Mets Minor League Report

Tim Redding Signed with the NY Mets Today. Yippee.

2009-01-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

Tim Redding is 30-years-old, and he's been with a few clubs already. Now the Mets sign him to a 1-year contract for an undisclosed amount of money. This guy was 10-11 in 33 starts last year with the Washington Nationals. Tim Redding is going to compete for a spot in the rotation, but he might end up being a reliever. He doesn't seem to care which role he gets. I'm sure he's happy to just have a contract. I'm hoping we get something good out of him in 2009. I'll keep my hopes up.

Mets Minor League Report 4-24-2006

2006-04-24T14:07:00.000-07:00

I’m preparing for my first Mets game of the season tonight at Telecom Park in SF by spending some time with the minor leaguers.

Norfolk

Lastings Milledge earned the International League Batter of the Week honors for his torrid April 17-23^rd run. In the week, he hit .550 with a home run and 2 RBI. He’s hit in eight straight games and is now hitting .400/.526/.633 (AVG/OBP/SLG). His rank in the IL in the three categories: #4/#1/#3.

Heath Bell’s four saves tie him for third in the IL and his 2.25 ERA leads Norfolk. He’s struck out 14 and walked three in 8 IP. He’s also bounced 3 WP.

The rest of the team continues to struggle. The Tides split a doubleheader Sunday, but have dropped four of their last five and seven of their last nine games.

Jose Lima pitched the Tides to their only win of the weekend, a 1-0 defeat of Richmond. He fired off six shutout innings and allowed just three hits. He struck out six without walking a batter. Richmond is second to last in the IL in batting average (.229) and second from the bottom in runs scored (47). Only the Tides have lower team batting average (.228).

Binghamton

Jorge Padilla was named the Eastern League’s hitter of the week for the week ending April 23^rd. The 26-year old Puerto Rican was 11-for-21 with a HR and 2 2B for a .524 AVG and .762 SLG. He’s now hitting .377/.431/.623, ranking him 1/3/5 in the league respectively. Padilla was originally a 3^rd round pick of the Phillies in 1998 out of Florida Air Academy High School. After spending most of the last two seasons in AAA with Scranton/WB, the Mets signed him as a free agent this winter.

The rest of the Eastern League leaderboard is speckled with Mets. Brett Harper’s .373/.448/.492 line puts him third in the league in AVG and atop the charts in OBP. Carlos Gomez’s nine SB tie him for third in the league. Gomez has hit .221/.329/.294 through 17 games.

The B-Mets lost two of three to Erie over the weekend including a 15-4 shellacking Sunday. Tim McNab, who led Binghamton with 44 appearances in 2005, made his AA debut Sunday and gave up five runs on six hits in just two innings. Binghamton, like Norfolk, has lost four of its last five.

Evan MacLane earned the only win for Binghamton over the weekend for his four run, five inning performance Friday. Anderson Garcia, who celebrated his 25^th birthday Sunday was one hit away from perfection in working the final four innings for his first save of the season. His 1.26 ERA leads the B-Mets and places him fifth in the league.

St. Lucie

St. Lucie lost 3-0 to Palm Beach Friday, but beat Brevard County 7-3 on Sunday afternoon to improve to 10-6. Jose Sanchez, who got I believe is the same Jose Sanchez who got lit in seven appearances in the California League last year with the San Jose Giants, following a solid performance in the SAL League, dealt five two run innings Sunday to pick up the win. He struck out three and walked three in lowering his ERA to 1.23, sixth in the league.

Four St. Lucie Mets are among the League’s top 10 in ERA: #3 Alay Soler (1-0, 0.60), #4 Michael Pelfrey (1-1, 1.13), #6 Jose Sanchez (2-0, 1.23) and #7 Michael Devaney (0-1, 1.32). The best secondary numbers belong to Pelfrey who has struck out 18 an walked one in 16 innnings.

In a very encouraging development, Ambio Concepcion (.348/.411/.455) is tied for second in the league in 2B (7) and is tied for third in SB (7) and hits (23). Already on the Mets 40 man roster, Concepcion has already walked 7 times, a dramatic increase over last year when he drew 22 free passes in 130 games in Hagerstown on his way to a .251/.289/.413.

Hagerstown

After not completing Friday’s game, the Suns dropped two one run games to the Lake County Captains to slip back to 2 games under .500 at 7-9. The Suns are tied for fifth place in the eight team SAL North, 3.5 games behind the Lexington Legends.

Fernando Martinez, Baseball

America

’s #4 prospect in the Mets organization is making that ranking look good with a .328/.403/.552 start. He already has 6 2B and 2 3B

Mets Minor League Report 4-18-2006

2006-04-18T00:38:00.000-07:00

Some very good friends took my mom to Shea to see Pedro win #200. I’m a little jealous. Pedro called the win, “one of the biggest things to happen” in his career. He reported feeling “light all day.” His press conferences are awesome.

Stars of the Day:

AAA: Lastings Milledge

AA: Brett Harper/Miguel Perez

A+: Jesus Florez/Alay Soler

Norfolk 3, @ Scranton/WB 13

Jose Lima was tattooed for 9 runs, all earned on 11 hits in four innings. Scranton/WB hung a six spot on the board in the first inning. Royce Ring lasted only .1 of an inning and gave up four runs on three hits.

Lastings Milledge launched his first HR of the year, and along with a double had a 2-2 night with two walks. He was the only Tide with two hits.

Binghamton 3, @ New Hampshire 0

Thirty-year old Miguel Perez blanked the ‘cats on two hits through seven innings. Henry Owens picked up his fourth save with a strikeout in the ninth.

The B-Mets did all of their scoring in the fourth. Brett Harper, who was 3-4 singled home a pair in the inning. Harper raised his average to .421.

St. Lucie 12, Daytona 3

The Mets turned a 2-1 heading into the sixth into a laugher with five run innings in the sixth and eighth innings. Ambio Concepcion led the offensive charge from the top of the order with a 4-6 night with 2 doubles and three runs scored. Jesus Flores had his best night of the season by drilling three doubles as part of a 4-5 evening. All told St. Lucie had seven doubles on the night.

Alay Soler lowered his ERA to 0.60 with 5 innings of one run ball. He fanned six and walked one while allowing three hits. I’m as happy with the one walk as I am with the one run, as he seems to be conquering his control issues.

Edgar Alfonzo picked up the three inning save while giving up two runs, but whiffing six ‘lil Cubbies.

Hagerstown

OFF. Begin an 8 game homestand starting with West Virginia Tuesday.

Mets Minor League Report 4-17-2006

2006-04-17T01:28:00.000-07:00

Isn’t it nice to know you root for the best team in baseball?

Last Wednesday, I broadcast a California League record. My team, the Visalia Oaks, became the third team in League history to hit 8 HR in a game in a 17-15 win over the Bakersfield Blaze. Shortstop Reid Brignac had 3, and 8 RBI. He said it was the first time in his life he’d ever hit 3 roundtrippers in a game. The other two times teams to hit 8 HR in a game did it on consecutive days on August 14^th, and 15^th,1999. Yup, it’s minor league minutiae time.

Norfolk

Since I last wrote, the Tides are 1-4. In their losses, they have scored 2 or 3 runs in every game, and allowed between 5 and 8. Norfolk is now 3-8.

Kaz Matsui is 1-4.

Two guys have had standout games over this stretch: Jeremi Gonzalez, who was a NRI to spring training threw 7 shutout innings on Wednesday night. He struck out nine and walked just one. Jeff Keppinger had a big night in the Tides win Friday with a 3-4 night and 3 runs scored.

There is really good news for me in Norfolk’s first 11 games. The three guys who have the greatest potential to help the Mets in 2006 and beyond, Jeff Keppinger, Heath Bell and Lastings Milledge are all off to good starts. Kepp and Bell fall into the helping in 2006 category while Milledge is in the beyond. I think Keppinger and Bell should be on the Mets roster right now, but I’d be willing to bet they will be by June. Keppinger is hitting .323/.436/.355 (AVG/OBP/SLG). His only extra base hit is a double, but he’s drawn 7 walks while striking out just once! Bell (0-0, 2.08) has struck out eight without giving up a walk in 4.1 IP. Milledge is hitting .325/.404/.475 and leads the team with 4 2B, 7 R, and is the only Tide with a 3B.

Binghamton

The B-Mets are 3-2 in their last five, although they dropped two of three to Portland over the weekend.

Some big offensive lines for B-Mets hitters so far. Twenty-fiver year old catcher Andy Wilson, an NRI to big league camp following MVP honors in St. Lucie a year ago, is getting on base like it’s his job: .300/.404/.350. Baseball America notes that scouts wonder whether Wilson can catch at the big league level, and compares him to Kevin Millar. The previous year’s St. Lucie MVP, Brett Harper leads the team with 5 doubles propelling him to a .382/.475/.529. Harper’s 36 bombs a year ago were good for third in all of minor league baseball. Jonathan Slack, a career .258 hitter in four minor league seasons is off to a big start bopping along to .360/.433/.560 with 3 2B and a triple in 9 games. Aren’t early stats fun?

Not so fun is Carlos Gomez’s start. The youngster is hitting but .186/.321/.279 in 43 AB. He’s already stolen 7 bases and been caught twice, but he’s struck out 9 times already.

Henry Owens continues to dominate. He’s faced 25 hitters and struck out 16 and hasn’t yet given up a hit or a run.

Twenty-six year old Willie Collazo has been untouchable in 12 innings. He hasn’t given up a run or a walk yet and just five hits while punching out nine. Last year in Salt Lake, the Angels AA affiliate he was 0-1, 7.71 ERA in just 23 IP. His best ERA at AA or better is 3.66 in Greenville in 2003. Can anyone who watched him throw for PR in the WBC offer any comments?

St. Lucie

The FSL Mets are 8-2 and trail the Brevard County Manatees by a game in the FSL East. The Mets have won 3 in a row, 5 of 6 and hold a league leading 1.76 ERA. Alay Soler has thrown 10 innings without giving up a run. The good news is that he’s given up only five hits, and struck out 11. The bad news is that his control has been erratic.

Pelfrey has been perfect.

Mets Minor League Report 4-12-2006

2006-04-12T01:34:00.000-07:00

Stars of the Day:

AAA: Jose Lima/Chase Lambin

AA: Jay Caligiuri

A+: Mike Pelfrey**

A: Jonathan Niese/Rafael Arroyo

Norfolk 6, Buffalo 4

Jose Lima recovered from a disastrous first start and dealt six one run, four hit innings. Bartolome Fortunato was rocked for 3 runs in .2 of an inning in the eighth, but Heath Bell came in and shut the door with the bases loaded. Bell struck out 3 in his 1.1 IP.

Chase Lambin was the only Tide with 2 hits. He scored twice and drove in a run. Chris Basak continued his fine start in a 1-3 night with a walk and a run scored. Lastings Milledge was 1-3 with a double and a walk.

Tide Corey Aldridge was thrown out at the plate, and called out when he was ruled to have pulled the ball out of Buffalo catcher Einar Diaz’s mitt. Aldridge credited playing lots of ping-pong recently for quickening his hand speed!

Binghamton 8, Reading 7

Jay Caligiuri drove home Carlos Gomez with the winning run with two out in the bottom of the ninth on the 11^th pitch of an excellent AB. The Mets fell behind by five runs, rallied to take a 6-5 lead in the eighth, only to Reading retake the lead in the top of the 9^th, setting up Caligiuri’s heroics. Caligiuri finished the game 3-4 with 2 2B, 2 R, and the game winning RBI. Corey Ragsdale was 2-4. Gomez was 1-4 with a SB in the ninth.

Reading jumped on B-Mets starter Evan MacLane for 5 runs, all earned in five innings. MacLane still fanned 6 while walking just one and retired the final nine batters he faced. Reading scored a run in the top of the first, ending the B-Mets starting pitchers scoreless innings streak at 26.

St. Lucie 4, Dayftona 1

Mike Pelfrey was dominant over six innings allowing four hits and an unearned run while punching out seven Cubs without issuing a walk. In 13 FSL innings, Pelfrey has allowed but 6 hits, and struck out 13 batters with one walk. It’s early, but it’s very good.

The southern Mets had just four hits, and scored a pair of unearned runs. Jesus Flores doubled home a run in a 1-4 night. The top three batters in the order, Ambio Concepcion, Jose Coronado, and Shawn Bowman each scored a run.

Hagerstown 3, Lakewood 2

Jonathan Niese, last June’s 7^th round pick, struck out five in five innings. He allowed two unearned runs and three hits in earning his first win of the year. Two non-drafted free agents, Brandon Nall and Joseph Serfass each contributed 2 scoreless innings of relief.

Fernando Martinez, he of the $1.4 million bonus, was 1-3 with a 2B, walk and a run. Catcher Rafael Arroyo, the 24^th round pick in 2004, was the only Sun with two hits. He added a double and an RBI.

Mets Minor League Report 4-11-2006

2006-04-11T00:58:00.000-07:00

Stars of the Day:

AAA: Yusaku Iriki

AA: Bryan Edwards

A+: Ambio Concepcion/Electrons

A: Leivi Ventura, Drew Butera

Norfolk 7, Buffalo 1

The Tides won their first game of the season behind five scoreless innings from Yusaku Iriki. He struck out five walked to, and allowed just one hit: a single to Bisons prospect and Stanford alum Ryan Garko.

Offensively, Lastings Milledge was 1-2, but drove home two runs and scored two. He was plunked on the shoulder twice, and reported that “it’ll be pretty sore in the morning” in the Virginian-Pilot’s game story. Joe Hietpas added a pair of hits in a 2-4 night. Sandy Martinez supplied 3 RBI and a two run HR.

Binghamton 5, Reading

Binghamton is off to a strong 4-1 start. Monday, Bryan Edwards extended the starting pitchers’ scoreless innings streak to 26 with six shutout innings. No Binghamton started has allowed a run, earned or unearned yet. Edwards gave up just two hits, while fanning three and walking one. Ryan Cullen dodged four hits in working a scoreless final three innings.

Twenty-year old Carlos Gomez, who’s struggled to a 3-for-21 start, led off the first inning with a single, stole second and scored on Brett Harper’s RBI single. Harper was 2-3 with 2 RBI. Corey Ragsdale was 2-4 with his first homer of the year, a solo shot.

Jorge Padilla won Sunday’s 15 inning game with a walk-off HR, his only longball of the year. He has a team best 5 RBI.

Converted catcher Henry Owens, who was Rule 5ed from the Pirates in 2004 and added the 40-man roster over the winter has been completely dominating in his four innings so far. He hasn’t given up a hit, and has struck out 10!

Baseball America ranked Gomez as the #3 prospect in the Mets system prior to the season. Although “some in the organization think his raw tools might be better than Milledge’s” he is still very much a work in progress. The Mets are challenging him with this assignment to AA. Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus had this to say about the assignment Friday morning:

The Mets have done little to hide their enthusiasm for Gomez, a 20-year-old Dominican with all five tools. Still, having him skip the Florida State League seems like a reach for Gomez, as his speed (64 stolen bases in 2005) is the only tool that has shown up in games so far. He was 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base last night, but he hit just .275/.331/.376 last year at Low Class A Hagerstown--not exactly the kind of numbers that suggest he's ready for this kind of push.

I think Goldstein pretty much nailed this one. What’s the rush?

Daytona 3, St. Lucie 5 (Top of the 9^th)

In true minor league baseball style, this game has been suspended with a runner on and one out in the top of the ninth, because of a power outage.

Ambio Concepcion was 2-3 with a run and an RBI. Alhaji Turay was 2-4 with a 2B, a run and an RBI

23 year-old Michael Devaney gave up two runs, one earned in four innings in his first start of the year.

Alay Soler (5 IP, 0 R, 4 H, 3 BB, 5 K) had a mixed start over the weekend. Soler belongs in the FSL for now.

Jesus Flores, who missed the first half of last season and then struggled last summer in Hagerstown (.216/.250/.339) is off to a 1-12 start. Like Gomez, the Mets are pushing Flores a little bit with the St. Lucie assignment.

Hagerstown 8, Lakewood 7

The Suns slugged their way to their first win Monday. Leivi Ventura led the way to the promised land with a 3-4 night that included two doubles. Catcher Drew Butera was 2-4, with 2 RBI.

4/6 - Opening Night!!

2006-04-07T01:34:00.000-07:00

Evan MacLane and Mike Pelfrey rolled. I was fired up to be back in the broadcasting booth for an 11 inning game that ended on a wild pitch. Opening night=good times.

Stars:

AAA: BJ Upton

AA: Evan Maclane/Brett Harper

A+: Mike Pelfrey

Durham 8, Norfolk 0

The Tides managed just five hits all night, and three off DRays prospect Jason Hammel in his five innings of work. Lastings Milledge had a hit and Juan Tejeda, who the Mets signed from the Tigers in December, had two.

Jose Lima, Mitch Wylie and Steve Schmoll were all ineffective. This is an excellent Durham lineup. BJ Upton, Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes go 2-5 and were a combined 6 for 14. All will be in big leagues sooner rather than later.

The mayor was in the house. Also, Jose Lima sang God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch.

Akron 0, Binghamton 3

Evan MacLane, who checks in a #30 on BA’s Mets prospect dominated the Aeros. He limited them to just two hits in five shutout innings. He fanned five and did not issue a walk.

Twenty-six year old Wilson Batista was 2-4 with a double, a triple and n RBI. Brett Harper had three hits as well with a RBI.

Vero Beach 0, St. Lucie 1

As good as Evan MacLane was, he was overshadowed by Mike Pelfrey on Opening Night. Pelfrey’s pro debut was _____________ (thrilling, exciting, tantalizing, or pick your own word). He dealt 5 scoreless innings allowing two weak hits with six strikeouts and one walk.

Alhaji Turay drove home Shawn Bowman with the Florida Mets only run.

Hagerstown 7, @ Greensboro 11

1B Nick Evans had a big 3-5 night with a homerun and 3 RBI. Jose Castro had a double and 2 RBI in his 3-5 night.

Niese, Marte, Brown, and Schemmel were each Jose Lima-type ineffective.

Roster Time!

2006-04-05T01:27:00.000-07:00

Rosters for the full season minor league teams came trickling out this week with Opening Day on Thursday. This is absolutely the most hectic week in the life of a minor baseball staffer. The games bring a sweet rhythm but this week is a mad dash.

Norfolk

C: Sandy Martinez

1B: Juan Tejeda

2B: Jeff Keppinger

SS: Chris Basak

3B: Chase Lambin

OF: Lastings Milledge, Cory Aldridge, Julio Ramirez, Todd Self

SP: Jason Scobie, John Main, Jose Lima, Jeremi Gonzalez
BP: Steve Schmoll, Heath Bell, Royce Ring, Tim LaVigne

Note: I have 17 of 25 roster spots accounted for.

Binghamton

C: Andy Wilson/Yunir Garcia

1B: Brett Harper

2B: Wilson Batista

SS: Corey Ragsdale

3B: Jay Caligiuri

OF: Carlos Gomez, Bobby Malek, Jorge Padilla, Jonathan Slack

SP: Vincent Cordova, Evan MacLane, Orlando Roman, Miguel Pinango, Bryan Edwards
BP: Eddie Camacho, Willie Collazo, Ryan Cullen, Ivan Maldonado, Tim McNab, Miguel Perez, Luz Portobanco, Henry Owens

Notes: Evan MacLane starts opening day. Also, it was really, really cold in Binghamton for the B-Mets first workout.

