Noah Syndergaard strikes out eight for St. Lucie on Saturday. (Photo: Michael Baron, SNY)

Last Night’s Quick Scores

• Savannah (5-4) topped Rome, 8-6
• St. Lucie (6-3) dropped to Palm Beach, 4-3
• Binghamton (5-4) lost to New Hampshire, 6-1
• Las Vegas (5-5) dropped slugfest to Fresno, 11-6

Prospect Pipeline

• I just learned that we have some exciting phone interviews lined up with T.J. Rivera, Travis d’Arnaud, Cory Mazzoni, Brandon Nimmo and Cam Maron coming up. April will be fun around here as we continue to bring you as much information as we can on our incredibly improving system. Yesterday, Mets GM Sandy Alderson glowed when our Senior Writer Matt Balasis asked him about how far the Mets farm system and organizational depth has come in such a short time. (Joe D.)
• In FanGraph’s weekly prospect chat, Mike Newman said that he expects Zack Wheeler to replicate what we saw from Matt Harvey last season – about ten starts with similar production. Wheeler’s curveball is also improved from the inconsistent breaking pitch he scouted in 2010 and that so far this season he has “frequently popped 96 MPH on the radar gun with ease.”  (Joe D.)
• Mets power hitting prospects Wilmer Flores, Travis d’Arnaud, Aderlin Rodriguez and Brandon Nimmo have combined to hit zero homers, 11 games into the season. Meanwhile, underrated Josh Satin hit his fourth home run last night and is batting .474. Am I the only one who thinks he has nothing left to prove in the minors? If I’m Ike Davis, I’d be concerned. (Joe D.)
• First baseman Jayce Boyd hit his first home run of the season after some near misses. It was a three-run jack and it was a no-doubter. Boyd, 22, is one of our top ten sleepers, and is batting .412/.512/.618 with a great eye at the plate (7 walks, 6 strikeouts) in 42 plate appearances. (Joe D.)
• T.J. Rivera continues to hit. He already leads St. Lucie in hits, RBI, batting average, OBP, and slugging percentage, and added two more hits last night. On a team known for it’s pitching staff, Rivera has been the backbone of the offense. I’m very high on Rivera. He reminds me of another prospect in the Giants organization named Joe Panik. Their games are very similar, except Panik was a first rounder, and Rivera was signed as a free-agent out of college. That’s what you would consider “a steal.”
• Jack Leathersich is also very high on Rivera. In a recent interview with MMO, this is what he had to say about his former teammate: “Oh yeah, definitely T.J. Rivera - he’s the one. He’s the real deal. I’ve never been around a kid who prepares as well as he does. He just really loves the game and it seems like every time I see him he’s out on the field working on something. Rivera plays hard and is completely balls to the wall – he’ll do anything to make sure we win. He’s a great teammate and obviously a great player and everybody should be real excited about him. If he continues the great things he did last season, and I’m pretty sure that he will, he’ll be a lot of fun to watch.” You can read the Leathersich interview in it’s entirety here.
• I mentioned in yesterday’s notes that Binghamton manager, Pedro Lopez, stated that he was expecting some tough offensive nights as his team goes through a transition period adjusting to Double-A. It looks as if Saturday was one of those days he was speaking about. After hammering out thirteen hits and fifteen runs on Friday night, the bats were as cold as the Binghamton air temperature on Saturday, as they only managed one run on five hits.
• Noah Syndergaard, whose fastball routinely sits in the mid-90s and can touch triple digits, reminds St. Lucie pitching coach of Kerry Wood. “He reminds me of Kerry Wood,” St. Lucie pitching coach Phil Regan said. “A lot like him, but a better body. He has that tall Texan style.” St. Lucie manager, Ryan Ellis, also likes what he sees: “He has a nice fastball and seems to get stronger. He only threw four innings but he seemed to get stronger in the third and fourth. His breaking ball is really sharp and he’s pitching it with a lot of depth.” Having a combination of Harvey, Wheeler, Syndergaard at the top of the New York Mets rotation, is starting to become a scary reality.
• The St. Lucie Mets pitching staff has lived up to lofty expectations so far this spring. They currently lead the Florida State League with a 2.20 ERA, and second in the league 75 strikeouts. The scary thing is, these stats could have even been better, but Domingo Tapia’s hiccup on Thursday night drove the ERA a bit. Tapia didn’t make it out of the first inning that night, allowing three runs on one hit, also giving up four walks and throwing two wild pitches.

Stat Line of the Night

LHP Steven Matz: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 7 K, 1 BB

Tweet Of The Day

Binghamton’s left-handed fireballer, Jack Leathersich, is going to give away a glove to one of his followers when he hits 3,250 followers. He is currently at 2,952 followers. I wonder what he would be willing to give away for 10,000 followers?

PPL the glove giveaway is still going on.Brand new glove from this year when I hit 3250 followers.lets make it happen! #Mets

— Jack Leathersich (@LeatherRocket) April 13, 2013

Probable Starters

Las Vegas sends Zack Wheeler (0-1, 3.15 ERA) to the mound for tonight against Colorado Springs at 10:05 PM.

Rafael Montero (1-0, 1.54 ERA) of the Binghamton Mets takes on the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Sunday afternoon at 1:05 PM.

St. Lucie sends Angel Cuan (1-0, 0.00 ERA) the mound this afternoon against the Bradenton Marauder’s at 1:05 PM. .

Savannah sends Rainy Lara (1-0, 0.00 ERA) to the mound in series finale against Rome at 2:00 PM.

