Las Vegas 3, Round Rock 2 Collin McHugh took the mound tonight and pitched a heck of a game. He continued his tremendous start to the season tossing seven scoreless innings. The righty threw 90 pitches (59 strikes), allowed just five hits, struck out five, and left the game with a 1-0 lead. McHugh came into the game leading the 51s with a 3.57 ERA, but after tonight’s masterful performance, he lowered his ERA to 2.98. McHugh was [...]

  Tacoma 8, Las Vegas 2 For Collin McHugh on Saturday night, it was a tale of the first inning…and the rest of the game. McHugh allowed six hits in a row, three of them extra base hits, in the first inning which led to five earned runs. Remember that the ball tends to carry a little more in Las Vegas before you make a judgment on that. I have openly admitted to being on [...]

Las Vegas 10, Sacramento 6 On the mound, Darin Gorski got the start and had a decent outing. He fared much better than he had in his previous start, but finished just a third of an inning shy of getting a quality start. The lefty allowed three earned runs and struck out four, en route to his first win of the season. Gorski did not allow a walk in the game, which was a nice improvement [...]

Las Vegas 5, Colorado Springs 4 It took 11 innings, but the Las Vegas 51s were able to escape yesterday’s ballgame with a victory on the strength of a Reese Havens, bases loaded knock to win it in walk-off fashion. Top-prospect Zack Wheeler took the hill for the 51s and put together one of his more solid efforts in what has been a shaky start to the season. Wheeler went 5 1/3 innings allowing three [...]

Colorado Springs 11, Las Vegas 6 In a game where the two teams combined for thirty hits, the Las Vegas 51s dropped this one to the Colorado Springs Sky Sox 11-6. It was trouble out of the gate for Vegas in this one, as designated starter Darin Gorski was only able to last two innings in this late-night affair. Gorski struggled from the start, and faced all nine hitters in the Colorado Springs lineup in [...]

Colorado Springs 6, Las Vegas 1 Fans who attended Opening Night at Cashman Field Friday were treated to a dominant performance — just not from the home team. Behind seven strikeouts and only one earned run from former second-round pick Tyler Chatwood, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox downed the Las Vegas 51s, 6-1, in the team’s home opener. The 51s’ bats were non-existent for most of the night, including the first four innings. It wasn’t [...]

The Mets changed Triple-A affiliates this offseason, going from Buffalo to Las Vegas and from the International League to the Pacific Coast League. The biggest storyline for this team will be how the move affects development. The Pacific Coast League, especially Las Vegas, is notorious for inflated power numbers. It may be harder to judge how well a player is developing because hitters will have more home runs and pitchers will see their ERA shoot [...]

3:30 PM Update: Adam Rubin has now reported that Darin Gorski has cleared waivers and will remain under team control. It also has been announced that Scott Rice, and not Robert Carson, will be the second lefty in the bullpen for 2013. The bullpen now projects as follows: Bobby Parnell Brandon Lyon LaTroy Hawkins Scott Atchison Josh Edgin Greg Burke Jeurys Familia Scott Rice So here’s today’s moves as announced by the Mets: They have [...]

Even without the oblique injury, Zack Wheeler would be opening the season in the minor leagues, which was always the proper decision. Maybe he wouldn’t have been sent down today with nine others, but as spring training goes on and the need to stretch out the starters increases, Wheeler’s innings would have been reduced, something the Mets did not want to happen. Since he is better off getting regular innings, today’s demotion was inevitable. With the oblique [...]

Wilmer Flores played second base yesterday in a Spring Training game for the Mets. Flores did not embarrass himself defensively and looked to have an idea offensively. So after roughly six innings it is safe to christen a man with 0 AB above Double-A with the starting second base job? No. Nope. Nah. Negative. Not Yet. Flores has even less MiLB experience at 2B than Daniel Murphy did when he tried a similar transition, and [...]

Unlike many teams throughout Major League Baseball which are preparing to open spring training this week, the Mets don’t have many unanswered questions to be worked out in the next six weeks. The Mets, a team in transition, are just about set from top to bottom, short of a spot on the bench and maybe another spot in the bullpen.  Being set for this season doesn’t necessarily mean set for the future, though. In fact, [...]