St. Lucie 6, Bradenton 5

Jacob DeGrom started the game strong for St. Lucie by retiring the first eight batters that he faced, but he ran into trouble in the fourth inning.  DeGrom gave up three runs off four hits in the frame. He then gave up a home run to Willy Garcia in the sixth that put St. Lucie behind 4-3.

However, the Mets were able to retake the lead due to some sloppy defense by the Bradenton Marauders. Travis Taijeron scored the tying run in the seventh on a fielding error. Then, in the ninth, Cam Maron reached base on an error, advanced to second base on a wild pitch, and then scored on a dropped fly ball by the second baseman to put St. Lucie ahead. The Marauders committed six errors in the game.

Unfortunately, St. Lucie quickly gave back the lead in the bottom of the ninth.  T.J Chism recorded the first two outs of the inning, but gave up a fly ball that was just out of the reach of second baseman T.J Rivera that tied the game.

In the 12^th, St. Lucie went ahead for good. Charles Thurber scored the winning run on a force out, and Hamilton Bennett picked up the save in the bottom of the inning.

Player Notes:

Jacob DeGrom pitched better than his line showed since many of the hits he gave up weren’t hit very hard.

T.J Rivera crushed a three run double off the CF wall for the first runs of the game, but he failed to come through twice with runners on third with less than 2 outs later in the game.

Aderlin Rodriguez had a rough night at the plate going 0-6 with 2 K’s.

Key Stats

Jacob DeGrom: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 7 K,  1HR
T.J Rivera: 2-for-7, 2B, 3 RBI
Travis Taijeron: 4-for-5, 3B, 2B,  1 R, 1 BB

Rome 5, Savannah 2

Savannah (4-4) jumped out to an early lead on a Kevin Plawecki‘s RBI double in the top of the first. Rome (5-3) got the run right back in the bottom half of the first through an RBI single by Carlos Franco. They took the lead in the second after an error by SS Phillips Evans with the bases loaded. Not to be outdone, the Sand Gnats evened the score in the top of the fourth on a double play with the bases loaded, which scored Kevin Plawecki. Plawecki had led off the inning with a double, one of two on the evening.

Rome took the lead for good with a three spot in the bottom of the fifth inning off Gnats starter Gabriel Ynoa, who failed to record an out in the fifth before being lifted. Ynoa would go four innings, allowing five runs, four of them earned, on eight hits and two walks. He did strike out four. The Gnats were kept in the game with stellar relief work by Bret Mitchell who pitched two perfect innings and they got a perfect inning each from Beck Wheeler and Tim Peterson.

Key Stats

Brandon Nimmo: 2-for-3, 1 BB, 1 R
Kevin Plawecki: 3-for-4, 2 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI
Gabriel Ynoa: 4.0 IP, 8 H, 5 R (4 ER), 2 BB, 4 K

(Recaps by Vinny B. and Fonzie13)

Las Vegas 51s

For those of you with weak constitutions, you might want to go away now as I talk about blisters…more specifically, the one that Zack Wheeler apparently had on his throwing hand. It unfortunately burst during the Tuesday night start against the Fresno Grizzlies and the Mets were concerned enough to send him for an MRI.

He had been dealing with the blister throughout both of his two starts in 2013, so the question now arises of how or if the blister threw Zack off his game. Sources have stated that the pain was so bad that Wheeler actually was unable to throw his slider.

His stat line might be underwhelming to begin the season, but the intangibles are there and I cannot stress enough the amount of potential that this young man radiates with.

Outside of Zack Wheeler news, Josh Satin hit another moonshot and Andrew Brown continues to impress so far. Wilmer Flores, after starting the year 3-for-3, has gone 1-for-18 since…he is logging some time at second base, however.

Binghamton Mets

The rains came down in Binghamton and their game with Erie was suspended yesterday and pushed to August 9th. The B-Mets were leading 1-0 at the time of the suspension.

St. Lucie Mets

Although St. Lucie dropped their first decision of the 2013 season last night, it was a 1-0 final result. What does that mean? Their pitching continues to be superhuman.

Savannah Sand Gnats

So Savannah came through for themselves on Guaranteed Win Wednesday – so no free tickets are being handed out down there. A converted infielder, Jake Kuebler, was able to pitch his way to earning his first professional save last night. Nice job!

Kevin Plawecki continued his hot hitting, going 3-5 with 3 doubles and raising his batting average to .444 on the season.