St. Lucie

C: Aaron Hathaway/Sean McCraw

1B: Mike Carp

2B: Blake Whealy/Emanuel Garcia

SS: Ryan Coultas/Russ Triplett

3B: Shawn Bowman/Tyler Davidson

OF: Alhaji Turay, Jamar Hill, Derran Watts, Corey Coles

SP: Alay Soler, Philip Humber, Michael Pelfrey, Michael Devaney, Michael Swindell
BP: Daniel Foley, Tim Worthington, Greg Ramirez, Shane Hawk, Chuck Smith, Greg Belson, Carlos Muniz, Rafael Cova, Blake Eager, Marcelo Perez, Jose Sanchez

Notes: A stacked rotation featuring three Mikes should make for an interesting race to AA.

Hagerstown

C: Rafael Arroyo, Andrew Butera, Joan Martinez

1B: Nick Evans

2B: Jose Castro

SS: Jonathan Schemmel, Hector Pellot

3B: Leivi Ventura, Matt Anderson

OF: Fernando Martinez, Elvis Cruz, Jonel Pacheco, Jonathan Sanchez

P: Sal Aguilar, Josh Appell, Eric Brown, Jeff Landing, German Marte, Wagner Mateo, Ryan Meyers, Brandon Nall, Jacobo Neguilis, Jorge Reyes, Joe Serfass, Kevin Tomasiewicz

Notes: I didn’t spend the time to differentiate between starters and relievers in Hagerstown. Add another thing to my to-do list.

4/3 - MLB Opening Day

2006-04-02T23:53:00.000-07:00

Opening day really should be a national holiday. I hope 2006 turns out to be very special.

Monday, the minor league rosters should start to filter out.

In honor of the Big Leaguers Opening Day, I thought I’d analyze the lineup that Willie Randolph said he would use in the opener. The lineup read: Reyes, Lo Duca, Beltran, Delgado, Wright, Floyd, Nady and then Hernandez. I’ve put Diaz, who’s deserves to play this year, in the chart below as well. The OBP, SLG are the weighted mean projections from Baseball Prospectus’s PECOTA forecasting system. Essentially, they’re a “best guess.” MLVr is Marginal Lineup Value, Rate. My favorite way to think about it is that it represents the number of runs a hitter could be expected to contribute above replacement level per game.

	OBP	SLG	MLVr
Reyes	0.317	0.397	-0.068
Lo Duca	0.328	0.374	-0.086
Beltran	0.365	0.479	0.122
Delgado	0.378	0.525	0.198
Wright	0.385	0.530	0.233
Floyd	0.359	0.485	0.113
Nady	0.332	0.448	0.021
Diaz	0.329	0.466	0.037
Hernandez	0.309	0.351	-0.157

Why is Lo Duca batting second? He projects to have the third lowest OBP of the starters, the second lowest SLG and the second worst overall production by MLVr. Why not move the Beltran through RF section of the lineup up a spot, and drop Lo Duca to seventh?

The Mets announced late last week that Minor League Field Coordinator Tony Tijerina will be the interim manager in Norfolk to begin the season while Ken Oberkfell recovers from complications surrounding surgery. He originally had surgery on February 15^th to remove blood clots in his leg and had a second procedure “to alleviate discomfort” (per the Tides Website) on March 23^rd. Tijerina has been in the Mets organization for 16 years, including six as a minor league player.

3/29 Spring Training Notes - Big League Battles Decided

2006-03-29T00:18:00.000-08:00

The Mets decided their position battles Tuesday: Anderson Hernandez beat out Jeff Keppinger for the starting 2B nod while Brian Bannister edged out Aaron Heilman for the fifth starter’s spot. A disappointed Heilman will start the season in the bullpen. I don’t think I would have done it the way the Mets did, but I can’t get too worked up about either move because the reasoning makes sense AND I’m not in St. Lucie watching the guys play and work out every day. So lets assume the Mets got this right for now.

The front office clearly like Hernandez’s defense and with Delgado at first, a second baseman with range sounds good to me. If he doesn’t hit at all, the Mets can always recall Keppinger. Also, when Matsui comes back, he’ll spell Hernandez. It’s a fine short-term experiment, I think. If it were me, I think I might have gone with Keppinger who possesses experience and some on-base skills, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up playing at second in Shea soon enough.

As regards the pitching staff, I think I like what the Mets were doing. Odds are the sixth guy will eventually have to make some starts. Does anyone really think that Pedro, Glavine, Trachsel and Zambrano will make every one of their scheduled starts this year? Me either. So, barring a trade, Bannister AND Heilman will end up in the rotation together. The Mets brass had to choose between the current alignment and one with Bannister in AAA, Heilman in the rotation, and someone else filling a spot in the bullpen. Believe me, Heilman will pitch his innings and be a big part of the 2006 Mets. As long as Jose Lima isn’t on the big league roster, I’m happy. Lima got torched for five runs in two innings against the Marlins Tuesday.

Tuesday, Lastings Milledge, Tike Redman, Todd Self, Sandy Martinez, Jeff Keppinger and relievers Royce Ring and Juan Perez, were all sent to the minors. Milledge and Lambin were both 0-1 against the Marlins.

Monday, Mitch Wylie refused an assignment to Norfolk and became a free agent.

The BMets have a new website up at http://2006.bmets.com/. Congratulations to Scott Brown, Robert Ford and the rest of ‘em shivering in Binghamton. It’s a sharp looking site. Also, outfielder Bobby Malek has been blogging from St. Lucie, so that’s pretty cool. Malek, who will turn 25 this summer, hit .277/.335/.386 in 116 games last year for Binghamton.

I’ll have a new website, which will be sweet, possibly by as early as my next post.

Spring Training Notes 3/27

2006-03-26T23:03:00.000-08:00

Go Patriots! Over in the other NCAA bracket, I’ll be watching the Stanford/LSU game Monday night. Winner goes to the Women’s Final Four.

Lastings Milledge took the collar Saturday with an 0-4 in a game started by Andy Petitte. He did have a hit Friday.

Brian Bannister had a rough outing, his first of the spring, Saturday. He gave up three runs, only one of which was earned, in five innings while walking five. He was getting “squeezed” by the plate umpire according to Marty Noble. Speaking of Marty Noble, it seems to me as though he’s getting better scoops at MLB.com than any of the other Mets writers. I was struck by this quote (3/26):

Teammates consider Hernandez the best defensive player of the three, Matsui and Keppinger superior to Hernandez as offensive players, and Keppinger the best mix of offense and defense. And some wonder why Keppinger hasn't been give more of chance to win the job.

Chase Lambin hit his first homerun of the spring Friday for the Mets in a 12-2 rout of the Cardinals. The Mets got two runs off an unusually wild Chris Carpenter, but did much of the damage against a completely ineffective Ricardo Rincon.

3/23 Spring Training Update - Milledge Strikes

2006-03-22T23:23:00.000-08:00

On a day when much of the Mets’ attention was focused on the veterans at the front of the rotation, Lastings Milledge provided another glimpse into the future. In the ninth inning, the Mets best prospect delivered a game winning double off Hong-Chih Kuo driving home Jose Valentin.

I don’t think March 22^nd will be the highlight of Lastings Milledge’s 2006 season, but I wonder where it will rank by September. Top 5? Top 10? Or long forgotten?

Former Mets Update

Matt Peterson, the Mets 2003 minor league pitcher of the year was part of the Mets package for Kris Benson two summers ago. He’s struggled in AA for the Pirates, falling from #9 in Baseball America’s rankings of the Pittsburgh system a year ago to #24 this year. Let this be another useful reminder that most minor leaguers will NOT become big leaguers. As late as last year’s prospect handbook, BA wrote that Matt Peterson “has a chance to develop into a front line starter.”

This is from 3/22/06 when BA’s Chris Kline sat down with Pittsburgh Farm Director Brian Graham:

BA: Matt Peterson certainly hasn't lived up to the expectations the organization envisioned getting him back in the Kris Benson deal two years ago? What's gone wrong with Peterson?

BG: Pete just hasn't regained the velocity he had when we traded for him. He's been inconsistent. He's one of those guys with a good arms when you see him long toss and when you see him throw fastballs in the bullpen--he just hasn't gotten over the hump. At some point, it's got to click in, but we just haven't found the right button to push. He's been 86-88 (mph) and we're talking about a guy who was consistently 93 at one point. If we knew the answer we'd get it fixed. Two or three different pitching coaches have taken a shot at him and it hasn't worked yet.

Spring Training Notes 3/21 - Tides Edition

2006-03-21T23:54:00.000-08:00

The Orioles smacked around Bartolome Fortunato for earned four runs in .1 of an inning in the bottom of the ninth to come from behind for a 6-5 win. Looks like another start to the season in the minors for the 32 year old. Fortunato, of course, became Mets property alongside Victor Zambrano in the Scott Kazmir trade. Oh, happy times.

Royce Ring worked a scoreless inning and a third while walking a batter and issuing one hit.

Chase Lambin was 0-1.

Spring Training Notes 3/19

2006-03-19T23:42:00.000-08:00

Some weekend notes for your Monday entertainment.

Sunday, as my bracket was going to pieces, I took a break from the tournament and saw a tiny corner of Sequoia National Park. I told the trees that I’ll be back for more.

Sunday Roster moves:

Sunday, Steve Schmoll, acquired from the Dodgers in the Jae Seo deal, and would-be starter John Maine, obtained from the Orioles in the Kris Benson trade, left the big-league camp, as did left-handed reliever Matt Perisho and right-hander Henry Owens, who made positive impressions early in camp. Owens last impression was not so positive: he was drilled by the Nationals Saturday. The Nats got to him for four runs on five hits in one inning. Outfielder Julio Ramirez and first baseman Juan Tejeda were also reassigned.

The Mets are down to 44 in big league camp.

Sunday, Lastings Milledge was 1 for 4 to drop his spring time line to .349/.364/.465 (AVG/OBP/SLG) in 43 AB, second most on the team. God, no discipline, no power? And he’s the Mets best prospect? Ok, Ok, I kid. Milledge has had a fantastic, nearly perfect spring, and has done nothing except impress observers. Milledge had three hits Saturday.

Brian Bannister gave up two runs in five innings. I have no idea whether this is major league news or minor league news.

Royce Ring had a very nice outing Saturday working 2.1 scoreless innings in relief of Iriki. Ring allowed just one hit and fanned three. He threw 10.2 innings for New York last year after 38.2 in relief in Norfolk. I’m not sure whether he’ll start 2006 in the Mets ‘pen, but I’d bet he shows up there before the year’s out.

3/16 Spring Training Update - A Duel Breaks Out

2006-03-15T21:05:00.000-08:00

A Duel you say?

A big book day for me as my order from Amazon with Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook and the 2006 Baseball Prospectus Annual showed up. That adds up to over 1050 pages of baseball research sitting on my desk. It’s a little daunting, but I checked in first on the Mets Farm system which Baseball America ranks 30^th in baseball. That’s right: the Mets are DFL (Dead F-ckin’ Last).

Following Brian Bannister’s strong outing Tuesday, Aaron Heilman fired back with four scorless innings of his own Wednesday. He struck out four, didn’t walk a batter and scattered three hits. The race for the fifth starter’s role is on.

Henry Owens, a big guy who threw for St. Lucie last summer picked up both the blown save and the win by giving up a solo homerun. A converted catcher who the Mets took from the Pirates in the rule five, Owens struck out a ridiculous 74 in 54 innings in St. Lucie last summer to go along with his 3.15 ERA. He had a more difficult time in the AFL where he yielded 13 hits and 8 runs in 8.1 innings. Owens gave up two homeruns in the pitcher-friendly FSL all summer, only to give up the same number in less than 1/6 the number of AFL innings. A former undrafted free agent, the hard throwing Owens, who apparently can dial it up to 100 mph, got a little bit of ink at the beginning of spring training from MLB.com and the Daily News.

Lastings Milledge was 1-2 with two runs scored and is now hitting .300 (9H/30 AB).

Have fun at work Thursday watching the NCAA tournament. As a transplanted East Coaster, I initially had trouble with the early NFL Sunday start times, but now I’ve come to appreciate it since it gives me back my Sundays. However, I hate having NCAA tournament games start at 9 AM. It’s just brutal.

3/15 Spring Training Update

2006-03-15T00:57:00.000-08:00

Busy weekend for me, and a busy weekend for the Mets and their farmhands. I did get to watch some of the WBC on Sunday, and now I’m into it.
It should come as no surprise to those who know me well, but I really like Guerolito, the remix album for Beck’s Guero, which was my favorite album of 2005. ‘Lito isn’t better than the original, but it’s still better than almost anything else and is coursing through my speakers right now.

We’ll work backwards and start with the good news. Tuesday, Brian Bannister continued his bid for a place on the big league club with four innings of one hit ball against the Orioles. He struck out two without walking a batter, and hasn’t been scored on yet this spring. Matt Persho was hit hard in one inning, while Chad Bradford, Royce Ring and Billy Wagner all dealt scoreless innings. Lastings Milledge was 1-4 with an RBI. Marty Noble writes about the future Mets outfielder today at MLB.com.

While the Bannister performance might have you hyped up, or at least moderately intrigued, Alay Soler’s Saturday will make you groan. Against the Braves, he lasted 1.2 innings and was smacked around for five runs, four earned on six hits. He walked two and struck out one. Remember, Soler is the Cuban prospect who did not pitch at all in the minors last year because of visa problems. He is simply not ready yet. In 3.1 innings this spring he’s been tattooed for 9 runs for an ERA of 21.60! How far away from the big leagues is Soler? Around this time last year, Nate Silver at BP concluded that the level of play in Cuba’s top league most closely approximates the level of play in the New York Penn league, home of the Mets’ Brooklyn Cyclones. Add in the fact that Soler should be rusty, and pitched against such an inferior level of talent and he should be getting lit.

Monday, the Mets beat up on the Nationals (who will be absolutely brutal this year) 10-4 in six innings. Lastings Milledge was hitless; he was 0-1. Twenty-three year old Corey Ragsdale, the Mets second round pick in 2001, played some shortstop and was 0-3. Rags hit .226/.305/.401 in 64 games in Binghamton last year. Tike Redman, most recently of the Pirates and a sub .300 OBP had a couple hits. Can the Mets find a roster spot for him? Stay tuned.

Sunday, the Mets lost 3-2 in 10 innings to the Orioles. Bryan Edwards, who was solid both out of the pen and in the starting rotation for Binghamton last season, gave up the winning run on two hits in the tenth while retiring just one. Former Met Esix Snead (definitely on any all-name team) scored the winning run as a pinch runner. Edwards was 6-6 with a save in 118.1 IP. He struck out just 85 batters and walked 46. Edwards is now with his third organization. Originally a Reds 9th round pick in 2000, he landed with the Padres before the Mets plucked him in the minor league phase of the rule V draft in 2003. He will turn 27 this summer.

Remember to find me some more subscribers by telling friends.

Thanks,
Toby

3/10 Spring Training Update

2006-03-10T00:45:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, the Mets re-assigned RHPs Philip Humber, Matt Lindstrom, Rafael Cova, Jeremy Hill and Jason Scobie, Cs Jesus Flores, Drew Butera, Andy Wilson and Aaron Hathaway, and INF Brett Harper to Minor League camp. No big surprises there.

Thursday, the Astros beat the Mets with a run in the bottom of the ninth. At the plate, Lastings Milledge was 0-1. Juan Tejeda, who hit .291/.354/.447 for the Tigers AA team, the Erie Seawolves in 2005, was 0-2.
On the hill, Brian Bannister was superb over three innings. He struck out 3 and allowed just one hit. Seo what? He’s firmly in the race for the Mets sixth starter spot along with Alay Soler, and Mitch Wylie, the Mets rule 5 pick from the Giants who spent last year at with the AAA Fresno Grizzlies. I’m working on getting an update from Grizzlies sources who saw Wylie throw regularly.

3/7: Spring Training Update and some Middle Infield Ramblings

2006-03-07T01:23:00.000-08:00

The Mets beat Cleveland 6-3 and the lineup was about split with starters and everyone else. First things first, Lastings Milledge was 1-1. Meanwhile the real roster action came in the Battle of Second Base, where Anderson Hernandez actually played shortstop and was 0-4 with a HBP while Jeff Keppinger was 2 for 4 with a run scored.
Even if Anderson Hernandez loses out on the starting 2B job to Keppinger or Matsui, (likely) he could stick as the backup SS. His competition is Chris Woodward who hit .283/.337/.393 in 173 AB last year and 36-year-old Jose Valentin who hit .170/.326/.265 in 147 AB over 56 games for the Dodgers a year ago. Believe it or not, that was his highest OBP since 2001 when he reached at a 33.6% rate with the White Sox.
Anderson Hernandez presents a rather interesting problem for the Mets. Defensively everyone agrees he can pick it. Baseball America ranked him as the Mets #8 prospect (and 3 of the guys ahead of him, Petit, Hernandez and Jacobs are no longer Mets property), and praised his “soft hands, above average range, and …average accurate arm.” Remember, they, and the scouts they rely on, were evaluating him at SS rather than second base, so that’s an average SS arm rather than an average 2B arm. The difference is dramatic.
My question has to do with the nature of Anderson’s offensive season a year ago. Prior to 2005, Anderson’s best offensive season was 2004 when he combined to .277 for the Tigers FSL and AA teams, spending 4/5 of the time in AA with Erie. Then he bust out with a .326/.360/.462 in 66 games at Binghamton and .303/.354/.379 in 66 games at Norfolk before turning in a 1-for-18 performance with the Shea Stadium Mets. He walked in under 5% of his plate appearances in Binghamton, a simply unacceptably low walk rate. It was just around 6% in his AA time in 2004. However, his walk rate rose to nearly 8% at Norfolk. I’m willing to entertain the argument that Hernandez felt no need to be patient at Binghamton because he felt so comfortable against AA pitching, but realized that at higher levels, he would need to work counts better. If one makes this argument, and accepts the premise that Hernandez actively worked on improving his walk rate in AAA, it would stand to reason that he should return to AAA where he would get more at bats and have the chance to further develop into a more disciplined, more productive hitter. If you think the increase in walk rate in AAA was the result of luck, random variations or small sample sizes then the 23 year old might as well start on the big club’s bench. Although I think Hernandez might well be an immediate upgrade on Valentin or Woodward, I think he would provide more value to the Mets after a few more months of AAA seasoning. I think you could even make the argument that Hernandez would be more valuable to the Big Mets in August having spent a few months beating up on AAA pitching, while refining his plate eye, than languishing on the bench behind Reyes. If Reyes gets hurt, Hernandez is next in line.
What does PECOTA say about this? It doesn’t like Anderson offensively, projecting him to have a negative marginal lineup value rate (where 0.0 is league average), but still sees him adding almost 3 wins in WARP over a full season on the basis of his stellar defense. PECOTA thinks Valentin’s MLVr will also be negative, but again, sees him with a small positive contribution on the strength of his defense. If you have no idea what anything in this paragraph meant, you need to spend more time reading Baseball Prospectus.

