Cam Maron – Mets Future Backstop?

Welcome back for part two in the MMO series where we bring you the depth charts for each position in the Mets minor league system. We started off last week with the First-basemen, and continue the series this week with the five best Catchers in the Mets organization.

It has been well documented that the Mets are thin in catching throughout the organization, but is there anyone already here that might be about to erupt onto the prospect scene? Or perhaps a player or two who are quietly putting together a solid start to their minor league careers? Or the one nobody is talking about? Keep reading to find out.

1. Cam Maron

The number one catching prospect in the Mets system is arguably the left-handed hitting back-stop, Cam Maron from Hicksville, NY. Maron was initially drafted by the Mets in the 34th round of the 2209 MLB first year player draft out of Hicksville High School. At first Maron was extremely raw behind the plate, but has worked very diligently on his footwork and receiving skills, as well as his throwing mechanics, and has made tremendous strides defensively.

His swing has always been a good contact stroke and he has exhibited very good plate discipline, although thus far the emphasis has been on developing his defensive game. Despite this, he had a very good year with the bat in 2012, placing second on the Savannah Sand Gnats in hitting with a .300 batting average in 343 at-bats. Thanks to a very good K/BB ratio of 73/53, he led his team in on-base percentage with a .403, while hitting five home runs and driving in 47.

Maron brings a lot of skills to the catching position. Since he was drafted out of high school, he has four professional seasons under his belt but is still only 21-years-old. He has a good eye at the plate, has hit .300 or better in each of his last three minor league seasons, and shows a definite feel for the nuances of the catching position. Expect him to meet the challenges of the advanced-A Florida State League in 2013 where his bat will be truly put to the test.

2. Kevin Plawecki

Some would say that the Mets 1st round sandwich pick from 2012, Kevin Plawecki is the Mets number one catching prospect, and I wouldn’t argue too strenuously one way or the other. It’s merely the difference between a 21-year-old catcher like Maron who was developed in the Mets system, and who has a sweet lefty line-drive swing, and a developing defensive game. Or a 21-year-old right-handed power hitter, who was developed at a major university, and can hit one out of any ballpark in any given at-bat, and has a developing defensive game.

Comparing Maron and Plawecki is like comparing apples and oranges. They both are solid back-stops. They both show a great deal of talent. They have both only played in low-A ball up to this point, and have a very long way to go. Where Maron is very selective at the plate and will take the walk, Plawecki is looking for something to drive, however unlike the proto-typical slugger Plawecki rarely strikes out.

In 216 at-bats this year with the Brooklyn Cyclones, Plawecki hit .250 with seven home runs and 27 RBI’s. His K/BB ratio was 24/25, which raised his on-base percentage for the season to .345. As you can see Plawecki is a very pleasant combination of disciplined hitter, and slugger. If he can make the necessary adjustments to better pitching as he moves up the ladder, he could become a very intriguing prospect further down the line.

3. Francisco Pena

In writing this I am making the assumption that Pena will sign to play with the Mets organization again in 2013. You see he originally signed with them as an International Free Agent way back in July of 2006, and has now played six years in the Mets system. Since he has not been added to the 40-man roster, he is now an unrestricted free-agent. Hopefully the Mets need at catcher, his loyalty to the organization, and their desire to keep him in the fold will mean a return for him next season, but who knows?

The 23-year-old back-stop swung the bat pretty well for St. Lucie in the first half of 2012, going .254 with four home runs and 22 RBI’s, and earned a promotion to Binghamton for the second half. He never really got the bat going on his first run through the Eastern League hitting only .198 with three homers and 17 RBI’s in 126 at-bats.

I talked to Francisco shortly after he was called up to Bingo, in New Britain, CT towards the end of July. He told me the thing he was working the hardest on was getting in tune with the pitchers and what they were throwing since he hadn’t caught most of them since the previous season. Always considered a very good defensive catcher, Pena platooned with Binghamton’s starting catcher last year, Juan Centeno.

For his six year pro career, Pena has thrown out 30% of potential base stealers. He calls a very good game, receives the ball exceptionally well, and has a lifetime fielding percentage of .986. But the smart money would have Pena return to AA for the beginning of 2013. He needs to get the bat going at that level before he will be ready for AAA and the Las Vegas 51′s out there in the desert. Besides Centeno clearly outplayed him in the second half last year, so if anyone has truly earned that promotion it would be Centeno, not Pena.

4. Blake Forsythe

The 23-year-old righty hitting catcher started his professional career when the Mets made him their 2010 3rd round pick (89th overall) in the MLB first year player draft out of the University of Tennessee. He was drafted just after the Mets took Matt Harvey, and just before they took Cory Vaughn and then Matt den Dekker.

It has been slow going for Forsythe as he still looks to get his bat going, but he has made significant defensive strides in his three years in the organization. He is a tireless worker and takes great pride in his defensive game and his ability to work well with the pitching staff. His hitting has made very small advancements each season to where he just completed his first full season in the Florida State League with St. Lucie.

It was an up-and-down year as he started the season with an outstanding April and May, hitting .283 with four home runs and 22 RBI’s on June 1st. But a mediocre June and July where he hit just .244 with one home run and 12 RBI’s, combined with a pretty poor showing in August where he hit just .197 with three home runs and eight RBI’s, lowered his numbers for the season to .244/.339/.397, with eight home runs and 42 RBI’s.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility for a player of Forsythe’s pedigree to experience a quantum leap in any given season. But for it to happen with Forsythe in 2013 it will have to correspond to when he makes the big jump to AA. With Cam Maron, Alberto Cordero and Xorge Carrillo pushing their way up from Savannah, Forsythe will almost certainly be forced to open the year at Binghamton.

Forsythe still needs to cut down on his strikeouts before he can find success in the Eastern League next year. In 2011 in 370 at-bats at Savannah, he struck out 123 times, or roughly once every three at-bats. This past year at Lucie he batted 295 times, and managed to cut his strikeouts a bit to 89, or roughly once every 3.4 at-bats. He needs to keep making progress in that direction moving forward. The upcoming season will be a very important one for the young catcher from Tennessee, let’s hope he can make the most of the opportunity.

5. Juan Centeno

Soon to be 23-years-old, the 5’7″ 175 lb. left-hand hitting Centeno was the first string catcher all season at AA Binghamton last year. He posted career highs last season in at-bats (281), runs scored (29), hits (80), doubles (12), 3B’s (2), and RBI’s (35). He was originally drafted by the Mets in the 32nd round of the 2007 first year player draft out of high school in Puerto Rico.

Centeno is a solid defensive catcher, and has a knack for making contact at the plate. His slash-line for the year was .285/.337/.342, and he threw out 41% of would-be base stealers, while posting a fielding percentage of .991. I look for Centeno to open next season in a catching tandem with a veteran player for Wally Backman at AAA Las Vegas. I would not expect any significant contributions to the big league club in 2013, but a strong season at AAA could propel him onto the 40-man roster for the start of 2014.

Organizational Grade Catcher: C-

Be sure to check back next week when we release the official Mets Minor League Depth Chart: Right-handed Pitchers. You won’t want to miss that! Speaking of which, if you missed the Metsmerized Radio show from this week, then do yourself a favor and check it out in the archive, as it was probably our best show so far! And keep in mind that next week Metsmerized Radio will come to you on it’s new day, Wednesday, which will happen to correspond with our very very special Halloween Show, and believe me you will rather be attacked by a horde of vampires rather than miss that!

Just to make it easy for you, here is this past Thursday night’s show: Metsmerized Radio Oct. 25th, 2012.

As you probably already know, the Mets affiliation with the AAA International League franchise in Buffalo came to a screeching halt at the conclusion of the 2012 season, and the Mets will be forced to play their AAA games in the Pacific Coast League for the Las Vegas 51′s beginning in 2013. The Mets were only in Buffalo for four years this time from 2009 – 2012, and during that time they never finished any higher in the standings than 3rd, which they accomplished in 2010 under Ken Oberkfell. The other three years they finished fifth once, and sixth (last) twice.

The constant stripping of the Buffalo ball club of it’s best performers by the woefully undermanned parent club, is the reason for the four seasons of futility while the Mets were in Buffalo. And that is the reason why the city of Buffalo couldn’t wait for the agreement with the Mets to expire so they could kick them out in favor of a more stable, better run, and more successful major league franchise.

This past season the Herd finished sixth with a record of 67-76 for a .469 winning %. They were managed by Wally Backman, with George Greer the hitting coach, and Mark Brewer the pitching coach. Brewer was let go at the end of the season.

Hitting

The hitting attack was led by major league veteran, left-fielder Fred Lewis, who was named the team MVP for the season. Lewis signed as a free agent at the end of April to fill a hole created by Captain Kirk’s promotion, and an injury to outfielder Corey Wimberly. Lewis stepped in at the top of the batting order and picked up some of the offensive slack when second-baseman Bobby Scales bolted to Japan. For the season, in 419 at-bats, Lewis scored 80 runs, hit 13 homers and knocked in 45, while swiping 25 bases. He posted a slash-line of .294/.379/.482.

First-baseman Josh Satin was another top hitter for the Herd, batting .286 in 441 at-bats, with 14 home runs and 60 RBI’s. Despite a solid month of May, third-baseman/outfielder Matt Tuiasosopo struggled at the plate and was slumping badly heading into August. But a very good final month of the season helped him salvage some fairly respectable final numbers. It still was an off year for the veteran righty hitter who went .242/.329/.361 at the plate with 12 home runs and 57 RBI’s.

It was an all-or-nothing season for fan favorite and minor league legend, slugger Valentino Pascucci. Scooch hit 17 bombs, and drove in 62 in 383 at-bats, but he struck out a ton and batted just .217. His K/BB ratio was a mind-boggling 148/87. Utility man Vinny Rottino did a spectacular job for the Herd for the first half of the season.

Rottino was lost by the organization after being called up to the Mets for a quick cup of coffee, and when they tried to slip him through waivers and outright him back to the minors, he was scooped up by the Cleveland Indians on June 27th. While with Buffalo he hit .297 with nine homers and 66 RBI’s, in 374 at-bats, while playing all over the field, C, LF, and RF. Believe it or not, Rottino’s 66 ribbie’s in half-a-season led the team in that category for the entire year.

Center-fielder Matt den Dekker was called up from Binghamton at mid-season and struggled his first time around in AAA hitting only .220 with nine home runs, 47 RBI’s and 11 stolen-bases in 295 at-bats. He also struck out 90 times, and walked just 14 times. After the Mets lost shortstop Omar Quintanilla on waivers to Baltimore, they promoted infielder Josh Rodriguez from Binghamton to play short for the Herd and he did a marvelous job filling in for them the rest of the way.

In 257 at-bats at AAA, Josh-Rod hit a solid .265 with eight home runs, and 32 RBI’s. Third-baseman Zach Lutz had a typical year for himself. He missed nearly half the season with injuries, this time it was a broken hamate bone in his wrist. Therefore he managed only 244 at-bats this past year, but hit at his usual dominant pace when he was in there.

The powerful righty slugger launched ten homers and drove in 35, while posting a slash of .299/.410/.496. The catching duties were shared primarily by Rob Johnson, and Lucas May with a little Mike Nickeas sprinkled in. And of course the Mets drew from the pool of talent at AAA again this year by recalling Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Jordany Valdespin, in addition to Johnson, Rottino, and Quintanilla.

Pitching

The pitching staff was fronted by Buffalo Most Valuable Pitcher this year, right-hander Matt Harvey. Harvey went 7-5, 3.68, in 20 game starts covering 110 innings. He struck out 112 while walking 48 and had a WHIP of 1.32. The number two starter behind Harvey was righty Jeurys Familia, who was a little bit hot-and-cold this season in his first exposure to AAA.

Family pitched 137 innings over 28 game starts, and compiled a record of 9-9 with a 4.73 ERA. He struck out 128 and walked 73. The other primary starters for the 2012 Bisons were: RHP Chris Schwinden (9-9, 3.21), LHP Garrett Olson (4-7, 4.63), RHP Collin McHugh (2-4, 3.42), RHP Jenrry Mejia (3-4, 3.54), RHP Dylan Owen (4-9, 6.28), and RHP Jeremy Hefner (5-2, 2.77).

The Bison bullpen was headed by former major league veteran Fernando Cabrera who served as the team’s closer. The tall right-hander started the season en fuego, but started a decline at mid-season and by year’s end, his numbers had become fairly pedestrian. He pitched in 57 games, going 4-5 with 22 saves, and a 4.10 ERA.

The primary right-handed set-up men in the Herd bullpen this year were Elvin Ramirez (3-1, 2.36), Jeff Stevens (1-1, 3.32), Pedro Beato (4-4, 3.64), and Jack Egbert (3-4, 5.40). The main lefties in the pen this year were Justin Hampson (4-3, 2.33), and Josh Edgin (3-2, 3.89).

Conclusion 

All in all, the big league team’s season of frustration was mirrored by it’s highest minor league affiliate in 2012. The Bisons started the year with a talented ball club, and a great deal of optimism, but the season was to be undermined by an unstable parent club and the Herd would wind up stampeding to nowhere. What can we expect in 2013 when the AAA team will be forced to move to the Pacific Coast League and play at one of the worst places in the world to play outdoor baseball, Las Vegas?

Between the big league club’s mess, and financial woes, and the difficulty it will have in acquiring players willing to play their home games at Las Vegas next year, it will more than likely be another horrible season for the Mets at the AAA level in 2013.

What Would Wally Say About This Past Season?

If you are looking for a real fun way to spend a half-hour a week listening to some hot-stove talk about everything Mets baseball, tune into Metsmerized Radio, where your hosts Satish Ram, and myself will talk about all the hot topics as they come up over the off-season and beyond. The show airs live every Thursday night at 7 pm, but you can listen to any of the shows at anytime by going to the top of the MMO page and clicking the Metsmerized Radio tab. Here’s the link if you want to save it in your browser:

Metsmerized Radio

Satin Is Ready To Hit In The Bigs

In following MMO’s steadfast desire to provide you with the best in-depth analysis of the Mets Minor League farm system, we would like to introduce you to a brand new weekly feature that will appear throughout the off-season. As you can see it’s called: Mets Minor League Positional Depth Chart, and when all is said-and-done you’ll have a much better understanding of the specific strengths and weaknesses of the farm system, as well as an idea as to the overall state of the farm.

This first installment of the new series will feature the position of First Base. In future weeks we will also be doing separate pieces on catcher, the middle infield, the top ten outfielders, the top ten right-handed starting pitchers, the top five left-handed starting pitchers, and the top ten relievers.

A few things to keep in mind for the entire series, which I hope will eliminate some confusion, is as follows:

My criteria for selecting the players on these lists is not based solely on any specific numbers or statistics, especially concerning players in the low levels of the minor leagues where stats are relative and often meaningless.

I am basing these lists purely on a player’s “play-ability,” his upside. I am only listing players I believe to be “big league prospects” not minor league all-stars or big league “suspects.”

I am not saying all of these players will make the big leagues either. Alas, they will not. It’s just not that easy to be a big leaguer. It takes not only talent, but luck. So only about 20 to 30% of these players will ever even sniff the big leagues. But from out of these lists of players the next Ike Davis, or Ruben Tejada, or Matt Harvey will emerge.

So without further adieu, numbers 1 through 5, the best of the Mets’ minor league first-sackers:

1. Aderlin Rodriguez

Originally signed by the Mets as a 16-year-old International Free Agent back in the summer of 2008, Rodriguez has now spent four full seasons in the Mets system playing mostly third-base. He is the prototypical right-handed slugger, and he hits mammoth homeruns whether the wind is blowing or not. Has a tendency to strikeout a wee bit.

He has struggled defensively at third-base during his career so far, and I think it is only a matter of time before he winds up shifting to the other side of the diamond and settling his 6’3″ 220 lb. frame in at first-base. For his career, his Fielding % at third-base is .883, and that is not going to cut it now that he has made it as far as advanced-A ball. Something has to give and I believe this is the year he will make the move. In ten games in his career at first base, he has a FLD% of .977.

For Rodriguez as a hitter, it has been the same as with many power-hitter/run-producer types. He needs to cut down on the strikeouts, through improved pitch selection and recognition. Despite striking out the past two seasons over 100 times each year, he has shown marked improvement in the contact and power aspects of his hitting.

In 2011 with Savannah in the South Atlantic League, his slash-line was .221/.265/.372. He had a K/BB ratio of 106/29. This past season which was split between Savannah and St. Lucie, his slash was .263/.321/.476, showing marked improvement in contact with a .042 point rise, and especially slugging where the improvement was a whopping .104 percentage points. His K/BB ratio in 2012 showed modest improvement at 101/37.

Now for the really cool stuff. He led the entire Mets farm system this past season in home runs with 24, and RBI’s with 83. He finished the season as a 20-year-old in the advanced-A Florida State League with the St. Lucie Mets. Because he only had 153 at-bats with Lucie, he will likely open the 2013 season there for more fun-in-the-sun, with perhaps a mid-season call-up to AA.

2. Josh Satin

When a player spends four years in college, and then gets drafted at the age of 22, it may just take the guy four seasons before he is able to get in a full year at AAA in his fifth year in the organization. If you do the math, that would put him in line to be a 28-year-old rookie in the big leagues in 2013.

Say hello to Josh Satin, who despite his 26 big league at-bats with the Mets, must now wait and see if he gets that coveted spring training “invitation.” Whether he does, or starts the season at AAA, he only has one more year to show the Mets that he can contribute to the big club.

Last year at AAA Buffalo, Satin led the team in at-bats with 441, and hits with 126. He was second on the team in runs scored with 72, home runs with 14, total bases with 195, and walks with 77. And he ranked third on the team in doubles with 25, and RBI’s with 60.

Although Satin has a limited ceiling at this point, he is an experienced player who handles the bat pretty well. He doesn’t have a lot of speed and is limited defensively to being an infield utility guy who doesn’t play shortstop. He profiles as a complimentary player off the bench but whether he fits in to the Mets future plans is very much in question at this point.

3. Jeff Diehl

The opposite end of the spectrum in player development is what transpired to net the Mets this power hitting prospect back in 2011. It was then that Mets made the 6’4″ 195 lb right-handed hitting high school catcher their 23rd round pick in the MLB amateur draft. He decided against college baseball and the Mets signed him late to an over-slot signing bonus of $135,000. He was the best prospect from the state of Rhode Island that year, and made his debut with Kingsport this season.

Back problems in spring training led the Mets to the decision to scrap any plans to keep Diehl behind the plate, and he was moved into the outfield to start the year with a few games sprinkled in at first-base. Having just turned 19, this kid is still growing and he’s going to be a beast and I believe he will ultimately wind up at first-base, if not this year then within the next two seasons.

Lingering back issues throughout the 212 season limited Diehl to playing in roughly 80% of Kingsport’s games in the rookie-level Appalachian League last year. He is still extremely raw and untested and will probably play in Brooklyn next year, but there is no denying the potential of this young man to crush the ball. And of course, that is an extremely rare commodity throughout the Mets organization.

He played primarily outfield this year, 27 games in RF, one game in LF, 12 as a DH, and nine at 1B. He had 43 hits and 18 runs scored in 171 at-bats, with 12 doubles, four triples, two home runs, and 21 RBI’s. His slash-line was .251/.291/.404, but he clearly needs to improve his plate discipline moving forward, as his 64/9 K/BB ratio will attest.

4. Allan Dykstra

Shortly after Sandy Alderson took over as G.M. of the Mets, one of the first trades he made was with San Diego when he sent the Mets 2007 top draft pick (42nd overall) right-hander “Fast” Eddie Kunz to the Pads in return for their 2008 first round pick (23rd overall), first-baseman Allan Dykstra. The 6’5″ 25-year-old lefty slugger, who is no relation to Lenny, has spent the last two seasons playing for AA Binghamton in the Eastern League.

Despite a broken left-arm suffered in a play at first base which wiped out two months of his 2012 season, Dykstra while with Binghamton, has hit a combined 154-for-581, with 92 runs scored, 31 doubles, one triple, 26 home runs, and 102 RBI’s, for a slash of .265/.401/.456. He’s a very good defender at first base even though he throws right-handed. For his five year minor league career, he has had exactly 2400 chances at first, and has put up a FLD% of .986.

Just like in the major leagues, when a minor league player has spent six years in the minors, he then becomes a free agent heading into his seventh professional season, so 2013 will be crucial for Dykstra in regards to his future in the Mets organization.

He should open the season in AAA for the Mets since that roster is basically wide-open at this point, and two seasons at AA should be plenty. His amount of playing time will depend on him, as well as whether or not the front office brings in another slugging first-baseman like Buffalo Bison fan favorite Valentino Pascucci or someone else like him.

