AAA International League: Buffalo 3/12/1, Scranton 4/11/0 in 10 innings

Not quite 20 innings (by the way, I’m pissed I missed that!), and it wasn’t a win, but Buffalo played extras today and lost 4-3. Manny Acosta, who until today had been pitching brilliantly, gave up solo runs in the 9th and 10th to blow the save and take the loss, after Bobby Livingston gave up a run on 5 hits in 5 innings for a ND.

The Bisons had 12 hits and drew 3 walks, but were just 2 for 12 (.167) with RISP, left 11 on base and struck out 8 times. Jason Pridie, Ike Davis, Mike Hessman and Alex Cintron each had multi hit games for the Bisons, while Chris Carter, and Ruben Tejada took 0-fers.

cf Jason Pridie 2 for 4, run, HR, RBI, BB, 2 Ks, .250
c Josh Thole 1 for 4, BB, .071 (2 for 28, 3/5 BB/K)
rf Fernando Martinez 1 for 5, run, 2b, .256
1b Ike Davis 2 for 5, K, .364
3b Mike Hessman 3 for 5, 2b, RBI, K, .353
dh Chris Carter 0 for 5, 2 Ks, .273
lf Mike Cervanek 1 for 5, K, .189
2b Alex Cintron 2 for 5, run, 2b, HR, RBI, K, .353
ss Ruben Tejada 0 for 3, BB, .080
Bobby Livingston 5 IP, 5 H, ER, 3/4 BB/K, 3.86 era, HBP, 91:57:34, 5:6:4
Kiko Calero 1.2 IP, 3 H, ER, BB, 3 era, 32:18:14, 2:2:0
Mike O’Connor IP, 1.80 era, 9:6:3, 1:2
Manny Acosta 2.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1/2 BB/K, HR, 2.35 era, BS (1), L (0-1), 44:28:16, 4:1:2

AA Eastern League: Binghamton 1/1/1, New Hampshire 3/7/0

The BMets were 1 hit today, with the one being a homer from Luis Hernandez to account for their only run. Eric Niesen had another short, difficult outing, giving up 3 hits and 2 runs (1 earned), along with 3 walks while striking out 4. Josh Stinson, pitching for the first time since his tremendous long relief outing 4 days ago, gave up a run on 3 hits and 2 walks in 1.1 innings. Roy Merritt pitched the final 2.2 innings, allowing just a hit.

cf Kirk Nieuwenhuis 0 for 4, .277
ss Luis Hernandez 1 for 4, run, HR, RBI, .364
3b Zach Lutz 0 for 1, 3 BBs, K, .333
1b Lucas Duda 0 for 1, BB, .282
dh Marshall Hubbard 0 for 4, K, .333
c Luke Montz 0 for 3, BB, .154
2b Jose Coronado 0 for 3, .286
rf Carlos Guzman 0 for 1, K, .200
>>rf DJ Wabick 0 for 2, .056
lf Jon Malo 0 for 3, 2 Ks, .214
Eric Niesen 4 IP, 3 H, 2/1 R/ER, 3/4 BB/K, 2.84 era, L (0-2), HBP, 4:3:4
Josh Stinson 1.1 IP, 3 H, ER, 2 BBs, 4.66 era, HBP, 1:1:0
Roy Merritt 2.2 IP, H, 2/5 BB/K, 2.57 era, HBP, 3:0:5

A South Atlantic League: Savannah 2/6/1, Rome 3/7/2

Armando Rodriguez pitched well today but picked up the loss, surrendering just 2 runs on 5 hits with 7 strikeouts in 6 innings. Lance Hoge gave up the run that ended up being the difference in the game, in his inning of work. The Gnats had just 6 hits and 3 walks today, while going 1 for 6 (.167) with RISP, leaving 7 on base, along with 9 strikeouts. Juan Lagares (0 for 3, RBI, 2 Ks, .267), Dock Doyle (0 for 4, 3 Ks, .133), and Alonzo Harris (0 for 4, .205) took 0-fers, no Gnat had a multi-hit game.

cf Pedro Zapata 1 for 4, run, .154
dh Rafael Fernandez 1 for 3, run, 2b, BB, .286
1b Jeff Flagg 1 for 3, RBI, BB, K, .243
rf Cesar Puello 1 for 3, BB, K, .235
3b Luis Rivera 1 for 4, .125
ss Rylan Sandoval 1 for 4, 2 Ks, .100
Armando Rodriguez 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 7 Ks, 3.68 era, L (0-2), 3:7:7
Lance Hoge IP, 2 H, ER, 7.20 era, 2:1
Erik Turgeon IP, BB, 1.35 era, 1:1:0

The Mets announced Monday that Mookie Wilson has accepted a position as the organization’s Minor League outfield and baserunning coordinator. Wilson was last with the club as manager of Class A Brooklyn in 2005.