The Return of the Mets Minor League Report

2006-03-05T23:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the return of the Mets Minor League Report. As the name suggests, I will cover the Mets minor league players and affiliates. As you might remember, in the summer of 2004 I covered the Mets Minor League System in an email newsletter and online at metsminors.blogspot.com. In 2005, without reliable internet in my home, my production dipped to a mere 5 posts. Like Carlos Beltran, I’m due for a big bounceback season. I will post most weeknights for the duration of the baseball season. Sometimes either my own work schedule or my need for a social life gets in the way of posting every night.
Before opening day, I will redesign the blog’s website. What should it have? What information do you want to see online? As a teaser, this year I plan to do interviews both with Mets prospects and the prospect hounds who follow them closely.
If you have questions, please ask me because I bet someone else was wondering the same thing. I will happily respond. Also, please tell friends, enemies and co-workers about this project.
One of the nice things about spring training is that the minor leaguers show up in big league games and box scores, which makes it easy to follow their progress. Of course, the Mets played Puerto Rico yesterday in a game that was played on ESPN 2. I did not see the game because I took advantage of one of my last free weekends until September by skiing Summit Sierra (only 2 hours from Visalia!). In case you’re wondering, the skiing was excellent. It had dumped Friday, and stayed very cold Saturday, and while Sunday was above 40 degrees there was nice soft snow everywhere and deep powder in the woods. I’d appreciate if you’d share any impressions from the Mets/PR contest either via email, or online in the blog’s comments section.
So, on to Sunday’s action…

Dodgers 16, Mets 2
An 11 run sixth inning for the LA boys was the big deal here. Some Mets pitchers had days they’d rather forget. Alay Soler was roughed up for 4 runs, all earned on three hits, all homeruns in 1.2 IP. Soler, according to Adam Rubin in today’s Daily News, is in contention for a starting spot should Pedro start the season on the DL. Jason Scobie, who was solid for Norfolk a year ago, yielded 8 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks without retiring a batter. Juan Perez yielded three more runs on three hits in two innings.
Secondbaseman Chase Lambin, pinch hitting in the eighth inning, singled home the Mets only two runs of the game. Lambin tore up Eastern League pitching last year (.331/.396/.657) before a June promotion to AAA where he hit .289/.350/.526 with 16 doubles and 10 HR. Anderson Hernandez was 0-3 to drop his spring average to .385. As we know, the Mets second base position is open. Mary Noble discusses this subject at mets.com too.
Jesus Flores had a pinch hit single. Flores, a 21 year old catcher, who was Baseball America’s #9 prospect in their 2005 handbook, broke his thumb during the 2005 spring training and hit only .216/.250/.339 for Hagerstown in the South Atlantic League in 82 games last year. He struck out 90 times while walking 12.

PR 6, Mets 1
Didn’t see it. Can’t find a Box score. Pelfrey threw. How did he look? Speaking of which, Marty Noble, who I’ve been reading as long as I can remember, wrote a piece about how the Mets are trying not to hype Pelfrey, but Noble of course, in the process, ends up hyping him. I hope it was tongue in cheek, but it didn’t look like it. I get as excited about minor leaguers as anyone, but we need to remember: most minor league guys won’t make the big leagues let alone be productive regulars or all-stars. Therefore, I found this quote from Mr. Noble a little silly:
“Within the subsequent 30 seconds, Randolph twice said the Mets aren't planning on Pelfrey reaching the big leagues this year. Not planning, pushing or even fantasizing. But they probably will be disappointed if Pelfrey doesn't reach The Show in '06.”

Dude hasn’t thrown a single professional inning yet! It took Felix Hernandez over TWO full seasons to reach the big leagues and he, quite simply, is a stud. I would be stunned if Pelfrey is pitching in Shea in 06.

Rankings, and some former Mets Farmhands:
Nate Silver and his vaunted PECOTA forecasting system tab Gabby Hernandez as the 19th best pitching prospect in all of baseball. Hernandez (6-1, 2.43) had an excellent season for Hagerstown last year with 99 K and 30 walks in 92 IP before having a tougher time in St. Lucie where he was 2-5 with a 5.74 ERA. He was able to keep his K/BB over 3 in the FSL (32/10), but his K/IP dropped from 1.06 in the SAL to 0.76 in the FSL. (Strikeout rates are perhaps the best indicator of a pitcher’s future potential.)

Yusmeiro Petit is #2, trailing only Francisco Liriano. Petit’s #1 comparable is Luke Prokopec.

Aarom Baldiris, who the Rangers snagged from the Mets in the Rule 5 draft, had a 3 run HR Friday.

4/7 - Opening Night - Pitching Rolls

2005-04-08T01:50:00.000-07:00

Opening Day is fun!
The Mets affiliates threw out their big name pitchers on opening night, and everyone - Brian Bannister, Philip Humber, and Gabby Hernandez - was impressive. I can’t think of a better balm for an 0-3 big league start.
This year Minor League Baseball switched stat companies from the SportsNetwork to BAM, the same company that runs MLB’s stats. It doesn’t look like BAM was ready for the minors because only a select few box scores are available, and they haven’t made their way to team or league sites. I’m getting error messages that say things like: Content available when season starts. Not a pretty opening night for BAM.

Norfolk
Postponed – Doubleheader Saturday

Binghamton 4, Akron 1
A theme of the night: No Box. The B-Mets picked up two unearned runs off a rehabbing CC Sabatia, and that was the difference per the Akron Beacon Journal. In the first inning, Mike Jacobs singled home Aarom Baldiris who had reached on a two base error. Baldiris also singled home Wayne Lydon, who created a run with his speed in third inning .
Brian Bannister was sharp, fanning nine, while allowing nothing but two singles.

Vero Beach 1, St. Lucie 0
No Box available. Per the St. Lucie website: “Humber, the Mets first round draft pick in 2004 (third overall), pitched five strong innings striking out six and giving up the lone run scored in the top of the first inning. Rafeal Lopez and Eddie Camacho pitched equally strong in relief combining for four innings and only surrendering one hit.
For the Dodgers, Tiffany threw five innings giving up one hit while striking out 11 Mets.
Offensively the Mets could only muster four hits as Lasting Milledge, Brett Harper, and Andy Wilson each went 1-for-3 and Blake Whealy went 1-2.”
To which I say: YIPPEE. The best possible news: Humber looks like the real deal after one start. Yeah, I know it’s one start, but this sounds good.

Hagerstown 9, West Virgina 1
Guess what? No box. Hagerstown scored 4 in the first off the Brewers top Draft pick Mark Rogers and it was enough for Gabby Hernandez and Michael Devaney. Hernandez went the first 4 1/3 giving up only two hits while wiffing 6 at one point retiring ten in a row. Devaney earned the win by giving up just 1 run over the next 3 plus innings. Devaney was 5-0 with a 1.95 ERA in 69.1 IP in Brooklyn last summer, his first professional year. He allowed one home run while striking out 56 and walking 29. Worth keeping him in mind too.

Rosters and Exhibitions

2005-04-06T02:22:00.000-07:00

Mets Minor League Report returns for its first full season here in 2005. I began reporting on the Mets Minor League system last spring, and enjoyed it, so here I am again. I believe in baseball and the New York Mets. I want nothing more than a Mets World Series, and hope that maybe, some of the guys I learn about and write about will contribute to the next Mets World Championship. I also think that fans become better fans by following their team’s minor league system. They learn about stars of the future, and organizational strengths and weaknesses. Met minor leaguers are also easy to root for because we all want to see them in the show and their success will only help the big club.
I work in Stockton, CA as the broadcaster for the Stockton Ports, Single A affiliate of the Oakland A’s, so it’s unlikely that I will see a single Mets minor league game this summer. However, I can read and listen. I read box scores, play-by-plays, newspapers, websites, and magazines. I listen to as many webcasts as I can. I talk to scouts, writers and executives, all of whom have opinions, some of which have to do with the Mets, and some of which I pass along to the reader.
Because of my sources and limitations, this is effectively a performance analysis site, because numbers are usually trustworthy. I will not do fake scouting. If I read a scouting report by authors who are credible, (ie Baseball America) I will cite it. However, one of the things that scares me about minor league scouting reports from people outside the business is that they tend to make every prospect seem like a future All-Star, -- an outcome only possible in the magical land of erehwon.
Today, I take a look at the rosters that have come out, and an exhibition game.
If you like what you read, please pass this along to friends.

Toby

Norfolk (AAA – International League)
No roster released on the team’s website, but the Tide’s beat the Old Dominion Monarchs 5-0 in a seven inning scrimmage Tuesday in front of 1,622. Tides pitchers threw for both teams which must have been fun. Aaron Heilman, throwing against the Tides didn’t give up a hit in 2 innings, but walked 2 and struck out 2. Heath Bell, gave up one hit in an inning. Jeff Keppinger had a pair of RBIs: one on a groundout in the third inning, and a single in the fourth, but the Tides mustered only 6 hits against themselves, and no player had more than one.

Binghamton (AA – Eastern League)
The roster is out. Yusmeiro Petit, age 22, the Mets top minor league pitching prospect and #2 overall prospect according to Baseball America leads the staff. Petit is the youngest pitcher on the roster by over three years, and is one of just five pitchers born in the 1980s.
The positional side includes some very interesting moves. First, Aarom Baldiris gets his first full season in AA after hitting .222/.273/.284 in 81 AA at bats at the end of last year following his .305/.384/.397 conquest of the Florida State League. The question for the now 22 year old is whether he will develop enough power to stay at third, or has the defensive ability to play at second. Alongside Baldiris, stands the Mets new top shortstop prospect: Anderson Hernandez, acquired for Vance Wilson. Baseball America calls Anderson’s glove, “major league ready,” but his offensive skills have lagged behind. There is hope as Anderson hit .274/.326/.376 in 394 AB as a 21 year-old with AA Erie in the Tigers organization last year. He struck out 89 times, but stole 17 bases, and had 19 doubles, but must be on base more to use that speed.
At first base, we have our first controversial player allocation of the spring. Mike Jacobs earned the Mets 2003 minor league player of the year when he hit .329/.376/.548 as a catcher in Binghamton. However, he played in just 27 games last year in AAA thanks to a cyst and a torn labrum. Now, he returns as a AA firstbaseman. Baseball America, which still lists Jacobs as the #30 Mets prospect, has questioned his defense before, so as far as I’m concerned, this move makes sense. If Jacobs shoulder is healthy, he’ll destroy AA pitching like he did two years ago, and have a chance to move on up. If he can’t handle AA pitching, well, that answers that. The real problem this creates is that it keeps Brett Harper off the AA roster and sitting at St. Lucie again after he hit .350/.440/.564 in 220 AB in the FSL and .247/.309/.437 in 174 AA AB. From here it seems as though Harper, who will turn 24 at the end of July deserves a chance to play everyday in AA and prove he belongs up there. This will create a trickledown.
Speedster Wayne Lydon who in consecutive years has stolen 87, 75 and 65 bases returns to the Binghamton outfield. Prentice Redman, who’s listed twice in the online roster as I write this, so presumably there’s another OF or two.

St. Lucie (High A – Florida State League)
No roster is out, but this team should be fun to watch with top outfield prospect Lastings Milledge, and last year’s top draft pick Philip Humber leading the way.

Hagerstown (Low A – South Atlantic League)
New Low A affiliate for the Mets. Ambio Concepcion drew comparisons to Vladimir Guerrero in Baseball America’s end of the year wraps after putting together a .305/.338/.475 season, in Short Season Brooklyn, his best as a pro. He will start here.
On the pitching side, the two brightest prospects are Gabby Hernandez who dazzled the Rookie Gulf Coast League with a league leading 1.09 ERA in 50 IP. He struck out 58 while walking just 12. The 6-3, 215 lber, Hernandez works with a sinker at 89-94 according to BA. Matt Durkin a hard throwing righthander who the Mets picked in the second round last year out of San Jose State will make his professional debut in Hagerstown this spring. Scouts I talked to, who had seen him throw, had wildly divergent opinions on Durkin.
Some early bad news here as well as top catching prospect Jesus Flores broke his thumb as part of the big Mets exhibition vs. the Nationals in Washington last weekend. This is too bad. Flores hit .319/.368/.532 in the Rookie GCL last year.

Wow?

2005-03-02T00:15:00.000-08:00

One month between posts is pathetic. Really a pretty standard month in my life, a new job, a new city, a new apartment.

Anyway, what's up with this story?
From Mets.com on 2/28:
"The Mets hired a pair of scouts on Monday, including former Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause. Scott Nethery also joined the staff after serving as a special assistant to Braves GM John Schuerholz for the last four seasons.

Krause, 65, worked as a special assistant for the Yankees last year and spent 16 years as a special assignment scout with the Indians, A's, Mariners and White Sox before becoming an NBA executive. But he is best known as the general manager of the Bulls, taking over that club in 1985 at the beginning of the Michael Jordan era in Chicago. Krause's teams won six NBA titles, with Jordan leading the way."

Interesting.

Mets Raid Farm Again

2005-01-27T13:25:00.000-08:00

Horrible. Stupid. Embarrassing. Yup. Those words can now be used once again to describe the Mets front office. Harsh? Yup. Deserved? Believe it. The Mets traded their top first base prospect Ian Bladergroen for Doug Mientkiewicz.
Do Omar and friends deserve a little grace period for their successful winter? Not at all. They paid good money, and lots of it, to sign the best position player and best pitcher. They still have a team with lots of holes that is a few pieces shy of contending for the playoffs. To recap the winter's bad moves: Omar overpaid for Benson, missed out on Delgado, and overpaid for an essentially useless firstbaseman in Mientkiewicz. On balance, with Pedro and Carlos, that's two good moves, two bad, and one not made.
Minky is supposed to provide defense and leadership at first base, neither of which are all that usefull if a team is interested in winning baseball games. Remember, Minky was a late inning defensive replacement for the Sox following his mid-season acquisition. He hit just .238/.326/.350 for the season with six HR.
I'm not sure I'd rather have Minky at first base than Bladergroen in 2005, although there are developmental reasons not to put Bladergroen at the big league level. PECOTA, Baseball Prospectus' fine forecasting system agrees with me wholeheartedly.
PECOTA sees Bladergroen hitting an adjusted .259/.319/.431 with a VORP, that is Value Over Replacement Player, measured in runs of 11.4 given 103 games.
For Mientkiewciz, PECOTA sees an adjusted line of .267/.361/.413 for a VORP of 12.7 based on 96 games at first base.
I’m not actually arguing that the Mets should have started 2005 with Bladergroen at first base. Nor is Mientkiewicz the worst option around. What is frustrating is that the Mets gave up their best first base prospect for a guy the Red Sox didn’t want. Do the Mets think that poorly of Bladergroen? This feels like the Huber trade last summer, where the Mets gave up a valuable prospect for very little.
Bladergroen, who will be 22 in February is coming off a huge year in Low-A Capital City where he hit: .342/.397/.595 in 72 games. The Blade tore ligaments in his wrist on July 1st, but is expected to return in time for 2005. The Mets originally selected Bladergroen in the 44th round in 2002 as a draft and follow out of Lamar CC.
Upside: Minky: Nil. Bladergroen: considerable.
Downside: Minky: $3.75 million. Bladergroen: Zero.

Baseball America's Top 10

2005-01-11T22:20:00.000-08:00

I thought just for fun, I'd take a look at BA's Mets Top 10 list.

1. Lastings Milledge - Clearly the top position prospect in the Mets system.
2. Yusmeiro Petit - Clearly the top pitching prospect who's actually thrown a minor league inning.
3. Gaby Hernandez - Keeping the seat warm for Phillip Humber. Dominated in the GCL, 58 K, 12 BB, in 50 IP in rookie ball.
4. Ian Bladergroen - .342/.397/.595 in Capital City as a 22 year old, but those numbers are ridiculous. His rebound from a snapped wrist ligament will be very interesting. His 2004 numbers certainly justify this spot as the #2 position player.
5. Ambio Concepcion - Young, toolsy outfielder who hit .305/.338/.475 as a 21 year old in Brooklyn.
6. Alay Solar - Based solely on scouting reports. As a Mets fan I can only hope he deserves this spot.
7. Shawn Bowman - I'm not sure why he jumped over Aarom Baldiris as far as the best 3B in the Mets system after a .258/.338/.459 in Capital City as a 20 year old while Baldiris connected for .305/.384/.397 in 406 FSL at bats for St. Lucie. It is true that Baldiris struggled in 21 AA games: .235/.296/.284, but he's just 21 and in AA already.
8. Victor Diaz - This is way too low for a guy who as far as I'm concerned should be in the New York Mets starting outfield in 2005. Diaz followed up his .292/.332/.491 line in 528 AAA AB with a .294/.321/.529 debut in 15 games for the Metropolitans. Look, I want him to take a walk too, but he can hit.
9. Jesus Flores - As a 20 year old, the catcher hit .319/.368/.532 in the GCL.
10. Matt Lindstrom - has never struck out more than a batter an inning at any of his minor league stops until fanning 64 in 56 innings in Capital City innings in 2004. He dropped off with 50 punchouts in 79.2 IP in St. Lucie. This seems a little high for the 25 year old, although the scouts like that his FB sits 94-96, according to BA.

Lists

2004-12-28T01:51:00.000-08:00

Baseball America will do their Top 10 Mets Prospects on December 30. I'll be sure to discuss it.

I was thinking about doing my own top Prospects list. I'm not sure that I feel comfortable ranking players of different ages and positions who I've never seen play so I might do a position by position rundown. I'll figure it out.

Who's excited for the Rule V Draft?

2004-12-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

I know I am.

Pavano takes Benson Money

2004-12-12T02:11:00.000-08:00

Pavano $39 million over four years = 9.75 per year
Benson $22.5 million over thre years = 7.5 per year

At least they're close in terms of performance:
VORP by Season
2003 2004
Benson -.6 22.4
Pavano 28.1 62.4

The braintrust deserves a nice round of applause.

Thank God for David Ortiz

2004-10-18T01:48:00.000-07:00

...but that 2PM start is going to cripple my monday afternoon.

Reason for Hope

2004-09-29T01:22:00.000-07:00

I love that the Mets are bringing back Omar Minaya. I thought Minaya handled the absurd Expos mess as well as he possibly could have. From the AP story: "Minaya had spoken with the Mets last offseason and was offered a job, but declined it when he was not offered full decision-making power. He now will be above general manager Jim Duquette in the hierarchy, although his formal title has not yet been determined, the baseball official said." This suggests that Minaya will now have full decision making power, so this being the Mets, even good news brings big questions. What exactly will Duquette's role be? Will Wilpon now trust Minaya and Duquette to work together, or will his be the tie-breaking voice in the trio?
Here's the ESPN link.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1890947

Lastings Milledge and Yusmeiro Petit check in at 3 and 5 respectively on Baseball America's list of the SAL's top prospects. More on this to follow.
That reminds me of a rant I wanted to go on: Trading Milledge or Ambio Concepcion for Lou Pinella as has been discussed in print and it would be crazy. Managers don't get key basehits, drive balls to the wall, make running catches or nail runners at the plate. It's the players who decide games, not the men in the dugout. Would the Cardinals be leading the Central without LaRussa? I think the best managers in the game might be worth at most five wins a year. After Bobby Cox and Felipe Alou I'm not sure who else I'd put in that category. Someone once asked the rhetorical question with respect to baseball managers: in what other industry are middle managers allowed to dictate organizational policy and assigned as much credit and blame as baseball skippers?