5. Jayce Boyd

With their 6th round pick of the 2012 amateur draft, the Mets took Florida State first-baseman Jayce Boyd and signed him to $150,000 signing bonus, $31,700 under the MLB Bonus Pool Amount. The 21-year-old slugger has a quick, smooth, fluid right-hand stroke, and as he settles into pro ball, he should develop into a solid 20 homer a year power guy. Having only just gotten his feet wet in professional baseball so far, he appeared in 54 games for the Brooklyn Cyclones in 2012.

He went 48-for-201, with 18 runs scored, nine doubles, one triple, five home runs, and 19 RBI’s. He also had a very respectable 30/25 K/BB ratio, and a slash-line of .239/.320/.368. An outstanding defensive first-baseman, Boyd put up a FLD% last season of .994 in 492 chances.

Look for Boyd to open the 2013 season in Savannah, probably in a 1B/DH rotation with lefty-hitting Cole Frenzel and another player. Most likely it will develop into a friendly competition between Boyd and Frenzel to see who will get the first promotion to St. Lucie. That will depend on the players just ahead of them at St. Lucie next season, Aderlin Rodriguez and Brian Harrison.

There are some interesting players here, and one or two of them may make the show one day and stay there for a while. But unfortunately the position of First-Base in the Mets minor league system is extremely weak. Rodriguez, Boyd, and Diehl are still many light-years away from the major leagues, and Satin and Dykstra, because of their advanced ages have limited ceilings.

Ideally you want your corner outfield and infield spots to be burgeoning with budding power hitters in a strong and healthy minor league system. That will translate to the same at the big-league level eventually. But the way the Mets organization habitually ignores the element of power hitting (as well as catching and left-handed pitching) in their player scouting, drafting and signing, the team will remain in the “Dark Ages” where power hitting is concerned for quite some time.

Organizational Grade First-Base:    C-

Which Way To 2013?

Would You Buy A Used Car From This Man?

I was reading the excellent post by Joe D that was inspired by a statement from Metsie entitled, “Are The Players Turning The Tables On The Mets Front Office?” But I felt one key factor was missing from the summations made in the piece and on the comment thread that ensued.

One chapter in Mets recent history that needs to be pointed out again, was the deep, wide-stretching amount of damage Sandy did when he opened up his big and insensitive mouth this year at mid-season. That was when he decided to shirk his own responsibility for the state of this team and throw his players under the bus.

He thought we Mets fans were so stupid that all he had to do was suggest it, and as though he were using Jedi-Mind-Tricks, we fans would actually blame the players for the state of the team as they started to crumble and not Alderson himself. And this coming on the heels of the players over-achieving for most of the first half of the season.

That was when Mr. Alderson lost me. And he didn’t lose just me either. He also lost most if not all of his players and coaches, and a great many fans. If you were David Wright, would you want to play for owners like these, and a GM that doesn’t care or even respect his players?

If you were R.A. Dickey and you saw the way they handled the Jose Reyes contract situation. The way they have done nothing to improve the major league team, and I mean nothing. The way they disrespect their own players. The way they are committed to losing rather than winning. Would you want to sign a four year commitment to play for this team? And possibly without David Wright as part of it any longer?

These guys are competitive, pro-athletes, who got to where they are in life by competing and winning. They don’t want to play for a team in turmoil, a team with no direction, no plan, no clear path or understanding.

Alderson is a corporate extension of the owners’ malaise, and ineptitude. He is their reflection. Their mirror image. Two suits staring at one another, Wilpon and Alderson. Alderson and Wilpon. Okay I give up which is which? Because I can’t tell them apart anymore.

The fact is ownership doesn’t give a damn if the team wins or loses, and the GM they hired doesn’t care either.

Cyclones Are Number One & Their Mascot Feels The Same About Metsmerized

Cyclone right-hander Hansel Robles took the hill for the Cyclones on Friday night at MCU Park at Coney Island in the New York Penn League semi-finals opener against Hudson Valley. Robles shocked the crowd, his teammates, and even his manager, as he hurled a complete game four-hit shutout, walking none and striking out ten, to defeat the Hudson Valley Renegades by a score of 4-0 in game one of the best-of-three series. It was Robles’ first complete game of his career.

Robles Before Last Night’s Game As He Displays His Metsmerized Online Button

Brooklyn scored once in the first and three more times in the second inning, to give Robles all the cushion he would require in bringing home a very crucial game one victory. Phillip Evans shined defensively at shortstop as well, showing off good range, and a powerful throwing arm. He was also the hitting star going 2-for-4 with an RBI.

As for Robles, a 5’11″ righty from the Dominican Republic, last night’s performance left his manager Rich Donnelly a little bit in awe after the game. “I think it’s 42 scoreless” (Robles has actually not allowed an earned run since July 28, a stretch spanning 45.2 innings) “It just blows my mind. That’s not the same kid that came to Port St. Lucie March 3rd. He’s a different kid. This is even more incredible. In 13 starts, this is incredible, this has never happened, anywhere. He’s given up more than one run, once.”

“He’s learned how to compose himself. Get the ball, go to the rubber, and pitch. Bad call, no problem. Hit a guy, no problem. Give up a bloop, no problem. Course before, he’d be walking around the mound, he’d be halfway to second base. August 29th he got married and hopefully he’s grown up a little bit, and that’s what part of this process is, it’s sometimes when you grow up it also helps your baseball career. Because you see things in a different light. He probably signed when he was 16 or 17 so….I didn’t see this coming. I was completely blindsided.”

Cyclone Manager Rich Donnelly Answers Questions After Friday Night’s Game

After the game Robles described his method of attacking the Renegades hitters. “My approach was to get the hitters out with the least amount of pitches and go right after hitters,” he said afterwards through a translator. “I’ve been really focusing on working on pitching inside. My pitching coach (Marc Valdes) told me that pitching inside leads to better things. I’ve been focusing on working on the inside part of the plate. I used my sinking fastball and I’ll cut the fastball a little so it cuts in on lefties.”

The 22-year-old Robles was dominant from the start and threw 102 pitches in the game. After allowing a single to the second hitter he faced, he retired the next twelve in a row. He only let one runner get to second base all night, and that was with two outs in the eighth inning, and was never in any kind of trouble during the game. Afterwards I asked him what pitch he got most of his strikeouts with, and he told me his fastball and his slider were his two strikeout pitches during the game.

He went the full nine, giving up four singles, of which only one was hit hard. He struck out ten Renegades, and walked none. Despite his impeccable command last night, he did hit Renegade catcher Jake DePew with a pitch with two outs and nobody on in the eighth inning, and Brooklyn up 4-0. Coincidentally, Robles teammate third-baseman Dimas Ponce, was plunked hard by a pitch, back in the first inning….hmmm.

The Brooklyn offense started it off in the first inning when Brandon Nimmo led off with a single, followed by the Ponce plunking. Phil Evans then hit into a double-play moving Nimmo to third. First-baseman Jayce Boyd then came up with a big two-out hit up the middle to score Nimmo with what would be all the runs they would require, and a 1-0 lead.

Cyclone First-Baseman Jayce Boyd

In the bottom of the second the Cyclones would bat around, but only get three runs. Left-fielder Stefan Sabol led off with an infield single and went to second on a throwing error by the third-baseman Richie Shaffer. Cyclone second-baseman Juan Carlos Gamboa attempted to sacrifice but the Renegades starter Jesse Hahn botched the play to put men on first and third.

After one out, DH Jorge Rivero had a huge hit, a line-drive double down the left-field line to score Sabol, making it 2-0 and putting runners on second and third. Nimmo was then intentionally walked, to the dismay of the crowd. It was then that Dimas Ponce exacted sweet revenge for being hit by a pitch in his first at-bat. He launched a single to right to score Gamboa, making it now 3-0.

Phillip Evans then capped the scoring by lining a single to left, scoring Rivero and making it 4-0. The Cyclones finished with just the four runs despite getting ten hits in the game, which left the manager a little concerned about where the offense is going to come from in the rest of the series. “We didn’t get that big double off the wall I’ve been looking for since July 4th, maybe before we leave here we’ll get it.”

With Brooklyn now leading the series 1-0, the focus shifts to the Hudson Valley, as the Renegades will be hosting game two tonight at 7:05 pm, at Dutchess Stadium. Donnelly announced last night that the starter for Brooklyn will be 6’3″ right-hander Luis Mateo, who pretty much shared the unofficial title of “ace” for the Cyclone pitching staff this year. Donnelly hopes this Robles/Mateo combo will act as an efficient knock-out punch to the Renegades play-off hopes with a victory in game two. I will be at the game tonight for more onsite coverage, and the kind of stuff you can’t find about the Mets minors anywhere else. Only on MMO. Let’s go Clones!

Robles Delivers At Hudson Valley Back On July 3rd

Newest Cyclone Is Off To A Fast Start

With only a week to go in the minor league season, this series you’ve all grown to love will unfortunately be coming to an end after next Friday’s edition. So it is with great pleasure that I present to you this Friday’s edition of the smash-hit feature exclusively on MMO, Mets Minors Beat. This week we look at some amazing pitching performances, some late-season promotions, and the end of some player’s seasons. Keep reading to get caught up on this week’s Mets Minor League world.

Buffalo

Fred Lewis – The veteran left-fielder is finishing his season strong, going 12-for-37 with seven runs, two doubles, three home runs, three walks and six RBI, for a slash-line of .324/.375/.622 in his last ten games. For the year Lewis is 120-for-413, with 77 runs scored, 25 doubles, 7 triples, 13 home runs, 43 RBI, 53 walks, and 24 stolen-bases, for a slash-line of .291/.373/.479.

Jeurys Familia – The big right-hander had a very good start on Thursday, going 7.0 innings and giving up three runs all earned, on eight hits, with nine strikeouts and one walk, to pick up the win. In what was his last start of the season, Family improved his record to 9-9 with a 4.73 ERA, in 28 game starts.

Mike Nickeas – When I mentioned on the MMO radio podcast on Thursday evening that Nickeas was a lock to be brought back up when the rosters expand on September 1st, there was a chorus of boo’s and some grumblings from the peanut gallery. But did you know that in the time Nickeas has been playing for Wally Backman at Buffalo this year, he has gone 22-for-63, with seven runs, six doubles, one homer, six RBI, and five walks for a slash-line of .349/.386/.492?

Binghamton

Wilmer Flores – After having his nine-game hitting streak snapped on Wednesday night, Flores appeared late in the game in a double switch on Thursday, and started a new streak with a single, and a walk. Did I mention that Flores has been hot? If you are a regular reader of the Beat, you would know that he has been written about in every single one, twice every week. That is just how good he’s been this year. What has he done lately, you might ask? In his last ten games he is 19-for-38 with eight runs scored, six doubles, one triple, three homers, six RBI, and four walks for a truly sick slash-line of .500/.548/.947. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

Gonzalez Germen – The right-hander picked up his 12th minor league win of the year on Wednesday night with a strong 7.2 innings, giving up one earned run on seven hits, with six strikeouts and a walk. The victory improved his Eastern League record to 8-11 with a 4.42 ERA. He won three games for St. Lucie, and one game for Buffalo, to make him a combined 12-11 with a 4.21 ERA. Germen has been a workhorse this season hurling 148 innings, with perhaps one more start still to come.

St. Lucie

Logan Verrett – The right-hander made his sixth start since being called up to St. Lucie this past Wednesday night. In all six starts he has gone at least 6.0 innings, and given up no more than two runs in each of those games. Despite a no-decision on Wednesday when he went 7.0 innings against Jupiter, giving up one run on four hits, with four strikeouts and no walks, his Florida State League record stands at 2-0 with an ERA of 2.09, and a 26/4 K/BB ratio. With six regular season games left on the slate before the play-offs begin, Verrett should get one more start before the post-season, unless they rearrange the rotation to set him up for an early play-off assignment in round one.

T.J. Rivera - The St. Lucie shortstop continues to pour it on. After hitting .327 in July, he is now batting .313 for the month of August. In his last ten games he is swinging the bat to the tune of 13-for-37, with three runs, two doubles, four RBI, four walks, and a stolen-base, for a slash of .351/.415/.405.

Jacob DeGrom - The 6’4″ righty picked up his third FSL win on Thursday night against no defeats by going 6.0 innings and giving up one run on five hits, with six strikeouts and two walks. The effort improved his record at St. Lucie to 3-0 with a 2.08 ERA in four game starts. Overall, in 19 starts between Savannah and Lucie, he is 9-3 on the year with 2.43 ERA, and a 96/20 K/BB ratio.

Erik Goeddel – Another talented righty who has had a very good year throwing for St. Lucie. Goeddel made his 19th FSL start on Tuesday and picked up a no-decision by going 5.1 innings against Jupiter and giving up three runs, one earned on five hits, with five strikeouts and a walk. In his last four starts he is 1-0 with a 1.71 ERA.

Ryan Ellis – Congratulations to St. Lucie manager Ryan Ellis who was named the 2012 Florida State League Manager-of-the-Year.

Adam Kolarek – The 6’3″ lefty reliever was named to represent St. Lucie at the 2012 Florida State League All-Star game. Congrats to you big guy! Kolarek is 1-3 with a 2.45 ERA, 17 saves, and a 67/20 K/BB ratio, in 55.0 innings pitched.

Savannah

The Gnats are in last place in the second half standings of the South Atlantic League’s Southern Division. They failed to win the first half, which means the only way they will make the play-offs this year would be if they can come from 3.0 games behind in the wild-card race, with only four games remaining to their season. Such a scenario is very unlikely although mathematically possible. If they can run the table and win their remaining four games, they would then require a small miracle as there are still three teams between them and a post-season appearance. Savannah made the play-offs the last two seasons, losing in the first round in 2010, and the championship round last year.

Brooklyn

Jayce Boyd – Meet the Brooklyn Cyclones starting first-baseman Jayce Boyd. Boyd is a right-handed power bat who was the Mets 6th round pick in this years draft. There have been some bumps along the way this season as he gets acclimated to professional ball in the New York Penn League, but lately he has certainly found his groove. In his last ten games Jayce has gone 11-for-33 with four runs, two doubles, three homers, seven RBI, and six walks for a slash of .333/.436/.667. I spoke to Jayce before the game on Wednesday at Hudson Valley, and I said, “man your really swinging the bat well these days Jayce, how many home runs have you hit this week?” He told me he had hit one in each of the previous two games. I watched him take BP a little while later, and he was crushing the ball, long, well hit drives over the left-center field fence. That night guess what? He hit his third homer in three consecutive nights, with a deep two-run drive to left-center in the eighth inning.

Rainy Lara – The 6’4″ right-hander was fabulous on Monday night against Aberdeen, going 6.0 innings, giving up no runs, on three hits with four strikeouts and a walk. Lara picked up the win which put him in a two-way tie for most wins in the NYPL, and improved his record to 8-2 on the year with a 3.10 ERA. In 61 innings over 11 game starts he has a K/BB ratio of 69/10, and the league is hitting .216 against him.

Matt Bowman – The 6’0″ righty reliever out of Princeton has been amazing this year, but in his last six games he has shined especially bright. Over that stretch, he has not allowed any runs in 17 innings, while striking out 16 and walking one, he has also picked up a win and a save in those six games. For the year his record stands at 2-2 with a 1.65 ERA, three saves, and a K/BB ratio of 27/2.

Maikis De La Cruz – After getting promoted from Kingsport on Tuesday, the righty swinging outfielder has hit safely in his first three games with the Cyclones. He is 4-for-12 with two runs, two doubles, a triple, a walk and two RBI. At Kingsport he hit .274 with one home run, 30 RBI, and nine stolen-bases, in 223 at-bats.

Luis Mateo – The NYPL ALL-Star pitched another solid outing on Thursday night and again came away with a no-decision as the Brooklyn offense could only manage one run in the game. His last start, last Friday, he went 7.0 innings without allowing any runs and came away with a no-decision as well. On Thursday he pitched 7.0 innings again, giving up just one run this time on four hits with eight strikeouts and a walk. For the year Mateo has gotten very little run support, and his record now stands at 4-5 with a 2.45 ERA and a K/BB ratio of 85/9 in 73.1 innings over 12 starts.

Kingsport

The K-Mets ended their season on Tuesday with their fourth loss in a row. It was a horrible year for the club who finished with a record of 23-43, and they were at no time even competitive in their league this year. Only the glaring ineptitude of the Bristol White Sox (19-46 W-L record) kept the K-Mets out of last place. I will be writing up a complete breakdown, in this case a postmortem, on the Kingsport Mets which will be ready early next week.

Robert Gsellman – The 6’4″ 19-year-old right-hander made his first start since July 17th on Monday against Pulaski, and he looked very good despite picking up a no-decision. Gsellman induced mostly groundouts as he went 6.2 innings, giving up no runs, on four hits, with five punch-outs and one walk. In 43.2 innings this year the right-hander has gone 1-3 with a 3.92 ERA working as both a starter and a reliever.

Transactions

Michael Fulmer – A few days after I reported that Michael Fulmer was more than likely shut down for the year due to reaching his innings limit, he went on the D.L. Hmmmm, that sounds fishy. You know if you shut a guy down, he still takes up a roster spot. And you can’t place him on the D.L. unless he has an injury. So guess what? Despite not having pitched in almost two weeks, Fulmer just went on the D.L. with a left shin contusion. That’s the same injury that plagued righty reliever Erik Turgeon of the B-Mets before he was released at mid-season. Even though Turgeon was pitching awful this year, he was on and off the D.L. three times with a left shin contusion. I guess there’s a lot of that going on in baseball these days.

Gavin Cecchini – The Mets 1st round pick in the 2012 draft was sent to Brooklyn as soon as Kingsport’s season ended. I met him on Wednesday and he agreed to be a guest on the Metsmerized Radio Show this off-season. While at Kingsport this year in 191 at-bats, he hit .246 with one home run, 22 RBI, and five stolen-bases.

Craig Hansen – The former big leaguer and 1st round draft pick of the Red Sox was promoted from Brooklyn to Savannah this week and pitched one inning, with nothing across, and two strikeouts for the Gnats on Tuesday night against Asheville.

Matt Reynolds – The Mets 2nd round pick in this year’s draft went on the D.L. this week. Reynolds has been playing shortstop for the Sand Gnats ever since T.J. Rivera was sent up to St. Lucie in June. In 158 at-bats for Savannah he is hitting .259 with three homers, 13 RBI, and five stolen-bases.

Stefan Sabol – The righty slugger was placed on the D.L. last weekend with a sprained ankle. I asked him how it was feeling on Wednesday and he said it was much better and he would be activated in time for this weekend’s slate of games. The Mets 17th round pick in this year’s draft is hitting .249 this year with five home runs, and 21 RBI in 213 at-bats.

Juan Carlos Gamboa – It’s been a lost season for the talented infielder as he has been on and off the Brooklyn D.L. several times. Well he’s back on it, and with Gavin Cecchini on the team now, Gamboa is probably done for the year.

Miller Diaz – The power-armed right-hander was promoted to Savannah when the Kingsport season ended this week. He made his first SAL start on Wednesday against the Asheville Tourists, and it was Diaz who looked like a tourist. He lasted only 4.2 innings and gave up six runs, three earned, on seven hits, but he did manage to strike out eight while walking only one. So it wasn’t all bad. He may get one more opportunity to pitch before the season ends.

Maikis De La Cruz – As stated above, the speedy outfielder went up to Brooklyn from Kingsport on Tuesday.

Jorge Rivero – After hitting well, and showing versatility in the field at Kingsport this year, Rivero was sent back up to Brooklyn where he had started the year. I spoke to him in the clubhouse on Wednesday, and I asked him if it was “good to be back” with the Cyclones? He didn’t say anything, he just broke into a huge smile and reached out his hand to shake mine. At Kingsport the switch-hitting utility-man led the club in hitting, going .313 with two home runs, 20 RBI, and four stolen-bases in 144 at-bats.

Oswaldo Navarro – The Bisons placed the 27-year-old infielder on the D.L. this week and he is most likely done for the year. In 97 at-bats for the Herd he hit. 216 with two home runs and 11 RBI.

Jack Leathersich – The Rocket was activated on Tuesday from the Temporarily Inactive List.

Cyclone First-Baseman Jayce Boyd

I hope you have enjoyed this Friday’s edition of the Beat. We will be back Monday for the last Monday morning quarterback edition, and we’ll get you caught up on what transpires this weekend. So until then…..LGM!

Gavin Cecchini: Newest Brooklyn Cyclone

He answers to the name “Rook” as in rookie. He has a smile that lights up the world. He has talent to match. He has an easy way about him that belies the competitive edge that lurks beneath the surface. He is a baseball player, a prodigy, and a Met. His name is Gavin Cecchini, and he has just arrived in Brooklyn to help out down the stretch as the Cyclones battle for a play-off berth in the NYPL Semi-Final round of the play-offs.

