Binghamton manager Pedro Lopez told Lynn Worthy of the Press and Sun Bulletin that outfielder Brandon Nimmo is on his way to the team’s minor league complex in Port St. Lucie to begin rehabbing his left knee.

Nimmo was diagnosed with a sprained ACL in his knee which he injured last week while running out an infield single.  Lopez said Nimmo is expected to miss four to six weeks.

The Mets’ top pick in the 2011 draft, Nimmo was having a solid season for Double-A Binghamton before he got injured, batting .297/.368/.420 in 155 plate appearances with seven doubles, two home runs, and 13 runs scored.

May 16

Brandon Nimmo was hurt last night beating out a groundball for a single after he came down awkwardly on the 1st base bag that looked to twist his left knee.

He immediately went to the ground, tried to stand up before going down on the ground again trying not to put any pressure on his his left leg.

Nimmo fell down a third time on his way to the dugout and had to be helped down the dugout steps and into the clubhouse by trainers and teammates according to Binghamton beat writer Lynn Worthy.

Nimmo has been put on the disabled list and will head to New York on Monday to visit with doctors to determine the severity of the injury.

The hits keep coming for the Mets after losing Dilson Herrera to a broken finger Friday night, pitching prospect Marcos Molina going on the DL on Thursday with an elbow strain, and late last night Las Vegas utility player Alex Castellanos was removed from the game after getting hit by a pitch.

The post Brandon Nimmo Out 4-6 Weeks With Sprained ACL appeared first on Metsmerized.

A team insider has confirmed to ESPN New York that catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud is indeed slated to replace John Buck when he heads to New York for the birth of his baby.

The Mets promoted d’Arnaud to Triple-A Las Vegas so he’d be close by when Buck is placed on paternity leave.

It will be great to finally get a look at D’Arnaud who’s spent about three months recovering from a broken foot.

“I feel like my timing is back,” d’Arnaud told the Press & Sun-Bulletin. “I feel good at the plate. I feel good behind the plate. I just feel good in general.”

The key piece to the R.A. Dickey trade is batting a combined .259 this season with ten double, two home runs and 16 RBI in 102 plate appearances.

He went 1-for-3 with a walk in his first game back at Vegas..

Original Post

According to Lynn Worthy of the Press & Sun-Bulletin, Travis d’Arnaud is on his way to Triple-A Las Vegas.

The highly regarded catching prospect received the news from manager Pedro Lopez of the Binghamton Mets after Thursday night’s 1-0 win over the Altoona Curve.

The logic is that with the Mets hitting the road for a series in Arizona beginning Friday night and then a series in Los Angeles, D’Arnaud will be close by in case the Mets need him should John Buck miss any time with the birth of his child.

If D’Arnaud is activated and Buck goes on paternity leave, Recker will likely be the backup. Once Buck returns Travis will be optioned back to Las Vegas where he’ll continue to play everyday. We should see him again once rosters expand in September.

D’Arnaud was 0-for-2 tonight with a walk and batted .222 in seven games with Double-A Binghamton.

The post Mets Source Confirms D’Arnaud Will Replace Buck When His Wife Gives Birth appeared first on Metsmerized.

Lynn Worthy

Mejia, pitched the second game of doubleheader against the Portland Sea Dogs and limited them to just three hits and two walks in five scoreless innings while striking out one. The one-time top pitching prospect for the Mets, was on a pitch limit and threw 51 of his 83 pitches for strikes.

After suffering a few setbacks following Tommy John Surgery that ended his 2011 season, Mejia seems to be on the comeback trail.

“My arm feels better,” Mejia said. “I’m trying to work hard day by day. I want to be in the majors. I’ve got to work hard for it. Now I’m here. I don’t know where I’m going to be tomorrow, but wherever I am I’m going to do my job.”

“Now, I feel like I can throw (with) more consistency. (I can) throw my curveball for strikes, my change-up, two-seamer.”

I always felt bad for how things fell apart for this promising right-hander and continue to hope that he can one day make it back to the Mets and serve an important role in the rotation or bullpen.