A Ray of Hope

2004-09-29T01:00:00.000-07:00

I love that the Mets are bringing back Omar Minaya. I thought he handled the Expos embarrassment as well as anyone could have been expected to. From the AP story: “Minaya had spoken with the Mets last offseason and was offered a job, but declined it when he was not offered full decision-making power. He now will be above general manager Jim Duquette in the hierarchy, although his formal title has not yet been determined, the baseball official said.” Since this is the Mets even a good move raises questions. What exactly will Duquette’s role be? Will Wilpon trust Minaya, or does Big W retain a tie-breaking vote if Duquette and Minaya don’t agree?
Here’s the ESPN link: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1890947 . As of this writing, no NYC paper has Wednesday’s paper online.

Baseball America selected Lastings Milledge and Yusmeiro Petit as the #3 and 5 prospects in the SAL respectively. More on this later.

Front office + prospects brings me to another point. Trading Milledge or Ambio Concepcion for Lou Pinella as the media has suggested is absolutely and completely nuts. Managers don’t get big basehits to drive in runs, they don’t make diving catches, throw beautiful curveballs, or swing and miss. Players win games, managers sit in the dugout. Maybe, the most valuable managers, Felipe Alou and Bobby Cox are worth 3-5 wins, but I’m not sure I’d put anyone else even in that class. This is not the NFL which truly is a coaches’ league. Once, I heard someone ask the following rhetorical question: in what other industry are middle managers given as much power, prestige and assigned the same degree of credit/blame for their organization’s success as baseball’s skippers?

Mets add a team, a player, and some hardware

2004-09-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

1. Mets add a team
2. Mets add a player, and second base analysis
3. Mets farmhands hardware: Ambio Concepcion,

1. The Mets moved their South Atlantic League operation from Capital City to the Hagerstown Suns. I hear a summer in Columbia South Carolina is hot and not necessarily a lot of fun. The Bombers played in an aging stadium in front of paltry crowds: just a 1,550 per game average. On Labor Day, the final day of the regular season, Capital City announced a whopping 317, so there were fewer than 200 humans at the ballpark. Hagerstown was right in the middle of the SAL pack in attendance with a respectable 2,007 average, or 128,508 for the year. (It is a downgrade in terms of logo as Capital City featured one of my favorite hats, and Hagerstown’s just doesn’t do it for me.) Nonetheless, a solid move.

2. The Mets picked up secondbaseman Josh Hoffpauir, who turned 27 yesterday, from the Texas Rangers as the PTBNL for Scott Erickson. The really, really good news is that he’s not Scott Erickson. Hoff is also a buddy of mine since he spent the second half of this summer playing for the Stockton Ports, my team. Hoff, a left handed hitting second baseman plays hard and hit for Stockton this summer.
Hoffpauir expects to be an assistant coach at his alma mater, Southern Mississippi in the offseason. The way he relates the story, he was hanging out in the spring, and wasn’t sure what to do with himself, and, after four minor league seasons, and two organizations, thought he’d give baseball one more shot. Hoff played for the Jackson Senators of the independent Central Baseball League where he hit .269/.336/.363 before signing on with the Rangers who needed another middle infielder. He had planned on this being his last season as a professional, but I’m not sure how the trade affects that. I'll try to give him a call this week. My first thought was that the Mets had picked him based on the assumption Hoff would hang 'em up and they wouldn't have to pay him. On the other hand, the Mets aren’t exactly toting around a ton of blue-chip second base prospects, which makes moving Victor Diaz to rightfield even dumber so Hoff might be able to stick on a roster as a backup.
What follows began as an examination of where Hoffpauir might fit into the Mets plans, and ended up as an analysis of secondbase in the Mets system.

MLB 04: Jose Reyes/Joe McEwing/Jeff Keppinger/Danny Garcia/Ricky
Gutierrez/whoever was awake

AAA: Danny Garcia (48-2B, 3-3B, 15-SS, 10-OF, 242 AB): .260/.322/.351

David Bacani (promoted 7/20 from AA) 144 AB: .264/.350/.410
AA: 32 gms @ 2B 3 E, 158 AB: .329/.414/.500.
Listed as 5-7, 165 turned 25 @ end of July

Chris Basak (28-2B, 6-3B, 26-SS, 193 AB) .223/.260/.415

At AA:
Bacani +
Chase Lambin (96 gms @ 2B, 24 E- turned 25 7/7/04) .244/.331/.390

FSL: Robert McIntyre 81 gms, .208/.253/.277

Wilson Bautista 27 gms .165/.231/.165

David Reaver (15-2B, 4-SS, 62 AB) .290/.362/.323 (10th rd, 2003, 23 in 2004)
Reaver in the SAL (4-2B, 31-SS, 123 AB) .154/.228/.171

SAL: Blake Whealy (124 gms, 104 @ 2B) .281/.387/.541, 32 2B, 5 3B, 23 HR - and he was 24 this summer. He has to move up, but can he skip the FSL and go right to AA? Age 25 in the FSL is not good.

Jesus Linares (81 gms, 30-2B, 22-3B, 31-SS) .289/.388/.426 he's 22, and had 29 BB in 249 PA (.116 BB/PA) which is pretty high for a Venezualan.

NYP: Matt Fisher (2004 33rd rounder: 34 gms @ 2B, 126 AB) 246/.405/.299

Kevin Rios (21 gms @ 2B, 6 @ 3B, 29 @ SS, 158 AB): .177/.239/.234.

How would you distribute this talent?

Here’s my plan:

05:
MLB: Matsui/Garcia
AAA: Bacani/Keppinger
AA: Lambin/Hoffpauir?
FSL: Jesus Linares/Whealy
SAL: Fisher
NYP:

That is my list, and not my best guess at what the Mets will do,
although I don't think it's that far off.

Based on his versatility, Danny Garcia is a nice guy to have on the
Big league roster. He'll be 25 next year, and I have trouble seeing him as an every day position player on a playoff team. I say he beats out Keppinger as the total utility man.

Keppinger and Bacani split time in AAA, waiting for Matsui to fail to live up to his contract, again, or get injured.

It’s tempting to jump Whealy, based on his strong SAL showing, over the FSL right to AA because both FSL guys, McIntyre + Bautista, struggled in 2004. Based on his age, Whealy can't afford to spend another year below AA. Next year’s spring training could feature a fascinating (in a way) battle for the starting AA second base spot: 27 year old Hoffpauir, vs. the 26 year old Lambin and 25 yo Whealy.

Jesus Linares was impressive at Capital City, so he gets promoted to St. Lucie where he could play anywhere on the infield.

The Mets drafted only 2 2B in 2004, neither of whom, Fisher nor Bryan
Zech, had particularly impressive debuts.

3. Ambio Concepcion earned Baseball America’s top prospect ranking for the NYP league. One very frustrating part of these BA rankings is that there is no explicit criteria. Are these the players with the highest ceiling, or most likely to be big leaguers? Or some combination? What is clear is that they take age into account and do not just pick the top player in the league. One comment stands out: “As Jamestown manager Benny Castillo put it, "It's Concepcion, then the rest of the league." Two managers compared his strong, wiry, athletic frame to Vladimir Guerrero's.” Concepcion finished with .305/.338/.475 in 259 AB after hitting just .214 last year in the Appalachian league.

Third round pick Gaby Hernandez picked up the #2 spot in the BA GCL list for his dazzling debut. He leed in the GCL with a 1.03 ERA in 49.2 IP. He fanned 58, while walking just 12, a sterling 4.83 K/BB ratio. Hernandez worked with a fb in the low 90s and a “sharp, hard curveball.”

BA selected nineteen year old catcher Jesus Flores (.319/.368/.532) as the #16 prospect in the GCL, and claims he’s “widely regarded as the best defensive catcher in the Mets system.” Hyperbole? He’s 19, come on.

At #18, BA tabbed Carlos Gomez (.268/.303/.361) just 18 and earning his spot on his “five-tool ability” and not his production.

Mets Playoff Recaps for 9-17

2004-09-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

Stars of the Day:
A: Ivan Maldonado/Jose Gomez/Blake Whealy

Capital City 2, @ Hickory 9
The Crawdads completed their three game sweep of the SAL Championship series by smacking around Bomber starter Greg Ramirez who lasted only three innings. Ramirez gave up a double and hit a batter to begin the first, and then Hickory rightfielder Bobby Kingsbury jacked a three run homer before Ramirez had retired an out. Craig Stansberry added another longball two outs later to put the Crawdads up 4-0 at the end of the first inning. Hickory added single runs in the second and third innings on RBI singles by Mike Cockrell and Stansberry and to up their lead to 6-0.
Ivan Maldonado stopped the bleeding working the next three scoreless innings on the hill. He gave up just one hit and fanned a pair. Jose Gomez struck out two in his scoreless seventh.
Meanwhile, Wardell Starling had grounded the Bomber offense. Capital City managed only three walks between a Lastings Milledge single to left to lead off the ballgame and a one out rally in the sixth off Starling. After a Milledge strikeout to start the inning, Wilson Batista, Jamar Hill and Ryan Harvey all singled to load the bases. Blake Whealy then doubled home Batista and Hill. With two more runners in scoring postion, the Bombers were unable to get any closer as Andy Wilson and Shawn Bowman struck out to end the threat.
Mike Cockrell added a two run homer in the eighth off Brian Walker who gave up hits to each of the four Crawdad batters he faced. Cockrell finished the evening 2-4 with a homer, single and three RBI. Kingsbury had a huge night 4-5, with a homer and 3 RBI.
All of those performances dwarf the Bombers’ evenings. No Capital City hitter had more than one hit and Blake Whealy’s double was the Bombers only extrabase hit. Capital City earned three walks and struck out nine times.
The loss ends the 2004 postseason for the Mets franchise.

There is baseball ahead for most of the top prospects in the Mets organization as they will report to either the instructional leagues or the Arizona Fall League. I’m not sure how available those box scores and recaps are, but I’ll do my best to follow that action in the next few months.

Mets Minor League Playoff Recaps for 9-15

2004-09-15T01:40:00.000-07:00

Scott Kazmir beat Pedro Martinez tonight. Kazmir: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 9K, against the mighty Red Sox, but he’s no Victor Zambrano. God Damn.
I got home tonight pissed because my good friend from work had refused to include Barry Bonds among the greatest players of all time in favor of Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb in a liquor-lubricated discussion at our bar, Fats, in Stockton, Ca. I spent a few hours on this and posted it on the blog at metsminors.blogspot.com. I could have included it in this email, but it was so off-topic that I didn’t. I’ll summarize: there is no way that Bonds can now be left out of the greatest ever discussions. Oh, and if Bonds doesn’t hit 700 in Milwaukee this week, you better believe I’ll be in SBC Friday night.

Hickory 5, @ Capital City 4
I enjoyed listening to a few innings of Hickory broadcaster’s Dave Friedman’s webcast, since the Bombers do not broadcast their games. However, the sound quality of the Crawdad’s webcasts, while not as poor as Binghamton’s, left a little something to be desired as it was rather scratchy.
Hickory scored in the top of the first off Matt Lindstrom, but Jamar Hill answered right back with a two run blast in the bottom half to put Capital City up 2-1.
In the top of the third, with a runner on, and Hickory firstbaseman Jon Benick at the plate, Friedman was relating a discussion he’d had with another Crawdad about which hitter deserved recognition as tops in the SAL. Before he could finish the story, Benick parked one for a 2 run jack that gave the Crawdads a 3-2 lead. By the way, Benick finished the regular season: .328/.396/.592 with 29 2B, 32 HR and 104 RBI in 488 AB. The only blemish on his season were his 95 K. That’s 3rd in the league in average, fifth in OBP, second in slugging, second in extra base hits, first in HR, and second in RBI. Good call, Dave Friedman. Before you get excited, know that Benick is 25, much older than his SAL competion, and therefore not really a prospect, although he’s still probably the best hitter in the league.
Hickory added two more runs in the top of the sixth, one on an RBI double, and one on an errant pickoff throw by pitcher Brian Walker that allowed the fifth and decisive run to score. They’re human, remember?
Capital City answered right back with two runs in the bottom of the sixth to cut the deficit to one run on an Andy Wilson double that sent home Ryan Harvey and Jamar Hill.
Capital City had the tying run at second in the sixth and ninth innings, but couldn’t find the hit to tie up the ballgame and now trail the series 2-0, as it shifts back to Hickory.

Greatest Ever - Racism?

2004-09-14T23:57:00.000-07:00

Ty Cobb vs. Babe Ruth vs. Barry Bonds

At the bar tonight, I was involved in a baseball discussion/argument with other members of my office. Go Figure. I work for a baseball team, what else would we talk about? We discussed among other issues: the correct number of games for Franklin Francisco's suspension (I argued it shouldn’t exceed Alomar’s 10 for spitting in an ump’s face), who’s better: A-Rod vs. Giambi (It’s A-Rod) and of course, the greatest player of all time. Now, there will never, ever, ever be any agreement about the top five players of all time. Nor should there be, because there is a certain amount of prejudice/personal prefererence about which statistics to rely on to evaluate players. However, my litigious adversary EXCLUDED Barry Bonds from consideration from the top 5 players of all time. As far as I’m concerned that is unacceptable. Barry Bonds is the greatest position in my lifetime, and I think, the best ever. I’m not willing to include pitchers because the metrics to compare hitters to pitchers and position players are fuzzy enough that they scare me. Here are the position players that my buddy placed ahead of Bonds: Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth.

What the hell are the numbers in the table below? Good question, and they all come from Baseball Prospectus. I honestly feel that if you don’t read Baseball Prospectus you are no longer a well informed baseball fan. The first column is a batter’s EQA, that is Equivalent Average which, according to the BP website is: A measure of total offensive value per out, with corrections for league offensive level, home park, and team pitching. EQA considers batting as well as baserunning, but not the value of a position player's defense. The EqA adjusted for all-time also has a correction for league difficulty. The scale is deliberately set to approximate that of batting average. Average is .260.

EQR stands for Equivalent Runs produced by a batter over his entire career, while playing his particular position in the field. BRAR stands for Batting Runs Above Replacement but without the adjustment for the postition. (Whoa, what’s replacement? Easy, a .230 EQA.) Both EQR and BRAR are derived from the batter’s EQA. PRAR is pitching runs above replacement, and FRAR is fielding runs above replacement. TRAR1 +2 are stats I made up, and stand for Total Runs above Replacement Level and where TBRAR1=BRAR+PRAR+FRAR and TRAR 2= EQR+PRAR+FRAR. Please note that TRAR 2 adjusts the player’s offensive contribution by accounting for the difficulty of the position he played.

Player EQA EQR BRAR PRAR FRAR TRAR 1 TRAR 2
Cobb .327 2464 1423 2 492 1917 2958
Ruth .366 2327 1597 250 268 2115 2845
Bonds .356 2484 1652 0 351 2003 2835

First, let me say that if for some reason, my methodology is incorrect, and I have double counted along the way, please let me know.
What does it all mean? Basics. According to career EQA: the order stands: Ruth, Bonds, Cobb. According to EQR: Bonds, Ruth, Cobb. On offensive value alone, Cobb is a clear third, while Ruth and Bonds battle it out at the top.
Cobb, by virtue of the fact that he played all over the diamond and most importantly, centerfield, beats the other two in FRAR, but note that Bonds, for all of his supposed loafing, beats Ruth. Pitching runs isn’t close, and in fact, unfairly skews the TRAR1 +2 calculations in favor of Ruth. Remember, the original question I sought to answer at least at the bar, concerned position players. Including Ruth’s pitching numbers changes all of that. In TRAR2, Cobb beats Ruth and Bonds, and I’m wondering if, by using EQR and FRAR I’m double counting Cobb’s defensive contributions.
The point here wasn’t to conclude that Barry was better than Cobb or Ruth, although I think he is. The point wasn’t to prove who’s the best of all-time since I’m not that smart. The point is that you can’t mention the greatest ever without including Barry. This isn’t new.
I’ll end this discussion by noting that my buddy who excluded Barry in favor of Cobb said that to eliminate Cobb was to discount him because of his racism. I’ll add this: to leave Barry out in favor of the others is purely racist.

9-14 Capital City Bombed in Championship Opener

2004-09-14T01:46:00.000-07:00

Stars of the Day:
A: Shawn Bowman/Andy Wilson/Lastings Milledge

Hickory 11, @ Capital City 7
The Crawdads never trailed, jumping out to a 4-0 lead after two innings to take the 1-0 lead in the best of 5 series. Capital City got a run back in the second and third, but Hickory gained some distance with a five run fifth to make the score 9-2, chasing Vincent Cordova. Cordova was hit hard, giving up seven runs, all earned, on eight hits including three longballs. Bryan King, Ryan Danly and Anderson Garcia (who struck out 5 and allowed a longball in 2.1 innings) each allowed a Hickory run or two. Jose Gomez was the only Bomber to avoid getting shelled.
Thirdbaseman Shawn Bowman who finished the year at .258/.338/.449, was 3-5 with a pair of doubles to lead the charge. Andy Wilson was 2-5 with a jack and three RBI. Lastings Milledge was 2-4 with a double.
Game 2 is Tuesday night at 7:05 PM, Eastern. I’ll try to catch the online broadcast via www.hickorycrawdads.com.

Playoff Wrap - Binghamton Eliminated

2004-09-13T01:06:00.000-07:00

New Hampshire 5, @ Binghamton 2
The FisherCats eliminated the B-Mets Saturday night in front of 2042 paying customers. New Hampshire never trailed, scoring three times against Ken Chenard, once in the third and twice in the fifth. Chenard went seven, allowing those three runs on seven hits. He walked one and fanned six and took the loss.
Binghamton rallied in the bottom of the seventh for two runs to close within a run at 3-2. With one out, Aarom Baldiris singled and Joe Hietpas doubled to put both men in scoring position. Gil Velazquez then singled Baldiris home and Wayne Lydon’s groundout brought home Hietpas.
Micah Mangrum allowed a pair of unearned runs in the eighth to make the score 5-2. The ugly eighth inning featured two errors, including one charged to Mangrum, and a wild pitch. Tim Lavigne fanned one Fishercat in a perfect ninth.

Capital City
The Bombers, the only Mets affiliate still alive in the post-season take on the Hickory Crawdads Monday at 7:05 to begin the SAL championship series.