I just met Gavin and made him aware of the existence of a very special Mets website by the name of MetsMerizedOnline.com. I also told him about our weekly podacsts that will be starting tomorrow and airing live every Thursday at 6 pm. They will be called Metsmerized Radio, and will feature co-hosts Matt Falkenbury and Stephen Hanks, with minor league guy, yours truly, and Satish Ram as the weekly media guy who will be taking your questions live via Twitter.

Listeners are encouraged to call in to the show to ask the hosts and guests live questions on the air. Our first guest in our premiere show tomorrow will be Mark Simon of ESPN. Future guests will include Matt Cerrone, Adam Rubin, Mike Vacarro, Kevin Kernan, Brandon Nimmo, Phillip Evans, Jayce Boyd, John Mincone, and the aforementioned Gavin Cecchini.

Tonight I am writing this live from the pressbox at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls, NY, where the 1st place Hudson Valley Renegades take on the 2nd place Brooklyn Cyclones. The Renegades need just one win to clinch the play-offs, and 4 games to clinch the division. The Clones can win the wild card if they can hold on to their 2.0 game lead with eight games left to go, their magic number is 7 to clinch a wild-card.

I will be on Twitter tonight tweeting live from the stadium here during the game, if you would like to send any questions feel free.

The Mets 2012 First Round Pick Takes Some Swings In The Cage

Wheeler Tosses Complete Game Shutout For First AAA Win

Welcome back for the Monday-morning-quarterback edition of the ultra-cool MMO feature: Mets Minors Beat. What the heck is that? You might very well say. It is a labor of love, and in it you will see stuff about the Mets minor leagues that you absolutely won’t find anywhere else. Over the last several months the Beat has come to you twice every week, and if you’ve been reading it all along you have been kept up-to-speed on all the significant happenings in the Mets system. If you think back, there have been countless features on individual players, some you have heard of and some you haven’t, with critiques, scouting reports, updates, predictions, stats, transactions, and interesting tidbits. If read here on MMO in conjunction with our daily game recaps, there is nothing left uncovered about the daily nuts-and-bolts of the New York Mets minor league system. Keep reading for some very interesting stuff…….

Buffalo

Zack Wheeler – The Mets top prospect picked up his first AAA win on Sunday with a seven inning, complete game, three-hit shutout defeating the Rochester Red Wings of the Minnesota Twins organization by a final score of 1-0. Wheeler was masterful, throwing 98 pitches, 65 for strikes, in 7.0 innings with no runs, three hits, two walks and seven strikeouts. The outing improved the 22-year-old right-hander’s record to 1-2 at AAA, with a 3.54 ERA in five starts so far.

Chris Schwinden – It’s been one heck of a crazy season for our hero, Schwinnie, who just happens to be one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet. Like the prodigal son returning, he is enjoying the end to a fine season, at home where he belongs, as a member of the Mets organization. The Mets had called him up to pitch in the bigs earlier this season, as a reward for another terrific start with the Bisons. But when he was sent down after appearing in just three games for the Mets, he was lost to the Toronto Blue Jays organization on waivers. The Jays sent him to their Las Vegas affiliate in the Pacific Coast League to play for the 51′s on the rock hard, desert-baked ground that they call a field there. He appeared in one game and tossed 3.0 innings for them giving up seven earned runs on eight hits and absorbing a loss. He gladly said good-bye to Las Vegas as he was lost again on waivers four days later, this time to the Cleveland Indians. For about three weeks, Schwinnie was an Indian, and they squirreled him away on the Columbus Clippers roster in the International League. While there he appeared in three games, all starts, and went 1-2 with a 5.87 ERA in 15.1 innings. Then the unthinkable happened. He was lost on waivers again. This time to those miserable Yankees. They placed him on the roster at Scranton-Wilkes Barre, that traveling circus without a home that the Yankees call a farm club. Whilst wearing the pin-stripes of the Evil Empire, Schwinnie pitched in one game, a start that lasted just 4.0 innings before he was removed having allowed four runs, three earned, on eight hits and taking a loss. Then it gets a little strange. He was lost on waivers again. And this time, it was the Mets who snatched him up, back on July 5th. The prodigal son had returned! Since then Schwinnie has appeared in 11 games for the Herd, nine starts, and gone 4-2, with a 2.60 ERA, and a 46/10 K/BB ratio. Welcome back my son.

Binghamton

Darin Gorski – The lefty has been throwing as well as any pitcher in the system this month as he races towards the season’s finish line. Gorski obviously still has plenty left in the tank as he has now strung together four very good outings in a row. On Saturday against Portland he went 7.2 innings while allowing one run, earned, on five hits, with a walk and nine strikeouts to earn the win. In his last four starts he is 3-1 with a 1.95 ERA, and for the year he is now 9-7 with a 3.66 ERA in 23 game starts, with one remaining before season’s end.

Wilmer Flores – The hits just keep on coming for Flores who has been lighting up the Eastern League for the month of August. He is 30-for-84 since the 1st of the month with 16 runs, nine doubles, three home runs, ten RBI, and nine walks for a slash of .357/.419/.571.

Reese Havens – It’s been a rough year for the former 1st-round draft pick of the Mets, the guy taken just four slots back of Ike Davis in 2008. Havens has managed to stay on the field for the most part this season, which is a step in the right direction, except he was often times invisible when he was playing. In 315 at-bats this season he has struck out 110 times. His slash-line is a woeful .219/.347/.359. He had an 0-for-19 broken by his homer in the sixth inning on Saturday night, but by Sunday he had cooled and went 1-for-6 in the game. In 54 at-bats during the month of August, he is hitting .185 with two homers, and eight RBI.

Juan Centeno – It has been a very solid season for the 22-year-old receiver who has established career highs in at-bats and hits, in 2012. Lately his bat has been heating up. In his last ten games he has gone 13-for-37, with four runs scored, a double, a triple, and 12 RBI, for a slash-line of .351/.415/.432.

Greg Peavey – The right-hander put in a good day on Sunday, throwing a quality start against Portland. Seeking to even his record at 8-8 on the year, Peavey was forced to take a no-decision instead when he had to leave with the game tied 3-3 after seven. Binghamton would eventually win it in ten innings by a score of 5-3. For the day Peavey hurled 7.0 innings, giving up three runs, all earned, on six hits, with a walk and four strikeouts. All three runs against him came on two homers struck by Portland left-fielder Jeremy Hazelbaker, a solo-shot in the first, and a two-run job in the third, his 18th and 19th round-trippers on the year. Peavey remains 7-8 for Binghamton this year with a 5.06 ERA with one start left to go in his season.

St. Lucie

Aderlin Rodriguez – The big third-baseman with the powerful swing has made significant strides this year as he finally left the South Atlantic League behind after spending parts of three seasons there. After moving up to High-A ball in the advanced Florida State League, the 6’3″ 20-year-old has struggled a bit to make consistent contact batting just .241 so far. But he hasn’t been slowed as a run-producer, which is what his game hinges on anyway. He started the year hitting .274 with 21 doubles, a triple, 16 home runs, and 59 RBI in 318 at-bats for Savannah. In his 133 FSL at-bats he has added five doubles, eight more home runs, and 23 RBI, to make his combined totals on the year: .264 with 60 runs scored, 26 doubles, one triple, 24 home runs, 82 RBI, and a .486 SLG% in 451 total at-bats.

Cesar Puello – Currently with a modest five-game hitting streak, the 21-year-old Puello has been hitting better of late after two stints on the D.L. this year with a broken hamate, and a strained hamstring. He is finally starting to shine over his last 11 games. During that time he is 12-for-34, with ten runs scored, four doubles, two homers, five RBI, and four stolen bases, posting a slash-line of .353/.371/.647. During those 11 games he has raised his average from .241 to .260 for the year with three home runs, 18 RBI, and 17 stolen bases in 204 at-bats.

Darrell Ceciliani – Everybody take a deep breath and hold it, as the Mets play Russian Roulette with this guy’s health. The speedy center-fielder returned to the line-up for Lucie on Wednesday after rehabbing his third pulled hamstring of the season. So far he seems to be okay having played in four games since his return, and going 8-for-16 with three runs scored, four walks, and two RBI. With just seven regular season games remaining for St. Lucie, before their playoff appearance this year, I certainly hope they can keep this guy from injuring himself yet again, before getting the entire off-season to fully rehab his injury. Ceciliani is the most advanced, and complete player, as far as pure center-fielders in the Mets system. It would be shame if they caused this hamstring situation to become chronic by rushing him back too soon.

Chase Huchingson – What a remarkable effort the 6’5″ side-arm slinging south-paw turned in for St. Lucie on Saturday night. If he had had just one more out left in his arm, he would have turned in a legendary performance. As it was, he got a no-decision, but it was clearly one of the most dominant outings of his professional career so far. He entered the ninth inning, having allowed no runs on just one hit with three strikeouts for the first eight innings. Then a single, a sac-bunt, and a walk put men on first and second with two outs, and the score 1-0 in favor of the good guys. Unfortunately Charlotte right-fielder Todd Glaesmann singled into right to drive in a run, chasing Huchingson, and sending the game into extra’s locked in a 1-1 tie. Glaesmann would later win the game for the Stone Crabs with his seventh home run in just 112 at-bats since being promoted to the FSL. His game-winning blast came off Met reliever Jeff Walters in the top of the 12th inning. After a dazzling start to Huchingson’s season which saw him jump out to a 4-1 record and a 1.32 ERA in April, he floundered for the next three months. In May-June-July, he made 13 starts and pitched to a record of 2-6 with a 6.22 ERA. But somehow in the dog days of summer Huch is turning his season back around having now thrown five very good outings in a row. Over his last five starts, he has gone 2-0, with an ERA of 3.03, but the biggest problem for Huch right now is command. His BB/9 this year is simply too high at 4.3.

Savannah

Alex Panteliodis – The left-hander has been a workhorse in the Savannah rotation this year. He is tied with Michael Fulmer for the most game starts with 21. He is third on the staff in innings pitched with 101.2, and is slated to make one more start before the end of the regular season. Pants has pitched into some tough luck this season but he is very good at keeping his team in a game. His record is 4-8 with a 3.72 ERA, and an 83/33 K/BB ratio.

Michael Fulmer – The 19-year-old flame-thrower has not pitched in more that a week which leaves the minor league geeks like myself to speculate as to whether he has been shut down for the season. I would like to think that they are being careful with that prized commodity called Fulmer’s right arm, and allow him to take the rest of the year off. I mean let’s face it, he has nothing left to prove in the South Atlantic League. Pitching there this season in a league where the average player is 21 or 22-years-old, the teenager pitched like a seasoned veteran, leading his team in strikeouts, innings, and game starts, while ranking fourth in the league in WHIP, and fifth in the league in ERA. Assuming he has been shut down, his final SAL numbers look like 21 games, 21 game starts, a 7-6 record with a 2.74 ERA, one CG, 108.1 innings, a 101/38 K/BB ratio, .227 batting average against, and a 1.20 WHIP. No sense stressing his arm to give him one start in the Florida State League, he’s way ahead of the curve, shut him down, and let him start fresh next year at the advanced Florida State League as a 20-year-old. With a 108 innings in the can this year that would give him a range for next year of 125-to-150 innings.

Brooklyn

Luis Mateo – The last time Mateo has actually been credited with winning a game was back on July 14th when he went 7.0 innings against the State College Spikes, giving up no runs on one hit, with eight strikeouts and one walk. Since then, in his next five starts, he had a record of 0-4 with a 4.40 ERA. But on Friday night it was vintage Mateo against the hated Staten Island Yankees. He tossed 7.0 dominant innings allowing no runs on five hits, with a walk and six strikeouts. Of course any notion of Mateo picking up a win for his troubles went right out the window when the Cyclone bullpen melted down in the eighth inning and surrendered five earned runs, to blow the game open in favor of the evil empire. In 66.1 innings, spread out over 11 starts this year, the 6’3″ right-hander is 4-5 with a 2.58 ERA, but his peripherals are off-the-charts. For one thing, his K/BB ratio is a very snappy 77/8. Secondly, his H/9 is 7.2 this year, his HR/9 is a microscopic 0.3, his BB/9 is 1.1, his K/9 is 10.4, and his K/BB ratio is 9.63. Definitely one of the top pitching prospects in the entire Mets system, 2012 has been a very good developmental year for the 22-year-old, and should provide a good springboard for him as he heads into his first taste of the long-season leagues in 2013. By the end of this season he will have logged about 75-80 innings, which would put him in line, barring injury, for around 125 innings next season.

Craig Hansen – The returns are diminishing on this low-risk, high-reward, free-agent signing. The former big-league hurler looked positively dreadful in his attempts to record even a single out on Friday night, which he was unable to do. Coming on in the eighth to try and preserve a tenuous 1-0 lead for Luis Mateo, Hansen blew the game before you could say Jackie Robinson. He walked the lead-off man, of course. Then he hit the next batter with a pitch, which is always a nice touch, to put runners on first and second. Then he gave up a single (of course he did) to load the bases with no one out. Can you feel this one coming? Guess what he did next? Yup, you guessed it, he plunked the next batter with a pitch to force in the tying run. Beck Wheeler came on and promptly delivered a batting practice fastball that Yankee third-sacker Matthew Duran clobbered for a grand-slam home run, his first round-tripper of the year, which iced the game at 5-1 Staten Island.

Hansel Robles – If there were any doubters left still breathing, Robles has pretty much put an end to any negative talk this weekend. With yet another dominant outing on Saturday night against those rotten Yankees, Robles improved his record to 5-1 with a 1.20 ERA. In 11 game starts covering 67.2 innings he has a 0.75 WHIP, a H/9 of 5.7, a BB/9 of 1.1, and a K/9 of 8.2. On Saturday he tossed 7.0 innings giving up no runs on three hits, with eight strikeouts and a walk. He has not allowed an earned run in his last 31.0 innings over four plus starts.

Brandon Nimmo – The Mets top outfield prospect is having a very good season in the New York Penn League. As a 19-year-old in this league he has had to meet the challenges of competing against players two to three years older than himself. That is a big reason why some of the younger Cyclone everyday players, the teenagers have trouble finding consistency at the plate this year. For Nimmo, if you look at what he’s done month-to-month the growth is very apparent. In his first month this season he hit .200 for the month of June, with two doubles, one home run and seven RBI. In the month of July Nimmo started to find his stroke as he went 31-for-115 for a .270 batting average, with 11 doubles, one triple, two homers, and 17 RBI. Now in August Nimmo has found himself at the plate going 23-for-74 for a .311 batting average with six doubles, two home runs, a .433 OBP, and a .473 SLG%. For the season, in 229 at-bats, he has a slash-line of .271/.394/.428, with 39 runs, 19 doubles, one triple, five home runs, 36 RBI, and 41 walks, with one stolen base.

Phillip Evans – After struggling with the bat in July the 19-year-old shortstop is coming on strong lately hitting .342 with a .444 OBP in his last ten games.

Kingsport

Jeff Diehl – The 6’4″ 18-year-old slugger is heating up these days for Kingsport. In his last four games he is 7-for-10 with two runs scored, a double, a triple, and two RBI.

Juan Urbina – Urbi picked up his first win of the year on Friday, in what has been a very tough season for him. Although completing his third season in the Mets system, the still only 19-year-old left-hander had a tough start in 2011, before finishing strong down the stretch in the K-Mets rotation. But when 2012 began he had slipped on the depth charts and was unable to land one of the coveted 12 starting rotation spots in either the Brooklyn or Kingsport rotations. Finding his opportunities to pitch this year few and very far between, Urbina has been a forgotten man, and as a result, it has been hard for him to pitch with any kind of consistency. On Friday night he came on in relief of Andrew Massie to start the fifth inning with the score 5-4 in favor of the K-Mets. He went 3.0 scoreless innings with no hits, two walks and five strikeouts, to pick up the win. His record now stands at 1-0 with a 4.35 ERA in 10.1 innings this year. Urbina is throwing very hard these days, and the strikeout rate shows that. Although a very small sample size (10.1 innings) his H/9 is 4.4, his K/9 is a whopping 13.9 (16 K’s) and his BB/9 is also 13.9 (16 BB’s).

Transactions

Collin McHugh – Don’t even get me started on this. Although my patience is wearing thin these days with the front office, and Mr. Alderson in particular, like a good Mets fan I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, and allow them one more off-season before I consider relinquishing all of my support, and start calling for Sandy’s head. But when he does something like this head-scratcher, and sends McHugh back to the minors after the historical game he pitched for the Mets last Thursday afternoon, it makes me wonder if Sandy hasn’t completely lost his mind. Are you kidding me? I just don’t see the reason for it. For one thing we Mets fans have not had much to cheer about lately, how about giving us something compelling to watch Mr. Alderson? When you consider that the only ones left from our original starting rotation this year are Dickey and Niese. I can’t see where there isn’t a place for McHugh in the Mets rotation for the rest of this year. Isn’t it rather important to see what we have in McHugh heading into the off-season? I think it is crucial, and by not doing so we are wasting a golden opportunity to see what he can do against big-league hitters.

Armando Rodriguez – After making an emergency start on Thursday to replace McHugh in the Herd rotation, the 24-year-old right-hander was immediately returned to Bingo on Friday. In Thursday’s start he made his AAA debut and went 4.1 innings against the SWB Yankees giving up one earned run on three hits, with two walks and two strikeouts.

Andrew Carpenter – The big righty reliever traded places with Rodriguez shuffling up to Buffalo to work out of the Herd’s pen for the rest of the AAA season. The 6’3″ 27-year-old started the year in the Pacific Coast League with Las Vegas, where he went 6-3 with a 3.38 ERA in 21 games (12 starts) as a swing-man. He then opted for minor league free agency, and signed with the Mets at the end of July. While with Binghamton he got into five games, pitching 5.0 innings, giving up no runs on four hits, two walks, striking out ten, and earning three saves. He got into the game on Friday night for the Bisons, tossing a scoreless frame and giving up just one hit while striking out two. He then came on in Saturday’s game striking out the only hitter he faced, to help Schwinden get through the seventh inning without being scored upon.

Lucas Duda – The big one returns to Flushing, after a brief tour of the International League. In 96 at-bats while playing outfield for the Herd, he hit .260, with three home runs and eight RBI.

Jordanny Valdespin – To make room for the big Dude, Valdespin heads back down to Buffalo where he can work on his game. He needs to improve on his pitch selection, situational hitting, base-running, fielding, and throwing from the outfield. So don’t expect to see him as the centerfielder slash lead-off hitter at Citi anytime soon. While with the Mets this season he hit .242, with eight home runs, 26 RBI and seven stolen bases, in 161 at-bats.

Jack Leathersich – The Mets placed the hard throwing lefty reliever on the temporarily inactive list on Friday. His numbers at Lucie this year are 2-5 with a 4.40 ERA, one save, and a 72/23 K/BB ratio in 24 games covering 45.0 innings. His K/9 is an eye-popping 14.4 for the year. C’mon! Are you kidding me?

Rylan Sandoval – The middle-infielder went on the D.L. on July 13th, and was activated by St. Lucie when Leathersich was placed on the temporarily inactive list. In 165 at-bats this season split between St. Lucie and Binghamton, the 25-year-old Sandoval is hitting .236 with four homers and 22 RBI.

Brandon Welch – This 21-year-old, 6’1″ right-hander was drafted by the Mets in the 5th round of this past year’s draft, out of Palm Beach State College, which is a junior college. Welch traveled and worked out with the Brooklyn Cyclones, although he did not appear in a game with them and was then sent to Kingsport on Saturday, and made his professional debut that night against Bluefield. He entered the game in the seventh with the K-Mets trailing 6-0 and gave up one earned run in his inning of work, on two hits.

Robert Whalen - Like Welch, Whalen was taken in this year’s draft, in the 12th round out of Haines City, Florida High School, and was also working out with Brooklyn until Saturday, when he was assigned to Kingsport. He also made his pro-debut in Saturday night’s loss, pitching the sixth inning in relief of starter John Gant, and giving up an unearned run on a hit, with one strikeout.

Michael Fulmer Done For The Year?

Thanks for checking out this Monday-morning-quarterback edition of the MMO feature Mets Minors Beat. We will be back on Friday, and twice again next week, until the end of the minor league season the following week. Be sure to check back on Friday to see who’s finishing the season strong, and what milestones are being passed as our farmhands come down the homestretch in their respective minor league seasons.

Let’s Go Mets!

Updated Post 5:00 PM

The Mets demoted right-hander Collin McHugh to Triple-A Buffalo despite a stellar debut on Thursday in which he tossed seven scoreless innings and allowed just two hits and a walk while fanning nine.

The Mets needed the roster spot for the return of Jeremy Hefner who was on a three-day paternity leave.

