35 ERA) and Jeurys Familia (4.31 ERA). That’s right, those three have the worst ERA’s on our Triple-A team. And yet you can’t go one day without reading or hearing about them coming to Flushing. There’s a ton of noise out there.
I always feel bad for the players who are more deserving that nobody ever talks about like Jack Egbert and Elvin Ranirez who we have been writing about almost on a daily basis on MMO. Yesterday Ramirez got a mention on MetsBlog, thank goodness, but now I suppose it means that everyone will now memorize the name and start clamoring for him to join the Mets bullpen before long. Actually by the looks of the comments over there, it’s already begun. Good for Elvin Ramirez, but it’s still too early for talk like that where he is concerned.
On May 8 we highlighted Ramirez and Egbert on our weekly “Who’s Hot” list:
Jack Egbert (AAA) – Yet another great off-season pick-up for the Mets, Egbert has been the model of consistency thus far this season. He’s one of Wally Backman’s favorite pitchers in his pen, and he continues to get outs in big spots for the Herd. This season his numbers are: 2-2 with a 1.50 ERA in 18 innings. He’s given up only 3 ER’s on 12 hits, 4 BB’s and 12 K’s, his BAA is .190, and his WHIP is a tidy 0.89. The 6’3″ right-hander who turns 29 this week could also be pitching his way closer to the majors with each passing day.
Elvin Ramirez (AAA) – The smokin’ hot start to the season for Ramirez already has gotten him a promotion from AA Binghamton to AAA Buffalo a few days ago. Continued success will land him on the same conveyor belt headed towards Citifield as his teammates listed above. What got him the AAA promotion? Here’s the numbers he put up with Bingo in April: 0-1 with a 1.38 ERA in 13 innings, 7 hits, 2 runs, 7 BB’s, 16 K’s, a BAA of .152, and a WHIP of 1.08. This 6’3″ 24-year-old right-hander has some nasty stuff, and unlike the three relievers above who are veteran players, Ramirez is actually a prospect.
Actually, these two have made every Hot List this year so far including last weeks. 
They’ve always been hot around here…
Yesterday they had a Mets meet and greet before the Binghamton game. Our man Pete was there and when he asked a girl in a Met jersey what was going on, with a smile she said, “Zack Wheeler is talking to fans and signing autographs, and some other guy named Gruberstein.”
Sure enough there was a mob of fans surrounding Wheeler, and poor Darin Gorski, AKA Gruberstein, was all alone. It’s okay, it turned out to be a great moment for Pete who scored an interview and a photo opp with the young left-handed prospect.
I guess the point of this post is to simply say that if you read our minor league stuff, you’ll have a much better idea and understanding of what’s happening in the Mets minors. You’ll pick up a lot more than the little bits and pieces you can get from a box score or a 50 word game recap.
We have our own beat writers covering each Mets affiliate and the knowledge you can glean from any of their daily reports is first hand and insightful.
We have our Minor League Editor Pete currently travelling with the B-Mets in New Britain and he’s picked up some great information from hitting coach Luis Natera, pitching coach Glenn Abbott add interviews with Matt den Dekker, Greg Peavey and another name we keep talking about, fireballer Adrian Rosario, who we got in the K-Rod trade. That kid’s the real deal people and he’s coming on fast.
By the way, we are officially putting it out there – that Collin McHugh will soon be getting promoted to Buffalo and deservedly so. We mentioned it a few days ago, and now the buzz we’re getting is telling us it will happen sooner rather than later and he deserves it.
Andrew is in Daytona covering the 4-game series between the St. Lucie Mets and Daytona Cubs this week, and he’ll be filing a full report sometime today or tomorrow with some updated information on Ruben Tejada, Jason Bay, Josh Thole and of course the kids Chase Huchingson, Cory Mazzoni, Darrell Ceciliani and Wilmer Flores.
