Week in Review

The Triple-A Syracuse Mets have dropped four straight games dropping them into third place at 24-21. The team is in a tough spot with Mets going through multiple injuries currently and calling up Carlos Gomez, Rajai Davis, Luis Guillorme, Hector Santiago, Ryan O’Rourke as well as relievers Paul Sewald and Tim Peterson being in DFA limbo. Dilson Herrera has five homers in his last 10 games and has .905 OPS overall. Pitching staff has allowed a league low 4.33 runs per game.

Double-A Binghamton has gone 6-4 in their 10 games to move their record to 25-16 on the season, good for second in the Eastern Division. They are scoring a league best 4.80 runs per game and their 3.04 ERA is second best. Infielder Luis Carpio has .822 OPS in four games since promotion from St. Lucie. Starter Anthony Kay has allowed only two earned runs in his last 37.2 innings.

Thanks to the unpredictable weather causing multiple wash outs, the Advanced-A St. Lucie Mets have played three doubleheaders in the last 10 days. They went 1-5 in those games and 5-7 in the last two weeks. They currently sit at 23-23 on the season placing them in fifth place. Infielder Carlos Cortes is hitting .361 with four walks in his last 10 games. Right-hander Tommy Wilson has allowed only on earned run in his last 25 innings.

The Class-A Columbia Fireflies are in their best stretch of the season to this point, going 9-6 in their last 15 to improve to 18-29 on the season. Part of the reason for the success has been the additions of versatile Hansel Moreno and Cuban outfielder Gerson Molina, they rank first (.863) and second (.812) respectively in OPS. Mets 2018 8th rounder Tylor Megill was also recently added to the roster and he has 5.2 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts.

News and Buzz

Ruben Tejada joined Binghamton and went 5-for-9 in two games before being promoted to Syracuse. Still just 29, Tejada was signed to a minor league contract during the last week of Spring Training.

Right-handed pitchers Tommy Wilson and Thomas McIlraith have been promoted to Binghamton from St. Lucie according to Ernest Dove of MMO.

Syracuse depth Carlos Gomez, Hector Santiago, and Rajai Davis were all promoted the major leagues within the last week.

The Mets released Zack Jones, whom they signed in February, after just four appearances with Binghamton.

Mark Vientos made the Baseball America hot sheet for the week ending May 19.

Stats That Stick Out

Columbia starter Simeon Woods Richardson is the biggest underperformer in the minor leagues, according to his ERA-FIP differential of 4.57 (min. 30 IP).

Benefiting from a strong defense, Anthony Kay has the third-lowest BABIP (.171) among qualified pitchers.

With six home runs and 22 RBI in May alone, Patrick Mazeika is approaching his totals from all of 2018 (nine home runs, 39 RBI).

Talking With a Knuckler

Mickey Jannis was kind enough to chronicle his minor league journey to this point earlier this year, check it out if you haven’t already. The knuckler had a late start to his 2019 season and he’s made two very good starts and one really bad one. He talked about bouncing back from the rough outing:

“The results were bad but I didn’t necessary struggle. The knuckleball is a contact pitch and sometimes that goes with having a lot of weak contact and bad luck, which is what happened in Syracuse. So I just waned to make sure that I didn’t try to do too much heading into the next game. The only difference I wanted to make was finding the right times to mix in my fastball and slider a little more.”

The minor league veteran is in his 10th season of pro ball and went over his routine between starts:

“I usually watch most of my previous game, I write notes on the hitters I faced, and I usually try and watch the games of other knuckleball pitchers around to see if I can pick up anything from their games that worked for them.”

Also had the chance to talk to him about working with catcher Patrick Mazeika again and how that helps him:

“He’s been great. And really has improved his overall catching. It’s nice to have a catcher to primarily work with and be on the same page with calling a game an how I like to throw.”

That’s A Spicy Mets’ Prospect

Rumble Ponies lefty starter Anthony Kay threw seven no-hit innings his last time out and has allowed only two earned runs in his last 37.2 innings.

Binghamton catcher/first baseman Patrick Mazeika has been on quite a tear recently with six homers and 18 RBI in his last 10 games.

Right-handed reliever Ryley Gilliam has allowed only two runs in 10 innings since being promoted to Double-A Binghamton. He has struck out 18 and walked four in that span.

Fireflies reliever Ezequiel Zabaleta has given up only one earned run in 9.1 May innings, that has earned him a promotion to St. Lucie according to Ernest Dove.

Third base prospect Mark Vientos has a nine-game hitting streak for Columbia, he has a .901 OPS during that span.

Video of The Week

Organizational Leaders

AVG: Luis Carpio (BIN/STL) .312; Braxton Lee (SYR/BIN) .300; Rajai Davis (SYR) .277; Sam Haggerty (BIN) .277; Ronny Mauricio (COL) .274

OPS: Dilson Herrera (SYR) .906; Patrick Mazeika (BIN) .831; Carlos Gomez (SYR) .831; Sam Haggerty .824 (BIN); Carpio .823

HR: Travis Taijeron (SYR) 9; Herrera 8; Gomez 6; Danny Espinosa (SYR) 6; Mazeika 6

RBI: Mazeika 28; Quinn Brodey (STL) 27; Espinosa 26; Carlos Cortes (STL) 23; Gomez 22

SB: Davis 14; Haggerty 10; Herrera 8; Gregor Blanco (SYR) 8; Cody Bohanek (STL) 6; Brodey 6; Andres Gimenez (BIN) 6

Starter ERA: Anthony Kay (BIN) 1.07; Tommy Wilson (STL) 2.01; Tony Dibrell (STL) 2.31; Kevin Smith (STL) 3.07; Hector Santiago (SYR) 3.35

Starter WHIP: Kay 0.77; Harol Gonzalez (BIN) 0.95; Wilson 1.05; Dibrell 1.16; Smith 1.27

Reliever ERA: Stephen Villines (SYR/BIN) 0.42; Andrew Mitchell (STL/COL) 0.83; Joseph Zanghi (BIN) 0.84; Ezequiel Zabaleta (COL) 1.69; Ryley Gilliam (BIN/STL) 2.18

Reliever WHIP: Briam Campusano (STL) 0.83; Zabaleta 0.94; Gilliam 0.97; Villines 0.97; Bryce Hutchinson (COL) 1.03

K/9: David Peterson (BIN) 10.55; Michael Gibbons (BIN) 9.64; Smith 9.61; Jose Butto (COL) 9.45; Kay 9.24

SO/W: Gonzalez 4.86; Butto 4.20; Christian James (COL) 3.36; Smith 3.36; Willy Taveras (COL) 3.08

Saves: Arquimedes Caminero (SYR) 8; Blake Taylor (STL) 6; Five tied with 3