Original Post 8:00 AM

Welcome back for this week’s Friday installment of the exclusive MMO feature Mets Minors Beat. This is the TGIF Edition and I’m your host Petey, thanks for stopping by. This week on the farm it was all about pitching, pitching and more pitching. And promotions too. Collin McHugh made his big league debut with the Mets, and Rob Carson was brought up to get a tryout in the big league pen for the rest of the season. Then there were a slew of guys who had been struggling at the lower levels who are really starting to emerge and show something positive as the minor league seasons dwindle down. Pitchers like Julian Hilario of Brooklyn, and Kingsport’s Persio Reyes, Miller Diaz, and Chris Flexen all had very nice performances this week. Keep reading to see who else is heating up for a strong finish.

Buffalo

Zack Wheeler – Wheeler has shown flashes since being promoted to Buffalo at the beginning of August. But in the four AAA starts he has made so far, he has struggled to the tune of an 0-2 record with a 4.71 ERA. The factor at work here? I think it’s fatigue. In his first professional season, as a 20-year-old in 2010, he threw 59 innings for Augusta. In 2011 he tossed a total of 115 innings, and this season he’s now up to 137 innings. They haven’t been the easiest innings to pitch either, as he’s been publicly criticized, and scrutinized under a microscope all season long. There’s no way that doesn’t wear on any young player, if it goes on for long enough, I mean they’re only human.

This was a very successful season as far as Wheeler’s development is concerned. At this time a year ago, he was just finishing up a good season in High-A ball, with a combined record between the Giants and Mets organization affiliates of 9-7, and a 3.52 ERA, in 22 game starts. Now, a year later, he is being talked about as a possible candidate (although an extremely remote one) for a September big league call-up. I believe he will make two more starts this season at Buffalo, and that he has a cap of 150 innings. Next year he will start out at AAA, and with some continued growth, should be ready to make his big league debut no later than mid-season.

Jenrry Mejia – Mejia has been pitching outstanding of late as he completes his comeback from Tommy John Surgery. He was moved back to the starting rotation full-time for the Herd on July 30th. Since then he has made five starts covering 24.1 innings, he has allowed only three earned runs, for a record of 2-0 with a 1.11 ERA, and a 14/7 K/BB ratio. He has gone six innings in each of his last two starts with an improving Pitch/Strike ratio. I fully expect Mejia to be a September call-up for the Mets.

Binghamton

Darin Gorski – The big left-hander went 7.0 innings on Monday night giving up three runs, two earned on four hits, with four walks and nine strikeouts. But the quality outing went for naught as the offense sputtered all night, only managing two runs on five hits, and making a loser of Gorski who dropped to 8-7, 3.81, on the year in 22 starts.

Greg Peavey – The 24-year-old right-hander followed up Gorski’s solid outing with a brilliant one of his own. This time the B-Mets offense only managed one run all night. But that was all Peavey would need as he hurled 7.0 innings, giving up no runs on six hits, two walks, and six strikeouts. Thanks to two scoreless innings of relief by Jeff Kaplan and Andrew Carpenter, Peavey improved his record to 7-8 with a 5.12 ERA in 23 game starts this year.

Wilmer Flores – Flores continues to punish the baseball. In his last ten games he is hitting at a 17-for-40 clip, with a slash of .425/.489/.625. In this breakout season for Flores, it becomes pretty clear that the Mets may be eye-balling this kid for a shot at third-base if they are unable to sign David Wright to an extension beyond 2013.

Reese Havens – Well the good news is the 89 games and 305 at-bats Havens has gotten this season are the most he’s contributed in any one season since 2009. The bad news is that despite staying on the field pretty much all year, which was the goal when the season started, he is only hitting .223 and has 107 strikeouts to his credit. It is no wonder why the once promising prospect is in free-fall this year and has also tumbled down the organizational depth chart.

St. Lucie

Logan Verrett – With his win Thursday night, the 22-year-old righty out of Baylor has now thrown five straight quality starts since his call-up to St. Lucie. His Florida State League numbers are 2-0 with a 2.27 ERA over 31.2 innings in the five starts. He has also struck out 22 and walked four. On Thursday against the Jupiter Hammerheads, he fired 7.0 innings, giving up one run, earned, on three hits and a walk, with six strikeouts.

Savannah

Domingo Tapia – Tapia got hammered on Wednesday night in what will most likely be his last appearance this season. Starting against Asheville he was hit hard and hit often, and had to leave the game after 4.0 brutal innings in which he gave up seven runs, five earned, on ten hits, with five strikeouts. He picked up the loss in the game to drop his South Atlantic League record to 6-4 with a 3.78 ERA, in 18 game starts and 102 innings. Mets organizational philosophy is that pitchers are not to exceed fifty innings pitched more than what they threw the year before, in any given year. Since Tapia hurled 56 innings in 2011, his 2012 innings total cannot exceed 106, so he’s right there. See ya next year buddy!

Brooklyn

Julian Hilario – The 22-year-old righty has been pitching with more and more confidence as the season wears on. With his win on Monday night he has now won his last three starts, to even his record at 3-3 for the year. During those three games he has thrown 16 innings, and given up just one earned run on 13 hits, to lower his ERA to 2.76 in ten games, eight of which were game starts covering 49 innings.

Luis Cessa – The 20-year-old right-hander made the start for Brooklyn on Wednesday night and picked up the win to even his record at 4-4. He went 7.0 innings and gave up just one earned run on six hits, with three strikeouts to help the Cyclones beat the Tri-City ValleyCats of the Astros organization, who have the league’s best record at 44-18. The effort also lowered his ERA to 2.50 in 58 innings over 11 starts.

Matt Bowman – The 21-year-old righty who was the Mets 13th round draft choice out of Princeton in the 2012 MLB draft, continues to pitch great coming out of the Cyclone bullpen. In 23.1 innings over ten games this year he is 1-2 with a 1.93 ERA, three saves and a 25/2 K/BB ratio.

Jeff Glenn – The Brooklyn back-up catcher is quietly putting together some good games despite not playing with much regularity. He started the season hitting .214 for the month of June, then .189 in July. But August is another story as he is hitting .292 with an OBP of .393. Presently he is working on a modest six-game hitting streak over which time he has gone 7-for-21 for a slash of .333/.391/.381.

Gabe Ynoa – The 19-year-old NYPL All-Star pitched a very strong outing on Thursday night, but came away with a no-decision when the game became tied at 2-2 after regulation, and had to be decided in extra-innings. For his part, Ynoa went the first 6.2 innings, one run, earned, on five hits, a walk, and five strikeouts. In 61 innings this season over ten game starts, he has a record of 5-1 with a 2.30 ERA, 51 strikeouts, and eight walks.

Kingsport

Miller Diaz – The hard-throwing 20-year-old right-hander with the excellent command, has been putting it all together lately for the K-Mets. With just one rough outing out of his last eight, he has improved his record to 2-1 with a 3.56 ERA in 43 innings. On Thursday night against the Bluefield Blue Jays, he turned in his most dominating performance of the season, going 6.0 innings and giving up no runs on two hits, with no walks and six strikeouts.

Persio Reyes – After a horrendous start to his season that saw his numbers shoot to  0-4, and an 11.49 ERA, the 19-year-old righty has thrown six good outings in a row, over which time he has gone 3-1 with a 2.97 ERA, with 20 strikeouts and nine walks.

Martires Arias - The 6’7″ right-hander is having a very good season pitching out of the Kingsport pen. He got his second win Tuesday pitching one scoreless inning in relief of Reyes. For his last ten games, over 13.2 innings he is 2-0 with a 1.98 ERA, with 18 strikeouts, and five walks.

Chris Flexen – The 18-year-old right-hander who the Mets took in the 14th round of last year’s draft, has pitched two good games in a row now and his performance on Wednesday night was perhaps the best of his young career. He picked up his first professional win by going 6.0 innings against the Burlington Royals, giving up no runs on just three hits, with three walks and five strikeouts. The victory gives him a record of 1-3 with a 5.63 ERA in seven games, six of which were starts.

Transactions

Collin McHugh – The 25-year-old right-hander has replaced Johan Santana in the Mets rotation for the foreseeable future. In case you missed it, Thursday afternoon at Citi, he made his major league debut and went 7.0 innings for the Mets giving up no runs on two hits, with one walk and nine strikeouts, in picking up a no-decision.

Rob Carson – The 6’4″ 240 lb. south-paw has been brought back up to the Show to be a playmate for Josh Edgin as two of the lefties in the Mets pen for the rest of 2012. At some point they may be joined by fellow port-siders C.J. Nitkowski, and/or Justin Hampson when the rosters expand to 40 on September 1st.

Armando Rodriguez – The hard-throwing righty made his AAA debut for the Bisons on Thursday night taking the place of Collin McHugh in the Herd rotation, at least for one game at any rate. Rodriguez acquitted himself well, throwing 4.1 innings (remember he’s a reliever) and giving up one run, earned, on three hits, with two walks and two strikeouts. The Herd lost in 11 innings 4-3.

Dylan Owen – The right-hander was activated off the D.L. by the Bisons on Tuesday. He has a record of 4-9 with a 6.05 ERA for the Herd in 2012.

Darrell Ceciliani – Darrell Ceciliani was activated by St. Lucie off the D.L. for something like the third or fourth time this year, as the talented center-fielder has re-injured his hamstring over and over again this season. With the Mets now taking the chance he might re-injure it yet again before it has a chance to fully heal, his career now hangs in jeopardy. For the life of me I can’t fathom why they are bringing him back now with only two weeks left to go in the minor league season. If he hurts it again, forget about it. I would have opted for an entire off-season of rest and rehab and strengthening considering this is a lost year for him anyway.

Rafael Fernandez – To make room for Ceciliani, the PSL Mets placed the lefty hitting outfielder on the D.L. In 207 at-bats at St. Lucie this year Fernandez has put up a slash-line of .242/.313/.430 with seven home runs and 32 RBI. The biggest issue he needs to overcome to move up to AA, is to cut down on his strikeouts, and improve his K/BB ratio as a hitter, which is presently 57/20.

Rob Carson – Second Bullpen Lefty

I’ll be back with another edition of the Mets Minors Beat on Monday morning with all the stuff that happened over the weekend down on the farm. Don’t forget to check back to get filled in on everything that’s going on as the season winds down, in this exclusive feature brought to you two times a week, only right here on MMO.

Collin McHugh Makes His First Big League Start This Afternoon At Citi

There’s an old baseball adage kicking around regarding player development. It’s a basic rule of thumb that, assuming a player ever navigates the minors and makes it to the major leagues, it should take a hitter roughly 1500 minor league at-bats before he is equipt to handle the David Price’s and Johnny Cueto’s of the world.

For pitchers, the same rule applies also. That it would take 500 minor league innings or thereabouts, for a pitcher to be able to go up against the likes of an Andrew McCutchen or a Mike Trout, and expect a small modicum of success.

I’m not saying that it’s fool-proof, but since I first heard of that formula back when Rocky and Bullwinkle were must-see TV, I have noticed that it is more often than not, pretty darn close to those actual numbers.

Well guess what? In his last start at Buffalo on Saturday, Collin McHugh pushed his innings totals up to 521 for his minor league career. Now I know a lot of you are thinking right now: “C’mon Petey, that really doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in the big picture. Either he’s ready to contribute now or he isn’t.”

Well I can’t argue with someone who takes such a pragmatic view of player development, but let’s not dismiss that 500 inning watermark quite yet as being a lot of hooey.

For one thing, not too many people would argue that the Mets should have brought McHugh up sooner. If you watched his progress carefully these last two years, you could clearly see the steps he took that got him to where he is today.

In my first interview with Collin for MMO last October, my favorite question slash answer that I thought he gave in the whole interview, was the one where I asked him how come he made the, “biggest jump in the minors” from High-A to Double-A, and while doing so, actually ratcheted up his game to a whole nother level at the same time?

If you put that promotion, in May of 2011 into perspective, his answer not only makes perfect sense, but is also rather fascinating. You see when he first went up to Binghamton he had already made six starts at St. Lucie. And he didn’t fare very well. He was getting smacked around as a 24-year-old pitcher in the Florida State League, to the tune of a H/9 at just under 12.0 (11.9 actually). He had a 1-2 record and a 6.31 ERA.

So what he told me was, that he really had no expectations of being in Binghamton for very long, a spot start or two, maybe a brief stint in the bullpen. Then more than likely, back on the St. Lucie express. And I have to say, Collin is a realist, and he had discussed the matter with his wife Ashley, and they decided that if the end-of-the-line might be looming ahead for our hero, that they might as well enjoy the rest of the ride for as long as it lasts, and just have fun.

Whether that caused a certain upswing in command of his pitches, or whether it was just a coincidence, McHugh was a completely different pitcher when he arrived in the Eastern League. He quickly became the “ace” of the staff I guess you could say, and made 16 starts the rest of the way and went 8-2 with a 2.89 ERA.

He pitched the best game, to that point in his career, in his last start of the 2011 season against Erie on September 1st. He went nine innings in what was the only B-Mets complete game of last season. Gave up one run on five hits, with 11 strikeouts and two walks. Between the two stops last year he pitched a 129 innings, and then went on to Arizona to play in the fall league out there in the desert.

I saw Collin pitch a masterful game in New Britain on May 22nd this year. He was embroiled in a zero-zero pitcher’s duel heading into the seventh inning. The lead-off hitter in the bottom of the seventh was the New Britain right-fielder Evan Bigley. Bigley turned an inside fastball around in a hurry and drove one over the left-centerfield fence and into the Connecticut night, much to my shock and horror.

That made the score 1-0 and brought up the left-fielder Nathan Hanson. As I watched the animated Bigley skipping around the bases like a frolicking pony, and the press box around me erupted in rejoicing, my thoughts went to the long drive home I had ahead of me after the game, and I began to wonder whether it would be a happy recap, or not. My melancholy was interupted rather suddenly. McHugh came a little too far inside with an offering and hit Hanson on the wrist.

It was about this time that all hell broke loose on the diamond. The umpire, some ridiculous clown by the name of Joey Armorall, who takes his job very, very seriously I might add, leaps from behind home plate gesticulating wildly at McHugh, and waiving his upturned thumb around over his head like he was swinging a lasso.

Incredulous, McHugh went ballistic and made up the distance between the mound and home-plate in about 1.2 seconds. He looked as if he wanted to take Armorall and clean some upholstery with his face. But somehow catcher Kai Gronauer, who runs very well for a catcher, made it to McHugh in a half-second flat, and wrapping his arms around him in a bear hug, kept him from killing the umpire. I was mystified that an ump could so misread a situation as to think a pitcher, trying to protect a 1-0 deficit in the seventh inning, would purposely throw at a hitter.

The next day I saw Collin in the dugout before batting practice and I began to tease him about “hitting that poor guy on purpose” but he just shook his head expressing the same thought I had already had. Why would anyone trying to win that game, start putting guys on base on purpose?

I think Glen Abbott, the B-Mets pitching coach summed it up very succinctly a few minutes later when I said to him, “Hey coach, why’d they throw your boy out of the game last night?” He made a sour face and waved his hand in a dismissing fashion and simply said, “Double-A umpires don’t know bleep!” Couldn’t have said it better myself coach. By the way, he didn’t really say bleep.

McHugh is a bulldog, pure and simple. He throws a fastball in the low-90′s and does a good job of keeping it down. He has an effective change, and a good slider, but his best secondary pitch is his hammer curve. If you have yet to see him pitch, you will notice that when he is throwing well everything is down, and he goes after hitters aggressively.

Here’s why I think McHugh is going to stick in the bigs, and why the timing for him to be brought up right now is perfect. For one, he is 25-years-old, a polished pitcher who shows good command, poise on the mound, and a good idea of what he’s doing out there.

When he arrived at AAA in June of this year, he struggled in his first three starts, losing two of them and getting a no-decision in the other. Then he rattled off a string of eight-out-of-nine quality starts including his gem this past Saturday.

Pitching at Pawtucket, he tossed 7.0 innings, giving up no runs on five hits, with four strikeouts and no walks. And Pawtucket is one of the better hitting teams in the International League as well, ranking second or third in every major offensive team category.

With McHugh on a roll right now, and the big league club going nowhere fast, the timing is perfect for him to make his Major League debut. And today is the day.

Congratulations Collin. This opportunity couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, and all of us Mets fans, and the entire staff at MMO, want to wish you the very best of luck as you embark on your big league sojourn this afternoon against Colorado. And always remember Collin……..

LGM!

Gonzalez Germen Notched His 11th Win On Sunday

Welcome back to MMO’s exclusive feature Mets Minors Beat: The Monday Edition. Today we bring you the most interesting happenings from over the weekend in the Mets minor league system. This weekend the thing that really stood out was the pitching. There were some stellar starting performances by some familiar names that have been doing it the right way all season long.

Collin McHugh and Jenrry Mejia keep showing why they are considered top Mets pitching prospects. Logan Verrett, Gabe Ynoa, Hansel Robles, Cory Mazzoni, and Gonzalez Germen keep putting up solid pitching performances as they strive to finish their seasons strong.

And as for position players, there are two virtual unknowns before the season started who have been making a name for themselves lately with their outstanding hitting, in corner-infielder Richard Lucas, and infielder-outfielder Jorge Rivero. Keep reading to see the latest on what these players are doing this year, and much more.

Buffalo

Jenrry Mejia – The hard-throwing right-hander registered his second win in a row with a dominant performance against Lehigh Valley on Friday night. Mejia made his fourth consecutive start and pitched deeper into the game than he had all season going 6.0 innings and allowing just one run, earned, on five hits, with a walk and a strikeout. Mejia showed that he could be economical with his pitches, firing 77 over his outing, 53 for strikes, as he improved his record to 3-2 with a 2.75 ERA. In his first start on July 30th, he tossed 57 pitches, 34 for strikes over 3.0 innings, in his second start on August 6th, he threw 72 pitches, 45 for strikes in 4.1 innings. And then in his most recent start before Friday’s, he threw 70 pitches, 42 for strikes over 5.0 innings.

Collin McHugh – On Saturday the 6’2″ right-hander picked up his second win since being called up to Triple-A. McHugh hurled 95 pitches in the contest against Pawtucket, 63 for strikes, going 7.0 innings while giving up no runs on five hits, no walks and four strikeouts. The effort improved his record with Buffalo to 2-4 with a 3.39 ERA over 12 game starts.

Binghamton

Cory Mazzoni – The 22-year-old right-hander was tagged with the loss in Saturday’s game against the Richmond Flying Squirrels, however he turned in a very solid outing, just with zero run support. The B-Mets hitting attack consisted of no runs on three hits all night on Saturday, effectively wasting another good outing by Mazzoni whose record dropped to 5-4 with a 3.49 ERA. In 7.0 innings, Mazzoni allowed three runs all earned, on seven hits, with no walks and seven strikeouts. Having thrown 130.2 innings this year, it remains to be seen how many more starts he will get before being shut down for the year.

Gonzalez Germen – Coming off a string of four straight losses in his last four starts, Germen was able to notch a win for the B-Mets on Sunday, the first time since July 15th. Playing the role of “stopper,” the 24-year-old right-hander was able to help the B-Mets avoid a series sweep by the Flying Squirrels, and snap a three game Binghamton losing streak. He went 7.0 innings on Sunday surrendering two runs, both earned on eight hits, with one walk and three strikeouts. The win improved Germen’s record at Double-A to 7-10 on the year with a 4.65 ERA. If I asked you who is second in wins this year to R.A. Dickey in the entire Mets system, how many of you would guess Gonzalez Germen? How many would guess Rafael Montero? Actually if you did guess Germen that would make you pretty special because you would be half right. Earlier this season he made four starts at St. Lucie, and won three games. He was sent up to Buffalo to make an emergency start at the end of July and won that decision too before being sent back down to Bingo. Add those four victories to his seven Double-A wins, and he’s got a combined record of 11-10 this year. The only other Mets player to win 11 games, is Montero who was 11-5 split between Savannah and St. Lucie, but he has been shut down for the year due to reaching his innings limit. Jon Niese, Zack Wheeler, and Cory Mazzoni have each won ten games this year.

St. Lucie

Logan Verrett – The 22-year-old 6’2″ righty tossed his fourth Florida State League game start for St. Lucie on Friday night against Charlotte. Although Verrett left the game after six with a 4-2 lead, the bullpen (and defense) couldn’t hold it and blew the game, losing 6-5. Verrett has been very good and very consistent since being promoted to St. Lucie. In four starts he has gone 24.2 innings, allowing 23 hits, seven earned runs, while walking three and striking out 16, for a record of 1-0 with a 2.55 ERA. Overall between Lucie and Savannah this year, he is 4-2 with a 2.92 ERA in 89.1 innings over 15 game starts. He has given up 80 hits, while posting an 83/12 K/BB ratio.