What I’m trying to say is don’t get tunnel vision on our prospects. If you went by the hundreds of posts out there each week, you’d get the false impression that we only have six or seven prospects worth talking about. Believe me when I tell you that there are dozens and dozens of great prospects on the horizon and you should do your due diligence as a fan and learn all about them. Don’t buy into that crap that our minor league system is ranked 25th or 27th because there’s no truth to it at all. We have a great system.
Yesterday, Pete asked a couple of the newcomers to the organization like Egbert and Rosario a simple question. How does the Mets organization compare to the ones you came from?
“ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME”, one exclaimed in shock. “This organization is a first class operation and professional from top to bottom…there’s no comparison”.
Anyway, we have some cool stuff in store for you in the next ten days including plenty of interviews and boatloads of insights from the coaches and managers who are charged with developing all this great talent in our pipeline. So keep your hand off the remote and stay tuned into MMO.
I do have a question for you.
Do you prefer audio and video clips, or do you want us to keep transcribing our interviews the way we’ve always have?
I see a lot of video and audio being done these days, and it seems to be gaining in popularity. MetsBlog seems to have ramped up those formats on their site. Would you like to see that here too? Drop me a line and let me know.
Personally, I’m old-fashioned and I prefer a good read to a good listen and when we transcribe it gives us an opportunity to throw in some insights and afterthoughts which you cant do on a video clip.
Also, I still haven’t found someone to cover the Kingsport Mets who will get things going this summer. If you live in the area, love to write, and would like to attend the games for free, let me know and I’ll hook you up.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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I personally like it when interviews are transcribed but it’s due to being able to highlight and share a quote of something I may find of interest. Overall I always would rather hear the person speak in his/her own words 1st though.
Good stuff. Looking forward to it all.
And I prefer the read vs. the listen myself.
transcribe, but it is nice to have the link to the audio too.
Joe, a question for you (or Pete? Beuller? Beuller?)
this is the 2nd time in 2 days that the first class operation was mentioned in regards to speaking with a prospect. What I would like to know is, did that change any since 2010? Yes, I am curious if there are tangible differences noticed in the system with the new FO (and I am on record as saying rebuilding the organization top to bottom (and not just bodies) was a huge part of what Sandy was brought in to do).
if not, and it was first class before, then that is something you have to give credit to the owners for.
That’s a great question stick, but I dont have an answer. It’s a great question to ask a guy like Pascucci or even Collin McHugh who has been here since 2008. We talk to Collin a lot so I’ll try to get him to talk about that and share it in another post.
Just a quick blurb on Audio vs Transcript.
Transcripts are great but mostly because they also include the question asked which is important to dicerning and adding context to the context of the answer…
But hearing the words and how they were said can also lend meaning and intent to the words that simply doesn’t show up in the transcripts.
Video is usually a bandwidth eating luxury that adds little to the information. Except in the case of replays where you can see exactly what happened, other than that Video is a luxury and bandwidth hog that mostly isn’t worth it (Note this is coming from a guy who makes his living making video! LOL)
Nuff on that…Onto the meat about prospects…
The problem is too many folks don’t see these kids play and as a result do what they are left with look at the stats and assume they tell you anything. They give hints but not truth we all know that!
A Kid hitting .320 in the Minors doesn’t mean a guy hitting .320 in the Majors. More likely he drops .040 points and hits .280!
And as much as a MiL Pitcher throwing a 1 Hitter sounds impressive who he pitched it against is just as important!
The guys who they face in the Minors are there for a reason, Not ready yet!
And sense of a stat saying they are doesn’t prove they are!
Just proves they are more ready than who they have faced.
How they got to those stats is ultimatly more important. A guy like Familia could pitch 2 no hitters in a row this week but if he still has a deficiency of secondary pitches it won’t translate to success in the MLB.
Stats are only good for illustrating what it is you have seen they can not substitute for that sight!
A mistake way too many people make around here!
I dont really blame the fans, I blame a negative media who has pushed this agenda that our minor league system sucks. That’s why I suggested that fans do their due diligence and ignore that negativity and check out some of the other players and how well they are doing by doing a little extra digging.
A lot of the minor league games can be listened to online for free now. Each day you can get a list of what Mets affiliates are broadcasting and streaming live on Mets.com.