I am really starting to like what I see from Matthew Bowman. He was strong against yesterday en rout to the aforementioned Sand Gnats win.

Pitcher Paul Sewald was placed on the DL for Savannah yesterday – and Beck Wheeler will get pushed up from Brooklyn to take his place.

Tweet Of The Day

Well today wasn’t our day but the beauty of baseball is we get to play tomorrow.

— Hamilton Bennett (@Ham_Bone28) April 11, 2013

For those of you that follow the minors extensively, Cubs prospect Jorge Soler is in for some trouble after he grabbed a bat and charged at the opposing dugout.

Have a good day!

Savannah Sand Gnats 7, Augusta GreenJackets 0

The Savannah Sand Gnats swatted a new season-high 14 hits against the Augusta GreenJackets on their way to a 7-0 win Wednesday night at Historic Grayson Stadium. The Gnats (4-3) have won two straight games for the first time in 2013.

Opening Night starter Matthew Bowman delivered a strong start for Savannah, scattering four hits over six shutout innings for his first win of the year. He struck out four and did not walk a batter. Jake Kuebler, a converted infielder, working as a full-time pitcher in 2013, took care of the final three innings to earn his first professional save.

The Gnats scored in four straight innings, from the second through the fifth.

The GreenJackets (4-3) finished 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Savannah scored their first run in the second. LF Stefan Sabol walked, stole second and came home on DH Gregory Pron‘s single into right. Sabol completed the game’s scoring by launching a two-run homer down the left field line in the fifth to cap a three-run inning.

Savannah made it 4-0 in the fourth. With two outs and the bases empty, 2B Yucarybert De La Cruz doubled. RF Eudy Pina followed by tripling up the right-center field gap. As he went hard into third base, Augusta 3B Mitch Delfino could not handle the one-hopped throw. As the ball bounced back towards the infield, Pina hopped up and raced home.

Gnats’ catcher Kevin Plawecki doubled home a run in the bottom of the fifth. It was the first of three doubles for Plawecki who lifted his batting average to .444 (12 H/27 AB) through seven games.

The Gnats play in Rome Thursday and Friday evening. Also, with their win during Wednesday’s game, they did not have to give out free tickets to everyone in attendance.

Key Stats

• Kevin Plawecki – 3 for 5, 3 2B, R, RBI
• Stefan Sabol – 2 for 4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, BB, SB
• Eudy Pina – 3 for 4, 2B, 3B, RBI, R
• Matt Bowman – 6.0 IP, 4 H, 4 K, 0 ER, W

Las Vegas 51s

Zack Wheeler made his second start of the season last night for Las Vegas and lasted five-and-a-third innings, allowing four runs (one earned) off eight hits and three walks, while striking out six. A few things to note past that line? First off, Wheeler fields his position pretty well, which is always a positive. Another positive is the fact that his breaking ball looked really strong early and flashed real potential. He recorded 16 outs and 14 of them were via ground-out or strikeout. He still struggled with his command a little – but there’s no rush, Zack. You’ll get it down.

On the other side of the ball, Josh Satin continues to pummel the ball. He has a .480/.800/1.319 slash to begin the season, and he jacked his second home run of the season last night.

Adam Rubin says the Mets have pretty much settled on a position for former shortstop Wilmer Flores. Flores exclusively has manned second base for Vegas, except for one game at DH. A team official said Flores still may get a start at third base or first base “here and there.”

Binghamton Mets

Say what you want about Rafael Montero and I will probably ignore it as I drool over him. A pitcher with strong command and above-average stuff is always someone worth keeping tabs on, and Montero justifies the publicity he has been getting with another solid start last night. The important number? He did not walk a single batter again, putting his K/BB ratio at infinity right now (15:0) through his first two starts.

The B-Mets have gone 6-for-9 in stolen base attempts so far this season. Their six steals have them tied for third in the Eastern League. Daniel Muno and Cesar Puello each have two steals; Cory Vaughn and Josh Rodriguez both have one. Opponents have gone 1-for-2 in stolen base attempts against Binghamton pitchers.

St. Lucie Mets

Michael Fulmer is making progress from March 12 surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. He returns to throwing off a mound this week.

Hansel Robles, who was forced from his first start with St. Lucie with an apparent injury after a pickoff throw, is scheduled to start for the Class A club on turn tonight. Robles experienced a sore upper back.

Are you kidding me, St.Lucie? An 0.57 E.R.A. through your first five games? Is this a video game? I should calm down. It’s not like they’ve won their first five games right? …They have?