Richard Lucas – With a 1-for-4 day on Sunday, Lucas has now hit safely in his last seven games. On July 31st he was batting .239, but after scalding the ball for the last three weeks he has raised his average .022 points to .261. So far for the month of August, he has gone 21-for-54 with 11 runs scored, five doubles, a homer, nine RBI, five walks and five stolen bases, for a slash-line of .389/.459/.537.

Danny Muno – The St. Lucie second-baseman has been a very consistent performer this season, but in his last nine games he is one of the hottest hitters in the entire system. Over that span he has gone 15-for-32 with seven runs, two doubles, one triple, one home run, six RBI, six walks, three stolen-bases, and a slash-line of .469/.553/.688.

Savannah

Jim Fuller – The 25-year-old lefty hurler threw a pretty good game on Friday night but the effort went to waste as the Savannah offense managed just four hits and no runs all night. Fuller lasted 5.2 innings surrendering two earned runs, on two hits, with a walk and ten strikeouts. The bullpen didn’t help the cause when they came in to give up four runs, on six hits, in the final 2.1 innings to ice the game for the Hickory Crawdads, by a final score of 6-0. The loss dropped Fuller’s record on the year to 3-5 with a 6.37 ERA.

Brooklyn

Gabe Ynoa – The 19-year-old righty made the start for Brooklyn on Saturday, the first since his successful one inning outing in the NYPL All-Star game last Tuesday. Ynoa benefited from a 12 run, 10 hit attack by the Cyclones to defeat the Tri-City ValleyCats by a score of 12-4. He went 5.0 solid innings, giving up one earned run, while scattering eight hits, and striking out five. The win improved his record this year to 5-1 with a 2.40 ERA in 60.0 innings, over ten game starts. New York Penn League opposition is hitting .212 against him and he has put up a K/BB ratio of  50/7.

Hansel Robles – The 22-year-old right-hander made his tenth start of the season on Sunday night, and for the third game in a row, he didn’t allow a single run. Over his last three starts, Robles has pitched a total of 21.0 innings and only given up one unearned run on six hits, with 18 strikeouts and one walk. Actually the walk was the only base-on-balls he has issued in his last five starts, covering 34.0 innings. On Sunday Robles threw 6.0 innings giving up just two hits with the one walk and three strikeouts, to improve his record on the year to 4-1 with a 1.34 ERA. In his ten starts he has pitched 60.2 innings giving up nine earned runs, on 38 hits, no home runs, and a K/BB ratio of 54/7.

Kingsport

Akeel Morris – The 19-year-old 6’1″ right-hander made his third scoreless relief appearance in a row on Saturday night, by throwing three scoreless innings, to help the K-Mets defeat the Elizabethton Twins by a final score of 8-4. Morris tossed 3.0 innings giving up no runs, on one hit, with a walk and five strikeouts. Over his last three games he has pitched ten innings in relief, giving up no runs on four hits, with five walks and 15 strikeouts.

Jorge Rivero – Welcome to this week’s installment of the Jorge Rivero Report. Our hero had another big week this past week as he puts up some remarkable numbers in August. Settling in for the K-Mets in right-field these days, Rivero has gone 28-for-71 this month, with eight runs scored, four doubles, three triples, and ten RBI, for a slash of .394/.403/.535. For the season, the 23-year-old Rivero has emerged as the K-Mets best hitter.

Andrew Massie - The 18-year-old right-hander was taken by the Mets in the 24th round of the 2012 draft, but has struggled his first time through the Appalachian League. On Sunday he started the game against Elizabethton, and threw his best outing of the season despite coming away with a no-decision. In 5.0 innings he gave up just one run, earned, on four hits, two walks, and four strikeouts. With Kingsport’s last game of the season taking place on August 28th, it leaves Massie with one more start before season’s end.

Maikis De La Cruz – The 21-year-old center-fielder has been settling in nicely with the K-Mets this season. In his last 12 games De La Cruz has been on fire. During that span of games he has gone 18-for-50, with six runs, two doubles, two triples, ten RBI, and a slash-line of .360/.373/.480.

Transactions

Steve Matz – The K-Mets placed the 21-year-old lefty on the D.L. on Friday, with left-shoulder tendinitis. I spoke to Steve and he said the MRI showed nothing structurally wrong in the shoulder, and he is back at Port St. Lucie rehabbing. In six starts this year Matz has a record of 2-1 with a 1.55 ERA over 29.0 innings, with 17 walks and 34 strikeouts.

Jeff Stevens – The Bisons activated the righty reliever off the D.L. on Friday. For the year with the Herd, the 28-year-old Stevens is 1-1 with a 3.71 ERA, and one save in 34.0 innings pitched.

Scott Patterson – The Bisons announced they released the 6’7″ right-hander on Saturday. After signing with the Mets as a free-agent at the end of July, Patterson managed to only get into two games for the Herd before landing on the D.L. In those games he went 0-1 with a 21.60 ERA. In 1.2 innings of work he was hammered for four earned runs on seven hits with two strikeouts.

B-Mets Hurler Cory Mazzoni Continues To Shine

I hope you have enjoyed this latest installment of the MMO exclusive, Mets Minors Beat, which of course will post every Monday and Friday morning throughout the remainder of the Mets minor league season. Check back Friday to get caught up on everything of interest that happens this week in the Mets system, right here on MMO. The place for everything that is Mets baseball.

LGM!

Starting Young These Days

Matz On D.L. – Not Serious

When I saw the entry on yesterday’s transactions page for the Appalachian League, I got a a little concerned.

August 17: Kingsport Mets placed LHP Steven Matz on the 7-day disabled list.

Oh no, I hope it’s not the elbow again. TJS in 2010. Two lost seasons while rehabbing. A late start to 2012 training camp because of lingering elbow issues. After dealing with those, he started the second K-Mets game of the season and fired off five additional game starts. In six games he threw 29.0 innings and gave up 16 hits, one home run, walked 17, and struck out 34, to go 2-1 with a 1.55 ERA.

In 18 innings over his final three starts, he went 2-0, with a 0.00 ERA, with five hits, eight walks and 23 strikeouts. It was reported during those games that he was throwing his fastball as high as 98 mph, and utilizing a very effective change-up and curveball. A lefty that throws that hard, with good secondary offerings is something the Mets did not have in their system before the healthy reemergence of Matz.

As I stared at the entry on the transactions page, I began to think about Mets prospects of the past, who were side-tracked with injuries when they were young. Guys like Generation K, who each suffered devastating injuries that kept them from ever becoming anything with the Mets. And a string of high round draft-picks who never panned out. Guys like Phil Humber, Mike Pelfrey, Eddie Kunz, Nathan Vineyard, Brad Holt, Brant Rustich, Scott Moviel, Stephen Clyne, Eric Niesen, Kevin Mulvey, Matt Durkin, Shane Hawk, and Bob Keppel, just to name some of the more recent ones.

I shook it off. Things would be different with Matz. He’ll be a Met one day. He’ll get through this. I sat down and wrote him an email which said:

Hey Steve, how you doing? I saw you had to go on the D.L. That really sucks! It’s not your elbow is it? I heard you were having some shoulder issues, have you had it checked out yet? What did they say?

Then on Saturday, I heard back from Steve who didn’t sound overly concerned about this latest setback. Turns out, it is his shoulder that was giving him trouble, but after having it checked out, it was the best possible scenario.

Yeah I got an MRI, everything is clear just some rotator cuff tendenitis. Just down in Port St. Lucie now rehabbing it. Nothing too concerning.

So there you go, it’s not the elbow again. More than likely just some rust is all. Hopefully he’ll be back in time for Instructional League, and as for 2013? The sky is the limit for Mr. Matz.

LGM!

Mets Team Doctor

Familia Back On The Horse

Welcome back for another installment of the MMO Mets Minors Beat: The TGIF Edition! I’m your host Petey, and we have a lot to cover from this past week. There were some incredible pitching performances throughout the system, yet again. There were a ton of transactions, if you are into that sort of thing. And a few of the notable performers who are simply putting together outstanding seasons, have made it back into The Beat for like the umpteenth time. Guys like Collin McHugh, Wilmer Flores, Alonzo Harris, Richard Lucas, Cam Maron, Hansel Robles, and Jorge Rivero have been regulars here every week, but the way they are playing you can’t not mention them. So without further elaboration, here’s your newest version of the Mets Minors Beat: The Friday Edition, found only here on MMO.

Buffalo

Jeurys Familia – After a string of three straight starts in which he pitched poorly, from July 23rd until August 3rd, the 6’4″ 22-year-old has now tossed two good outings in a row. The second one which was against Lehigh Valley this past Tuesday night, was simply outstanding. He went 7.0 innings, giving up no runs on four hits, with a walk and eight strikeouts to earn the win. The effort improved his record for the season to 8-7 with a 4.69 ERA in 25 game starts. In 119.0 innings this year he has given up 122 hits, seven were for home runs, he has also posted a K/BB ratio of 108/67. In 2011 he pitched 124.0 innings which means the Mets could push him up to 175.0 innings this year but not beyond. So with 56.0 innings still in his gas tank, and the fact he is already on the Mets 40-man roster, he is virtually a lock to be called up for a few September starts.

Collin McHugh – The 6’2″ right-hander pitched another solid outing on Monday night, although once again he would have nothing to show for it. With 62.0 Triple-A innings under his belt over the course of 11 game starts, McHugh sports a 3.77 ERA, with only 52 hits given up, a K/BB ratio of 63/27, and an opponents batting average of .221. And yet he only has a 1-4 record to go along with those terrific peripherals. A starter for most of his five-year career, McHugh has a 9.0 K/9 ratio over 514.0 professional innings. Since the Mets are going to be forced to add McHugh to the 40-man roster this year to keep from losing him in the Rule 5 Draft, they might as well add him early and call him up for September when they could use him either as a starter or out of the pen.

Zack Wheeler – Making the start under bright skies on Thursday afternoon didn’t help Wheeler much this week. His pitches were elevated throughout his outing, and the Iron Pigs hitters were enjoying elevating the ball even more. There were five earned runs over 5.0 innings, on eight hits, two of which were doubles, and one left the yard, to go with five strikeouts. He took the loss in the 5-2 defeat, for his first Triple-A decision, his ERA now stands at 4.60 after his first three starts. Most of the K’s on Thursday came on 97 mph fastballs up out of the strike zone, the kind of pitches major league hitters would not be swinging at. Wheeler has yet to find any consistency at Triple-A but when he is on he shows signs of sheer domination unlike any other pitcher in the system. Having the opportunity for him to start three more games this year, which would bring his innings pitched total to about 145.0 would be ideal. That would represent an increase over 2011 by about 30 innings. It would also set him up for a 175 inning season in 2013, which would also be the season he will debut in the major leagues so Wheeler’s timetable is right where it should be for an ETA during the first half of 2013.

C.J. Nitkowski - The 39-year-old left-hander is throwing the ball extremely well with his version 2.0 side-arm pitching motion. As he becomes more and more comfortable with his new delivery, he feels more and more confidence that he will get back to the show, despite not having pitched there since 2005. So far in 10.0 innings split between Binghamton and Buffalo, he has a record of 0-0, with a 0.00 ERA, and one save. He has allowed just seven hits and one unearned run while striking out 13 and walking six. With Josh Edgin the sole south-paw in the Mets pen, Nitkowski may be pitching his way into the perfect storm as far as his comeback goes. With a little luck, we should be seeing him back in the bigs very soon.

Binghamton

Wilmer Flores - The hard-hitting infielder keeps raking this season. In his last ten games he has gone 14-for-39 with six runs, two doubles and three RBI, for a slash of .359/.432/.410. For the year, in 428 combined at-bats between St. Lucie and Binghamton, he is hitting .292, with 55 runs scored, 23 doubles, one triple, 14 homers, 66 RBI, and a 53/33 K/BB ratio.

Gorski Aims To Finish Strong

Darin Gorski – The big left-hander won his eighth game of the season on Wednesday night with a very strong effort against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. The 6’4″ south-paw scattered eight hits over seven innings giving up two runs, one earned, with two walks, a wild-pitch, and six strikeouts. He improved his record on the year to 8-6 with a 3.88 ERA in 123.0 innings over 21 game starts, with 114 hits and 19 home runs allowed, and a K/BB ratio of 98/44.

Francisco Pena – Over his last five games the 22-year-old backstop is hitting at a 7-for-14 clip, with a double, a homer, and four RBI.

St. Lucie

Erik Goeddel – The 22-year-old right-hander is quietly putting together a very good season in 2012. His 19 games, 17 game starts, 91.1 innings, and 81 strikeouts this year are all career highs for him, and he has a shot at throwing between 105 and 115 innings this season. For the oft-injured hurler, these may not be dramatic improvements, but represent definite progress and show he is moving forward and building on his good health and increasing arm-strength. He pitched one of his better performances on Wednesday night going seven innings against Palm Beach, and allowing no runs on two hits, with two walks and eight strikeouts. He has not gotten a lot of run support lately, and only has a 4-6 record for the season, with a 3.65 ERA, but if he finishes the year strong and healthy, this year has to be viewed as a huge success for him, and something to build off of moving forward.

Angel Cuan – The 23-year-old left-hander had a rough month of July, but has pitched much better in the month of August. On Thursday night he went 7.0 innings against Palm Beach giving up only one earned run on six hits with three strikeouts, to pick up the win and improve his record to 6-8 with a 3.35 ERA.

Danny Muno – Muno has been very consistent for St. Lucie down the stretch. For his last ten games he is 15-for-38 with six runs, three doubles, one triple, one home run, four RBI, five walks and four stolen bases, for a slash of .395/.465/.605. For the year in 245 at-bats, he has hit .290 with six home runs and 31 RBI.

Alonzo Harris – The speedy top-of-the-order performer has made the Mets Minors Beat nearly every time so far as he continues to enjoy a career year for St. Lucie. In his last ten games he has continued to rake to the tune of 19-for-43 with nine runs, three doubles, one triple, two home runs, seven RBI and five stolen bases for a slash-line of .442/.478/.698. In 57 at-bats during the month of August Harris is hitting .386 with three home runs, ten RBI, and six stolen bases.

Richard Lucas – Another player who has been noteworthy lately and has thereby made the Mets Minors Beat multiple times these past few weeks. In Lucas’ last ten games he is hitting to a .400/.488/.571 slash-line with eight runs, three doubles, one homer and six RBI. This is an important year for Lucas who will be a minor-league free agent at the end of the season.

Cory Vaughn – The slugging outfielder is only batting .242 this season but he has been mashing home runs at a pretty good clip, especially this week. In each of the last three games he has hit home runs to bring his RBI and home run total for the year to 60 RBI, and 21 home runs, just one behind Aderlin Rodriguez for the system lead in dingers.

Chase Huchingson – Hutch had a good start on Tuesday night. He pitched through the sixth inning, and by the time he hit the showers after six complete, the score was St. Lucie 8, and Palm Beach 2. Hutch probably figured that barring a major melt-down by the Lucie pen, he would certainly be notching his eighth win of the year. Well guess what? There was a major meltdown by the pen, and they gave up six runs in the top of the ninth to allow Palm Beach to tie the score at eight, and taking a potential win away from Huchingson. After a string of seven poor starts from the end of June until the end of July, he has thrown two quality starts in a row now, going 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA. On Tuesday he threw 6.0 innings, giving up two runs, both earned, on seven hits, three walks, and six strikeouts. For the year the 6’5″ 23-year-old lefty is 7-7 with a 4.38 ERA in 19 game starts.

Savannah

Young Gun In Savannah

Michael Fulmer – Fulmer pitched another gem on Monday as he just continues to shine this season. Leading the Savannah staff in innings pitched, wins, and strikeouts, he is still in line for three more starts before the end of his season. So far his record sits at 7-5 with a 2.54 ERA in 102.2 innings over 20 starts. The 6’3″ 19-year-old right-hander has given up 83 hits, five homers, with a K/BB ratio of 93/36, a WHIP of 1.16, and an opponents batting average of .219. On Monday night he went 5.0 innings to pick up the win, giving up just one run, earned, on four hits, three walks, and four strikeouts.

Cam Maron – The 21-year-old catcher continues to rake for the Sand Gnats in 2012. After hitting just .221 in the month of April, and then .263 in May, Maron went on a tear hitting .397 in June, .288 in July, and .325 so far in August. For the year he is batting .299 with four homers and 40 RBI, in 311 at-bats. In his last ten games, he is 11-for-34 with three runs, a double, a triple, seven RBI, and five walks, for a slash-line of .324/.415/.412.

Marco Camarena – The righty swingman was added to the rotation on July 29th but got roughed up pretty good in his first two starts. He picked up his first win in a month on Wednesday night, going 5.0 innings against Lexington and only giving up two unearned runs on four hits, with three walks and four strikeouts. For the year the 6’3″ 21-year-old right-hander has a record of 7-4 with a 3.14 ERA. He has pitched 83.0 innings over 27 games, eight of which have been starts, giving up 79 hits, eight home runs, with a K/BB ratio of 59/15, and a 1.13 WHIP.

T.J. Chism – Buffalo closer Fernando Cabrera leads the Mets system with 19 saves, do you know who is in second place in the system with 18 saves? If you guessed T.J. Chism then you were right. Last year’s closer at Brooklyn is having a tremendous season this year in the South Atlantic League, and could be having the best season statistically, of any reliever in the system. In 47.0 innings over 42 games, he is 4-2 with a 2.11 ERA and 18 saves. His K/BB ratio is 39/13, his WHIP is 1.13, and he has only given up one home run this season.

Brooklyn

The Cyclones lost their games on Wednesday and Thursday, but were off for the first half of this week for the NYPL All-Star break and they sent a contingency of four players, all pitchers, to participate. Let’s check out how they fared in the miniature version of the mid-summers classic.

Luis Mateo – The unofficial “ace” of the Brooklyn staff started the All-Star game for the National League squad. He pitched the first inning retiring the side in order. He struck out the lead-off hitter looking, got the second hitter on a grounder to first with Mateo covering, and fanned the number three hitter swinging.

John Mincone – Jamestown right-hander Nick Wittgren replaced Mateo for the second inning, and induced the first batter to fly-out to RF. After the fifth hitter in the order for the Americans, DH Joe Sever, singled to center, National League manager Angel Espada pulled the righty, and replaced him with Brooklyn south-paw and local product, John Mincone from Huntington, NY. Mincone went two-thirds of an inning, and struck out both batters he faced swinging. The Cyclone reliever wound up getting the win in the game when the Nationals defeated the Americans by a final score of 8-1.

Hansel Robles – The other Cyclone “ace” this season, Robles, came on to replace Mincone in the third inning for the National League squad. The first batter he faced grounded out third-to-first. The second batter popped out to the catcher in foul ground. Then with two out, second-baseman Thomas Coyle roped a triple into right-field, but he would remain stranded on third when Robles got the next hitter to ground out to first-base.

Gabe Ynoa – And finally the fourth Cyclone participant in the All-Star game got into the fray when he came on to pitch the seventh inning with his team up 3-0. The 19-year-old righty quickly fanned the first two batters he faced before allowing a single up the middle. He then got the next batter on a fly-ball to center to end his night.

Kingsport

John Gant - The 6’3″ 20-year-old right-hander has been the most consistent pitcher on the Kingsport staff this season and he turned in another quality outing on Wednesday night against the Johnson City Cardinals. Hurling 6.0 innings and giving up just an unearned run on six hits, two walks, a wild-pitch, and five strikeouts, he improved his record on the year to 3-2, and lowered his ERA to 4.80.

Budgell Got His First Pro Win

Matt Budgell – The 19-year-old right-hander picked up his first professional win on Tuesday night against Johnson City. Right-hander Andrew Massie had started the first game of the double-header, but lasted only four innings giving up two runs, one earned on five hits. Budgell fired the final three innings on the night, giving up a hit and striking out two to pick up the win and even his record at 1-1 with a 1.15 ERA on the year. He was drafted in 2011 by the Mets in the tenth round out of Woodbridge High School in Irvine, California.

Jorge Rivero – Rivero has been showing his usefullness this year by playing all over the infield and outfield for the K-Mets. But it is his bat that has been doing all the talking. For the month of August, in 62 at-bats the 23-year-old Rivero has a slash-line of .403/.400/.565. In his last ten games, he is hitting even better at .439/.419/.561.

Yeixon Ruiz – The 21-year-old switch-hitting second-baseman has been heating up with the bat as the season wears on. Over his last nine games, Ruiz has a slash-line of .366/.409/.463 with seven runs, a double, a home run, and six RBI. For the year, in 109 at-bats, he is hitting .248 with a homer and 13 RBI.

Anthony Chavez –  The 19-year-old infielder is opening up some eyes with his play over the last week or two. His bat has woken up and he is starting to contribute to the K-Met offense. Over his last nine games, Chavez is 13-for-30 with seven runs, one double, one triple, six RBI, six walks, and four stolen bases. His slash-line over those nine games is .433/.528/.533. The only thing Chavez needs to focus on at this point is cutting down on his strikeouts as he has already fanned 39 times this year in 114 at-bats.