Mets Minor League Playoff Recaps for 9-11

2004-09-11T01:41:00.000-07:00

Before I get to the Mets affiliates, I’d like to start with the baseball game I watched in person tonight. I saw the San Jose Giants beat the Stockton Ports 5-3 to win their first round series 2-1. I was struck again for the umpteenth time this summer at just how young the players are. I watched a team get jittery and hand a game away on the road. It’s easy to forget looking at statistics and reading boxscores that there are actually humans playing the game.
The Ports led 3-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh thanks to six excellent innings from their starter, former Fullerton star Wes Littleton, before the guys felt the pressure. The first pitcher out of the bullpen walked the first batter, the #9 hitter in the order on nine pitches to leadoff the seventh. The leadoff man then tried unsuccessfully to bunt and was down 0-2. He fouled off a few pitches and with a full count, worked a walk. The tying and go-ahead runs were on base, and the Ports brought on a new reliever, who has a great fastball but gave up 16 unearned runs in 58.2 regular season innings. Bad things just follow Omar who was brought in to face a solid bat handler, the #2 hitter, AJ LaBarbera. LaBarbera squared as if to bunt, but with the corners charging brought the bat back and lined softly to leftcenterfield, where Port leftfielder Anthony Webster made a diving catch. Now, with one out, and runners and first and second, a groundball could end the inning. Lo and behold, Omar induced a groundball, to his second baseman, who picked it up, turned towards second for the double play and dropped the ball. He would get an out and first, but instead of getting out of the inning, the Giants had the tying run at third, and the goahead run at second. The cleanup hitter then grounded a sharp one-hopper to the shortstop’s left. He took one step, gloved, and as he spun to fire the ball to first, the ball popped out of his mitt as everyone was safe. The official scorer ruled it a hit because it hit him in a bad spot: the glove. One run, two walks, and a jittery team. They’re human. They’re young. Hey, I made mistakes too. I think I was too critical on air tonight, but trust me, it was depressing end to a season.
Also, I don’t know about other people, but last night’s recap didn’t show up in my inbox until 10pm. I sent it around 2 AM. Damn Hotmail.
Ok. Mets time.

Stars of the Day:
AA: Neal Musser/Royce Ring/Aarom Baldiris
A: Greg Ramirez/Jamar Hill/Andy Wilson
SSA: Jim Burt

New Hampshire 0, @ Binghamton 1
Remember that nerves thing I was just talking about? What’s funny is I wrote the paragraphs above before I looked at this Binghamton Game Log.
It took 9.5 innings, but finally Binghamton scored with an unearned run in the bottom of the tenth. Aarom Baldirs and Joe Hietpas each singled with one out. Then Baldiris scored on an E6 on a ball hit by Gil Velazquez.
Neal Musser was awesome with seven shutout innings. He allowed just four hits and plunked two, but struck out eight. Royce Ring allowed but one hit over his two innings recording one whiff as well. PJ Bevis gave up one hit in the tenth but earned the win.
The win keeps Binghamton, now down 2-1, alive in the series and broke a franchise worst 11 game losing streak.

Charleston 0, @ Capital City 3
Capital City blanked the Riverdogs behind 6.2 one hit innings from Greg Ramirez who fanned ten and walked one. Ramirez finished the regular season with a 7-0 record, ten saves, and 2.06 ERA and a 3.66 R/G in 96 IP. He fanned 105 and walked just 28. Brian Walker followed with two, two hit innings, and Carlos Muniz recorded the final out for the save.
Capital City did all of their damage with the long ball. Jamar Hill was 1-2, with a walk and a solo jack in the bottom of the first. Andy Wilson added a two run bomb in the sixth driving in Jamar Hill who had walked.
The Bombers swept the series 2-0, and will take on the Hickory Crawdads for the SAL Championship beginning Monday.
Brooklyn 1, @ Tri-City 6
They’re humans remember. They’ve been sitting in the same crappy hotel in Troy for two days of rainouts. And the Cyclones were eliminated from the playoffs.
Joe Williams gave up three runs in his five innings on a pair of HR. Gabriel Hernandez also gave up three, but he needed only 1.2 innings.
The Cyclones managed only 5 singles and Jim Burt who was 1-3 with a walk scored the only run.

With my season over, I’ll go watch some college football tomorrow as I plan to be in Stanford Stadium to watch the Cardinal take on the BYU Cougars.

Mets Minor League Playoff Recaps for 9-10

2004-09-10T02:09:00.000-07:00

Giddy-up. A big league win. How about this postgame jewel from Kris Benson: "I'm looking for stability from a family standpoint. The money will work itself out. I'm looking for at least a three-year deal and maybe stick around for a fourth. I don't want to be a journeyman." Wasn’t it all about family for Mike Hampton too?
“I don’t want to be a journeyman.” I can’t even decide how to approach this remark, so just please just chortle right along with me.

Stars of the Day:
AA: Angel Pagan

Binghamton 4, @ New Hampshire 10
New Hampshire scored three times in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly and a two run homer by John Hattig, and never trailed. Jason Scobie struggled and gave up eight runs, all earned, on 11 hits through five innings.
Binghamton scored a run (!) in the third when Angel Pagan doubled home Wayne Lydon, who had reached on a fielder’s choice. The B-Mets loaded the bases in the top of the fourth, but managed only one run as Aarom Baldiris grouded into a run scoring, rally killing doubleplay. With the run, Binghamton closed within one run at 3-2. However, after that, it was all New Hampshire.
New Hampshire added one more run in the bottom of the fourth, and three more in the fifth off Scobie. Orlando Roman gave up a two run homer in the six to make the score 10-2.
Gil Velazquez and Angel Pagan added RBI doubles for Binghamton in the seventh innings to complete the scoring.
Going back to the nine game losing streak to conclude the regular season, Binghamton has now lost 11 in a row. Over those 11 games, the B-Mets have scored 16 runs (1.45 R/G) and have been shut out four times. The FisherCats lead the best of five series 2-0.

Capital City
Game two tomorrow. Bombers lead the Charleston Riverdogs 1-0.

Brooklyn
Rained out for the second day in a row. Wonder how those players couped up in hotel rooms are doing? Game 3 will be Friday, and the championship series will begin Saturday night.

Mets Minor League Playoff Recaps for 9-9

2004-09-09T02:33:00.000-07:00

“The Mets have lost 11 in a row, including six since last week to Florida, and haven't had a lead in 58 innings.” It’s a good thing I care about the minors as well, where there is good news.

Stars of the Day:
AA: Yusmeiro Petit
A: Jamar Hill/Vincent Cordova
SSA: see you tomorrow

Binghamton 0, @ New Hampshire 2
Lets start with the good news. Yusmeiro Petit dominated for the first 4.1 innings. He allowed just one hit, didn’t walk a batter, and struck out nine. That’s right, he recorded 13 outs, and nine of them were punchouts. The bad news was that he developed a blister, which became painful and bloody, and couldn’t finish the game or the fifth inning. He gave way to Tim Lavigne who gave up both runs including a homer on four hits and three walks in his two innings. Royce Ring controlled the damage with 1.2 scoreless innings. Ring fanned two and gave up just one hit.
It’s hard to win a baseball game if you have only one hit, and that’s all the B-Mets managed tonight. Joe Hietpas led off the sixth with a single and that was all the offense Binghamton could muster.
New Hampshire leads 1-0.
The B-Mets lost nine in a row to end the season, so this is now the tenth in a row.
I tried to listen to this game online. However, the B-Mets internet feed sounded as if it originated underwater. I’ve had mixed success with Binghamton’s internet broadcasts, but mostly sound ok if a little scratchy. Today was awful so I switched over to the FisherCats radio work for the middle innings when I could sit in front of my computer. The rain that delayed the game 1.5 hours meant I missed the decisive end.

Capital City 2, @ Charleston 1 (11 innings)
This one’s a little tough to believe. The game was scoreless until the eleventh inning. Some poor fielding by the River Dogs put two runners on with two outs for Capital City in the top half of the eleventh. Then Jamar Hill came through with a 2 RBI double sending Lastings Milledge and Yunir Garcia home with a pair of unearned runs. Capital City managed just four hits, and Jamar Hil had two of ‘em.
Of course, if you send a game scoreless to the 11th inning, the pitching had to be awesome. Vincent Cordova worked the first 7 frames giving up seven hits, but he struck out ten without walking a batter. Daniel Foli followed with two more scoreless innings striking out three. Carlos Muniz finished with two innings, and allowed a solo HR in the bottom of the 11th.
Capital City leads 1-0.

Brooklyn @ Tri-City
Rained out. They made it to the top of the third tied 1-1, but that all disappears when they go back to 0-0 in the top of the first tomorrow.
The series is tied 1-1 for the decisive 3rd game.

9-8 Recaps and 2003 Trade summary

2004-09-08T01:07:00.000-07:00

Slow day. One game in the Mets system, and the California League playoffs begin tomorrow. So I took the day off from baseball. Or not.
I was discussing Jim Duquette and his track record with Avkash, of www.theraindrops.com. I did a little research, (because that’s what I like doing) on last summer’s salary dumps. The first name is the Met traded away, and I have included just a few details about the prospects acquired in return.

Roberto Alomar – Royce Ring - solid in AA and AAA - why was he demoted?
RHP Edwin Almonte (waived by Mets, ineffective in Pawtucket in 2004),
IF Salvo (released, spent 2004 w/ the Long Island Ducks of independent Atlantic League)

Armando Benitez - RHP Jason Anderson (5 R, 1 IP in Cleveland in 2004),
RHP Anderson Garcia (9-2, 4.50, 6.10 R/G, 92 H in 84 IP w/Cap City),
RHP Ryan Bicondoa (w/ North Shore Spirit, indpendent NEL)

Jeromy Burnitz, - RHP Jose Diaz (traded),
2b/3b/RF Victor Diaz (at wrong position, but still hitting) and
RHP Kole Strayhorn (10 HR/50 IP, but K/BB - ok)

Rey Sanchez – OF - Kenny Kelly (granted release following 03. As 25 yo in 2004 in Reds org: AA: .356/.441/.545 AAA: .254/.320/.440)

Graeme Lloyd - Jeremy Hill (more 36 k /32 IP in AA, at 27, did he get hurt?)

Stars of the Day:
SSA: Tyler Davidson/Michael Devaney/Blake Eager

Brooklyn 2, @ Tri-City 3
The Valley Cats won to set up a deciding game tomorrow at 6:45.
Tyler Davidson put Brooklyn up 2-0 with a two run jack in the top of the fourth as part of his 2-4 night.
23rd round draft pick Michael Devaney gave up 3 hits and 3 walks in his 3.1 innings to start the game, but left up 2-0. 30th round draft pick Blake Eager followed with 3.2 scoreless innings fanning three. In the eighth, Eddy Camacho gave up a two run homer to shortstop Ben Zobrist to tie up the ballgame. In the ninth, Celso Rondon gave up a single and walk and then gave up the game winning single to leftfielder Mitch Einertson.

Binghamton and Capital City begin their postseason tomorrow.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 9-8

2004-09-08T01:06:00.000-07:00

Labor Day Recaps

2004-09-07T01:32:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I suggested that the Mets should hire Grady Fuson as GM, so I was very excited when Jamey Newberg, who writes the Newberg Report about the Texas Rangers system wrote: “Joel Sherman of the New York Post hints today that the Mets might approach Grady Fuson in the off-season to head up their scouting department,” on 9/5. I ran a search for Fuson’s name on the Post’s website, and couldn’t find the original article. Can anyone tell me what exactly went into this hint? Let’s not settle for the scouting department and let Fuson head up player development as well. Or, even better, he can be the GM.

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Victor Diaz/Aaron Heilman
AA: Brian Bannister
A: Matt Lindstrom/Jabe Bergeron/Ryan Harvey
SSA: Evan Maclane

Norfolk 0 @ Richmond 3
The offense managed four hits, all singles. No Tide started the day with a batting average north of .300. Victor Diaz at .291 was the only one above .280. Mike Meyers gave up all three runs, although only two were earned in his five innings.

Norfolk 2, @ Richmond 3
Good start for Aaron Heilman who tossed four scoreless innings. He gave up four hits, plunked one and walked one, but didn’t record a strikeout. Blake McGinley was tagged with the loss, as the first four Braves to face him in the sixth inning, his second inning of work, all reached base.
Victor Diaz was 1-3 with a sacrifice fly and both Norfolk RBI, each time driving in David Bacani.

The Tides finish the year an even 72-72, eight and a half games behind Richmond in the International League’s South Division. Victor Diaz’ .292/.332/.491 with 31 2B, 24 HR, and 94 was the top offensive line on the team. He led the team in HR, RBI, and batting average among those with over .200 AB. David Wright hit .298/.388/.579 in only 114 AB.

Reading 5, @ Binghamton 1
The BMets had a lead for two innings, but couldn’t hold it en route to losing their ninth in a row heading for the playoffs finishing with a 76-66 record. Brett Harper’s solo HR in the bottom of the fourth but the B-Mets out in front 1-0, and it remained that way until the seventh when Royce Ring was touched up for a pair of homers and three runs. According to the BMets website the brief lead broke a string of 74.1 innings without a lead for Binghamton. It wasted a brilliant start from Brian Bannister who went the first six shutout innings and allowed only three hits. Bannister walked two and fanned two.
Yusmeiro Petit will start for Binghamton versus the New Hampshire Fishercats Wednesday at 6 PM. I will be listening to this game rather than the Big Mets Wednesday afternoon California time.

St. Lucie
The FSL hasn’t completed a game since 9/2. Aarom Baldiris was named to the FSL postseason allstar team, the only St. Lucie Met to make the cut.

Charleston 1, @ Capital City 5
The Bombers broke a 1-1 tie with four runs in the bottom of the eighth. Strange night offensively for the Bombers: 5 runs, 4 hits, six walks. All of the hits belonged to two men: Jabe Bergeron was 2-4 with a pair of doubles and 3 RBI, and Ryan Harvey was also 2-4 with a double and two runs driven in. Bergeron out of tiny Williams College hit .278/.429/.556 for Capital City in 72 AB after hitting .291/.318/.476 with Kingsport. The firstbaseman is large: 6’3”, 230, and supposed was born in 1900 according to the Sportsnetwork (oops). The non-drafted Free agent was a four year letterman in baseball and hockey for the Ephs and was the player of the year in the NESCAC. You gotta root for the non-drafted free agents.
Matt Lindstrom allowed just three hits and a walk while striking out five in six shutout innings. Jose Gomez earned the win for a scoreless eighth inning, and Brian Walker walked two, but closed out the victory.
Capital City followed up their first half championship with the secondhalf crown as well. The bombers were 45-21 in the second half, 99-47 overall.
After sweeping the Riverdogs this week, the Bombers will see Charleston in the first round of the playoffs starting Wednesday.

Tri-City 0, @ Brooklyn 2
The first playoff game pretty much went like the rest of the season: Evan MacLane dominated. MacLane shut down Tri-City over seven innings allowing only four hits and a walk while fanning four. Eddy Camacho picked up the two inning save without allowing a hit.
Jim Burt knocked one off the wall to drive home Dante Brinkley in the sixth with the go ahead run. Tyler Davidson plated Derran Watts with an insurance run in the eighth.
I have been told that the one hard and fast rule in the Mets minor league system is: Brooklyn must win. Well, the Cyclones are in playoffs again.

9/1 - New Month SOS

2004-09-01T03:01:00.000-07:00

Another night, another loss in the bigs. From the AP story: “Attendance was 17,770, compared with 51,777 across town at Yankee Stadium and 21,740 for the night session at the U.S. Open tennis tournament across the street from Shea.” To be honest, I probably would have gone to the Open tonight. Check that, I would definitely have gone to the Open tonight if I had tix and wasn't in California.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 8-31

2004-08-31T02:36:00.000-07:00

I think it’s time I buy a David Wright jersey. In August: .314/.346/.549.

Bob Klapisch summed up the last looooong month for the Mets on espn.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=klapisch_bob&id=1871002

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Victor Diaz
AA: Jason Scobie
High A: Joe Jiannetti
A: the raindrops
SSA: Scott Hyde/Tyler Davidson

Norfolk 6, @ Charlotte 9
After the Tides tied it at 6 with a run in the top of the seventh, the Knights regained the lead with a pair in the bottom half, and added one more insurance run in the eighth with all three runs coming off reliever Blake McGinley. Pat Strange started, surrendering six runs, all earned, on nine hits.
Victor Diaz’s three run homer in the first put Norfolk up 3-0 before the Knights had recorded an out. Diaz was 2-4 with a walk and 5 RBI in upping his average to .290/.330/.496. He has played rightfield exclusively this year. I believe his value would be maximized by playing as many positions as possible, and he has played first, second and third over the last three years. Craig Brazell had a solo homer. Shortstop Chris Basak was 2-4 with a walk and a triple.
With the loss, the Tides have dropped 5 of 6.

Portland 3, @ Binghamton 0
Jason Scobie took the loss. Scobie managed to only allow one run, on a solo homer, over his six innings even though he gave up six hits, walked five and struck out just one. Scobie’s only 1-2-3 inning was the fourth. Jake Joseph gave up a pair in the seventh to complete the scoring.
Five hits for the B-Mets. Ron Acuna was 1-4 with a double and Bobby Malek was 1-3 with a double.
Rain stopped the game after eight innings.
Note: I almost didn’t assign a star of the day for the B-Mets in this game, but decided that Jason Scobie, who hasn’t won a game since August 8th deserved a little love even if the linescore wasn’t pretty.

Vero Beach 4, @ St. Lucie 2
Kevin Deaton threw a very solid six innings over which he allowed two runs on five hits. A rehabbing Scott Strickland was charged with two runs and his first FSL loss. Jose Rodriguez was effective following Strickland, walking one and striking out one in his 1.2 innings.
St. Lucie lead 2-0 on solo homers in the first and second innings respectively by firstbaseman Jay Caligiuri and thirdbaseman Joe Jiannetti. Jiannetti was 3-4 with a would as well. Secondbaseman Robert McIntyre, who added two singles was the only other Met with multiple hits.
This was the final regular season home game for St. Lucie which finishes up at Vero Beach, Jupiter and Daytona. The St. Lucie website notes that the Mets and Dodgers are now tied in the race for the Treasure Coast Cup. With the loss, St. Lucie falls to 27-33, and 11.5 games behind Vero Beach in the second half.

Columbus @ Capital City
Rained out.
Do you know how many rainouts there have been in the California League this year? 0. A pitcher said to me Sunday that he was looking forward to going home (to Illinois) in part to see some rain.

Batavia 2, @ Brooklyn 5
The tastefully named Scott Hyde improved to 4-3 with seven innings of one run ball. He struck out eight without a walk, and allowed five hits. The Muckdogs scored their only run on a solo homer by shortstop John Hardy. For the year, Hyde has a 3.23 ERA, 3.42 R/G, with a .218 BA against and 16 BB versus 45 K. Remove his one bad start, when he allowed seven runs on four innings on August eighth, the only time he has given up more than three runs, and his numbers become: 2.07 ERA, 2.28 R/G, in 43.1 IP, 13 BB, and 40 K.
Ambio Concepcion was 3-4 with an RBI and a run. Tyler Davidson tripled, scored and drove in a run in a 2-3 night. The triple was the Cyclones only extra basehit.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 8-25

2004-08-25T02:33:00.002-07:00

It’s been a dizzying few days of roster moves, and I have only a rough idea where most Mets players are. Aaron Heilman was returned to Norfolk today while Ober Moreno was placed on the 60 day DL freeing up a spot on the 40 man roster, which was turned over to Heath Bell who made a very good big league debut. In the last two days Matt Ginter has been up and down from AAA. Fortunato and Keppinger have both appeared at the big league level. And I’m having trouble making myself care…
By the way, I’ve solved the Mets problems. Yeah, yeah, everyone has an idea, but this one’s good. There’s a brilliant baseball man out there, sacked by his former club in an awful power struggle. He’s helped build two of the teams contending for the AL West title, each time developing talent from within and pulling off a few shrewd moves, and leaving his former clubs with stacked farm systems, and a talented big league roster. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present my choice for the next Mets GM:….. GRADY FUSON. Maybe this isn’t an original thought, but I swear, I haven’t seen it anywhere else. Anyway, Grady was run out of Texas this summer after essentially signing on as the Rangers GM. I’ve met him, interviewed him, talked baseball with him, and been consistently impressed. Let us begin the movement: Fuson for the Future

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Prentice Redman/Tyler Yates/Victor Diaz
AA: Ron Acuna/Ken Chenard
A: Blake Whealy/ Lastings Milledge
A: Jamar Hill

Norfolk 5, @ Charlotte 3 (15)
Prentice Redman’s only hit of the night, a two run homer in the top of the 15th, pushed Norfolk to the extra inning victory. Victor Diaz also launched two solo homers for the Tides. Craig Brazell was 2-6 with a walk.
Randy Keisler gave up all of the Charlotte runs in his seven innings before turning the game over to the bullpen that dealt eight scoreless innings. Tyler Yates threw the final two perfectly while fanning two to earn the win. Yates followed three innings each from Vic Darrensbourg and Jake Joseph.