Wow. Nice job all around, guys. Kudos to Luis Mateo for a great start, who snagged the #10 ranking on our 2013 MMO Top 25 prospects. He’s going places.

Savannah Sand Gnats

Luis Cessa was strong in Savannah’s victory last night – and Jayce Boyd is absolutely on fire, batting .545 through the first six games of the Sand Gnats’ season.

Minor League promotions are always fun – and Savannah has a good one coming up tomorrow… Guaranteed Win Wednesday. If the Gnats do not win Wednesday, every ticket holder to Wednesday’s game will receive a free ticket to the Gnats’ game on Sunday, April 14^th against the Rome Braves.

Organization Batting Leaders (ESPN)

Average: Jayce Boyd, Savannah, .545; Josh Satin, Vegas, .480; Brandon Nimmo, Savannah, .417; Kevin Plawecki, Savannah, .409; Andrew Brown, Vegas, .381; T.J. Rivera, St. Lucie, .378; Cam Maron, St. Lucie, .368; Josh Rodriguez, Binghamton, .353; Alonzo Harris, Binghamton, .346; Matt Reynolds, St. Lucie, .316.

Homers: Josh Satin, Vegas, 2; Alonzo Harris, Binghamton, 1; Kevin Plawecki, Savannah, 1; Josh Rodriguez, Binghamton, 1.

RBI: Andrew Brown, Vegas, 8; Jayce Boyd, Savannah, 6; Kevin Plawecki, Savannah, 6; Wilmer Flores, Vegas, 5; Josh Satin, Vegas, 5.

Steals: Brian Bixler, Vegas, 2; Danny Muno, Binghamton, 2; Cesar Puello, Binghamton, 2.

Prospect Talk

Our Mets prospects are always tweeting! Time to have a little fun and pick some out…

Anyone around here like fishing? Andrew Massie has something for you.

Can you say carp? instagram.com/p/X6W0OoKdAG/

— Andrew Massie (@_AndrewMassie) April 10, 2013

Or maybe you’re a Bob Dylan fan? Stefan Sabol has you covered.

Rock me mama like a wagon wheel, rock me mama any way you feel #heeeyyymamarockme

— Stefan Sabol (@UceDeuces_22) April 9, 2013

But I really hope that like myself and John Mincone, you’re a Knicks fan…

There’s your clincher! #NYK #Taped #Knicks

— John Mincone (@Jmincone) April 10, 2013

Have a great day, everyone.

Savannah 7, Augusta 2

Luis Cessa, in his first start of the year, held the Augusta Green Jackets in check into the seventh inning to help the Savannah Sand Gnats earn a 7-2 win Tuesday night at Historic Grayson Stadium. Cessa, who worked six and two thirds innings, became the first Savannah starter to pitch into the seventh inning in 2013.

The Gnats (3-3) broke a 1-1 tie with a single run in the second inning when 2B Chad Zurcher singled home LF Gregory Pron and never trailed again.

Savannah added two runs in the third inning to build a 4-1 advantage. 1B Jayce Boyd, who was 3-for-5, began the inning with a double to center field. He came home on SSPhilip Evans’ sacrifice fly. Later in the inning, 3B Cole Frenzel doubled home DH Kevin Plawecki.

Boyd finished 3-for-5 with a double, an RBI and a run scored. The Mets’ sixth round pick in the 2012 draft has hit safely in all six Gnats games, going 12-for-21 for a .545 batting average.

The Green Jackets (4-2) took a brief 1-0 lead in the top of the first when 3B Mitchell Delfino doubled home SS Matt Duffy.

The Gnats evened the game with a run in the bottom of the first. CF Brandon Nimmowas hit by a pitch, and came around to score on an RBI double up the right-centerfield gap by Plawecki.

Cessa settled in after allowing the first inning run to keep the Green Jackets off the board for the next five innings. He allowed an unearned run in the seventh on a Zurcher throwing error.

The Gnats picked up a run back in the bottom of the seventh and added two in the eighth to complete the game’s scoring.

The Gnats and Green Jackets play the deciding game of their three-game set Wednesday night at 7:05 at Historic Grayson Stadium. Savannah will send RHP Matt Bowman (0-0, 3.38) to the hill against Augusta RHP Martin Agosta (1-0, 0.00).