The post Mejia Tosses Five Scoreless Innings appeared first on Metsmerized.

According to Lynn Worthy via twitter, Cesar Puello, Allan Dykstra, Josh Rodriguez, Jeff Walters, and Logan Verrett will be headed to the Eastern League All-Star team. This comes as no surprise, as the B-Mets, at 47-28, have an 8.5 game lead over the Trenton Thunder in the EAS Eastern Division, and have the best record overall in the league. With a high-performing team comes a lot of All-Star nods.

I just talked about how well Puello has been performing this year earlier today, so I won’t repeat everything I just said. However, his .313/.407/.616 line is rather impressive and worth repeating. He leads the Eastern League in slugging percentage, is second in home runs, and third in RBIs.

Dykstra has come out of nowhere to have a career year in Binghamton. The first baseman owns a .321/.477/.607 line with 12 home runs, 50 RBIs, and 20 doubles on the season. He barely trails Puello in the major offensive categories, but leads the league in on-base percentage by a large margin. The next closest player is Henry Urrutia of Bowie, coming in at .433.

Rodriguez has made it a habit of enjoying long hitting streaks this season, and has used those long stretches to hit .303/.429/.434 in 2013. That line includes four home runs, 29 RBIs, 47 runs scored, and almost as many walks (49) as strikeouts (55).

Walters is the league leader in saves, successfully closing the door 18 times for the B-Mets. He’s appeared in 29 games overall (32.1 innings pitched) and has compiled a 4-2 record, 2.51 ERA, 34 strikeouts, and 11 walks.

Verrett, like Puello, was a virtual lock for the All-Star team; his eight wins are tops in the Eastern League, and his 93 innings pitched are fourth among his fellow hurlers. In 14 starts, he’s 8-3 with a 3.97 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 77 strikeouts, and 21 walks for Binghamton.

Congratulations to all five guys on this honor! The game will be played in New Britain on July 10th at 7:00 PM.

(Photo courtesy of Gordon Donovan)

The post Puello and Verrett Lead B-Mets Contingent Named to Eastern League All-Star Team appeared first on Metsmerized.

Mark Hale of the New York Post spoke with Zack Wheeler who told him that he;s ready for the challenge that awaits him.

“Overall, I feel like I’m ready,” Wheeler said. “My past two starts, I haven’t been happy with my command, especially my last start. In the fifth inning I started to leave a lot of balls up. It happens. You just need to find the command and feel more comfortable with your mechanics.”

Ready or not, Wheeler is on his way and will finally make his debut on June 18th.

I reached out to Lynn Worthy of the Press & Sun Bulletin, who was kind enough to answer several questions for me about the Double-A Binghamton Mets who he does a great job covering. I’ll be posting his insights throughout the day along with some of my thoughts.

Oddly enough (not really), my first question to him was regarding a pair of former B-Mets… I think some you may have heard of them…

You were fortunate enough to see both Matt Harvey in 2011 and Zack Wheeler in 2012 pitch for the B-Mets. What are some of their similarities and differences? And based on your own observations how do they compare?

The obvious similarities were how hard they threw (hitting 96 miles per hour regularly), the fact that they were highly-touted prospects before they got here, and how after a few starts opposing hitters just started jumping on the first fastball they saw from each of them. For that matter, that all applies to Jeurys Familia when he was here too.

Harvey wasn’t as consistently dominant in Binghamton as Wheeler was. Remember Harvey came here during his first pro season, and he came after starting the season at St. Lucie. He made 12 starts in Binghamton, and in several starts he didn’t make it late into games because of his pitch count. He’d have rough innings where he would walk batters early in games because – as he even admitted – he would try to establish all his pitches right away.

Harvey actually only threw more than five complete innings twice with the B-Mets. He hit 10 strikeouts once. He didn’t record a win until his seventh start. He would have starts where he’d struggle a little early and then be overpowering an inning later.

He was very intense. I still recall talking to him after his final start – he went just three innings, gave up four runs and walked four – and he wanted no part of talking about the season as a whole. All he could do was boil over his last start.