Maikis De La Cruz – The K-Met center-fielder made this edition purely because of what he did on Wednesday against Johnson City. His line for the night: 4-for-5 with two doubles, one triple, and four RBI.

Transactions

Craig Hansen - On Wednesday the Cyclones activated 6’6″ 28-year-old former big-league right-hander Craig Hansen who was signed to a free-agent minor league contract on July 24th. Hansen was originally drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the first round (26th overall) of the 2005 MLB Draft, out of St. John’s University. He was in the three-team trade that sent Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers and Jason Bay to Boston in 2008. Originally from Glen Cove, NY, Hansen has appeared in 95 major league games over parts of four seasons for the Bosox and the Pirates between 2005 and 2009. He has a lifetime record in the bigs of 4-9, with a 6.34 ERA, and three saves. His K/BB/Hits/9 for his career is 6.7 K’s, 6.1 walks, and 9.4 hits, per nine innings. He has not pitched since the 2010 season. In 2009, Hansen was diagnosed with Parsonage-Turner syndrome, a rare condition causing pain, weakness, and numbness in the arms, shoulders, and upper back. Recovery can be total, but can take as long as five years. When Hansen pitched in 12 minor league games in 2010, he was not at full effectiveness, and the Pirates released him in early 2011. He pitched in his first game for Brooklyn on Wednesday night against Tri-City, tossing the eighth inning and allowing one earned run on three hits and a walk.

Rob Johnson – The catcher was sent back to the Bisons on Wednesday when the Mets activated newly acquired catcher Kelly Shoppach. In 52 at-bats with the Mets this year the 30-year-old backstop hit .250 with two doubles and four RBI.

Pedro Beato – Pedro we hardly knew ye! The hard throwing 25-year-old righty emerged as a major disappointment to the Mets and their fans after his outstanding start to the 2011 season. The 2012 season made it all too clear that 2011 was a fluke, as the former Rule 5 acquisition battled arm-weakness and looked like a shell of his former self. Even at Buffalo this year he was wildly inconsistent, and the experiment finally ended on Thursday when it was announced he was going to be the PTBNL in the Kelly Shoppach deal. This year at Buffalo in 37.0 innings over 24 games, he went 4-4 with a 4.14 ERA, and a 27/11 K/BB ratio. In his last ten games he was 1-2 with a 7.41 ERA. For the Mets in 2012 the 6’4″ right-hander went 4.1 innings over seven games, and gave up five earned runs on five hits, with two walks and five strikeouts for a record of 0-0, and a 10.38 ERA. Boston assigned him to Triple-A Pawtucket.

Scott Patterson – Last Saturday the Bisons placed recent acquisition Scott Patterson on the D.L. with an undisclosed injury. After signing with the Mets at the beginning of August the 6’7″ right-hander appeared in just two games for the Herd, tossing 1.2 innings and giving up four earned runs on seven hits, and absorbing the loss in a game against Syracuse on August 6th.

Garrett Olson – The veteran lefty passed through waivers and was activated by Buffalo on Tuesday. While with the Mets the 28-year-old swing-man pitched just one-third of an inning giving up four earned runs on a walk, and three hits.

Dylan Owen - The right-handed swing-man was put back on the D.L. on Tuesday with an unknown injury. He came off the D.L. just last Saturday and got into both games over the weekend against the SWB Yankees throwing 1.2 innings combined, giving up one run, and picking up the loss in Saturday’s game. For the year the 26-year-old is 4-9 with a 6.05 ERA at Triple-A.

Adam Kolarek – Was sent back to St. Lucie on Tuesday after pitching poorly his first go-round in Double-A. In 6.1 innings over six games, the big left-hander went 2-0 with a save, however he struggled with his command and was hit rather hard. He gave up four earned runs on ten hits and two home runs, with four walks and eight strikeouts. Many prospects run into a bit of a wall with their first taste of Double-A, righty Adrian Rosario is another recent example. I wouldn’t worry about any long-term negative effect with this move and fully expect to see the 23-year-old Kolarek back at Double-A by the start of next season. He got his 16th save of the season for St. Lucie with a scoreless ninth inning on Thursday night to preserve a 7-5 win for Angel Cuan.

Edgar Ramirez – The big right-hander was activated off the D.L. by Binghamton on Tuesday. Between the Bingo and Buffalo bullpens this season, he is a combined 1-2, with a 4.87 ERA, in 40.2 innings.

Tyler Pill – Tyler Pill left his last start on August 9th after just 2.0 innings with what has been described as “tightness in his forearm.” He was placed on the D.L. last week, with what is now being called triceps tendinitis. It is unclear how long he will be out, or whether he will return for the post-season. The combined numbers between Savannah and St. Lucie for the 2011 4th round draft pick, stand at 9-5, with a 2.31 ERA in 113.0 innings over 20 games. He gave up 109 hits, five home runs, 22 walks and struck out 105.

Ismael Tijerina – The Sand Gnats activated the slick fielding shortstop off the D.L. on Wednesday. After hitting .259 for Kingsport in 116 at-bats in 2010, and .223 in 157 at-bats for Brooklyn last year, the soon-to-be 23-year-old has had a wasted 2012 season so far, spending much of it on the D.L. or the Savannah bench. In just 25 at-bats this year, over nine games he has just one hit for an .040 batting average, with seven walks and three runs scored.

Xorge Carrillo – To make room for Tijerina, the Gnats placed the 23-year-old catcher on the D.L. on Wednesday. For the season in 11 games, Carrillo is 6-for-39, with two runs, one home run, and four RBI, for a .154 batting average.

Goeddel Pitched A Gem On Wednesday Night

Well that wraps up this edition of MMO’s Mets Minors Beat, I hope you enjoyed it. In case you are just tuning in, this feature is an MMO exclusive that comes out every Monday and Friday, throughout the remainder of the Mets minor league season. We will be bringing you facts and insights, and making mention of notable performances throughout the system, as well as comings-and-goings from the transaction wire. We’ll see you right back here on Monday morning to get you all caught up with anything you might have missed over the weekend. LGM!

Need For A Lefty In The Big Boy Pen? Why Not Tab The Guy You Already Have?

C.J. Nitkowski is a man among boys these days. The 39-year-old left-hander is throwing the ball extremely well at Buffalo with his version 2.0 side-arm pitching motion. As he becomes more and more comfortable with his new delivery, he feels more and more confident that he will get back to the show, despite not having pitched there since 2005.

So far in 10.0 innings split between Binghamton and Buffalo, he has a record of 0-0, with a 0.00 ERA, and one save. He has allowed just seven hits and one unearned run while striking out 13 and walking six. Most significantly though is his presence on the mound. I have watched him pitch live and on TV about a half-dozen times this year and he just doesn’t belong in the minor leagues, he’s got the big league stamp for sure.

With Josh Edgin the sole south-paw in the Mets pen, and showing signs of burning out mentally, and after what transpired with poor Tim Byrdak, there is no question that a second lefty is mandatory for ANY major league bullpen. Nitkowski may be pitching his way into the perfect storm as far as his comeback goes.

In my mind he has shown he can pitch. At this point, he can audition for a big league job while in the big leagues. I don’t need to see him beating up on minor leaguers anymore, that thrill is gone. Let’s get this guy up to Citifield pronto, Mr. Alderson… Where we so desperately need him.

LGM!

First Mets GM George Weiss And First Mets Manager Casey Stengel

On October 16th, 1969 at Shea Stadium, in front of 57,367 hysterical fans the New York Mets wrote the final chapter of what is still today one of the most compelling “rags-to-riches” stories in Major League Baseball history. A team that for the first seven seasons of their existence had been a laughingstock and the brunt of countless jokes, was suddenly and inexplicably sitting on top of the baseball world. And no one except the Mets and their fans were laughing anymore.

Was it a fluke though? A happy accident? The fact that the Mets made it back to the World Series four years later in 1973, with the same basic core of players proved that ’69 was no accident. No, the 1969 Mets were the beginning of a new kind of Mets team. A playoff challenger. A team that barring extensive injuries could compete for a playoff spot every year. A team that was built with experience and know-how, and great pitching.

Eventually, a power struggle in the inner circles of the Mets hierarchy following the death of GM Johnny Murphy, would result in the ousting of Whitey Herzog, and the emergence of M. Donald Grant as the “top dog” in the baseball structure of the organization. This was the end of the Mets as a contending team.

As M. Donald Grant, who in Whitey Herzog’s own words: “knew nothing about baseball,” went on to destroy the Mets franchise for the next decade, Herzog went to St. Louis to lick his wounds. Of course Herzog, who knew “plenty about baseball,” went on to build a perennial contender and championship team while the Mets were entering their darkest period as a franchise. Those “White Rat” led Cardinals teams ate the Mets lunch practically every season for the next twelve years.

But this piece is intended to illustrate where that first core of championship players emerged from, and who was actually responsible for what? Perhaps by reviewing the history of our own beloved Amazins, we can ourselves relearn what it takes to build a winner. There were three Mets GM’s from the team’s inception in 1961 until the end of that miracle ’69 season. They were each in their own right, very important in building that world champion team.

1969 New York Mets

The first Mets GM was George Weiss, who was tabbed by Mrs. Payson in 1961 as the perfect man for the job of getting this fledgling franchise off the ground. Weiss, who along with Casey Stengel had been forced by the Yankees to retire the previous year, had built the Yankee teams that won all those championships in the 40′s and 50′s. He is also credited for developing the modern-day farm system after he began working for the Yankees in 1932. Weiss built the foundation, the talent, and farm system for the Mets that would produce about two-thirds of that ’69 team.

Weiss was directly responsible for acquiring four out of the six starting pitchers the Mets used in 1969, including Tom Seaver who was drafted in a special lottery in 1966, and Jerry Koosman who was signed as an amateur free-agent in 1964. Weiss also made use of the first year of the MLB Amateur Draft in 1965, to take a couple of young hurlers in the 11th and 12th rounds by the names of: Jim McAndrew, and Nolan Ryan. Weiss’ sole contribution to the 1969 bullpen was a young left-hander by the name of Tug McGraw.

As for position players, Weiss had an even more noticeable imprint. Starting of course with the oldest Met, in terms of tender, even in 1969 and still to this day, “Steady” Eddy Kranepool. Krane was signed as an amateur free-agent in 1962, a 17-year-old from the Bronx, and made his big league debut at the end of the ’62 season. He would play the next 18 seasons as a Met.

Kranepool and Koosman were joined by other huge free-agent acquisitions in the years before the Draft was implemented in 1965. Bud Harrelson, Cleon Jones, and Ron Swoboda were all netted as free-agents by Weiss in 1963. Koosman, McGraw and Kevin Collins would follow in ’64. In 1965, not only did Weiss land Ryan, McAndrew, Ken Boswell, and Steve Renko in the draft, he also made a very shrewd trade with Houston to pry a young catcher away from them by the name of Jerry Grote.

The second MLB Draft in 1966 enabled Weiss to land the Mets a promising catcher named Duffy Dyer in the 1st round. In all, twelve players from the World Championship 1969 team were acquired directly by George Weiss, and five more were acquired indirectly, through moves previously made by him. Weiss would eventually be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971.

Bing Devine, was scooped up by Peyson after he was fired by the Cardinals, and brought in to replace Weiss as GM. He was only in the position for one year, 1967, but during that time he made some very important moves that would end up helping the Mets win a world championship two years later. Devine was caught up in the tug-of-war between Herzog and Grant and decided after just one year he had to get the hell out of there. St. Louis realized they had made a mistake in firing him, so off he went back to St. Louie to await the arrival of Herzog a short time later.

Bing Devine

But during the one short year he served as Met GM Devine left an indelible mark on the franchise. In his one draft with the Mets, Devine made a huge selection in the 3rd round when he tabbed a young, fire-balling right-hander, by the name of Gary Gentry. Gentry would break into the bigs in 1969 and pitch so well for the Mets, that he nailed down the number three spot in the rotation. The other notable player from Devine’s ’67 draft was reserve outfielder Rod Gaspar, in the 2nd round.

Devine understood that this team was close to being very, very good, and he was able to add important complimentary pieces without disrupting the team’s nucleus. He either purchased the contracts or traded for, several older but useful role players to fill out the rotation, bullpen, and bench. Players like catcher J.C. Martin, who he traded an aging Ken Boyer to acquire, and would later play a key role in the ’69 Series. Devine picked up 3B Ed Charles, “The Glider,” from K.C., and important relievers Cal Koonce and Ron Taylor.

He also made two very significant trades. The lesser of the two, which was still crucial to the Mets fortunes in the 1969 season, was the December 1966 trade of RHP Dennis Ribant to the Pittsburgh Pirates for veteran left-hander Don Cardwell. Cardwell came over to the Mets and did an excellent job of rounding out the rotation. Furthermore he provided a veteran influence on a very young rotation whose senior member up to that point was 26-year-old Jerry Koosman, and he clearly took pressure off the youngsters Ryan and Gentry.

The biggest contribution that Devine made was not the player he acquired in the trade where he sent Jim Hickman and Ron Hunt to the L.A. Dodgers. That was outfielder/third-baseman Tommy Davis, and Davis, like Devine, would only work as a Met for the 1967 season. The biggest move Devine made was getting Davis which would eventually allow the Mets to trade for two other players who would be huge for them in 1969.

With Devine’s departing, enter Johnny Murphy as the franchise’s third GM. Murphy, a former relief ace for the Yankees in the 30′s and 40′s, had been a Red Sox executive for 13 seasons mostly involved in scouting, and started working in the Mets front office in 1961. He was a solid, knowledgeable baseball man who could stand up to the meddling Grant. Murphy guided the team through 1968 and 1969, and like Devine, knew enough to see that he had the makings of a winning team that only required a little leadership, and a little fine-tuning to really make some noise. It was to this end that Murphy acquired outfielder Art Shamsky from Cinncinnati, 3B Bobby Pfeil from St. Louis, and lefty reliever Jack DiLauro from Detroit.

Johnny Murphy

It was Murphy who pulled off a blockbuster for the Mets when he traded Tommy Davis and unloaded RHP Jack Fisher, and two prospects in 1968, to the White Sox for Tommie Agee and Al Weis. He also selected infielder Wayne Garrett from the Braves in the 1968 Rule 5 Draft. Garrett went on to have a very solid Mets career including playing a big part in the 1969 season. Murphy identified a major power shortage at the infield corners, and brought in slugger 1B Donn Clendenon during the season in ’69. Big Donn put the finishing touches on the line-up and provided the everyday on-the-field leadership the team so sorely needed.

Although the biggest contribution Johnny Murphy made to the Mets ultimately winning the World Series was a trade he made, it was not a trade for a player. On November 27th, 1967, Murphy traded right-hander Bill Denehy and $100,000 to the Washington Senators for their manager, Gil Hodges. Hodges’ leadership and guidance was perhaps the single most important factor in stabilizing that very young 1969 Mets team and enabling them to bring home the World Championship. Unfortunately that sweet success would be short-lived for Murphy who passed away the following January, just three months after his team had won it all.

This article was originally published in our 2012 MMO Mets Annual. 

Nimmo Standing Tall In The NYPL

Welcome back to MMO’s Mets Minors Beat: The Monday Morning Edition. It was a weird weekend in the Mets minors. Terrible weather in the southeast caused postponements for the Sand Gnats and the St. Lucie Mets. But some very cool things happened too, as two Mets hurlers very nearly pitched no-hitters. Jacob DeGrom made a huge splash in his Florida State League debut. T.J. Rivera has a 20-game hit streak, Josh Satin extended his hit streak to 11 games, and Nimmo is simply en fuego. And maybe best of all, was the return to form of Akeel Morris. To get a handle on everything of note, from this past weekend on the farm, check out this edition of the Mets Minors Beat.

Buffalo

Josh Satin – The Herd first-baseman extended his hitting streak to 11 straight games on Sunday with a 1-for-3 night. During the streak he has gone 17-for-39 with nine runs, six doubles, three home runs, four walks, and 11 RBI. His slash for the 11 games is .436/.488/.821. For the season Satin has gone 111-for-368 with 63 runs, 24 doubles, a triple, 13 home runs, 52 RBI, 63 walks, two stolen-bases, and a slash-line of .302/.405/.478.

Zack Wheeler – The Mets number one prospect made his second Triple-A start on Saturday night and pitched much better this time around than he did in his first start. Previously he lasted only 4.2 innings in his debut last Monday, giving up two earned runs and getting a no-decision against Syracuse. In that contest he threw a total of 101 pitches, of which 61 were strikes. This time around he went to work against the hated SWB Yankees, and went 6.0 innings, giving up one earned run on two hits, three walks, and four strikeouts. After a one-out double in the first plated the Yankees only run off him, Wheeler went on to retire 14 of the next 15 batters he faced, giving up no hits, and throwing his fastball 98 mph while doing so. He walked the lead-off man in the third but erased him on a double-play. Then he walked two in his final inning of work, but tossed another double-play grounder to avoid trouble. He threw a total of 93 pitches, 54 for strikes, lowering his ERA to 2.53 and picking up another no-decision.

Lucas Duda – The big Duda missed three consecutive games, Thursday through Saturday, with a root canal. He was back in the line-up on Sunday night and looked like he was feeling much better going 3-for-5 with three runs scored and two doubles, to raise his Buffalo batting average to .275.

Jenrry Mejia – The Bisons continue to stretch Mejia out as a starting pitcher with his third consecutive start on Sunday night against Pawtucket. In his first start he went 3.0 innings, his second he went 4.1, and on Sunday he went 5.0 innings, giving up two unearned runs on six hits, with a walk and two strikeouts, to earn the win. His record at Triple-A this year now stands at 2-2 with a 2.90 ERA. In his last 17.2 innings over six games, he has allowed only one earned run.

Binghamton

Mark Cohoon – The 24-year-old south-paw pitched his finest game of the year on Friday night against the Harrisburg Senators, taking a no-hitter into the seventh and finishing the night with a 9.0 inning, two-hit shutout, to improve his record on the year to 7-8 with a 3.44 ERA. Cohoon has now tossed six quality starts out of his last seven games, and improved his record from 3-7 with a 4.11 ERA, to where it is now. For Cohoon it was the fifth shut-out of his pro-career, and the first he has thrown since he hurled three of them in succession, when he was a member of the Sand Gnats in June of 2010. On Friday his line in the game went: 9.0 innings, no runs, two hits, one walk, one hit batter, and ten strikeouts. He threw 113 pitches in the contest, 81 for strikes. In addition to his ten K’s, Cohoon induced 11 ground-outs and six outs in the air. He also helped his own cause at the plate by going 1-for-1 with an RBI, and three sacrifices.

Wilmer Flores – Flores is really heating up with the bat these days. In his last four games he is 10-for-18 with three runs scored, two doubles, and two RBI. In four of his last five games Flores has played second-base, in the other game he played first. He has a good glove for the infield, but I have yet to see him have to range right or left. His foot speed is rather slow, so the jury is still out as to whether he will have sufficient range to play second base, but he looks much smoother fielding the position than Daniel Murphy. Perhaps it is his lack of speed that has kept the Mets from tinkering with him in the outfield thus far.

Cory Mazzoni – The 22-year-old 6’1″ righty pitched 5.0 strong innings against Harrisburg on Sunday afternoon, surrendering just one run, it was earned, on six hits, three walks, and two strikeouts. The performance was supported by a solid effort from the B-Mets bullpen to give Mazzoni his fifth win against three losses at Double-A. He is now 5-3 with a 3.45 ERA in ten starts for Binghamton, and was 5-1 with a 3.25 ERA at St. Lucie in 12 starts.

St. Lucie

Logan Verrett – They say the third times the charm, and it proved accurate for Verrett as he had to wait until his third Florida State League start Friday night, before getting credited with his first win despite having pitched well enough to win all three games. In his first two starts since being called up from Savannah, he went 6.1 and 6.0 innings respectively, giving up two earned runs in each contest and picking up no-decisions. On Friday against the Fort Myers Miracle, the 6’2″ 22-year-old right-hander went 6.1 innings, with only one run this time, on four hits, one walk and five strikeouts to earn the victory. In 11 game starts at Savannah he had gone 3-2, with a 3.06 ERA and a K/BB ratio of 67/9 in 64.2 innings.

T.J. Rivera – After his June promotion from Savannah, Rivera went through an adjustment period to the Florida State League as he batted just .231 in his first ten games. Then things started to heat up at the plate for Rivera as he hit .327 for the month of July, and has kept it going in August hitting .317 as we approach the month’s midway point. Although his slugging and on-base have not rebounded yet the way his batting average has, he is making strides and showing improvement at the plate against the superior breaking pitches of the FSL. His slash-line at Savannah in 261 at-bats: .333/.396/.487, at St. Lucie in 187 at-bats: .305/.345/.401. By going 1-for-4 on Saturday night Rivera extended his current hitting streak to 20 straight games. He has not gone hitless since July 20th when he was batting .252. Since then he has gone 31-for-89 with 12 runs scored, six doubles, two triples, 12 RBI, and a slash-line of .348/.370/.461, to bring his average to .305.