Key Stats:

Notes, Quotes, Tweets, and other assorted Mets Minors news from scouring the web…

Las Vegas 51s

Officially installed as the team’s closer, Jeurys Familia picked up his first professional save in Las Vegas’ 4-3 win at Fresno on Monday night.

The big news today is that Zack Wheeler makes his second start for Las Vegas tonight at 10:05 ET as he looks to bounce back from a rough season debut. He will be opposing former Met prospect Yusmeiro Petit.

Travis d’Arnaud continues to rake, but so is John Buck for the Mets. This is going to be interesting to watch.

Binghamton Mets

After a slow offensive start, the B-Mets rallied to score seven unanswered runs to defeat Erie, 7-2, in the series opener. RHP Rafael Montero will make his second start of the season tonight after a brilliant performance on Opening Day against Akron. Montero struck out eight batters without walking any in 5.2 innings.

RHP Erik Goeddel logged the second quality start of the season by a B-Met starting pitcher as he threw 6.0 innings and gave up two runs in last night’s win. RHP Logan Verrett also went 6.0 innings in his first start of the season. So far, every Binghamton starting pitcher has gone at least 5.0 innings on the mound.

St. Lucie Mets

The Lucie rotation has been as good as advertised and keep throwing up goose eggs.

Savannah Sand Gnats

Logan Taylor tossed five scoreless innings in his Savannah debut last night, but the Gnats lost to Augusta, 6-5. Savannah’s 2-3-4 hitters Brandon Nimmo , Kevin Plawecki, and Jayce Boyd are a combined 26-56 (.464) with 4 doubles, 1 triple, 1 homer, 12 RBI, and 12 bases on balls.

The Gnats send RHP Luis Cessa (NR) to the mound against RHP Jose Reyes in game two of the three-game series Tuesday at 7:05 pm.

Mike Newman says: After scouting Nimmo, he understood the comparison in terms of size and projection. However, Nimmo’s baseball movements are more fluid and easy. When he barrels the baseball, it’s one of the prettier prospect swings scouted in person. His contact skills and present power have me thinking there’s more in the tank as he fills out too.

Newman also took some footage of Plawecki yesterday:

Brooklyn Cyclones

Monday night’s Cyclones Alum of the went to Josh Satin who went 3-for-4 for Las Vegas as the 51s beat Fresno.

The 600 box seats they put on sale for $1.50 in a promotion to honor the birthday of Ebbets Field sold out in less than three minutes. Happy Birthday Ebbets Field!

Tweet Nothings…

Just another day in paradise!

— Gavin Cecchini (@GavinCecchini2) April 9, 2013

@_robbieshields flashes more mitt than Romney. Follow him!

— Matt den Dekker (@UpperDekker) April 9, 2013

Doc just looks lost out on the mound. Hate to see it happen to such a great pitcher, but #LGM!

— John Mincone (@Jmincone) April 9, 2013

Love those blue uniforms.#LGM

— Hamilton Bennett (@Ham_Bone28) April 8, 2013

Savannah Sand Gnats, 4 Rome Braves 0 

It was raining goose eggs in Rome all day Sunday as Sand Gnats righty Rainy Lara baffled Braves hitters with six innings of two-hit scoreless baseball, and the Gnats defeated the Rome Braves 4-0 to split the four game set to open the season.

Rainy Lara (1-0) handled the first six innings with absolute expertise as he allowed just two hits and a walk, while striking out six. He was relieved by Brett Mitchell, who redeemed himself after a shaky outing against Rome in the season opener by pitching two scoreless frames and yielded just a single. Hunter Carnevale spelled Mitchell with a perfect ninth punching out two. It was a display of pitching dominance for the Gnats overall.

Savannah (2-2) put up a three spot in the third inning, opening the inning with back to back singles by the red hot Brandon Nimmo and Phillip Evans. Jayce Boyd worked out a walk to load the bases for Kevin Plawecki, who promptly lined an RBI single to center that brought home Nimmo. With the bases still full of Gnats, Stephen Sabol followed Plawecki with a single to right, plating Evans and Boyd to give Savannah a 3-0 lead. Savannah added a run in the fourth after Brandon Nimmo drilled a two-bagger and Jayce Boyd pushed him across with a two-out single. This made the score 4-0, which stood as the final result.

Brandon Nimmo is hitting .471 so far in the young season, while Satish’s guy Kevin Plawecki rocks a .467 average to this point as well. The top three hitters in the lineup, Nimmo/Evans/Boyd, all had three hits in Sunday’s game.