Wheeler began the season here, and he was dominating almost right away. He made 19 starts here and went five innings or more in 16 of them. At times he struggled to command certain pitches, but he still seemed to find a way to get guys out. He rarely got hit hard. He only gave up two home runs, and one came in his last start in Binghamton.

It seems to me that Wheeler fluctuated more in sharpness and command of his off-speed pitches. He threw some curveballs and sliders that were absolutely nasty at times, and other starts they were just okay. However, he seemed to be able to adjust within the game and get through five, six, seven innings. Even on bad days, he jammed hitters and broke bats.

When you looked at Wheeler, he didn’t give off the intensity that Harvey did. However, Wheeler always seemed confident in his stuff even when he didn’t have his best.

I want to thank Lynn for taking some time to answer a few questions for us. Follow him on Twitter at @PSBLynn and make sure to read his daily coverage of the B-Mets at the Press & Sun Bulletin or PressConnects.com.

The post Wheeler Says He’s Ready, How He Compares To Harvey appeared first on Metsmerized.

Wilpon visited Double-A Binghamton yesterday and preached patience and satisfaction with the plan.

“There’s a plan. You can’t change the plan every year. OK? Sandy [Alderson], it’s taken him two or three years to get the plan into effect, and we have to wait and see it out.”

“You can’t just say it’s not going as fast as we want — we’re six months behind, two months behind, whatever it might be. You’ve got to let the plan go all the way down the line. If you’re going to buy into something, you got to buy into it. You can’t change midstream, because if you’re constantly changing, there’s no chance you’re going to succeed. …

“I think we’re definitely happy with the plan and the direction we’re going. Is it happening as fast as anybody wants? No.

“You know, we’re fans. I’m a fan. I’m here to see good baseball. I want to see good baseball in New York. I want to see it up and down the organization. Sometimes it happens quicker, sometimes it doesn’t.”

So there you go… Looks like David Wright and Jeff Wilpon are using the same exact script…

The post Jeff Wilpon Preaches Patience, Is Satisfied With The Plan appeared first on Metsmerized.

Lynn Worthy of Press and Sun Bulletin, later reported that this was likely just a spot-start situation, as the B-Mets expect to have Montero back in their rotation for the end of next week. He did note, in a later tweet however, that nothing is set in stone – and referenced Collin McHugh’s performance in AA in the past when he was only supposed to be up for one start.

Well, we’ve been calling for some movement in the field of Rafael Montero for a little while now as he has dominated in Binghamton for the most part. The Mets organization has responded to Montero’s excellent performance so far this year with a promotion to AAA, where he will join the Las Vegas rotation as he perhaps progresses to an MLB call-up later this year.

Montero was one of my favorite prospects to cover last year because he had such amazing command and what I described as a bulldog mentality on the mound. He is intimidating when he pitches with great stuff, mixing in a slider, change-up, and occasional curve in with his fastball that has exceptional late movement.

I am part of the camp that believes Montero should have had some work in AA and then skipped Las Vegas, but regardless, he will get some time to fine tune himself before making a major league appearance. He’s knocking on the door…

So far in 2013, Montero is 4-3 with a 3.47 ERA through 46.2 innings, where he has allowed 40 hits – and only two home runs. He has walked just six batters, in contrast to his 54 punchouts. Those Las Vegas fans are lucky – Zack Wheeler and Rafael Montero in the same rotation!

The post Rafael Montero To Make Spot Start For Las Vegas appeared first on Metsmerized.

@nymets945 Pill will likely not make next start because of discomfort. Need to find out more about that. He is not on the DL.

— Lynn Worthy (@PSBLynn) April 29, 2013

Vaughn said he felt a sensation in his arm after throwing out runner at plate. Called coming out “precautionary.” #BMets #Mets

— Lynn Worthy (@PSBLynn) April 30, 2013

Hat tip for Lynn Worthy here for updating us on two minor league players, Cory Vaughn and Tyler Pill.