Alonzo Harris - One of the few stolen base threats that the Mets have anywhere in their system, Harris is doing it all this season putting up career numbers in nearly every offensive category, while manning left-field for St. Lucie. For the year the 22-year-old super-utility guy is 108-for-371 with 63 runs, 22 doubles, seven triples, six homers, 37 RBI, 42 walks, 32 stolen bases, and a slash of .291/.366/.437. Harris is intent on finishing strong as he enjoys his best month of the season. For the month of August so far, he is 18-for-43 with ten runs scored, three doubles, a triple, two home runs, seven RBI, three walks, four stolen bases, and a slash of .419/.457/.674.

Jacob DeGrom – The 24-year-old 6’4″ right-hander made his first start at St. Lucie since being promoted from Savannah the other day. He wasted no time in notching his first win with a dominating performance in his debut Saturday night. Going up against the Fort Myers Miracle, he fired off 7.0 innings giving up no runs on one hit, striking out eight and walking three to pick up the victory. While with Savannah he went 6-3 with a 2.51 ERA in 15 game starts. In 89.2 innings, he had a K/BB ratio of 78/14, and a 1.01 WHIP.

Taylor Whitenton – The 2011 ERA leader in the South Atlantic League was moved to the bullpen upon arriving at St. Lucie this season, and has gotten better and better as the season wears on. Since June 1st, he has a record of 5-1 with a 1.37 ERA, and six saves. For the year, he is 7-2 with a 2.06 ERA and 7 saves, and a 62/32 K/BB ratio in 52.1 innings. The 6’3″ right-hander has a batting average against of .226 against right-handed batters, and .152 against left-handed hitting.

Richard Lucas – Lucas only went 1-for-6 with a double over the weekend, but he has been slaughtering the ball over his last nine games. During that time he has gone 13-for-33 with six runs, three doubles, a home run, six RBI, and three stolen-bases, and a slash-line of .394/.429/.576. The only real knock on Lucas is his penchant for striking out. In 354 at-bats this year he has whiffed a total of 115 times. Even over the last nine games when he was crushing the baseball, he went down on strikes 12 times versus three walks. For his career in 1572 at-bats over six years, he has struck out 487 times.

Savannah

Domingo Tapia – After Thursday nights game against the Greenville Drive was suspended after one inning of play, Tap was tabbed to start the game Friday night when it resumed in the second inning, as part of a nine-inning twi-night double-header. The 6’4″ right-hander tossed innings two through seven, pitching very well. Unfortunately he did not get credit for the win as the Sand Gnats scored the decisive run in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the ninth. Tapia went 6.0 innings, giving up two runs, both earned on one hit, with four walks and eight strikeouts. Tapia has gotten very little run support this year, and could easily have double-digit wins at this point if he had gotten some. However despite having little to show for it he has pitched outstanding and you can see it in his peripheral stats. His overall record with Savannah this year is 5-3 with a 3.44 ERA. He is an upper-90′s ground-ball machine, who in 91.2 innings has given up only 69 hits for an opponents batting average of .208, he also boasts an 81/29 K/BB ratio.

Greg Pron – The Sand Gnats had an abbreviated weekend with the two games on Friday, a rainout on Saturday, and an off-day on Sunday. But the righty-hitting Pron has begun to show signs of coming out of his extended slump. On the final day of June, Pron was hitting .221. Since then he has hit at a .297 clip to raise his average for the year to .250, with no home runs and 36 RBI in 320 at-bats. He still has been woefully inept at getting on base, and SLG%. A slash-line this year of .250/.299/.341 is not what you expect from a 6’6″ power-hitter, and will not be good enough to get him promoted to the next level. Unless he starts to produce some runs heading down the stretch, he will at best, be asked to return to Savannah again next year. And about that time Savannah will be reloading with talented outfielders like Brandon Nimmo, Stefan Sabol, Maikis De La Cruz, Eudy Pina, and perhaps Jeff Diehl. Competing with those guys at Savannah in 2013, playing time will not be easy to come by for Pron. Just to make it interesting, in his last four games over the past week, Pron has gone 7-for-13 with two runs scored, two doubles, and five RBI.

Cam Maron – The lefty-hitting, 21-year-old catcher continues to put up terrific offensive numbers this season as he has hit .370 so far in the month of August. His success this season has propelled him to the top of the list of top Mets catching prospects. In his last seven games Maron is 10-for-25 with three runs scored, a double, a triple, three walks, and five RBI. For the year he has gone 90-for-298 with 42 runs, 17 doubles, two triples, four homers, 38 RBI, 39 walks, and two stolen-bases. His slash-line sits at a very solid .302/.390/.413.

Brooklyn

Hansel Robles – C’mon already! What is up with this guy? He has been pitching better and better and better this year. And after it was announced last week that he had made the NYPL All-Star team, he celebrated on Friday night by throwing his best game of the year, 8.0 innings, no runs, one hit, no walks, seven strikeouts. As a matter of fact he had a perfect game going until there were two-outs in the eighth, when he allowed a single. In 54.2 innings over nine game starts this season, Robles has given up 38 hits and nine earned runs, a 51/6 K/BB ratio, and a record of 3-1 with a 1.48 ERA. His opponents batting average is .197 and his WHIP is 0.80. He’s second in the league in WHIP, third in the league in ERA, and tied for third in the league in strikeouts. In his nine starts, he has never gone less than 5.0 innings, he has given up zero runs three times, one run on five occasions, and in the other start, four earned runs in what was his only loss of the season. In his last four starts, he has gone 8.0 innings twice, and seven innings once, with the other start lasting 5.0 innings. Over his last 39 innings he has given up just four earned runs.

Julian Hilario – In previous Mets Minors Beat posts I have waxed poetic about starting pitchers one-through-five in the Cyclones rotation. NYPL All-Stars Luis Mateo, Hansel Robles, and Gabriel Ynoa, and also Luis Cessa, and Rainy Lara have had their exploits this year chronicled in depth by myself and others all over the media world. But did you know the Brooklyn Cyclones employ a six-man rotation? Did you know that 6’1″ right-hander Julian Hilario was the other Brooklyn starter? On Saturday night Hilario made his seventh game start of the year. He went 5.0 innings against the Vermont Lake Monsters of the Oakland A’s organization, and gave up one earned run on five hits, with five strikeouts and two walks. Turning the game over to the bullpen with a 4-1 lead in the sixth to close out the game, it eventually became a 6-3 Cyclones victory, giving Hilario the win, and improving his record to 2-3 with a 3.14 ERA.

Logan Taylor – The 6’5″ 20-year-old right-hander has gotten off to a very good start in his pro career. Drafted by the Mets this past year in the 11th round, Taylor arrived a little late to start the season and didn’t get into his first game until July 12th. Since then he has appeared in 9.2 innings over eight games, going 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA, with four hits given up, ten strikeouts, and no walks.

Brandon Nimmo – I’d say it is safe to say that we have found Nimmo. The real Nimmo that is. For all the haters out there who resent the kid strictly because they resent the general manager, I say Phooey! To you Mr. Francesa for your recent comments about Mr. Nimmo “not being able to hit his own weight in the rookie leagues!” To you I say phooey too! Nimmo is on freakin’ fire in the New York Penn League, and by-the-way, the NYPL is not a “rookie league.” But it was a nice touch by Fat-Head Fran. Nimmo started out in Brooklyn indirectly because of the Mets decision to do away with their Gulf Coast League affiliate. With only one team now lower than Brooklyn, Kingsport (which is the rookie leagues), there was only one place to send the most inexperienced players, Kingsport. Nimmo was not one of those players, he was more advanced, so they were forced to send him to Brooklyn. What they should have done was sent him to the GCL for a few weeks, then promoted him to Kingsport (the rookie league) for the rest of the season, with perhaps a cup of coffee at Brooklyn at the end of the year. That’s how most teams would have handled players in Nimmo’s situation. Look at how Courtney Hawkins has been handled this year. The rookie league all the way. But Nimmo was thrown in the fire with older more experienced players, college players, and he struggled for a while, and all his critics said how he was going to be a bust. But look at him now. It has taken him only half-a-season and now he is hitting like one of the top hitters in his entire league. For the last ten games Nimmo has gone 19-for-43 with 14 runs scored, eight doubles, one homer, four RBI, and a slash-line of .442/.500/.698. Stick that in your fat….ear, Francesa.

Kingsport

Jorge Rivero – The all-purpose utility-man has been the best hitter in the K-Mets line-up for a while now. Settling into the three-hole in the order, and recently finding a home in left-field, the 23-year-old Cuban is starting to put up some numbers this year. In his last ten games he has gone 18-for-44 with six runs scored, three doubles, three triples, five RBI, and a stolen-base. His slash-line over that time is .409/.413/.614. So far this year he is hitting .325 by going 25-for-77 with ten runs, six doubles, three triples, and seven RBI.

Akeel Morris – After giving up ten earned runs in 2.0 innings in a July 24th start, Morris was dropped from the Kingsport starting rotation and sent to the bullpen. Many wondered what had happened to the hard-throwing righty who looked so promising in the K-Mets rotation in 2011. But since his change of assignment, he has looked a whole lot better throwing ten innings in three games in relief, and giving up just one run on five hits, with seven walks and 16 strikeouts. On Sunday night Morris went 5.0 innings in relief of starter Miller Diaz, and gave up no runs, on two hits and two walks, with nine strikeouts.

Gavin Cecchini – The Mets 1st-round pick in last June’s draft made his first appearance since going on the D.L. with a fractured finger-tip on August 2nd. Sunday marked his first game back and he went 3-for-7 with two RBI, as the DH in the 13-inning, 6-5 loss to Danville. For the year Cecchini is now hitting .260 with one home run and 15 RBI.

Transactions

Andrew Carpenter – The 6’3″ 230 lb. right-hander was originally drafted by the Phillies in the 2nd-round, the 65th overall selection in the 2006 MLB draft. He spent the next six seasons in the Philadelphia organization, and pitched 24.1 nondescript big league innings between 2008 and 2011 posting a 1-1 won-lost record. He elected to become a minor league free agent after last year and signed with Toronto. He started the year well in the hard-hitting Pacific Coast League, working as both a starter and a reliever for the Las Vegas 51′s. He made 12 game starts and pitched another nine games in relief, for a total of 74.2 innings in which he struck out 56 while walking 19, and going 6-3 with a 3.38 ERA. He was called up to the bigs in July and got into six games for the Blue Jays going 0-0 with a 5.00 ERA in nine innings. He did okay in some ways, although command was obviously an issue for him when he got to the majors this time, striking out nine and walking six. He gave up just seven hits in the nine innings but the problem was that four of those hits were home runs. He was outrighted by the Jays on August 6th and cleared waivers before refusing his assignment to Triple-A, making himself a free-agent. The Mets scooped him up immediately and assigned him to Binghamton. He made his debut in Saturday’s loss at Harrisburg, pitching 1.0 inning and giving up no runs on one hit, with two strikeouts. It is a smart pick-up for the Mets, being that it is very low-risk. Now they have another bullpen option to check out for the remainder of the season, and who knows? If he pitches well, he could be brought up to help out at Citi this year.

Adrian Rosario – To make room for Carpenter, the B-Mets sent Adrian Rosario back to Port St. Lucie where he had terrific success pitching in the Florida State League earlier in the season. But the Eastern League was not as kind to the 6’4″ right-handed Rosario as his command seemed as if it had deserted him. While at Double-A he struggled to the tune of 1-2 with a 5.83 ERA. In 29.1 innings he produced a woeful  K/BB ratio of 27/29 and the league was hitting .307 against him.

Rafael Montero – Three days after carrying a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Palm Beach Cardinals, the Mets placed Montero on the D.L. due to the fact that he has reached his innings limit for the year. Montero has thrown 122.0 innings this season between Savannah and St. Lucie, going a combined 11-5 with a 2.36 ERA, and a 110/19 K/BB ratio. It is organizational philosophy to limit pitchers to throwing no more than 50 innings over their total from the year before. In 2011, Montero threw a total of 71.0 innings.

Dylan Owen – The Bisons activated the righty swing-man from the D.L. in time for Saturday’s game against the SWB Yankees. This year for the Herd he has gone 4-9 with a 6.05 ERA in 27 games, nine of which were starts.

I hope you enjoyed this Monday’s edition of Mets Minors Beat exclusively on MMO. Mets Minors Beat is brought to you every Monday and Friday morning until the end of the 2012 minor league season. In it you will see who is on a roll, who has done something special, who got hurt, who got healthy, who got acquired, traded or released. We will even sprinkle in a few choice tidbits here and there, and a few opinions from time to time. Kind of a Met minor league, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink. See you again on Friday!

Wheeler Tossed A Solid Six Innings In His Second AAA Start

Met Of The Future

After Years In The System Pena Has Risen To The Upper Levels

Coming from a baseball family, the theory was always that Francisco Pena would shoot through the Mets system and be their starting catcher by 2012. Although his progress has been slower than what that timetable would have required, there is no question that Pena is moving closer to where he needs to be. Now in his sixth season with the organization, and 22-years-old, he is no longer a raw recruit but someone with enough training and experience to make his pitching staff and teammates better through his leadership.

Pena, as a catcher, has to be a student of the game. With his father Tony, who played 18 years in the majors as a starting catcher for Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Boston, and several other clubs and who is now a Yankee’s coach, Francisco has an excellent baseball background and pedigree. His brother Tony is also a pro-baseball player who has played shortstop in the bigs with K.C. and Atlanta.

Promoted to Binghamton from St. Lucie on June 21st, Pena got off to a hot start with the bat at Double-A but has since cooled off. Part of the reason is his position on the field. As a catcher he has the added responsibility of learning not only his pitchers, their stuff and what they like to throw in certain situations, but the league’s hitters as well, and their weaknesses. Pena told me as long as he stays healthy, he will continue to learn more about the game every day.

I got a chance to talk to Francisco at New Britain the week before last, and he was nice enough to answer some questions for us here on MMO. It was a real fun chat, and he’s very interesting to talk to. I found I didn’t have to ask him complete questions for the most part. I would just toss the gist of a query out there, and he would scoop up the question in mid-sentence and run with it. His answers were fantastic, full of good stuff. Tidbits and observations that are the product of living a baseball life from the time he was a tot. So without further fanfare, let’s get on with my interview with B-Mets catcher Francisco Pena.

Petey:  I’m talking to Binghamton Mets catcher Francisco Pena in the third-base dugout at New Britain Stadium. Francisco, you made the jump this season from High-A St. Lucie, to Double-A Binghamton. How do you feel about your time in the Eastern League so far?

Francisco:  Pretty good, pretty good, started the season here in Double-A swinging the bat pretty well. Struggling a little bit with my bat, but the defense is there. Doing a good job with the pitching staff. Getting to know the new group of guys on the pitching staff in Double-A. I know some of the guys from last year. But It’s been pretty good, it’s been pretty fine. It’s all the same baseball, you try to do nothing different, it’s just a little bit quicker but it’s been fun, it’s been real nice.

Petey:  Let’s talk about the pitching staff. Can you tell us your impressions of the starting rotation here?

Francisco:  I would say I’m trying to do the same thing, not trying to change nothing, it’s still the same baseball, like I said it’s probably a little bit quicker. I know most of the guys, I caught Peavey last year. I caught Gorski last year, I caught Armando Rodriguez, caught Wheeler. So I have a pretty good idea of some of the guys in the starting rotation, and some of the guys who are in the bullpen. It’s alright, it’s been pretty good and we’ve been having a pretty good communication.

Petey:  As far as your hitting goes, you mentioned you’ve been struggling a little bit. What sort of things are you working on to help you swing the bat better?

Francisco:  You know when your struggling, for me and for most of the guys, we have heard from the big league guys, and me being in a big league family, I’ve been talking with my dad, and talking with Luis Natera our hitting coach, and it’s getting a quality pitch to hit, you know? Getting a good pitch to hit, we as young players especially Latin players, we like to swing early. But you just gotta have a quality pitch and just be patient and just get a good pitch to swing, and you’ll be alright.

Petey:  So is it things like pitch recognition your working on now, or strike zone discipline?

Francisco:  No, it’s just let the ball travel a little bit more, and try to hit the ball the other way. Just let the ball travel you know? Let the ball travel. I’m just trying to rush a little bit, you know? When your feeling good at the plate, you feel strong and you try to do too much. Just let the ball travel and try not to do too much. That’s when you get in trouble, when you try to do too much.

Petey:  Sounds like my golf game. You’re a big, strong hitter, do you consider yourself a power hitter? And what sort of things do you work on to improve on your power-stroke?

Francisco:  Actually, I don’t consider myself a power hitter. I consider myself a gap-to-gap hitter. Hopefully, in the future I can be a power hitter but right now I just want to concentrate on hitting the ball gap-to-gap. You know just learn more for myself, you keep learning so much stuff from baseball. Every single day you keep learning. I just gotta keep learning myself and keep hitting the ball gap-to-gap, and although I don’t consider myself a power hitter, I’m hitting more power this year. I’m hitting more doubles, and extra-base-hits in ball-games. But I consider myself a gap-to-gap hitter.

Petey:  Did you set any goals for what you want to accomplish this season? Or where you’d like to be by the end of the year?

Francisco:  Actually, I’m very happy I’m here right now, you know? I was injured for almost the whole year when I broke my foot. And I’m just thankful, I thank God in just being healthy, you know? Cause being healthy is the big thing, and I just hope, hopefully I can finish strong here, keep working on my defense, my catching. Keep working on my defense, keep working on my hitting and see where it takes us next year. Hopefully start next year here or start next year at Triple-A, whatever, I just want to have a good year. Just see what happens. See what happens and stay healthy.

Petey:  Your a very good defensive catcher, what kinds of things are you trying to fine tune?

Francisco:  The most important thing is like when you know your pitching staff. So that’s what I’m working on just keep knowing your pitching staff. That’s the most important thing in baseball. What you see in the big leagues most of the time is catchers sometimes don’t hit. There so good defensively, defensive catchers, sometimes they learn how to hit more. Get to know themselves, get better approaches, but I’m concentrating on just knowing my pitchers, I have a good idea what I’m doing behind the plate. If I know the other hitters from the other team. I know their tendencies and their weakness. And I’ll be alright.

Petey:  Do you talk pitching with the staff between starts?

Francisco:  Absolutely, most of the times they say position players hang out with position players, and pitchers hang out with pitchers. Actually I talk to the position players as well about the hitters on the other teams. Sometimes pitchers, if they don’t know somebody else and some of the guys played with them in college, or some of the guys played with them in winter ball, they may have a better idea. But actually, you know I talk to most of the guys and most of our pitchers, and have a good plan to go to in the game, you know? So it’s just a matter of confidence of the guys. And having good confidence with the pitcher and be a leader behind the plate. Being like the quarterback, being the catcher, that’s the important thing.

Petey:  Thank you so much Francisco, we really appreciate your time. Good luck the rest of the way, stay healthy finish strong, and we’ll speak to you again.

Francisco:  Ok, thanks.

Pena Considers Himself A Gap-To-Gap Hitter

I hope you enjoyed this interview, check back next week for some more surprises right here on MMO.

LGM!

Satin En Fuego!

Thanks for checking in for this week’s Friday Edition of MMO’s Mets Minors Beat. It’s a feature that has been up and running for a few weeks now where we bring you the hottest news from the Mets minors every Monday and Friday. So you don’t have to miss out on anything your favorite Mets minor leaguers are up to. Just look inside to find out who had a big week? Who’s got a hitting streak going? Who almost threw a no-no? Who made the all-star team? Who got promoted? Who’s on the D.L.? We gotcha covered.

Buffalo

Josh Satin – The hottest member of the Herd these days, Satin has been unconscious at the plate. After going 3-for-3 on Thursday night, Satin was the owner of an eight-game hitting streak during which time he went 15-for-30, with seven runs scored, six doubles, two home runs, and nine RBI, for a slash-line of .500/.531/.900.

Jeurys Familia – After three bad starts in a row, Familia put together a very good outing on Wednesday night against the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. The game wasn’t decided until the 12th inning when a wild-pitch by Fernando Cabrera allowed the Pigs to score the winning run and defeat Buffalo 5-4. But Familia did his part by going 6.0 innings and giving up four runs, one earned on five hits, two walks and seven strikeouts. He threw 88 pitches in the contest and 57 of those went for strikes. For the season, Family has a record of 7-7 with a 4.98 ERA.