Binghamton 3, @ Norwich 2
The B-Mets touched up Brion Treadway for three runs over six innings. Treadway started off the year in the California League where he was 7-5 with a 3.95 ERA, but bounced 13 WP and hit 8 batters in 111 + IP I’ve also seen him and wasn’t that impressed. For a full scouting report on Treadway, click here: http://www.calleaguers.com/TreadwayBrion.html to read Sam Gaeney’s report. (I often use information from Sam’s work in my broadcasts.)
Binghamton was held without an extra base hit tonight. Bobby Malek and Ron Acuna each went 2-4 and Acuna drove in a pair.
Ken Chenard was very good giving up just two unearned runs on three hits over seven innings, while fanning nine without walking a batter. Micah Mangrum and PJ Bevis each pitched a scoreless inning in relief to preserve the one run win.

Daytona @ St. Lucie
PPD. Yesterday Vero Beach took two from St. Lucie. Yusmeiro Petit lost the first game and allowed three runs, one earned on four hits over six innings while striking out seven. He didn’t walk a batter.

Rome 5, @ Capital City 8
The Bombers took a little while to get revved up but racked up eight runs in the bottom of the sixth to win this one in their final turn at bat. Wilson Batista doubled home a pair, but the big blow of the inning was a Blake Whealy grand slam that drove home the third-sixth runs of the inning before an out was recorded. Lastings Milledge also singled home a pair.

Rome 4, @ Capital City 6
Another final AB win, this time Capital City scored three in the bottom of the seventh on Jamar Hill’s dramatic two out homer to complete the sweep. Lots of homers here, as the Braves did all of their damage by going over the wall, and Shawn Bowman had a two run dong as well. Lastings Milledge also singled home a run.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 8-19

2004-08-19T02:07:00.000-07:00

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Vic Darrensbourg/Ozzie Timmons
AA: Brett Harper/Ron Acuna
High A: Jonathan Slack/Jose Rodriguez
A: Tim Worthington/Wilson Batista
SSA: Joseph Williams
Rookie: Josh Wyrick

Charlotte 4 @ Norfolk 3
Jae Seo walked six and gave up nine hits in 5.1 innings on his way to allowing only four runs. Given that line, it could have been worse, but Seo induced two double plays. Vic Darrensbourg settled things down with 2.2 innings of one hit ball, with two strikeouts.
Thirty-four year old Ozzie Timmons who’s bounced between the majors, AAA, Japan and independent ball in the last nine years had the only two extra base hits for the Tides: a homer and a double. Victor Diaz was 2-4. Prentice Redman was 1-3 with a sacrifice fly and an RBI.

New Hampshire 4, @ Binghamton 3
Brett Harper and Ron Acuna were each 2-4. Josh Pressley, who I discussed yesterday doubled and drove in a run (and scored one) for his only hit in 4 AB.
Ken Chenard gave up all four runs in his seven innings, but struck out eight. He gave up a pair of homers, which accounted for three runs, included a tie-breaking solo shot in the fifth.

St. Lucie 2, @ Jupiter 1
Jonathan Slack singled home Corey Ragsdale with the winning run in the eighth. Bobby Malek, who was 2-4 with a homer and a double, put the Mets in front with a solo shot in the fourth.
Once again, a lot of St. Lucie pitchers, each throwing just a few innings. Michael Cox started, walking three and striking out three. Domingo Acosta went the next two fanning four, but giving up the only Hammerheads run of the night. Jose Rodriguez won the game for his three scoreless innings.

Hagerstown 5, @ Capital City 2
Tim Worthington, who was a non-drafted free agent last spring, and pitched for Brooklyn, and has split time between Kingsport, Brooklyn and Capital City, took a hard luck loss. Worthington allowed just one run on two hits through five innings while fanning seven Suns. Bryan King was hit a little harder, giving up four runs, two earned over the next two innings.
Wilson Batista was 2-5 with a double. Ryan Harvey and Blake Whealy were each 2-4 with a run scored in the eighth, and Harvey also walked.

Brooklyn 1, @ Staten Island 0
Dante Brinkeley drove in the game’s only run with a bases loaded walk in the third inning, as the teams combined for eight hits. Jim Burt singled twice, and scored the Cyclones only run.
Joseph Williams turned in his fifth scoreless performance of five innings or more in 2004, and this one lasted six. He fanned six and walked one, while allowing three hits.

Elizabethton 6, @ Kingsport 2
Josh Wyrick was 3-5. Seth Pietsch launched a solo homer and Josh Petersen was 2-4 with a double and a run scored.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 8-18

2004-08-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

Is it possible for Zambrano to retro-actively fail a physical? Can we make it possible?

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Blake McGinley
AA: Josh Pressley
High A: Luis Pineda
High A: Yusmeiro Petit
A: Lastings Milledge

Charlotte 4, @ Norfolk 2
Matt Ginter took the loss for giving up four runs, three of them earned. He allowed six hits and a walk while striking out six. Blake McGinley was perfect over the final two innings striking out three.
A depleted Norfolk lineup managed three hits. Victor Diaz and Ozzie Timmons each singled home a run and David Bacani doubled and scored.

New Hampshire 6 @ Binghamton 2
Brian Bannister allowed three runs on seven hits through the first six innings.
Josh Pressley was 2-4 with a double and a run scored to improve to .296/.381/.404 in 307 AB with 42 strikeouts against 58 walks. The 24 year old first baseman has never really hit for much power, - the last time his SLG was over .400 was back in 2000, with Charleston in SAL, but that OBP and strike zone judgment is intriguing. He’s hitting .316/.390/.430 with 20 2B vs. righties.

ST. Lucie 4, @ Palm Beach 2
Luis Pineda gave up only one hit over the final three innings for the win, while striking out four. Brian Edwards and Luz Portobanco each allowed a run in their two innings.
Only two RBI, for St. Lucie, even though four crossed the plate. Jay Caligiuri singled and doubled in four AB and shortstop Corey Ragsdale was 2-3 with a run scored and an RBI. No other Met had more than one hit, although catcher Zach Clement doubled in a run in hit only at bat.

St. Lucie 1, @ Palm Beach 5
Palm Beach did all their damage in a five run fourth against Tim McNab who didn’t get anyone out in the inning was charged with three runs. Yusmeiro Petit struck out three in a perfect two innings to start the game. Are all the pitchers essentially now on bullpen pitch counts so everyone’s available with all the hurricane outs and doubleheaders coming up?

Hagerstown 4, @ Capital City 11
Lastings Milledge led the charges by going 3-4 with two doubles and a homer with a walk and three driven in. Andy Wilson was also 3-3 with a walk.
Tanner Osberg coasted through 6.2 allowing three runs on five hits to lower his ERA to 6.16. He struck out six, and walked three.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 8-17

2004-08-17T02:33:00.000-07:00

So I’ve been slacking recently, and haven’t written much in a while. I don’t really have a good explanation. It’s true that I’ve moved – from one end of Stockton to the other. It’s true that I’m tired from the endurance contest that is a minor league baseball season – and I’m the radio guy, just imagine how the players feel. It’s also true that I was, and am still, very upset about trading Kazmir and Huber. I mean, if the Mets management won’t take their prospects seriously, why should I? Anyway, now I’m back with a vengeance.
We’ll start with what I thought was a funny joke. At ESPN.com, Jayson Stark wrote:
One reason the Mets' end of those trades might not look so bad in the end is the two prospects they got back from Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh -- pitcher Bartolome Fortunato and second baseman Jeff Keppinger.
One scouting director we talked to raved about Fortunato's 97-mph fastball and projected him as a potential No. 2 starter. Keppinger, meanwhile, was described as "a hard-nosed guy" who is hitting .336 in Double-A, with just 19 strikeouts all year in 400 trips to the plate.
Let’s start with Fortunato. He’s 30 years old. He has appeared in 35 games in AAA this year out of the ‘pen. Let’s start small and get to a AAA rotation first, before moving to the front end of a big league rotation, huh? Nineteen and 20 year olds, projectable, 30 year olds, not. To be fair, Fortunato made four AAA starts in 2003, but of his 163 career minor league appearances, only 31 have been starts and he has started a grand total of 11 games in the last three years, including five in High A Bakersfield in 2002.
Keppinger was hitting .338 with Altoona to go along with a solid .387 OBP. However, his slugging was just .413. That’s an isolated slugging percentage of .085, and the second year in a row he has seen his ISO slide from .128 in the SAL in 2002, to .106 in the Carolina League in 2003.
Let me be perfectly clear: These two are not elite prospects. Fortunato has as small a chance to be a #2 starter as any pitcher in affiliated baseball. Keppinger could be a useful utility man.

In cleaning out my room I found an article that Alan Schwarz wrote for the May 3rd, New York Magazine titled “Re-Engineering the Mets - In the playoffs by 2006…” that my parents were kind enough to send to me. I enjoyed the article, because it laid out a solid plan. The Plan: 2004: Assesment – figure out which young arms can be trusted, Winter 04-05 Sign a bopper, while letting Piazza go, 05: trade an elderly arm (Leiter or Trachsel) freeing up more time for the young guns, Winter 05-06: buy more talent. The basic premise was the following: the Mets had a good young infield core, and some interesting minor league arms to go along with an aging big league roster that could still be turned into an asset by trading some older more expensive players. He summed it up with: “A new philosophy must grow from within.” (Of course, Schwarz, a Baseball America writer takes a few cheap shots at Moneyball, which is stupid because the basic premise in Moneyball, that there are imperfections in the market for baseball players because teams do not evaluate talent properly seems to apply to the Mets as much as any other major league franchise. By the way, Baseball America does not include OBP in their stat packages.) Schwarz, I suppose, helped inspired me to start writing about the farm system by hyping the young guns.
The point that made the made the most sense was that the Mets needed a few of their minor league arms – Schwartz names Kazmir, Jae Seo, Tyler Yates, Matt Peterson, Bob Keppel and Jeremy Griffiths - to pan out. One by one: Kazmir – Traded. Peterson – Traded. Griffiths – Traded (good trade). Yates – in bullpen with 7.07 ERA. Seo – a cheap average big league pitcher, and now back in AAA. Baseball Prospectus puts Seo four runs below average for the season – a classic back end of the rotation guy. (Those two Studs the Mets paid dearly for are not much better: Victor Zambrano was two runs above average with the Devil Rays, and Benson was one run above average for Pittsburgh.) Keppel – struggling (2-6, 5.11 ERA) in AAA.
The Mets assessed, and dispatched their talent to other teams.
And on to the remaining talent…

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Prentice Redman/Jeff Keppinger
AA: Micah Mangrum
High A: Vincent Cordova
A: Blake Whealy
SSA: Ambio Concepcion/Jim Burt

Norfolk 2, @ Indianapolis 6
Pat Strange gave up six runs on eight hits in five innings. Jeff Keppinger singled twice to up his AAA average to .625 (5H/8AB) each time driving in Prentice Redman who singled twice as well. Redman and Keppinger were the only Tides with multiple hits as Norfolk was held without an extra base hit.

New Hampshire 4, @ Binghamton 0
Binghamton managed only three singles while Mike Meyers gave up all four runs, three earned in his four innings. Micah Mangrum was awesome in relief. He gave up just one hit while fanning seven, without a walk over the next four innings.

Brevard Country 1, @ St. Lucie 0
Vincent Cordova lost a pitchers duel to Expos top-prospect Clint Everts. Cordova, in his fourth FSL start and second in a row against the Manatees, made it his best, going seven three hit innings while fanning a very nasty 12.
Like their AA brethren, St. Lucie managed only three hits. Joe Jianetti had two, including a double. Alhaji Turay singled as well.

Hagerstown 3, @ Capital City 5
Blake Whealy homered twice in a 3-4 night, while driving in three runs. Thirdbaseman Shawn Bowman drove in a run with a single and a double. Catcher Yunir Garcia launched a solo homer along with a single in a 2-4 night.
Greg Ramirez lasted only four innings, allowing all three runs. Twenty-four year old Jose Gomez earned the win for his three innings of one hit baseball. He fanned six and didn’t walk a batter to up his strikeout total to 15 in 8.2 SAL innings.

Aberdeen 5, @ Brooklyn 4
Ambio Concepcion homered and drove in a pair. Former Hurricane Jim Burt singled, doubled and drove in a run in four trips. Catcher Aaron Hathaway came out of the game after two at bats.
Mike Swindell gave up four runs, two earned on five hits in six innings.

Archives at metsminors.blogspot.com.
I’m back.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 8-3

2004-08-04T01:21:00.000-07:00

Sad day in Metsland, with Bob Murphy’s passing. One of the voices that made me want to become a broadcaster won’t speak again.
I realized that after every victory I tell listeners to Ports games that “we’ll be right back with a happy recap.” I knew I stole it straight from Murph, but it just seems like such a good way to celebrate. Someday, maybe I’ll be smart enough or good enough to coin my own phrase. Right now, I think I’ll settle for borrowing from a great one, and think of my Mets after every victory I call.
Lets do some recaps before I get choked up.

I shouldn’t do this, but if you want to get more upset about the Mets idiocy last Friday, read http://theraindrops.weblogs.us/. I should warn you, Avkash will make you more upset than you might want to be.

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Bob Keppel/Prentice Redman
AA: Jason Scobie/Gil Velazquez
AA: Orlando Roman/Josh Pressley/Brett Harper
High A: Hurricane season
A: Blake Whealy/Tanner Osberg
A: Jamar Hill
SSA: Scott Hyde/Ambio Concepcion

Norfolk 6, @ Toledo 3
Bob Keppel won his third game of the year for his six one run innings. He gave up seven hits without walking a batter, while striking out two. Blake McGinley gave up two runs, one earned and a homer in his three inning save.
The Tides featured a balanced attack as no Tide scored more than one run, nor drove in more than one, while only two had more than one hit. Prentice Redman tripled and doubled, drove in a run and scored one. Rodney Nye also doubled as part of a 2-4 night, drove in a run, and scored one. Tom Wilson homered for his only hit in four tries.

Binghamton 3, @ Trenton 4 (Game 1)
I listened to the early parts of this game, thanks to the beauty of webcasting. I learned a lot. For example Trenton features the first female headsgroundkeeper in AA.
Wayne Lydon was the only B-Met with multiple hits: two singles. Gil Velazquez tripled and walked twice.
Jason Scobie gave up four runs, three earned, in 5.2 innings. He hit two batters, but didn’t walk one, while striking out five.

Binghamton 5, @ Trenton 2 (Game 2)
Orlando Roman won his first AA start giving up just two runs on four hits through six innings. He walked four while fanning only two. PJ Bevis gave up a couple of hits, but completed his fourth save. Roman, who was originally drafted in the 31st round in 1999, began his career as a starter, but spent most of 2001, 2002 and 2003 as a reliever. At the end of July 2003, he was sent from St. Lucie, where he’d worked out of the pen, back to Capital City where he resumed his starters career.
Jeff Duncan singled and doubled. Brett Harper and Josh Pressley each singled and doubled while driving in a pair and a run respectively. Catcher Jimmie Gonzalez was 2-4 with an RBI.

Palm Beach @ St. Lucie
Rained out.

Capital City 5, @ Delmarva 2 (Game 1)
Blake Whealy drove in a pair with a single and a double. Ryan Harvey tripled and scored a run. Andy Wilson homered and scored a pair of runs thanks to his walk.
Tanner Osberg allowed two unearned runs on six hits. He walked a batter, and hit a batter while retiring four on strikes.

Capital City 5, @ Delmarva 8
2001 fourth rounder Brian Walker gave up the first five runs and took the loss. The good news I suppose is that he struck out seven while walking one. Anderson Garcia allowed three runs, but only one was earned over the final inning and two thirds. He gave up two hits and two walks, so it’s not as though he was completely the victim of bad luck.
Jamar Hill homered and drove in two in a 2-4 nightcap. Blake Whealy tripled, so he was shy of a homer for a cycle split between the two games of the doubleheader. Jesus LInares singled home a pair.

Brooklyn 8, @ Aberdeen 5
My boy Scott Hyde (no relation) allowed only one run two hits and two walks over 5.2 innings. Unfortunately, one of those hits was a solo homer. He struck out six to improve to 2-0. In 19.2 IP, he’s given up just three runs, while striking out 16 and walking seven and holding the NYP to a .141 BA against.
Ambio Concepcion singled, doubled, tripled, drove in three, and stole a base. He’s already got 16 stolen bases in 35 games to go along with a .300/.340/.469 line. Matt Fisher doubled and scored twice. Dante Brinkley singled twice and scored each time.

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Mets Minor League Recaps for 8-2

2004-08-02T23:43:00.000-07:00

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Prentice Redman/David Bacani/Randy Keisler
AA: The Rain
High A: Yusmeiro Petit/Lastings Milledge
A: More Rain
SSA: Evan MacLane/Ambio Concepcion

Norfolk 9 @ Toledo 7
Norfolk led 4-1, then 7-3, but the bullpen gave away the lead, and the Tides needed two in the top of the tenth to win the ballgame. Tyler Yates blew the save by giving up a two run homerun, but gave up just a walk in the bottom of the tenth to earn the win. Randy Keisler sent the first six innings allowing three runs on two homers and six hits. He fanned six. New Tide Bartolome Fortunato retired two batters.
Prentice Redman drove home the winning run with a bases loaded walk in the top of the tenth. Rodney Nye drove in his second run of the game by grounding into a fielder’s choice. Secondbaseman David Bacani went 2-4 with a three RBI triple. Rodney Nye singled twice and walked twice in six plate appearances and drove in a pair. Victor Diaz launched a solo homer.

Binghamton
Rained out. Binghamton will play two tomorrow at Trenton. Jason Scobie will start the first game, and Orlando Roman will make his AA debut. The 26 year-old Roman was 4-5 with a 3.71 ERA, 3.88 RA. He held the league to a .220 batting average while walking 33 and striking out 99 in 102 IP. He was originally a 31st round draft pick in 1999 out of Indian Hills (IA) CC.