Kevin Plawecki, C

Bats: R Throws: R
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 205 lb.
Position: Catcher
Age: 22
ETA: 2015
MMO Top Prospect Rank: #19

Background:

Here is a brief player profile from the recent 2013 MMO Top 25 Prospect series:

The 35th pick in the 2012 draft, Kevin Plawecki, was selected with one of the comp picks we received for losing Jose Reyes. The main criticism about the pick was not so much a knock on Plawecki, but rather that the Mets made a big reach taking him with the 35th pick when he could have been around in the third. One of the things that scouts keyed in on was that he had a long swing and it cut some of his power away, but he made strides to fix that in his first pro season since coming out of Purdue. Down in Brooklyn, Plawecki put up a .250 average with a 1:1 BB/K rate (25:24). The NYPL is a pitching dominant league, so try not to get too down on the .250 average, especially when he accompanied it with seven homers and eight doubles in just 216 at-bats.

Plawecki is not a defensive wizard, as he gets by with a below average arm, but he is an intelligent baseball player. Intelligence at the catcher position is key, and he was known for calling his own games when he played at Purdue. Also, considering the fact that he was drafted as a junior in college, it puts him on somewhat of a fast track to the major leagues. His 2013 season will be key in determining what kind of player he will really turn out to be, as he makes the same jump as Hansel Robles to Savannah and potentially St. Lucie.

The biggest issue I have come across in scouting reports was the fact that almost everyone is in consensus that Plawecki should have been a third or fourth round pick. However, that is simply semantics. If you think a guy can help your organization, then why run the risk of someone else taking him?

At the time of the pick, the Mets had little catcher depth in their system, and Plawecki is the type of guy that will be able to move through the system very quickly, and hopefully help the Mets in the near future. While we can label a player a reach because we think that he should have been selected later, there is really no telling what the other teams will do, so when you have a chance to take your guy, you take him. The San Francisco Giants did something very similar in 2011 when they drafted shortstop Joe Panik. When evaluating draft picks it’s not always a matter of who has the better ability, but who has the ability to help the big league club as fast as possible. Plawecki is that type of a guy.

Analysis:

Plawecki is a guy that makes excellent contact. Through his college career, he had a very low strike out rate, and as stated earlier, had a 1:1 K/BB ratio at Brooklyn last season. I have read a couple of scouting reports that have noted his swing was a little long, but his swing is actually very compact, and he gets his hands through the hitting zone very quickly when he keeps them close to his body. If his hands get away from him, he could have trouble with pitchers with better fastballs. He starts with his hands high, has a nice load, and then gets his hands in a nice hitting position. I noticed that on a couple of the pitches he took, he didn’t keep his weight back, and transferred his weight early to the front leg. This can make him susceptible to off-speed pitches as he progresses to the higher levels of the organization.

He has a very level swing, which will lead to a ton of line drives, but it does not generate a ton of backspin on the ball when contact is made, which is why he won’t be a big home run threat. However, he does have solid to gap-to-gap power. Think of Daniel Murphy, but with a little more pop. I would project him to hit 10-15 home runs at the big league level at this point.

Everyone has been completely enthralled with the addition to Travis d’Arnaud, but Plawecki is a guy that fans should keep an eye on over the next couple of years. With questions of d’Arnaud’s durability arising, Plawecki is definitely a guy that could find himself behind the plate at Citi Field within the next couple of years.

To read previous editions of this feature, go to our MMO Prospect Pulse Archives.

Follow MMO Minor League Analyst Mitch Petanick on Twitter at @FirstPitchMitch for even more Mets Minor League and prospect coverage.

What the Mets should do with David Wright after the 2012 season has been the talk of the town as the season winds down. There has been a healthy mix of opinions on what the Mets should actually do with regards to David – some argue to hang on to the aging third baseman, while others want to trade him while the Mets can still lure top tier prospects for him. One team that may be in the need of a third baseman, and always has prospects in the reserves, is the San Francisco Giants.

The Giants currently have Pablo Sandoval under contract until the year 2014. The problem is he can’t stay on the field. He’s always injured, most likely due to his inability to stay in shape. His nickname is panda, which isn’t exactly the fittest animal in the animal kingdom. I have my suspicions that the Giants may be growing tired of the Panda’s antics. The Giants fans aren’t far behind, growing more and more frustrated with their loveable panda every day. That’s because Sandoval would be better suited for an American League team. In the AL, he could play the field when needed, but be used primarily in a DH role. He still has a very solid bat when he is healthy. For that reason, the Giants would be wise to try and move Sandoval to an AL team while they can get some value for him.

Once the Giants move Sandoval there will be a glaring hole at third base. The question is, would the Mets be able to lure away some top prospects from the Giants in exchange for Wright? Two prospects that I would love to see in the Mets organization are Gary Brown and Joe Panik. Joe Panik is a native New Yorker (actually graduated from the same high school as I did), played his college ball at St. John’s, and has all the makings to be a solid middle infielder. Gary Brown is a solid defensive outfielder and a speedster, who could be a legit leadoff hitter at the top of the Mets lineup for the foreseeable future. Both of these players seem to be a lock to be productive major leaguers, which takes some of the mystery out of the equation for the Mets if the decide to trade Wright.

Joe Panik dominated in his time at St. John’s

If the Mets do decide to trade Wright, they will be looking to get some prospects that can help the team right away. Gary Brown projects to be ready in 2013, and Joe Panik in 2013-14. Would that be enough for the Mets trade David Wright? Has Pablo Sandoval’s inability to stay in shape and injury risk finally pushed the Giants to the brink? Only time will tell. It’s starting to get chilly outside, so it’s time to start heating up the stove.