Chris Schwinden – Schwinnie pitched his third outstanding game in a row on Thursday night at Lehigh Valley. He has given up just two runs, both earned, in 19 innings over those three games, which were all victories. The three wins in a row evened his record at 7-7 and lowered his ERA to it’s present 2.87. In Thursday’s contest he went 6.0 innings, and gave up one run on four hits, a walk, and three strikeouts.

Binghamton

Greg Peavey – The 6’2″ right-hander picked up his third win in his last four decisions, and his second in a row on Thursday night against New Britain. Peavey went 6.1 innings, giving up four runs, all earned, on nine hits and a walk to go with four strikeouts. The win improved his record to 6-7 on the year and his ERA now stands at 5.40.

Reese Havens – The good news is, he’s playing everyday this season and has already logged 84 games this year, 13 more and he will tie his career high for games played in a season. But it has been a struggle at the plate for the left-handed hitting 25-year-old second-baseman. Havens is hitting only .234 with nine home runs and 33 RBI this year, but in the last three games this week he is 6-for-9 with three runs scored, a home run, three RBI, and four walks, as he tries to finish the season strong.

Juan Centeno – Centeno makes this edition because of a fluke. He is not swinging the bat well at all these days, but he did do something remarkable this week. On Tuesday night against New Britain, Centeno put up this unusual line: 0-for-4, with four RBI. Huh? How on earth did he do that you may ask? Easy. In the third inning he grounded out, 0-for-1. In the fifth inning he grounded out with a runner scoring from third, 0-for-2 with one RBI. In the sixth, he grounded into a force-play at second with a runner scoring from third on the play, 0-for-3 with two RBI. In the seventh, batting with the bases loaded, he again hit into a force-out at second but not only did the runner on third score on the play, but Dustin Martin came all the way around from second to score as well, 0-for-4 with four RBI. And there you have it.

Dustin Martin – The B-Mets right-fielder makes yet another appearance on the Friday edition. He hasn’t played since Tuesday when he went 2-for-5 in the double-header, But he makes this post by virtue of his numbers over the last ten games. In that time, Martin has gone 11-for-30 with seven runs scored, a double, a homer, seven RBI, five walks, a stolen base, and a slash-line of .367/.472/.500.

Darin Gorski – On Wednesday night Gorski made his 20th start of the year and picked up the win against New Britain by going 6.0 innings and giving up two runs, both earned, on four hits and a walk, with two strikeouts. The win improved Gorski’s record to 7-6 with a 4.03 ERA, and a 92/42 K/BB ratio.

St. Lucie

Rafael Montero – The Mets minor league story of the week was the dazzling performance by Montero on Tuesday night against the Palm Beach Cardinals. He was removed from the game with two-out in the eighth inning with a no-hitter in the works, having walked three and struck out five. St. Lucie went on to win by a score of 9-1 and Montero improved his record to 5-2 with a 2.13 ERA in eight starts while with Lucie this year. Overall his combined record between Savannah and Lucie is 11-5 with a 2.36 ERA in 122 innings.

Alonzo Harris – The St. Lucie left-fielder is the hottest hitter in the line-up over the last seven games. Over his last ten games, he is 15-for-43, with 10 runs scored, three doubles, two homers, four walks, seven RBI, and five stolen bases, for a slash-line of .349/.404/.558. Wow the guy has been a one-man wrecking crew.

Aderlin Rodriguez – Speaking of which Ad-Rod has made some noise of his own. Although not putting up the kind of batting average and on-base percentage as Harris, Rodriguez has been hammering the long-ball. In just 96 at-bats with St. Lucie since his promotion, he is hitting only .240, but he has been producing runs with a vengeance: 15 runs scored, five doubles, six home runs, and 17 RBI. For the year between Savannah and St. Lucie, his totals are 110-for-414, with 56 runs scored, 26 doubles, a triple, 22 home runs, 76 RBI, two SB’s, and a slash-line of .266/.327/.493.

Savannah

Cam Maron – Despite an 0-for-5 on Wednesday night, the 21-year-old catcher from Huntington, NY, is still hitting .355 over his last ten games. He also has two doubles, six walks, six runs scored, and five RBI for a slash-line that reads .355/.447/.419.

Alex Panteliodis – The 6’2″ left-hander had his fourth quality outing in a row on Wednesday night against the Greenville Drive, and won for the first time since May 2nd, to improve his record to 4-5 with a 3.08 ERA in 18 game-starts.

Brooklyn

Luis Mateo – The New York Penn League announced their 2012 All-Star Teams this week and the Cyclones placed four players on the team of National League affiliates, all pitchers. Leading the contingent is 6’3″ right-hander Luis Mateo, who made his ninth start of the year on Wednesday night against the Lowell Spinners. He went 6.0 innings giving up four runs, two earned on seven hits, with nine strikeouts and no walks. Unfortunately the Brooklyn offense never got on-track and were only able to plate one run, going down by a score of 4-1. The loss evened Mateo’s record for the year to 4-4 with a 2.82 ERA, and a 0.90 WHIP.

Hansel Robles – Robles has not pitched since last Saturday night, but it was announced mid-week he had also made the NYPL all-star team for the Clones. In 46.2 innings over eight starts this season, Robles has gone 3-1 with a 1.74 ERA, 37 hits, no home runs given up, a 44/6 K/BB ratio, and a 0.92 WHIP.

Rainy Lara – The 6’4″ righty picked up the win in a 4-1 victory on Monday night against the Auburn Doubledays. In the game, Lara went 6.0 innings and allowed one earned run on five hits, with three strikeouts, and no walks. The effort was good enough to improve Lara’s record for the year to 6-1 with a 2.56 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP, in eight game-starts.

Gabe Ynoa – On Tuesday yet another of the Cyclones 2012 all-stars, 19-year-old right-hander Gabe Ynoa made his ninth start of the year. In doing so, Ynoa beat Lowell 1-0 in the best start of his career, going 7.0 innings and giving up just four hits, with no runs, no walks, and eight strikeouts, which was a single-game career high for him. For the season, in 55 innings he has gone 4-1 with a 2.45 ERA with 39 hits, and one home run surrendered, a 45/7 K/BB ratio, a 0.84 WHIP, and a .196 opponents batting average.

John Mincone – Last week I detailed the starting rotation for Brooklyn, but beginning with this Friday edition, I will start focusing on the Brooklyn bullpen, a few relievers at a time. First up, the fourth and final Cyclone to make the NYPL all-star team, the 23-year-old lefty from Huntington, NY, has only allowed one run all season so far in 22.2 innings spread out over 14 games. His line reads: 2-0 with a 0.40 ERA, 11 hits, no home runs, a 23/3 K/BB ratio, a 0.62 WHIP, and an opponents batting average of .143.

Paul Sewald – Another Cyclone reliever putting up some sick numbers this year for Brooklyn is this 6’2″ right-hander who the Mets drafted this past June in the 10th round. In 19.2 innings over 11 games, Sewald has gone 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA. He has allowed 12 hits, no home runs, and two walks, to go with 21 strikeouts. His WHIP is 0.71, and opponents are hitting .171 against him.

Stefan Sabol – In a world where the Cyclones send four pitchers to the NYPL all-star game, and have a very anemic hitting attack where no one seems to be hitting the ball well these days, left-fielder Stefan Sabol is quietly putting together some very good at-bats. Over his last ten games, Sabol has gone 11-for-36 with four runs scored, four doubles, two home runs, seven RBI, and five walks, for a slash-line of .306/.390/.583.

Kingsport

Jorge Rivero – This 23-year-old switch-hitting infielder has found his stroke as August heats up. For the month of July, Rivero hit .229 in 35 at-bats. For the month of August so far, he has hit .364 in 33 at-bats. In his last ten games he is 14-for-40 with five runs scored, three doubles, two triples, and three RBI, for a slash-line of .350/.381/.525.

Jeff Diehl – Like Rivero, Diehl is enjoying a solid month of August so far. In June and July, the big first-baseman/right-fielder batted .237 and then .189. But so far in five August games he has gone 7-for-20 with one run scored, two doubles and a triple, for a slash-line of .350/.350/.550.

Jonathan Leroux – The righty hitting first-sacker went 5-for-9 in three games this week, with a double, two runs, and two RBI, to raise his average from .170, to .226.

John Gant – Making his eighth game-start of the season, Gant pitched very well but came away with a no-decision in a 3-2 loss to the Bristol White Sox on Wednesday night. In the contest he went 5.2 innings, giving up just one earned run, on five hits, with six strikeouts and no walks. For the year the 6’3″ righty has a record of 2-2 and an ERA of 5.54, with a 34/15 K/BB ratio in 39 innings.

Transactions

Brandon Moore – After serving a 50-game drug suspension at the start of the season, the right-handed hurler came off the restricted list at the beginning of June and pitched in three games in relief before going on the D.L. He was activated on Tuesday and pitched that night against New Britain, throwing one inning and striking out two with nothing across.

Jacob DeGrom – DeGrom was awarded for a very good first half with a call-up to St. Lucie on Thursday. While at Savannah he made 15 game starts and threw 89.2 innings. He gave up 77 hits, 25 earned runs, three home runs, and had a 78/14 K/BB ratio. His record for his time in the South Atlantic League was 6-3 with a 2.51 ERA. Good luck in the FSL Jacob!

Johan Almonte – To make room for DeGrom right-hander Johan Almonte was demoted to Savannah. Almonte started the year in the Lucie rotation and went 6-0 out of the gate before falling on hard times and losing five of his next six decisions. He was first sent to the bullpen in a game on August 1st, pitched poorly, and was then sent down to the South Atlantic League yesterday.

Luis Mateo NYPL All-Star

Check back on Monday for the next installment of the MMO Mets Minors Beat, brought to you by MetsMerizedOnline.

Plawecki Has Excellent Power-Hitting Potential As A Catcher

Note: This interview was conducted on July 3rd, so references to the game from the night before were actually the game on July 2nd.

Petey:  I am talking today with NY Mets 2012 1st-round sandwich pick, catcher Kevin Plawecki of the Brooklyn Cyclones. Kevin how does it feel to be in your first season in professional baseball with the Mets organization, and what do you think of the New York Penn League?

Kevin:  It’s great so far. It’s a little bit of a transition from college ball to here. Obviously the velocity of the pitching, the consistency of the pitching, just getting used to my pitchers and the guys on my team as well. But so far it’s been a great transition, and I’m looking forward to what the rest of the year has to offer.

Petey:  You had a big part in the win last night, an 11-inning victory. You hit a big home run in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game, and then got on base to lead off the 11th and got on when you were hit by a pitch, and that eventually led to the winning run scoring. What were you trying to do with the at-bat when you came up in the ninth inning and hit the game-tying home run?

Kevin:  I was just looking for something to drive. Obviously we needed to get a rally going cause we were running out of time. At the plate, I was fortunate enough to run into one good enough to leave the park for me, but by no means was I trying to hit a home run. I’ve been struggling a little bit at the plate so I ran into one like that, and that’s always nice. It boosts your confidence a little bit. I’ve been frustrated at the plate a little bit but I’m just sticking with it and the hits will come.

Petey:  What kind of stuff are you working on now in the cage to break out of it?

Kevin:  Just working on drills that have gotten me to this point. So there’s no reason to change anything, no reason to over-think anything. Like I said, it’s a transition. Coming out here I took about a week off, I don’t know if that had anything to do with it. I’ll figure it out and last night was hopefully a good block to build off of and moving forward here. We got a long season ahead.

Petey:  You guys have a very strong catching core with yourself, Jeff Glenn and Nelfi Perez.

Kevin:  Yeah, both guys are great baseball players, great guys to be around. They’re doing a great job and they’ve been doing it all year. We all work together as a unit, I don’t see any problems there at all.

Pete:  Let’s talk a little about the pitching staff, which you handle so well. First of all the starting pitching, They rank number one in just about every category in the league. That must make your job easier to have five or six guys like that.

Kevin: Yeah, it’s always nice when you’re working with guys who can hit their spots well, and who can throw all their pitches for strikes at any time in the count. And when you can do that with guys it makes it a lot easier on my end because I know they’re confident in the pitches they are throwing. It keeps the hitters off-balance and the other team off-balance when all those things are working, and it has up to this point this year. I don’t see anything changing and I look forward to their continued success as well.

Petey:  Are you calling your own games?

Kevin:  Yeah. Sure am.

Petey:  How is that coming along? It must be a challenge getting to know the hitters and figuring their weaknesses out.

Kevin:  Yeah, I mean it is a little bit of a new challenge, but it also has to do with me getting to know my pitchers. Like I said, just knowing what they can throw for strikes and what they feel comfortable throwing in certain situations. That’s the main thing really, having my pitchers throw the pitches they want to throw and not feeling uncomfortable throwing certain pitches. So far we’ve been on the same page most of the time. We’ll just continue to get to know one another and go from here.

Petey:  The other night you DH’d when Mateo pitched. But you have caught him before, what kind of stuff does he throw?

Kevin:  He’s good. He spots up with his fastball very well. He’s got a great slider. His change-up’s good as well, so when he’s got all three of his pitches working and he’s throwing mid-nineties, it’s kind of hard as an opposing hitter to really figure out what he’s going to throw you next. He keeps the hitters off-balance and keeps the other team guessing and I think that’s important to his success up to this point. He’s a great pitcher.

Petey:  What kind of movement does he get on his fastball?

Kevin:  He gets quite a bit. It moves different directions. I don’t know what he does I’m just out there catching it, I don’t know what to expect either back there. I don’t know if it’s his arm-angle that he comes in at, or the way he grips the ball. I have no idea, he definitely does find a way to get it done.

Petey:  How bout his change? How much of a speed differential does he get off his fastball?

Kevin:  I don’t know exact numbers, but it’s enough to keep hitters off-balance.

Petey:  Does it have good movement too, the change-up?

Kevin:  Yeah, it’s a great pitch, a good secondary pitch to go to. He’s been doing really well for us.

Petey:  How about the relief corp? Any of those guys really impressed so far?

Kevin:  Matthew Bowman and Paul Sewald have been good out of the pen. Last night John Mincone, I don’t want to forget any guys.

Petey:  And how about David Wynn, and Tyler Vanderheiden, Logan Taylor, Ernesto Yanez and Matt Koch? They’ve all been very effective this year.

Kevin:  Yeah they’ve done a great job, all of them are doing really well. I can’t really pinpoint one over the other.

Petey:  Yeah. and we are gonna leave someone out, but the pen’s been simply outstanding this year too. Well Kevin, I’m gonna let you go, but thanks so much for taking the time to answer some questions for all of us at MMO. We really appreciate it and I’ll be looking forward to speaking with you again.

Kevin:  Sure. Sounds great.

Plawecki Is not your typical slugger with a K/BB ratio of 8/14 in 127 AB’s this year

LGM!

From time to time I will check out other Mets websites, and blogsites. I have as they say, some “friends in the biz,” and I enjoy seeing what they’re up to on occasion.

Today I was on Mack’s Mets and I saw something there, an opinion by a “scout,” about one of our Mets farmhands, and I have a real problem with what I saw. I really don’t know what kind of scout this Dave Gershman is, but I’ll tell you one thing, I wouldn’t let him scout movie locations, let alone baseball players. And I certainly wouldn’t quote him in blog or article, as if he had some kind of baseball knowledge that would either enlighten or impress me, cause that ain’t gonna happen.

I did a little snooping….and I found this explanation on Gershman:

Dave Gershman is an Editor at Beyond the Box Score, a baseball publication focusing on unique and advanced statistics. Dave also writes for Marlins Daily (a Florida Marlins blog), and the Penn League Report as he is a writer and freelance scout for the New York Penn League.

Oh ok, he follows the Marlins, and he’s a freelance scout for the New York Penn League? For the League? Or for himself? I don’t get it. I guess I just take things literally.

I really don’t see why any of that makes Mr. Gershman an authority, and someone who can criticize a Met player for publication, when his accurate knowledge about said player, wouldn’t even fit into a thimble. I have seen enough games this year, I feel, to critique Mets minor leaguers. But I would never presume to know so much as to critique the opposition. I just don’t have sufficient expertise to do that without sounding like a ninny to someone who knows.

In this case Phillip Evans of the NY Mets organization is the target of some not very flattering remarks by Mr. Gershman, which are no doubt his opinion, and he’s entitled to that. But since he knows nothing about the subject of that opinion, he would have been better served to keep his trap shut. Or fingers in his pockets.

The thing that surprises me is how Mack, my old buddy, could actually print such drivel on a site with the name Mets in the title. Does he have a purpose in promoting bull crap about our own young prospects? Look when a player deserves criticism, I am the first to dish it out, but I certainly don’t take pleasure in it. I’d much rather write positive stuff. But when I see someone publishing a bunch of negative crap, that isn’t even accurate or reasonable, I have to say something.

Here is what appeared on Mack’s site earlier today in it’s entirety:

I asked independent NY-Penn scout Dave Gershman if SS Phillip Evans is starting to show the signs that he was worth the high pick? Gershman said: “my thoughts on Evans. I don’t think he has a position. He can hit, but he really doesn’t fit anywhere as a permanent fielder and doesn’t have much power. Not sure he’ll make it.”

Now first of all, when it was still Mack writing, he asked Gershman has Evans started “to show…that he was worth the high pick?” What high pick would that be Mack? In your estimation the 15th round pick in the draft is a “high pick?” Because that’s where Evans was drafted. Fifteenth. 15th. Numero 15. Fifffteeeeeenth. That doesn’t sound “high” to me.

Now for Gershman. Hey Gershman, when you are scouting a baseball player what sort of things do you look for? How tall he is? How muscular? If he can grow facial hair? What’s your criteria? Do tell. Say, you know what? I got a better idea. Don’t bother because we at MMO, could care less. This stupid opinion of yours on Evans, that has been duly noted and registered above, is the only writing by you that will ever appear on this site, believe me. Unless you can come up with something even stupider, we could always find room for that (wink wink).

First you state he doesn’t have a position, and that he doesn’t fit in anywhere as a “permanent fielder.”

I don’t know how often you have seen Evans play. And it really wouldn’t matter if you saw him play a hundred times if you don’t understand what it is your looking at. I have seen him play just ten times this year. But I have been impressed over and over by his ability to play shortstop. What I have seen is a guy with a very strong and accurate arm, who makes all the plays he should make at short.

Playing at Brooklyn this year, Evans has handled 226 chances at shortstop and committed four errors. That translates to a fielding percentage of .982. For his career, Ozzie Smith had a .978 fielding percentage. Evans has also, despite his young age, been a leader on the infield for the Cyclones.

When I have seen him play, I noticed one thing about him that he has a knack for. He is very good at picking up an out on a play, where there really wasn’t an out to get. On at least three to four different occasions I saw him field slowly hit ground-balls, in incredibly awkward positions, and make throws from all different angles.

He’d flip the ball from somewhere that looked like his arm-pit in time to nip a runner at second. He’d field a tough hop and throw across his body on the run, and still get the runner at first. I have seen him make a throw from deep in the hole, and the kid’s arm is impressive. By the time he reaches the upper levels his arm may only grade out as a bit above average for a big league shortstop, but what’s wrong with that? Not everyone can throw the ball like Jose Reyes.

The best example of his unappreciated abilities to me, was in a game on July 1st at Hudson Valley. It was the bottom of the ninth, with the Cyclones nursing a 3-0 lead. Hudson Valley had the bases loaded with one out, tying run on first. The Renegade hitter bounced a slow hopper in between short and third, Evans charged aggressively, while angling to his right. He fielded the ball off balance and leaning way forward, but was able to stay on his feet long enough to rifle a side-arm throw across his body to Richie Rodriguez at second. Rodriguez, with the runner from first plowing into his legs, made a rocket throw to first to just barely nip the runner in a bang-bang play that won the game.

That was a sensational double-play even by big league standards, and would not have been possible if not for a spectacular play by Evans. Getting the out at second was enough, but to do it in time to complete a game-ending double-play is what makes a player, a winning player.

Second, Gershman says that Evans can hit, but “doesn’t have much power.”

Look, I’m not saying Evans is the next Greg Luzinski. All I want to point out is this: Evans is 19-years-old. He is playing in the New York Penn League, where the average player has gone to college and is between 21 and 22-years-old. In Ike Davis’ first year in pro-ball at Brooklyn, he hit zero home runs. And he had spent three years at a major college program already, Evans was playing in high school last year. This season in 182 at-bats, Evans already has five home runs, which is not a bad start. For a young guy, 5’10″ and 185 lbs. I would say he has “shown some pop.” But “doesn’t have much power?” How did you come up with that assessment Gershman? Never mind.

And then if he hadn’t dazzled you with his brilliant observations up to that point, Gershman, Mack’s “expert,” went on to sum up Evans by saying: “Not sure he’ll make it.” Whoa, hold the presses. Gershman has spoken!

Hey Gershman, guess what? We’re not sure you’re going to make it either.