Mike Vasil, Photo by Ed Delany of MMO

It was an exciting day for several Mets prospects, but perhaps none more so than Ronny Mauricio and Mike Vasil. Mauricio smashed his fifth home run of the season in Binghamton’s Tuesday afternoon loss. Meanwhile, Vasil had the best start of his professional career to lead St. Lucie to victory.

AAA: Buffalo Bisons (21-16) 9, Syracuse Mets (13-23) 3  Box Score

The Mets were held without a run for the first six innings of Tuesday’s game and, when they finally got their first run in the seventh, the game was already 8-0, well out of hand. Plummer contributed the rest of the team’s offense with his two-run homer to right center field. Never a massive power hitter in his career, Plummer has been an extra-base machine in the first month of the season, as half of his 22 hits have gone for extra bases (five doubles; six home runs). Vientos has also found his extra-base stroke in May, as he has six extra-base hits in his last 11 games. However, his high strikeout rate has prevented him from getting on base at a consistent rate: with two more strikeouts on Tuesday, he now has a 31.5% K% on the season.

  • LHP Rob Zastryzny (L, 4.84 ERA) 3.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, BB, 2 K
  • RHP Tommy Hunter (0-0, 40.50 ERA) 0.2 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 3 ER,
  • RHP Eric Orze (0-2, 7.71 ERA) 1.2 IP, H, ER, BB, 3 K

It was a rough night for Syracuse’s pitching staff, as each of the four pitchers used in this game allowed at least one run. Zastryzny was solid until the fourth inning, in which he allowed a two-run home run and was removed for Hunter. Hunter was making his return to the Mets organization after a strong cameo with the big league team last year. His return was not auspicious, to say the least, but poor fielding did not help his cause. Orze entered the season as the Mets top relief prospect and many thought he could help the big league team at some point this season, but he has struggled mightily early this year.

AA: Akron RubberDucks (19-15) 5, Binghamton Rumble Ponies (11-22) 2  Box Score

It was a rough day at the plate for the Rumble Ponies, as they went just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and struck out an absurdly high 19 times. Mauricio got them on the board early with a long second-inning home run to right field, but that and a fifth-inning sacrifice fly by Álvarez constituted the totality of the scoring for Binghamton. Four out of Mauricio’s five home runs of the year have come from the left side of the plate, but he has been solid from both sides of the plate this year (.764 OPS from the left side; .846 OPS from the right side). Álvarez extended his hit streak to six games as he continues to break out of his slump. Baty’s strikeout rate has increased recently to 31.1%, which would be a career high if maintained over a full season.

  • RHP Alex Valverde (L, 1-3, 7.07 ERA) 4.2 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 5 K
  • RHP Michel Otanez (0-1, 1.54 ERA) 1.1 IP, H, BB, 3 K
  • RHP Mitch Ragan (0-1, 5.91 ERA) 3.0 IP, 3 H, ER, 3 BB, 2 K

Valverde has struggled this season, but his control hadn’t been a problem before Tuesday: he had only walked three batters total in his first six appearances of the season. On Tuesday, however, he just could not find the plate, walking four batters and throwing only 48 of his 88 pitches for strikes. Otanez continues to be dominant out of Binghamton’s bullpen and has perhaps seen one of the most impressive single-season improvements in control in recent memory. After walking 9.15 batters per nine innings a year ago, he has a 2.31 BB/9 so far this year, a number which is actually skewed slightly higher as one of his three walks was intentional. All the while, his strikeout rate has remained elite at 12.34 K/9.

A+: Brooklyn Cyclones (14-17) 5, Hudson Valley Renegades (15-18) 3  Box Score

The Cyclones only had seven hits in Tuesday’s game, but they made the most of them, with five of those hits going for extra bases. A Newton double got them on the board in the third, while Palmer’s solo home run in the fifth put them permanently ahead. Palmer has gotten off to a terrible start to the season and his much-celebrated power had been non-existent before Tuesday’s home run, an impressive opposite field shot that was the first of his season. Still, even with the promising show of power, his three strikeouts raise his strikeout right to an incredibly high 45.6%. For a catcher, O’Neill has been excellent at legging out triples, and his three triples are tied for second in the league.

Clenney was very efficient in his first start of the season: he needed just 48 pitches to make it through four shutout innings. Parsons has a 20:2 K:BB ratio and has not allowed a run in 14 2/3 innings to start the season.

A: St. Lucie Mets (24-10) 4, Tampa Tarpoons (14-19) 3  Box Score

De Los Santos has come out of nowhere to have a very impressive 2022 season, and he was the main offensive contributor in Tuesday’s victory. His groundball singles up the middle in the sixth and eighth innings brought home a combined three runs. Perhaps most impressive about De Los Santos’ season, however, is not what he’s been doing with his bat (although his .302 average is 6th in the league), but rather what he’s doing with his legs. His 20 stolen bases tie him for fifth in the entire minor leagues and he has only been caught once. Ramirez’s line is again impressive, but seeing multi-hit games are beginning to feel mundane from him this season with how typical they’ve been. He has had at least two hits in 13 of the 31 games in which he’s played; by comparison, he has only gone hitless in five games this season.

Throughout his brief Mets career, Vasil has generally looked more like the first-round pick he was expected to be out of high school than the college arm who fell to the Mets in the 8th round. If there was one critique that could be leveled against him, it was that he didn’t strike out a ton of batters this year: he entered the game with only 24 strikeouts in 27.0 innings pitched, a solid but not elite number. Vasil certainly put those concerns to rest by flashing his ability to miss bats in this start. He needed just 88 pitches to make it through a career-high seven innings and nearly doubled his previous career-high of six strikeouts. He had 23 swings and misses and his fastball was up to 96 MPH. Through 34 innings pitched, he has not allowed a single extra base hit; the slash line against him is .172/.239/.172.