Savannah 1, West Virginia 0 Rainy Lara and Bret Mitchell combined on a six-hit shutout to propel the Gnats to their fifth straight win, a 1-0 shutout of the West Virginia Power in front of 2,969 fans at Historic Grayson Stadium Saturday night. The shutout was third of the season for the Gnats (14-8). In his fourth start, Lara became the first Gnats’ starter to work into the eighth inning in 2013. He threw first-pitch [...]

Efficient. The term popped up in my brain with the regularity Logan Verrett pounds the strike zone as I watched Verrett confuse and befuddle Akron Saturday in Binghamton. Verrett managed his pitching workload with laser life efficiency throwing two-hit ball over eight innings as the B-Mets toppled Akron, 7-2. If making good first impressions is a valued introductory tactic, Verrett hit a home run with me. The B-Met righthander was terrific. In fact, about now [...]

Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog.com profiled pitching prospect Zack Wheeler in his latest installment of the Mets Minor League Report on Friday. I wanted to address the many problems I found with his analysis and conclusions. Before I go there, let’s take a quick look at where Zack Wheeler is right now. Currently, the young right-hander is 0-1 with a 5.79 ERA and 1.76 WHIP over five starts. He has allowed 15 earned runs on 26 [...]

Tacoma 10, Las Vegas 1 The Las Vegas 51s managed just four hits Friday against visiting Tacoma in a 10-1 loss at Cashman Field. The 51s allowed double-digit runs for the second straight game and dropped their third straight overall. Partially responsible for that huge run total was starter Carlos Torres, who was rocked for six earned runs over five innings. Dylan Owen struggled as well, allowing three earned runs over his two innings of [...]

  Akron 4, Binghamton 0 So Rafael Montero is human after all… The Binghamton Mets struck out a season-high 16 times, and were shut out for the second time in 2013, in a 4-0 loss to the Akron Aeros Friday night at NYSEG Stadium. Danny Salazar carved through the B-Met batting order, matching a career-high with nine strikeouts in his five shutout innings. The righty allowed just three base hits, and erased two of them [...]

St. Lucie 5, Bradenton 2 St. Lucie starter Angel Cuan had a decent bounce back start tonight to pick up his third win of the season. Cuan pitched in and out of trouble most of the night, but he escaped without incurring too much damage.  In the third and fourth innings, the first two batters reached base against Cuan, but he managed to not allow any runs in either frame. However, in the fifth, Cuan [...]

Savannah 4, West Virginia 2 The Savannah Sand Gnats won their fourth straight game, defeating the West Virginia Power 4-2 Friday night at Historic Grayson Stadium in front of 3,002 fans. The Gnats (13-8) took a lead they never relinquished with a three-run bottom of the first.Clay Holmes walked RF Gregory Pron with the bases loaded to force home the first run of the night. Starter Clay Holmes then plunked DH Jeffrey Glenn for the second run. SS Phillip Evans singled deep in the [...]

This week’s Baseball America Prospect Hot Sheet included two Mets right-handers: Rafael Montero, rhp, Mets: The rules of the game allow for New York to put off a 40-man decision on the 22-year-old Montero until after the 2014 season. Necessity may dictate a callup this season, given the way that Montero has pitched at Double-A Binghamton. After dealing six shutout innings at New Hampshire on Saturday, Montero has allowed four runs in four starts, going 3-0, [...]

Mike Newman of ROTOscouting posted an article on FanGraphs regarding some of the Mets’ exciting Dominican arms who he says ranks among the top-15 prospects in the organization. I mentioned one of them in our Minor League report today, Gabriel Ynoa, about whom he writes: Against Savannah, Ynoa sat 91-92 with his fastball, touching 93 mph. With sink and a sling shot delivery, Ynoa is deceptive and his length gives the impression of the ball exploding on [...]

Last Night’s Quick Scores Las Vegas got edged out by Tacoma, 13-12. Binghamton had the night off. St. Lucie got rocked by Bradenton, 9-1. Savannah stunned Delmarva, 7-2. Prospect Pipeline All eyes will were on Zack Wheeler last night, and while his performance last night was better than his six walk performance last week, he doesn’t seem to be getting any closer to making his major league debut. Wheeler seems to be stuck in neutral and [...]