Key Stats:

• Brandon Nimmo – 3 for 4, 2B, 2 R, BB
• Philip Evans – 3 for 5, R
• Jayce Boyd – 3 for 4, 2B, R, RBI, BB
• Rainy Lara – 6.0 IP, 2 H, BB, 6 K, 0 ER, W

By Joe DiOrio

Savannah Sand Gnats 12, Rome Braves 3

The Savannah Sand Gnats were up by eight runs by the time they allowed starter Gabriel Ynoa to exit, as they defeated the Rome Braves on Friday with a dominating perfomance, 12-3.

Kevin Plawecki had a great game, going 3-for-5 with a homer, two runs scored and two RBI. Plawecki was the only man to homer in the 12-run affair.

The Gnats (1-1) came on strong early, taking advantage of three Brave errors to score six runs off opposing starter Mauricio Cabrera(0-1), although only three of them were earned. It was their five-run third inning that really did the damage, however, where the Gnats capitalized on a throwing error that allowed two runs to cross the plate and picked up RBI hits from Brandon Nimmo and Philip Evans. Nimmo and Evans each had nice nights offensively too, with Nimmo going 2-for-6 with a 3B and 2 RBI while Evans went 2-for-4 with a 3B, 2 RBI, and a walk.

In the meantime, 19-year old Gabriel Ynoa (1-0) was dealing through five innings, where he allowed only one hit and walk each, while striking out six.

Tim Peterson surrendered a three-run double in the sixth to account for all of Rome’s runs, but Paul Sewald shut the door over the next innings, allowing no baserunners and striking out five for his first save of the year. An interesting fact to note is that Savannah actually drew more walks (12) than they banged out hits (10).

The Gnats head to Rome to play a weekend series there with the starter yet to be announced.

Key Stats

• Kevin Plawecki - 3 for 5, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI
• Brandon Nimmo - 2 for 6, 3B, R, 2 RBI
• Gabriel Ynoa - 5 IP, H, BB, 6 K

Rome Braves 5, Savannah Sand Gnats 3

The Rome Braves scored three runs in the top of the eighth to come from behind to defeat the Savannah Sand Gnats 5-3 in front of 2,509 fans on Opening Night at Historic Grayson Stadium.

CF Brandon Nimmo, the Mets’ first round pick in the 2011 draft, was 2-for-3 with a walk in his Savannah debut. Both of his knocks were hard singles up the middle.

The Gnats (0-1) took a 3-2 lead into the top of the eighth inning with reliever Bret Mitchell on the hill. With one out and the bases empty, Braves 1B Edison Sanchez chopped a ball to SS Philip Evans’ right that bounced by him for a fielding error. DH Aris Alcantara followed with a single up the middle to put runners at the corners.C Tyler Tewell then rolled a swinging bunt up the third base line to bring home Sanchez to tie the game at 3-3. The very next batter, RF Felix Marte laced a two-run double to left field giving the Braves a 5-3 lead.

The Gnats scored three times in their half of the sixth to take a 3-2 lead. Singles from 2B Chad Zurcher and Nimmo began the frame, with Nimmo’s chasing starter Rafael Briceno from the ballgame. 1B Jayce Boyd greeted relieve Bryam Garcia with double over the head of Braves centerfielder Tony Mueller that scored

Zurcher and Nimmo to tie the game at 2-2. After Boyd went to third on a wild pitch, he scored on 3B Cole Frenzel‘s sacrifice fly.

The Braves (1-0) scored single runs in the fifth and sixth innings against Savannah starter Matt Bowman.

Rome reliever Francois Lafreniere (1-0) earned the win, while Mitchell (0-1) took the loss.

The Gnats and Braves play game two of their two game series Friday in Savannah. The Gnats will send 19-year old RHP Gabriel Ynoa to the hill with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 pm.

Key Stats

• Jayce Boyd – 2 for 3, double, two RBI.
• Brandon Nimmo – 2 for 3
• Matthew Bowman – 5.1 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K

St. Lucie Mets 7, Jupiter Hammerheads 2

The St. Lucie opener was delayed about one hour due to inclement weather, but once the game started, the St. Lucie Mets jumped all over their opponents right out of the gate. They scored three runs in the first inning, and that was enough as the Hammerheads only scored two runs for the remainder of the game. The Hammerheads scored those two runs by launching home runs off of St. Lucie starter, Hansel Robles, in the first and fourth innings.