St. Lucie 1, @ Palm Beach 2
Yusmeiro Petit allowed just one run on seven hits over the first 6.2 IP. The new top Mets pitching prospect fanned 11 while walking one to lower his FSL ERA to 1.19. David Byard gave up the deciding unearned run in the bottom of the eighth.
Lastings Milledge tripled and scored in his 2-4 night. Corey Ragsdale drove him home with a sacrifice fly.
Now starting for Palm Beach: Rick Ankiel. The only hit he allowed in his two innings was Milledge’s triple.

Capital City
Rained out at Delmarva. The Bombers and the Shorebirds will play two on Tuesday.

Brooklyn 4, @ Aberdeen 5
The Ironbirds scored four in the bottom of the ninth to beat first place Brooklyn.
Evan MacLane who has absolutely no business being in the New York Penn League dealt the first 5.2 innings allowing only one unearned run on seven hits. He fanned four without a walk. Remember up in the SAL MacLane was 5-2 with a 2.39 ERA, 2.79 RA. The SAL was hitting only .225 against him, and he’d struck out 66 while walking only 10. I guess this is old news, but it never ceases to be frustrating. With Brooklyn, MacLane has horrified the NYP with 35 K and just 2 (!) walks in 42 innings.
Ambio Concepcion singled and homered and drove in two. Dante Brinkley had a pair of singles. Ryan Coultas was 1-4 with a single and an RBI.

Mets Screw UP- Trade Farm away

2004-07-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

Oh God. It's like a nightmare come true. The Mets gave up the farm today. This is one of those Dykstra/Juan Samuel type moments. 1. Mets trade SCOTT KAZMIR and Jose Diaz to the Devil Rays for Victor Zambrano and Bartolome Fortunato. 2. Mets trade catcher Justin Huber to the Royals for minor league infielder Jose Bautista. 3. Mets trade Bautista, Ty Wigginton and Matt Peterson to the Pirates for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger. Lets start from the beginning with the Devil Rays deal. 1. Prior to the season, Kazmir was ranked as the second best prospect in the system, behind Kaz Matsui, and ahead of David Wright. Kazmir struggled a little bit due to injury, but recovered to pitch lights out in St. Lucie and earn his promotion to AA. With Binghamton, Kazmir was 2-1, 1.73 ERA, 2.08 RA, and the league was hitting .188 against him. He'd struck out 29 and walked 9 in 26 innings. That's awesome. And he's a 20 year old lefty. A future Stud. Jose Diaz was BA's 17th best Mets prospect entering the year. The former catcher features a live arm, but struggled with his control this year. The Mets received 28 year old arbitration eligible Victor Zambrano who this year is 9-7, 4.43 ERA, 4.789 Ra. The league is hitting .237 against him as he's allowed 107 hits in 128 innings. His K/9 sits at 7.66 after increasing steadily each of the last two years. Zambrano's a nice pitcher, and will help the Mets, but Kazmir alone would have been too much for me. Fortunato has some good AAA numbers for Durham out of the bullpen. 4-3 9 Saves, 2.42 ERA league hitting .183 against him. He's fanned 54 and walked 21 in his 44.2 innings. He'll be 30 in August. 2. Huber for Bautista. You can't give up on catchers who can hit......271/.417/.487 in AA, and was doing fine in AAA. Like young lefties, catchers who can hit are rare breeds. 3. Huber (by way of Bautista), Wigginton, and Peterson, for Benson and Jeff Keppinger. BA had Huber ranked as the sixth best prospect in the organization before the system by the way. Matt Peterson was the fourth ranked prospect in the Mets system according to BA before the season. Peterson's 22, and large at 6-5, 210, with the ceiling of a #2. Peterson was having a solid year in AA: 6-4, 3.27 ERA, 3.78 RA, with 90 K vs. 45 BB in 104.2 innings. He gave up 11 HR, but otherwise was just fine. Wigginton was a very useful everyday guy to have on the team given his versatility and his bat: .285/.335/.487 in 312 AB. Benson, who's contract is up at the end of this year has been a first round pick who's never quite lived up to expectations. His last two months were good, but his career has not been. Baseball Prospectus lists his most comparable pitchers coming into this year as: Bryan Rekar (2002 edition), Dick Bosman (1973), Roy Smith (1991). Other notable names on the list include: #7, Dustin Hermanson (2002), #9 James Baldwin (2001), #19 Steve Trachsel (2000). Benson is 8-4 with a 4.22 ERA and a 4.68 RA. His K/9 has slipped his year to 5.65 down from a high of over 7.5 in 2000. 24 year old second baseman, Jeff Keppinger is hitting .338/.387/.413 for AA Altoona. I like that OBP, and he's got 17 2B, 2 3B, and 1 HR in his first year in AA. Keppinger did not make BA's top 30 prospects, and he's having a fine year, but he is not among the caiber of prospects the Mets traded away. This will be remembered as a dark day in Metsland unless of course there are rings handed out this year with World Series Champions inscribed on them. I'm nearly speachless I'm so upset, but I have to put myself together and do a broadcast tonight, but my thoughts will hardly be on the Stockton Ports/Inland Empire 66ers game in front of me. For the record, the Pirates asked about Rangers stud 19 year old left John Danks and were immediately rebuffed by the Texas front office. Looks like Tampa and Pittsburgh found their suckers...

Recaps for 7-26

2004-07-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

        Scott Erickson last night: Two innings, seven runs against the Expos.Remember, this was the man who would “solidify” the Mets starting rotation.The Expos. This is a Montreal team dead last in the Majors with 350 runs,51 behind Milwaukee, last in OBP and last in Slugging.        Of course that nearly overshadowed David Wright’s first Major Leaguehomer,which we can all be excited about.
I missed writing very badly last week. I hope to be more regular thisweekfrom Rancho Cucamonga.

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Aaron Heilman/Danny Garcia
AA: Scott Kazmir/Josh Pressley
High A: Aarom Baldiris/Corey Ragsdale/Alhaji Turay/Tim McNab
Low A: Vincent Cordova/Ryan Harvey/Shawn Bowman
SSA: Joseph Williams/Ryan Coultas

Norfolk 6, Indianapolis 3
Pinch hitter Mike Glavine drove in the winning run in the bottom of theseventh. Justin Huber began the rally with a walk. Danny Garcia had theonly extra basehit a double in a 2-4 night. Gerald Williams singled twiceand drove in two. Justin Huber didn’t have a hit, but drew three walks.
Aaron Heilman earned the win, his fourth in a row to improve to 5-8. Heilman dealt seven innings and allowed three runs all in the sixth inningwhen he walked two batters with the bases loaded. On the night he walked four and hit a batter while striking out two. Heilman didn’t allow ahomerun for his second straight night. Heilman has allowed a homer in 11 ofhis 20 Norfolk appearances, and tonight was only the third time in theseason that he has managed to go two consecutive appearances without givingup a long ball.Vic Darrensbourg worked a perfect eighth, striking out all three Indians hefaced. Heath Bell gave up one hit and struck out one to record his ninthsave.

New Britain 2, @ Binghamton 5
Oh yeah. Scott Kazmir fired seven one run innings while striking outseven. He gave up five hits, walked two and hit a batter.        Josh Pressley doubled twice, scoring a pair. Centerfielder Wayne Lydon,who can fly, was 1-2 with two hit by pitches, but was caught stealing.Readers around here should know that I rarely reference a batting averagewithout the corresponding OBP, but know that no player in the Binghamtonlineup had a batting average over .300.St. Lucie 4, @Lakeland 3 (11 innings)        Homers by Aarom Baldiris (his 3rd) and shortstop Corey Ragsdale (his6th)sent this game into extra innings where a homer by Alhaji Turay (his 13th)won it for the Mets. Baldiris and Turay were each 2-5. Lastings Milledge doubled for his only hit.
Tim McNab dealt three scoreless innings for the win. He struck outthreewithout walking a batter and allowed just one hit. Brian Bannister started, going six innings giving up three runs on six hits. The former USC Trojan, Bannister struck out eight – his third highest total of the season. JoseNunez bridged McNab and Bannister with two scoreless innings of his own.
Augusta 2, @ Capital City 5
Vincent Cordova dominated: seven one run innings, with just three hitsand13 strikeouts without a walk. Those 13 strikeouts are a career high,although he ended 2003 with 10 strikeouts in his final appearance forBrooklyn. Cordova has a sick 7.167 K/BB ratio with 86 strikeouts againstjust 12 walks. His ERA sits at 3.99 (46 ER/103.2 IP), but his RA is 5.21(60 R/103.2 IP) as he has allowed a very high number of unearned runs, whichis reflected in his .500 record – 7-6 so far.
Thirdbaseman Shawn Bowman homer in four trips, to go along with a pairofwalks. 2001 draft and follow Jamar Hill homer and walked. Ryan Harveymissed a homerun for the cycle as he singled, doubled and tripled. Harvey,now 24, is hitting .330/.405/.500. That .330 is third in the league, andthe .405 OBP is fifth, his 27 doubles are tied for fifth in the league. Ifor one would like to see him face FSL pitching this season. It’s not likethe St. Lucie outfield is loaded with top-shelf prospects. The St. Lucieoutfield consists of two guys, Jonathan Slack (.276/.357/.378) and BobbyMalek (.254/.307/.409) who have made 80+ starts and two in Joe Jiannetti(.255/.307/.349) and Alhaji Turay (.254/.297/.466) who have made roughly 50 starts sharing the other spot.

Brooklyn 1 @ Aberdeen 3
Seventeenth round pick Joseph Williams from St. Xavier (Ill.) fired sixscoreless innings to star the game. There were baserunners, with five hitsand four walks, but Williams kept the Ironbirds at bay to lower his ERA to1.83. He’s fanned 34 and walked 15 in his 39.1 IP, and the league ishitting just .181 against him.
Outfielder Corey Coles had the only extrabase hit, a double. ShortstopRyan Coultas, the sixth rounder from UC Davis singled, stole a base, anddrove in the only Brooklyn run of the night. No Cyclone had more than onehit.

Wrap-Up and catchup from 7-19

2004-07-19T01:15:00.000-07:00

            I am going to start reporting and calculating total runs against average alongside the more traditional ERA for pitchers. After all, the pitcher should still be responsible for putting the guys on base. As writers Michael Wolverton and Dayn Perry among others have noted, the issue of separating defense and pitching statistics is complicated, and the ERA rule merely makes a half-assed attempt, while the RA avoids the any attempt at correcting for defense. A pitcher on the Ports put the issue a little less delicately when he told that “after the error, it’s like saying nothing matters, and you could just shit the bed.” Like OBP, just give RA a few years.
            Would anyone care to hazard a guess as to how many runs Mike Cameron has saved Mets pitchers this year?
            The White Sox again traded prospects for Carl Everett. I asked a sportswriter what he thought that would do to clubhouse atmosphere. He replied flippantly that it wouldn’t do a thing because the other payers would regard him as an alien presence. I think that’s wishful thinking out of an A’s fan.

Norfolk
            The Tides went 2-2 following the All-Star Break, and has been getting solid starting pitching all the way around.
Thursday, fresh off his Futures Game appearance, David Wright homered twice to give the Tides a 3-0 lead they’d eventually give back. Matt Ginter started but only lasted one inning. Randy Keisler allowed four runs in his six innings. Tyler Yates dealt a scoreless inning, but hit a batter and allowed a hit. David Wright is handling AAA very well: .308/.392/.607. That heady .607 slugging percentage can be explained with the fact that of his 33 AAA hits, eight have been doubles, and eight(!) have been homeruns. Wright’s running buddy from AA, Prentice Redman is still adjusting to AAA: .241/.298/.379. You can’t blame his strikeout rate, 20 in 87 AB, because he struck out in nearly 1 out of 4 AA plate appearances with 68 K in 245 AB.
Recently signed thirty-four year old Vic Darensbourg dealt a perfect inning. The lefty is a good candidate to show up in the Mets bullpen shortly after pitching well in AAA Charlotte where the league was hitting .22 against him and he had 33 strikeouts against nine walks. His left/right splits do not exactly suggest a lefty specialist as rights are hitting .206 against him, while lefties a heftier .261. He does strike out lefties at over one an inning in AAA.
Friday Pat Strange dropped allowed just one unearned run on four hits. He fanned three and walked just one. Victor Diaz tripled and Craig Brazell had a pair of singles.
Saturday Bob Keppel earned his first win of the year. Gerald Williams homered, and dropped a sacrifice bunt in the same game. The Tides scored four runs with two RBI.
Sunday, Aaron Heilman turned in his fourth solid start in a row. He earned his third win in a row for his seven innings. Heilman allowed three runs, two earned, on four hits. He struck out eight and walked two. In four starts in July in 26 innings his ERA is 2.42 and his total runs against average is 3.11. With 26 strikeouts and ten walks his K/BB ratio is 2.6. That’s all good, but he’s still allowed a homerun in two of those starts. He’s given up 15 homers, tied for ninth in the league, in 110 innings so far this year. Victor Diaz homered and doubled. David Wright dropped another 2-4 performance with a walk and an RBI. Tyler Yates picked up a John Franco style nerve racking save: 1.1 innings, 1 hit, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, but he got the job done.

Binghamton
            At 55-39 the B-Mets lead the Eastern League’s Northern Division by three games ahead of New Hampshire. Angel Pagan’s .312 batting average is fourth in the league and he’s hitting .312/.366/.438. The team features three pitchers in the top ten in the league in era: Jason Scobie (3-2, 2.91 ERA, 3.53 RA), Matt Peterson (6-4, 3.27 ERA, 3.78 RA), and Neal Musser (9-4, 3.33 ERA, 4.34 RA). Twenty-three year old Wayne Lydon (.269/.339/.352) leads the league with 52 stolen bases, nearly twice the total of second place Tyrell Godwin who has 27. Even without David Wright and Prentice Redman the B-Mets have won 3 of their last 5 including two on Sunday.
            Scott Kazmir won his first AA game with five one run innings in a 10-3 victory Thursday. He fanned five, but walked one and plunked two. Josh Pressley doubled in a 2-3 night while driving in three.

St. Lucie
            The Floridians are playing .500 ball in the second half at 12-13, and find themselves fourth in the tightly bunched East Division four games behind Vero Beach. Aarom Baldiris is hitting .305/.387/.383, big numbers in the pitcher friendly FSL. That OBP puts him sixth in the league, and his .305 average puts him eighth. Jonathan Slack (.281/.361/.391) is tied for second in the league with 27 stolen bases, but has only been caught 4 times.
            Lastings Milledge was promoted from Capital City and is 3-9, with a double and a triple. Firstbaseman Brett Harper, originally a 45th round pick in 2000 is now clubbing along to a .360/.455/.579, all numbers that would put him in the top three in the league if he had enough AB to qualify.
            Yusmeiro Petit earned his first High A win this week with six scoreless, one hit innings versus Jupiter. He fanned six and walked two. In 11.2 FSL innings, he’s given up just one run.

            Once again, this will be a relatively slow recap week as I will be on the road again.

Mets Weekend Wrap 7-11

2004-07-12T03:01:00.000-07:00

Two Mets prospects played in the Major League Baseball Futures game, for the country’s best prospects: Yusmeiro Petit and David Wright. It’s dangerous to read too much into their performances, since this was an All-Star game, but even so, the scouts were there in force, and it’s a very cool showcase. For each prospect, there was some good and some bad.
Defensively, David Wright had a rough third inning behind Rangers prospect John Danks. Danks, a 19 year old has a big time curve and induces grounder after grounder. With a runner on first, Danks induced the World centerfielder to bounce the ball on the left side, to Wright’s left. He angled back, let the ball play him, and had the ball bounce off his glove for an error. With his next chance, with runners at first and second and one out, Wright received another bouncing ball at third. This one should have been two, by way of second, to get out of the inning. Instead, Wright snagged the ball, chased and tagged the charging runner, which left runners again at first and second. Next, Danks induced a slow roller towards third, that Wright didn’t get to quickly enough to make a play. This would have taken a sensational play to get the runner at first. So: two blunders, one half mental (apologies to Yogi)/half physical, and one completely mental. I watched the inning with Danks’ current teammates which also includes one of Wright’s buddies- Josh Rupe, who was disappointed with Wright’s defensive performance. He promised to call his boy and give him a hard time. On the plus side, Wright at the plate was 1-3. The one was a line drive single up the middle on a 98 mile an hour 2-2 fastball.
Meanwhile, Yusmeiro Petit was one of three pitchers alongside Danks, and the Expos’ Clint Everts, who was selected to the game based on their achievements in low A. I didn’t watch his inning, but listened online. He faced three batters, and retired two with a single and a strikeout; that’s the good. However, he allowed both runners he inherited to score.

Norfolk

Friday 7/9: Norfolk 8 @ Scranton WB 1
Saturday 7/10: Norfolk 4 @ Scranton 1
Sunda 7/11: Norfolk 6 @ Scranton 2

Sunday saw a good performance by Aaron Heilman who gave up just a 2 run homer in six innings. He struck out 4, and walked five, while allowing five hits in six innings. Tyler Yates struck out three in an inning in which he faced four batters, but didn’t allow a hit or walk. Pedro Feliciano worked a perfect ninth with a pair of whiffs. Prentice Redman homered.
Saturday was Scott Erickson time. He went 8.1 innings and allowed one run and seven hits. He struck out two and walked two. That’s solid, but hardly dominating. Victor Diaz had a pair of hits, which included a double. Gerald Williams homered.
Friday night Randy Keisler hurled seven one run innings. He struck out six without walking a batter while giving up seven hits. Yates gave up one hit and fanned two in one inning. Royce Ring gave up a hit in the ninth.
I’ll take Keisler’s 6Ks over Erickson’s 2 any day of the week.

Binghamton
The big news is Scott Kazmir’s AA debut Saturday. He described himself as shaky, but left with the game tied. He went six innings and allowed two runs. Kaz fanned seven but walked five.
Ken Chenard started again Sunday and was solid, earning the win for his five shutout innings. He gave up just three hits. He struck out six, but plunked two. Jason Scobie went four innings for his first save of the year. Josh Pressley was 2-3 with a pair of doubles and 3 RBI. Jeff Duncan was 3-5 with a triple and a pair of singles. Chase Lambin drove in three with a double and two singles.
Friday Bowie scored a 9-0 victory. This one was a 2-0 game in the seventh when Neal Musser left the game. Musser gave up just one earned run, and allowed but three hits over his seven frames. He fanned four, but walked only one. Jose Diaz “had his titties lit.” Six runs, 2 walks, 2 HPB, 2 hits. The B-Mets managed only two hits.

St. Lucie

St. Lucie 5 @ Jupiter 4 Sunday; 25 year old Rule 5 draftee Brian Edwards dealt six inning ad gave up one run. He struck out four, without walking a batter. The big hit in the game: Alhaji Turay’s three run homer in the bottom of the eighth to put Binghamton ahead.
St. Lucie 2, Jupiter 1 (18 innings); !!!! Orlando Roma fired eight one hit innings while fanning 10. Tim McNab won the game for his 4.2 innings while striking out five.

I’m not sure how much writing I’ll do this week from Visalia, but I’d like to find a computer.
As you might have noticed, I switched formats halfway through the report. Since on Sunday, I try to cover a little more, which makes for the easiest reading?