As for the stats, yes I agree. That’s why a few weeks ago I said just because Edgin was lights out in the lower levels, don’t expect the same success in AAA. The same for Familia and Harvey. I was against either of them starting the season in AAA and was hoping for a few more confidence building starts in Bingo before thrusting them in the limelight like that.
flip side is, don’t get too freaked out about numbers, especially in a small sample (such as ERA) a couple of bad outings can really skew that, but really evaluating a prospect in terms of what he can do for the mets has more to do with his stuff and perceived readiness.
some guys are just real good at their level (crafty MiL vets?) that can put up what are on the surface fine numbers, but when you really look at them they aren’t likely to have the goods to succeed at the next level (say, schwinden?). Other guys though might have the “stuff”, but just needed a little time to get it all together. factor all that in, and you can get call ups that on the stats surface don’t seem to make sense.
I’ll make an analogy here:
You have a good basket with the best apples of any grower…
You take those apples and eat them….
You have fewer good apples remaining in the basket…
You then say the basket is very poor due to a lack of good apples!
Just because we seemed to have fewer high level prospects according to BA thats only because we took the best from the Minors and used them in the MLB where BA doesn’t count them anymore!
They all pointed to the fact we were in the bottom half of the league according to BA and adding two guys Wheeler and Nimmo made out MiL a good one (it’s really middle pack now!)
Well how high would it have jumped if Ike Davis, Daniel Murphy, Reuben Tejada, Dillon Gee, Josh Thole, and Lucas Duda were still down there playing the way they have in the MLB or better and being counted by BA?
If that were true Omar would have created the best MiL system of any team!
These guys who complain about the MiLs all think that being on BA’s list means your an All Star or HOFer…Hardly the case…F-Mart sure proved that!
From 2009 to now we have sucked the best our Minors had to offer due to injuries and now contract attrition!
And all those guy we brought up have done well regardless of what BA ranked them!
So whatever weakness was percieved in our MiL system has as much to do with how many got promoted as anything to do with what we had!
I don’t think that many fans, especially those that followed him at St. Lucie, will forget Gorski’s name in the future cause he seems to have one as he continues to improve and impress the people that matter, FO and TC.
I like transcripts for reasons mentioned here but video is nice but just audio would not be my fav.
oh, the othe rreason for transcripst?
your at-work readers that can’t listen to audio!
I prefer transcripts to audio. As far as stats for minor leaguers, I agree that it is extremely hard to make an informed opinion about a player (in training) by looking at their stats. If a pitcher and coach decide to work on a specific pitch they could, concievably, have a bad outing; however, this outing may have been the most beneficial start they had. Now for hitters this is not the same. Position player’s batting stats and baserunning stats do show tendencaies. The fielding numbers on the other hand are pretty useless. All in all if you wanna know about the farm then you have to watch the games.
I for one prefer reading interviews and quite honestly videos always seem so choppy and mumbly and difficult to understand.
Bring on Egbert!
It’s about time they send up Elvin and release Acosta. How many more appearances does he need? He has been magnificent.
Joe, you’ve written a wonderful article which provides a needed perspective to the many sources of information we each have. Regarding the minor league players within our system, thanks for the giving us a heads up of what its’ all about. Also your reinforcement of the idea that the players who receive less exposure haven’t dropped off a cliff was helpful. Most of those lesser light guys are somttimes competitive with the hot prospects, but they’re often just a bit less successful. Sometimes there are just small differences. Better players get more ink but the game is played on the field and fans who forget that may skew their own views at peril to their understanding of the game — average players and even some lesser lights still contribute to the game, the team, and the organization.
Joe, in the future, I’d like to see transcripts that include the interviewer’s insights, such as you do now. And also include a video clip or two each day if the budget permits. From a consumer’s stance, it isn’t a zero-sum game. But it may be for the production costs. If so, please let us know and I, and I’m certain, many MMO fans, will respond generously for the larger budget.
I like to read the interviews. I also can do that in places where audio would be inappropriate or rude.