A scary moment came in the fourth inning, when on an errant pick-off attempt, Robles seemed to have hurt his throwing arm. After attempting to throw a couple of warm-ups, he was removed from the game. He left the game after going 3.1 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and adding six strikeouts.

Offensively, Cam Maron and Matt Reynolds both had a multi-hit games going 2 for 3 at the plate. Aderlin Rodriguez had two RBI and a double at the plate. It was truly a team effort on offense as five St. Lucie players chipped in with RBIs on the night.

Estarlin Morel picked up the win for St. Lucie after entering the game when Robles left with an injury.

Key Stats

• Matt Reynolds – 2 for 3 – walk, RBI, run scored.
• Cam Maron – 2 for 3 – double
• Aderlin Rodriguez – 1 for 3 – double, 2 RBI, run scored
• Hansel Robles – 3.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 2 HR (left game in fourth inning with injury)

According to the American Diabetes Association, 25.8 million children and adults—8.3 percent of the population—are living with the diabetes. Among these is Mets outfield prospect Cory Vaughn.

Vaughn, the son of former Major League slugger Greg Vaughn, was drafted out of high school by the Phillies in 2007 but opted to attend San Diego State University. He was then drafted by the Mets in last year’s draft.

All he’s done so far in the Mets system is hit, hit and hit some more. He clubbed 14 home runs last year for the Brooklyn Cyclones and got off to a hot start with the bat this year for the Savannah Sand Gnats. He was promoted to the St. Lucie Mets about a month ago.

From a young age, baseball dominated Vaughn’s life, and he remembers running around big league clubhouses with his dad. Though he always asks Greg for tips, Vaughn realizes that the two played in completely different eras.

“I’m my own player,” said Vaughn. “My game is a little bit different than my father’s was.”

While Vaughn is most known for his potent bat, he claims that the best aspect of his game right now is his defense. He has a cannon for an arm and worked hard on turning himself in a more complete player.

“It’s inevitable that you’re not going to go out there and get hits every single night,” Vaughn said. “When you’re not getting hits, you have to find a way to make sure that if you don’t get any, whoever’s up to bat isn’t getting any as well if they hit it in your area.”

Though Vaughn is looking forward to future success, he’ll never forget his first year in the minors last summer in Brooklyn. Vaughn loved the fans and atmosphere at Coney Island.

“It was a blast,” Vaughn recalled. “The biggest thing for me was that there was always something to eat after the game regardless of what time it was.”

Vaughn said he couldn’t get enough of the food in Brooklyn, but in one instance, it came back to haunt him.

Pizza is a tough food to handle for diabetics because of all the fat and carbohydrate contents. Vaughn took his insulin to balance his blood sugar, but he wound up taking too much. By the eighth inning of the game, Vaughn had to be removed since he almost passed out. Though this was the only time his diabetes affected his play, he says the Brooklyn pizza was well worth it.

Each day, Vaughn—and teammate Rylan Sandoval who also has Type I Diabetes—checks his blood sugar eight or nine times a day. After a while, Vaughn said he’s grown accustomed to this lifestyle.

“The longer you have it, the more you start to know your own body,” said Vaughn.

Diabetes has far from halted Vaughn’s progress. While at San Diego State, scouts realized he had big time potential. He was actually a college teammate of Washington Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg.

Vaughn describes Strasburg as a “good dude” with some of the nastiest stuff he’s ever seen. How ironic would it be if the two face each other again, only this time in the big leagues with their respective NL East clubs?

With all the recent hoopla surrounding the trade of Carlos Beltran, Vaughn, who is a right fielder, said he couldn’t help but take notice. However, he claims that minor leaguers in general really don’t follow along with how the organization’s Major Leaguers are performing.

“I’m not worried about people ahead of me and how they’re doing,” Vaughn said. “I wish everyone the best of success. I’m just out here trying to be the best ballplayer I can be.”

Vaughn enjoyed playing with David Wright last week when Wright played a few rehab games with St. Lucie. Vaughn said he probably annoyed Wright with the amount of questions he asked, but this just shows that Vaughn genuinely wants to learn and get better.

While he’s been proclaimed as the Mets right fielder of the future, Vaughn is content with taking one step at a time.

“I try not to worry about things that I can’t control,” said Vaughn. “Wherever they want me to be, they’re going to do it.”

Vaughn’s story is an inspiration to the millions of people that suffer from Diabetes. He’s a great example of a person that hasn’t let his condition affect his dreams. Hopefully, if he continues his progress, he’ll be suiting up for the Mets real soon.