“It’s good to be back,” Wilson said in a statement. ”This is where I started, and I’m anxious to do whatever I can for the young kids in our system.”

The Mets also announced agreements with Bob Melvin, Guy Conti and Bob Fultz.

Wilson, 53, is best known for hitting the ball that rolled through Bill Buckner’s legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Earlier in that at-bat, he avoided being hit by a wild pitch that allowed the tying run to score.

Over 12 seasons with the Mets and Blue Jays, Wilson hit .284 with 327 stolen bases.

The Mets on Monday also officially announced Melvin’s appointment as a professional scout, an agreement first reported in December. Melvin, manager of the D-backs for four and a half seasons at the end of last decade, was named the NL Manager of the Year in 2007.

Conti, the Mets’ bullpen coach through the 2008 season, was named the club’s senior adviser in the Minor League department. Fultz, the longtime Braves strength and conditioning coach, was named the Mets’ rehabilitation pitching coordinator.

In the latest rankings, the Texas Rangers have the best overall farm system and the Houston Astros finished last.

I’m more concerned about the National League East where the Philadelphia Phillies ranked #4, the Atlanta Braves ranked #6, the Florida Marlins ranked #8, the New York Mets ranked #20, and the Washington Nationals ranked #26.

Regarding the Mets he blurbs,

Solid top 10, but the Mets don’t have anyone likely to help in New York in 2010.

Regarding the Phillies he writes,

Philadelphia had the depth to trade for Cliff Lee and still have a top-flight farm system. Outfielder Michael Taylor has hit .333 over the last two seasons, rocketing to Triple-A, and fellow outfielder Dominic Brown has better tools, though he’s still a bit raw. Righty Kyle Drabek, son of the former Cy Young Award winner Doug Drabek, has three above-average pitches to go with excellent athletic ability. Beyond their Big Three — all of whom have performed at Double-A or above — the Phillies are bursting with young power arms, toolsy Latin American infielders and athletic outfielders, such as Anthony Gose.

It’s a very interesting read and I encourage you to read the full article at SI.com or if you have a Baseball America subscription you can read it there and leave him comments.

Off topic, but speaking of Sports Illustrated, what did you think of Derek Jeter being named Sportsman of the Year?

This season Ollie’s inconsistency is gone.  Good Ollie and bad Ollie is gone.  Unfortunately for the Mets bad Ollie won the battle and his been consistently horrible in this short season.  In 5 games his ERA is 9.97 and has pitched only 21.2 innings which averages roughly about 4.2 innings per game.  For the kind of money he is being paid that is unacceptable.  Ollie has become a liability to the team and something had to be done.  The question was what would be best for the Mets and Oliver Perez?  The Mets’ answer was to assign Ollie to the bullpen.

Some people, including myself were hoping for a minor league assignment.  For Ollie to be assigned to the minors the decision had to be mutual.  Oliver it is said, did not want to go down the minors so the Mets decided to place him in the pen.  This was I believe a tough decision for all involved.  Ollie’s psyche is fragile already, a trip down to the minors could permanently set him back and the Mets have too much invested in him to allow that at this early junction to occur.  Also in the minors Ollie would be working with a different coaching staff.  The Mets want him to work with Dan Warthen and Jerry Manuel.

Unfortunately Ollie cannot be trusted to come out of the pen in a tightly contested game and pitch for us, so when exactly will Ollie be getting his work in?  The answer to that question is when our starters get beat up in a game pretty badly.  I just don’t believe that this was the right course of action.  The Mets needed to sit down with Ollie, tell him that right now he’s hurting the team and is only getting worse.  The Mets needed Ollie to admit that there is a problem and to accept a minor league assignment.  That did not happen which brings up what’s next for Ollie if this demotion to the bullpen results in failure?

The Mets have invested a lot of money, he’s with the team for the next 2 seaosns.  If the bullpen assignment fails how does this help Ollie’s fragile pysche?  If the assignment to the pen fails and Ollie refuses a minor league demotion where do the Mets go from there?  Do they put Ollie on the DL permentaly much like the Tigers did to Dontrelle Willis?

I cannot see how this Oliver Perez debacle can end in a good way for the Mets or Oliver Perez.  Will this cost Omar his job?  Will the Wilpons eat Ollie’s contract if all attempts at fixing him fail?  Will the Mets admit that signing Ollie this off season was a terrible mistake? I don’t have any answers but I hope that the Wilpons and Omar do have answers, otherwise we’re in for a long 3 years.