Minors Recap: Minor League Offenses Have a Day

Across the board, the Mets’ minor league offenses had a terrific day, even if not all of the pitching did. This is a good sign for a minor league system that has had some early stumbles but has looked better as of late.

Triple-A

Syracuse (40-37) 5, Lehigh Valley (35-42) 4

Box Score

CF Tyrone Taylor: 1-for-4, RBI
SS Ronny Mauricio: 2-for-5, 2 RBI
1B Ryan Clifford: 0-for-5
RF Nick Morabito: 2-for-5, R

The Syracuse Mets’ offense scored just enough to win, with Yonny Hernández, Nick Morabito and Ronny Mauricio having a strong showing today. Ryan Clifford continues to struggle and show uncompetitive at-bats.

RHP Jack Weisenburger: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 1 K
LHP Felipe De La Cruz: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
RHP Adbert Alzolay: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
RHP Ofreidy Gómez: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K (W)
LHP Ben Simon: 2.0 IP, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K (S)

Why isn’t Ben Simon on the major league team? I recognize he is not on the 40-man roster, and they need to make room, but why isn’t he on the major league team? He averaged 97.1 miles per hour on his fastball across two innings of work to get the save. He throws three above-average pitches and is sitting at a 2.57 ERA this season.

Adbert Alzolay, on the other hand, looks like a shell of himself. He has tried to reinvent himself as a contact suppression pitcher, and the results have been mixed at best.

Double-A

Erie (38-32) 8, Binghamton (27-44) 4

Box Score

C Chris Suero: 0-for-2, 2 K
RF Matt Rudick: 1-for-4, HR, R, RBI

The Rumble Ponies doubled their run total from their last game, but it was not enough. The offense continues to struggle, and the former bright spots of late in Jacob Reimer and Chris Suero are either hurt or struggling. Not much is going right with the Mets’ Double-A team right now.

LHP Jonathan Santucci: 3.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
RHP Gabriel Rodriguez: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
RHP Garrett Stratton: 2.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 0 K (L)
RHP Carlos Guzman: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 K

The Rumble Ponies’ pitching continues to struggle, and they walked nine total batters on Thursday. Jonathan Santucci, who has looked better as of late, struggled with his command today, walking three. The defense did not help him either, and he did not make it out of the fourth inning. He struck out five.

High-A

Brooklyn Cyclones (27-43) 12, Jersey Shore (27-43) 2

Box Score

SS Mitch Voit: 2-for-4, BB
LF JT Benson: 2-for-5, HR, 3 R, 3 RBI
1B Trace Willhoite: 1-for-4, HR, R, RBI, BB

I guess Mitch Voit really was hurt the first month of the season. Since his break in May, he has been on fire. He logged another two hits today and has raised his average by 28 points and his OPS by 81 points since that point. JT Benson continues to mash with a .936 OPS, and the Cyclones combined for seventeen hits and five walks.

LHP Daviel Hurtado: 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K (W)
LHP Joe Jacques: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
RHP Juan Arnaud: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
RHP Josh Blum: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 0 K
LHP Gregori Louis: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

The flowers of today’s game go to Daviel Hurtado, who threw six innings of one-run ball. He ran a 33.3% whiff rate and attacked the zone, only walking one batter. Everyone looked strong outside of Josh Blum, but Gregori Louis bailed him out to get the final out of the game.

Single-A

Fort Myers (40-30) 12, St. Lucie (35-35) 8

Box Score

SS Elian Peña: 1-for-5, RBI, SB
3B Antonio Jimenez: 1-for-3, 2 BB, SB
2B Jeremy Rodriguez: 2-for-4, R, 2 RBI
DH Trey Snyder: 0-for-5, 2 R, SB

Elian Peña swiped his 23rd bag of the season, and St. Lucie’s offense was able to rack up 10 hits and seven walks on the day.

RHP Cam Tilly: 3.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
RHP Miguel Mejias: 2.0 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 1 K
RHP Luis Alvarez: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K (BS)
RHP Joe Charles: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 1 K (L)
RHP Ryan Scarbrough: 1.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

The St. Lucie pitchers did their best impression of the current major league pitching staff, taking a nice lead by the offense and slowly giving up more and more runs each inning to get the loss. It’s unclear why Cam Tilly was pulled after only 57 pitches, but his stuff looked much better than his results, running a 36% whiff rate and 32.5% chase rate. His velocity was down, so it could be something to monitor.

FCL Mets

FCL Astros (29-7) 13, FCL Mets (15-21) 2

Box Score

C Yovanny Rodriguez: 0-for-3, RBI

The FCL Mets offense struggled to score runs even though they had a good amount of baserunners.

RHP Nathan Hall 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

The pitching was a disaster, so I will focus on the one bright spot – Nathan Hall‘s return from Tommy John surgery. Boy, can he spin a baseball. He had almost 2,800 rpm on his curveball. He throws from an unconventional arm slot and throws a four-seam fastball, cutter, and curveball. Ideally, he will continue to improve further removed from surgery, but this is a good baseline.

DSL Mets Orange

DSL Mets Orange (12-6) 12, DSL NYY Bombers (7-10) 1

Box Score

SS Cleiner Ramirez: 2-for-4, HR, R, 4 RBI
CF Jhonael Cuello: 2-for-3, HR, 3 R, 2 RBI, BB, SB

I think I may be Ramirez’s lucky charm because he seems to have a multi-hit game every time I do a recap. He has looked great so far, hitting .308 with a 1.028 OPS. Cuello had a great game as well, and those two played a big part in the team’s 12-1 win.