Last night there was plenty of action in the Mets minor leagues with the affiliates going 3-1 despite Las Vegas losing 1-0 extending their losing streak to 10 games. It was the 9th time during the losing streak that the 51’s had scored 3 or less runs in a game. Luckily for Las Vegas they are in a bad division and still hold a 2.5 game lead over 2nd place EL Paso.
Steven Matz wasn’t his dominate self last night but pitched good enough to win only to lose 1-0 for the 2nd straight start. Matz pitched 6 innings giving up seven hits and a season high four walks while striking out five. The biggest mistake Matz made was giving up a solo homerun to former Yankee Dean Anna. The homeplate umpire was inconsistent squeezing Matz hard early in the game. In the 2nd inning you could see Matz was getting visibly frustrated and the 51’s bench was too as Frank Viola was screaming from the bench at the ump. Walking off the mound after the 2nd inning Matz had some choice words for the umpire but was able to cool down and pitch effectively walking just one in the last 3 innings. Matz was also hitting 96-97 on the fastball although I think the gun was hot as he has been generally in the 93-94 range all season. He is leading the PCL with his 1.94 ERA, 6th in WHIP at 1.10, has allowed just 55 hits in 74.1 innings and is 2nd in all of the minor leagues with his 75 strikeouts.
Michael Conforto has made his presence felt in Binghamton since being recently promoted with his biggest moment coming last night with a two-out 2-run double to score Gavin Cecchini as the winning run in the 8-7 walk-off win. Conforto is now 8-21 with four extra base hits, seven RBI’s, six walks compared to only five strikeouts and is now hitting .381/.519/.619 in his 6 games with the B’Mets. All this success despite facing 5 straight left handed starting pitchers since seeing a righty in his first game. Gavin Cecchini had a huge night going 4-5 with 2 doubles, scored three runs but did have two more throwing errors. Cecchini is now leading the Eastern League in hitting at .341, 6th in OBP (.392), and is 4th in OPS at .892 for the year. Bobby Parnell pitched a quick 1-2-3 inning on just 10 pitches while hitting 94 MPH with his fastball. The B’Mets have fallen into 4th place in Eastern division but are only 4.5 games out of first place.
Dominic Smith was close to going two straight games without a hit before his 9th inning RBI double last night with two outs gave St. Lucie some insurance runs as they went on to win 5-3. Smith now has 19 doubles to lead the league with his teammate Amed Rosario now in 2nd with 14 on the year. Akeel Morris picked up his 10th save of the year which is good enough for 2nd in the Florida State League. The Florida State League leading hitter is still the St. Lucie Mets Jeff McNeil at .344 who got the night off with Dilson Herrera (3-4) on rehab assignment and L.J. Mazzilli (0-5) needing at bats. St. Lucie is currently in 2nd place at 28-27 but are 9 games back of the Charlotte Stone Crabs.
The R.A. Dickey trade to Toronto has been talked about a bunch lately with Noah Syndergaard establishin himself as a Major League pitcher and Travis d’Arnaud on the rehab trail but the forgotten piece was Wuilmer Becerra. Becerra is making people take notice with the bat and last night he clubbed his 7th as part of a 2-3 night with a walk. He is now slashing .289/.333/.508 with 24 extra base hit and five steals. The South Atlantic League is far from a hitters haven and the 20-year old’s .508 SLG is the 2nd highest in the league behind Rhys Hoskins who is 22-years old. With their 4-game winning streak the Savannah Sand Gnats have moved to 28-27 which puts them in 2nd place only 3 games behind the Greenville Drive.
Roster Moves and Prospect Notes
The big one here is obviously L.J. Mazzilli getting the promotion to Binghamton after going 5-22 with a HR in 5 games for St. Lucie following his return from suspension. Mazzilli was slated to start the year in Bingo anyway so he only needed a few “rehab” games to get ready for AA which has needed a 2B all year. In the corresponding move Yeixon Ruiz gets sent back down to St. Lucie where he started the year after going 5-25 in his short AA stint.
Brock Peterson was officially added to the Binghamton roster yesterday and hit a grand slam in his 2nd at bat with the team. To make room infielder Jairo Perez was promoted to AAA Las Vegas who was playing down 4 players last night with Danny Muno and Wilfredo Tovar in Phoenix.
Outfielder Victor Cruzado was activated from the DL in St. Lucie and played his first game last night since May 8th. Outfielder Tucker Tharp and catcher Adrian Abreu were sent down to Savannah on Friday. Savannah catcher Tyler Moore was placed on the DL after taking a foul ball off his leg in his last start. The struggling Vicente Lupo was demoted down to Brooklyn, he was hitting under .200 basically all season.
MLB Pipeline has a Top 30 prospect list for every team and unlike some other sites they update their list during the season when players are no longer eligible. Yesterday Kevin Plawecki and Hansel Robles graduated from the Mets Top 30 with 3B Eudor Garcia (#29) and RHP Matthew Koch (#30) sliding onto the list.
Jeff Moore from Baseball Prospectus was at the St. Lucie Mets game last night and here are a few of his observations from the game: This one is on Dominic Smith- “Impressive part about Smith is strong wrists & feel for barrel that will lead to big 2Bs totals. Issue is he doesnt hit his pitch enough”. On the rehabbing Herrera- “Dilson Herrera has looked healthy and ready to go tonight. Swinging the bat comfortably”. And lastly what he saw out of Rosario- “Amed Rosario swing with much more confidence. Still jumping on first FB he sees, little plan, but attacking his pitch better”. Keep in mind these are his views from this game and he also told me he was at a St. Lucie game on May 8th of this year as well.
And without further adieu, here is what you have all been waiting for the video of the Conforto walk-off.