Cory Vaughn left tonight’s game with an undisclosed injury, and Worthy later found out and reported that he may have hurt himself while throwing out a runner from left field. Considering that it is reported as precautionary, we should have nothing to worry about. Vaughn was in the midst of a hot streak, batting .306 over his last three games with three home runs and eight RBIs.

Tyler Pill, on the other hand, was scheduled to pitch tomorrow evening. Worthy went on to note that Pill missing his start did not sound like a big issue up in Binghamton – but rather that they wanted to give him some time off. Pill has been struggling this season, with opposing hitters batting .349 against him and he currently holds an ERA of 7.58 (16 earned runs) in 19.0 innings pitched.

The post Injury Update: Vaughn Leaves B-Mets Game, Pill Will Miss Next Start appeared first on Metsmerized.

Update 10:40 PM by Satish Ram

Lopez said Mateo’s issue was in his right forearm/elbow. Mateo got checked out by the team doctor, but he may also get an MRI to be safe.

— Lynn Worthy (@PSBLynn) April 16, 2013

Team doctors have examined Mateo and it looks like he’s definitely heading for an MRI in the morning.

Well, let’s all hope for the best…

Original Post 7:58 PM

One of the top Mets pitching prospects, Luis Mateo, has left his Double-A debut in the fourth inning of tonight’s game for the B-Mets. The trainer and head coach Pedro Lopez visited Mateo the mound and escorted him off the field. According to a tweet by Lynn Worthy, they appeared to be inspecting his hand.

Mateo was called up from St. Lucie to replace Cory Mazzoni, who was placed on the disabled list with “Tennis Elbow,” earlier today.

Before leaving the game, Mateo had given up four runs on six hits, one of which was a two run home run.

Once we get word on Mateo we will pass it along. Check back for updates.

The post Injury Update: Mateo Left Game With Right Forearm/Elbow Injury, Will Have MRI appeared first on Metsmerized.

Lynn Worthy just reported that RHP Collin McHugh has just been told he’ll be going to Triple-A Buffalo and pitching for the Bisons tomorrow.

Readers of this site know that our own Petey Pete deduced this would be the case last week and that Monday would be the day that McHugh would get his first Triple-A start.

There are currently six starting pitchers in the Binghamton rotation, and four of them are not quite ready for that promotion to AAA yet. That leaves two candidates to be called up to start the game on Monday night in Norfolk, VA against the Tides: Collin McHugh and Zack Wheeler. And after careful consideration, I believe I know who the Mets plan to call up. The player who will be moved up from AA to AAA in time for this Monday’s game, will be RHP Collin McHugh.

Wheeler has been the more dominant of the two this season, but McHugh is older and more experienced, and a bit more refined as a pitcher. Wheeler has made just ten AA starts in his career, all this season. McHugh who pitches tonight against Reading in what will probably be his last AA start, has been at Binghamton since mid-season last year and has been one of the Eastern League’s best pitchers over that time.

In 27 AA game starts and 160 innings, McHugh has an Eastern League lifetime record of 13-6 with a 2.75 ERA, 158 strikeouts and 49 walks. Buffalo manager Wally Backman knows McHugh having had him at Binghamton in 2011, and will be very happy to add him to his AAA staff. I feel Wheeler will also be getting promoted before too long, probably within the next month, but the first one to be summoned will be the player who has put in the time, and the work, and is farther along in his development.

McHugh is very deserving of this promotion and we wish him the best of luck in the International League. As far as the big picture goes, add him into the mix at AAA, and throw in Wheeler in a few weeks time, and Buffalo should have a formidable rotation for the stretch-run this year. Can you imagine a rotation consisting of: Harvey, Familia, Wheeler, and McHugh falling short of a deep play-off run in 2012? This could be a very exciting finish to the season this year for the Herd. Stay tuned.

Not only did many not see or agree with that scenario, but many found it difficult to believe that McHugh would get the call before Zack Wheeler.

You knocked this one out of the park, Pete…

The post Collin McHugh To Start For Buffalo On Monday appeared first on Metsmerized.