Pass on to friends!!!
Toby

Mets Minor League Recaps for 7-8

2004-07-09T03:10:00.000-07:00

From Adam Rubin in the Daily News: “Most Mets officials have never seen Soler pitch, but the belief is that the righthander, who throws in the low-90s and is purported to be 24 years old, could be in the rotation after several minor-league starts.” Let me get this right, $3 Million dollars, and you’ve never seen him pitch, AND his CUBAN birth certificate says he’s 24, AND he’s had two major shoulder surgeries... Oh, now I get it. Who knows, maybe Alain Soler takes the Mets to the pennant in 2004. “The belief is that the righthander, who throws in the low 90s….” Belief? George Bush believes that we are winning the War on Terror. I want a scout or a GM to KNOW what a guy throws.
Also from Rubin: “Soler’s addition and the likely promotion of Scott Erickson from Triple-A Norfolk…could solidify a rotation that includes shaky back-end starters Matt Ginter and Jae Seo.” Huh? Scott Erickson isn’t a shaky back-end starter? Just for fun, lets compare some AAA numbers:

Erickson: 2-3, 5.15 ERA, 43.2 IP, 49 H, .283 BA, 5 HR, 10 BB, 28 K
WHIP: 1.36 K/BB: 2.8 K/9: 5.83
Ginter: 0-2, 1.56 ERA, 34.2 IP, 27 H, .211 BA, 1 HR, 4 BB, 27 K
WHIP: 0.89 K/BB: 6.75 K/9: 7.01
Seo (2002): 6-9, 3.99, 128.2 IP, 145 H, .284 BA, 14 HR, 22 BB, 87 K
WHIP: 1.30 K/BB: 3.95 K/9: 6.09

Erickson’s numbers are actually fairly similar to Seo’s 2002, with a WHIP around 1.3 and a K/9 around 6. But Seo’s control was better as evidenced by his K/BB ratio. Ginter’s performance at AAA was far superior than Erickson’s in every dimension and he’s ten years younger.

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Pat Strange/Gerald Williams
A: Jay Caligiuri/Jonathan Slack
High A: Jonathan Slack/ Jay Caligiuri
High A: Aarom Baldiris/Corey Ragsdale
A: Lastings Milledge/Rashad Parker

Norfolk 3, @ Scranton-WB 2
Pat Strange won his first game in a month, with his best start in nearly two. He gave up seven hits and two runs over six innings, while fanning four. Jason Roach followed with two innings and allowed just one basehit. Tyler Yates got his first save for a perfect ninth with two strikeouts.
The Tides used a pair of homeruns to do all their damage. David Wright’s solo shot in the first put Norfolk up 1-0. Gerald Williams’ two run returned the lead to Norfolk at 3-2. Both Wright and Williams were 1-4. Esix Snead and Rodney Nye each doubled for their only hit. In fact, no Norfolk hitter had multiple hits as Norfolk needed just five hits, four of which went for extra bases.
Javier Cordona started tonight behind the plate. The 29 year old spent all of last year in the independent Atlantic League. He’s at AA, but not much at AAA or the major league level. He last saw the bigs in 2002 when he hit .103 in 39 AB for the Padres.

Binghamton
Off. The B-Mets begin a four game series vs. Bowie Friday night.

St. Lucie 4, @ Sarasota 6 (10 innings)
Chris Durbin’s two run homer in the tenth off Robert Paulk won the game for Sarasota. That ruined Paulk’s otherwise solid 3.1 innings of relief work. Brian Bannister worked in and out of trouble for the first 6.1 innings allowing four runs, two earned. He gave up eight hits, walked two unintentionally, issued one intentional pass, and plunked a pair.
Jonathan Slack was 3-5 with a stolen base and a pair of runs scored from the top of the order. Aarom Baldiris was 2-5 with two singles. Jay Caligiuri was 2-4, with a homer and 3 RBI.

St. Lucie 1 @ Sarasta 10
This was a looong doubleheader. Yusmeiro Petit started and lost for St. Lucie, but was the best pitcher of the ballgame for the Mets: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 2 K. Luz Portobanco gave up three runs in 2.1 innings, and David Byard surrendered 6 in his 2.
Two Mets had two hits: Aarom Baldiris singled twice with an RBI, and Corey Ragsdale singled and doubled. That was it.

Capital City 6, @ Asheville 16
Ivan Maldonado was charged with 13 earned runs in 3.1 innings.
Lastings Milledge was 3-5 with a solo homer. Rashad Parker singled and doubled in five trips. Jamar Hill and Blake Whealy each had one hit: a solo homer.

Brooklyn
Off. The Cyclones play Staten Island this weekend.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 7-7

2004-07-08T03:13:00.000-07:00

Scott Kazmir was promoted to AA Binghamton and is scheduled to make his AA debut Saturday at 7:05 against the Bowie Baysox. He should be added to the roster Friday. I read on Mets.com, that Yusmeiro Petit’s start in St. Lucie this week was supposed to be a spot start, but he was so good, the Mets were thinking about keeping him in Florida. Could that have pushed Kazmir to AA? Or maybe it was just Kaz’s 0.78 ERA in his last four starts that did it.
Ryan Harvey earned Topps Player of the month honors for the SAL in June for his .381/.458/.667 month that included a 17 game hit streak. He had 32 hits in the month, and an even 16 of them, twelve doubles and four homers went for extra bases. And he walked seven times.
Ian Bladergroen, who was having a huge (.349/.375/.554) breakout season is now done for the season after tearing ligaments in his left wrist.

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Victor Diaz/Bob Keppel
AA: Matt Peterson/Angel Pagan
A: Brian Walker/Blake Whaley/Ryan Harvey
R: Seth Pietsch

Richmond 2, @ Norfolk 4
Victor Diaz was the hero tonight with a two run pinch hit double in the bottom of the eighth to break a 2-2 tie. Diaz’s hit scored Rodney Dye and John Pachot who had each singled. David Wright: a single, a double and a walk.
Bob Keppel threw the first two innings and allowed nothing but struck out two Braves. Then the rains came. A 94 minute rain delay followed. Jake Joseph allowed two runs, neither earned in four innings of relief. Mike Meyers walked one in a scoreless inning. Pedro Feliciano snagged the win, his fourth for striking out two batters in the top of the eighth. Heath Bell struck out a batter for his fifth save.
Each team committed four errors in an ugly game that didn’t end until 11:52 local time.

Binghamton 12, @ Erie 9
Matt Peterson cruised through the first six innings giving up two earned runs while striking out eight. Then the bullpen of Blake McGinley and Kole Strayhorn make this one a lot more interesting by giving up seven earned runs over the final two innings.
You gotta feel for Erie pitching. The defense committed eight errors so 8 of Binghamton’s 10 runs were unearned.
Angel Pagan drove in four with a three run triple and a sacrifice fly. He added a double to complete a 2-4 night. Karim Garcia drove in three runs with a double and sacrifice fly in five AB. Chris Basak was 3-4 with a double and two RBI. Wayne Lydon put together an amusing line: 0-3, 2 BB, 3 R, 1 SB.

St. Lucie
Rained out.

Capital City 12 @ Asheville 2
Something I don’t understand in the boxscore: Matt Lindstrom is listed as the starter, but didn’t face a single batter. Brian Walker went the first 5.2 “real” innings, and gave up two runs on seven hits. Bryan King earned the long distance save in a 10 run game. He was perfect facing the minimum 10 batters in 3.1 innings with four strikeouts.
The Bombers broke a 3-2 game after three innings wide open with a five run fifth, and a four run sixth and set a season high with 17 hits.
The big hit in that five run fifth was Blake Whaley’s three run blast. Whaley finished 2-4. Shawn Bowman was 2-3 with a two run homer in the sixth, a single, a walk, and a sac fly. Andy Wilson doubled twice. Ryan Harvey was 3-5 with a double.

Brooklyn @ Auburn
Rained out. The game will not be made up this season.

Burlington 2 @ Kingsport 11
Seth Pietsch was 2-3 with a HR, and three RBI. DH Travis Garcia had 5 RBI in a 2-4 night that included a homer and a single. Garcia played at every level of low A last year: Brooklyn, Kingsport and Capital City where he hit .288 in 59 AB.

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Mets Minor League Recaps for 7-6

2004-07-07T02:37:00.000-07:00

The Mets are making it hard for me to keep thinking only of the future. I honestly would have been pleased to be within 2 games of .500, instead of 2 games from first one game past the halfway mark. Now, I just hope and pray they don’t raid the farm system to trade for a mediocre aging expensive talent.
Eric Gagne. I lost some respect for John Smoltz when I heard him say on the radio that he thought Gagne’s 84 straight saves was more impressive than Orel’s 59 scoreless. Seriously. I don’t think this is a record that will ever be broken, and more importantly, people shouldn’t even try. Someday, and I hope it will be soon, managers will figure out that saving their best reliever for the save is silly.

Stars of the day:
AAA: David Wright/Aaron Heilman
AA: Lance Caraciolli/Angel Pagan/Chris Basak
High A: Tim McNab/Corey Ragsdale
A: Lastings Milledge/Micah Mangrum

Richmond 3, @ Norfolk 6
Good news. Aaron Heilman picked up only his second win of the season against eight losses. To earn the win he dealt six innings allowing two runs, but just one earned run. He did allow six hits. Heilman struck out seven while walking one. Lefty Pedro Feliciano gave up one hit in a scoreless seventh. Tyler Yates gave up a hit and a walk with one strikeout in the eighth.
David Wright’s only hit was a two run homer. He also drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Vance Wilson was 2-4 with a solo homerun. Craig Brazell tripled for his only hit.

Binghamton 4, @ Erie 10
Wayne Ough made it only an inning plus giving up six runs, all earned. Lance Caraccioli gave the B-Mets a chance with three scoreless innings.
Wayne Lydon singled, doubled and scored from the leadoff spot. Angel Pagan homered, driving in two and singled as well. Chris Basak drilled two solo homers as well, giving him three in three nights. Twenty six year old Basak started the season in Norfolk where he went .265/.293/.504, that OBP of .293 is almost impressively low. He walked 5 times versus 117 at bats. In Binghamton he’s up to .270/.360/.520 and has 19 walks versus 152 AB.

St. Lucie 0, @ Sarasota 3
Fresh off last night’s marathon, the pitching continued to dominate this series. St. Lucie managed only seven singles, and three of ‘em belonged to Corey Ragsdale. Aarom Baldiris had a pair of hits as well to increase his numbers to .299/.386/.378.
Matthew Lindstrom went 5.2 and gave up three runs on six hits. He was doomed by his five walks. Tim McNab dealt 2.1 perfect innings striking out two.

Capital City 4, @ Asheville 15
The Tourists Bombed the Bombers pounding out 13 hits and four homeruns. Tanner Osberg gave up the first ten. Micah Mangrum mopped up by going a perfect 2.1 with 4 strikeouts.
Lastings Milledge had more than half the Bombers hits. He was 4-5 with a solo homer. Milledge is redhot: in July he is hitting .419/.419/.710. That’s 13/31 with three doubles, a pair of homers and three stolen bases in six games. Shortstop David Reaver singled and doubled in five trips. Catcher Yunir Garcia singled twice and drove in a pair.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 7-5

2004-07-06T03:46:00.000-07:00

Check out Avkash at the Raindrops. He did a very cool analysis of monthly splits for a few prospects a few days ago. Also, he’s written up some recaps for the last few days. If you’re reading this, you should check his work out. http://theraindrops.weblogs.us/

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Craig Brazell/Pedro Feliciano
AA: Ken Chenard/Wayne Lydon/Chase Lambin
High A: Scott Kazmir/The Bullpen/Jonathan Slack
SSA: Dante Brinkley/Ryan Coultas

Richmond 11, Norfolk 6
Norfolk led 6-1 after five and a half innings thanks to a Craig Brazell grandslam and five one run innings from Scott Erickson.
However, Richmond hung a five spot on the board in the sixth, and added three in the seventh, and two in the eighth. Mike Meyers was charged with five runs in .1 of an inning! Pedro Feliciano retired two to get Norfolk out of the sixth. Tyler Yates took the loss for allowing three runs, two earned on three hits in one inning of work. Royce Ring allowed a pair as well.
The Tides mustered only five hits. Craig Brazell’s grandslam was his only hit of the night. Victor Diaz singled in four trips. Gerald Williams singled, doubled, and was hit by a pitch.
Norfolk has now lost five in a row.

Binghamton 6, Erie 3
Ken Chenard improved to 5-1 with his second straight victory as a starter. He gave up three runs on five hits while walking two and fanning four. Tim Lavigne picked up the three inning save.
Two bigleaguers made their rehab debuts. Vance Wilson, making his first rehab start went 1-4, but his only homer was a homerun. Karim Garcia was 0-3 with a walk.
Shortstop Gil Velazquez drilled a two run homer for his only hit. Wayne Lydon was 2-5 at the top of the order with a stolen base. Chase Lambin was 3-4. Ron Acuna drove in two with his two singles.

St. Lucie 2, Sarasota 0 (19 innings)
Oh god. Four hours and 56 minutes. Eighteen scoreless innings. Two total runs.
St. Lucie scored the game’s only runs in the top of the nineteenth. Corey Ragsdale walked and Jonathan Slack singled to put runners on first and second. Wilson Batista bunted them along to second and third for the first out. Aaron Baldiris singled home Ragsdale, and Jay Caligiuri’s sacrifice fly brought home Slack with the second run. Slack was 3-8.
Scott Kazmir did it again. This time for six innings. He gave up five hits, struck out three and walked one. In his last four starts, since June 19th, he has a microscopic 0.78 ERA (2 ER/23 IP). He’s whiffed 21 while walking nine. The league is hitting just .198 against him over this span. Believe it or not, he did not factor in the decision.
David Byard got the win for his three innings of work. He followed four innings from Brian Edwards who gave up just two hits and didn’t walk a batter. Robert Paulk alloed just one hit in his three innings. Luz Portobanco gave up one hit in his two innings. Scott Strickland was the first reliever in relief of Kazmir and pitched a perfect seventh. St. Lucie pitching recorded only eight strikeouts and two unintentional walks. Sarasota pitching fanned 20 Mets.

Capital City
Off.

Brooklyn 4, Auburn 5
Dante Brinkley was 3-5 and drove in two. Sixth round pick Ryan Coultas singled, doubled and walked. The double was his first extra base hit as a professional. Derran Watts doubled and walked in four official at bats. Aaron Hathaway doubled.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 6-30

2004-07-01T01:31:00.000-07:00

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Scott Erickson/Victor Dias
AA: Ken Chenard/Chris Basak
High A: Scott Kazmir/Andy Wilson
A: Ryan Danly/Ian Bladergroen/Wilson Batista
SSA: Dante Brinkley
R: Josh Wyrick/Seth Pietsch

Pawtucket 0, Norfolk 3
The Tides got two runs off Byung-Hyun Kim in his two innings of work for Pawtucket. Victor Diaz drove home all three Norfolk runs with a homerun and a double, Norfolk’s only extra base hits of the night. David Wright was 2-4, the only other tide with more than one hit.
Scott Erickson turned in his best outing on any level: a scoreless 7.2 innings. If you wanted to nitpick, you would point to the eight baserunners he allowed between five hits and three walks, while only striking out two. Heath Bell struck out one in a perfect ninth for his fourth save.

Akron 3, Binghamton 9
I tried to listen the Binghampton broadcast online tonight, but the server kept disconnecting. It was a frustrating experience. The other times I’ve tried to listen to Binghamton’s games, I’ve never been able to establish a connection.
Ken Chenard won to go to 4-1. He threw five innings, and gave up three runs, and two homeruns. Lance Caraccioli and Blake McGinley each gave up two hits in two scoreless innings.
Catcher Justin Huber continued his hot hitting with a pair of doubles in a 2-4 effort. Chase Lambin’s homerun was his only hit of the night. Chris Basak drove in four runs with a homerun and went 2-3 with two walks. Wayne Lydon and Angel Pagan each doubled. Pagan’s .319 average is now tied for fourth in the league, his OBP is just .372. He has 16 doubles, five triples and two homers but has walked just 25 times in 307 PA.

St. Lucie 8, Vero Beach 2
Yes, Yes, Yes!! Scott Kazmir: 6.0 innings, three hits, 6 strikeouts, 3 walks, and the win. In his last three starts Kazmir has a 1.06 ERA (2 ER/17 IP) and has 18 strikeouts versus eight walks.
Meanwhile, the offense blasted away with three homeruns and fourteen hits. Jay Caligiuri’s homer was part of his 2-5 night with 2 RBI. Alhaji Turay’s was a solo shot and his only hit. Andy Wilson was 2-3 with his homer and three RBI. The non-drafted free agent from Stetson, is hitting .429 in the five games since his promotion from Capital City.

Capital City 1, Rome 0
The rain shortened a doubleheader into just five innings of baseball. The one run the bombers pushed across in the fourth benefited from the sloppy track. Wilson Batista drew a walk, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error on Braves catcher Miguel Bernard. Ian Bladergroen drove him home with a sacrifice fly to increase his SALly leading total of 73 RBI. His line of .342/.399/.598 puts him in third in the league in batting, eighth in on base percentage and first in slugging. His 39 extra base hits are one off the league lead.
Ryan Danly dealt five scoreless innings and allowed just three hits, while fanning three. He’s won both games he’s appeared in; one in Capital City and one in Brooklyn. He was a draft and follow: originally a 38th round draft pick in 2000 who signed in May 2001.

Brooklyn 3, Hudson Valley 11
Dante Brinkley doubled twice and drove in one. The 23 year old has seen stops already this year in St. Lucie and Capital City and didn’t hit over .250 in either league.

Greeneville 5, Kingsport 16
Josh Wyrick was 3-4 with a double, homerun and three RBI. Wyrick, out of Porterville (CA) CC was the Mets 11th round selection. Seth Pietsch drove in seven, with a triple, HR, as part of a 3-5 night. An eighth rounder last year, Pietsch is now hitting .410/.477/.821 in his second time round in Kingsport. I think we’ll be hearing from these two a little bit.

A Motley Collection from 6-27

2004-06-28T02:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, so although my main topic is the Mets minor League system, it’s hard to get around today’s disappointment in the Bronx. I know, I should be used to it since it happens every year, but this time around was just like every other time around: the Mets lost a series to the Yanks. I guess I can take solace in the fact that one of the firemen in the ESPN opening tonight got something right when he said, “Both teams come from the greatest city in the world.”
I listened to the final hour of game 1, and watched most of game 2. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Gary Cohen is my favorite broadcaster in baseball. I had a bunch of notes from game 2, but I left them at the bar - The Graduate, Stockton, CA -where I watched the day’s final innings. I do have a few random thoughts about game two.
It’s hard not to like the Richard Hidalgo trade and harder not to like it now.
Ok, so Ginter was a little rattled by Yankee stadium, but he recovered, and gave the Mets a chance, albeit a slight one. At least he got someone out. Mike Stanton, I’m looking at you.
I really like Joe Morgan because if I pay attention for the entire game, I’ll learn something. It’s true that he often suffers from twice-itis where he repeats everything, and then says the same thing twice. However, a few comments on his commentary, from early in game two, when I could bear to listen to every word are in order.
In the first inning of game two, after Sheffield lined a hanging slider for a basehit, Morgan said, “He can handle any pitch.” Well, K-Zone showed he hit a pitch right down the middle, belt high. However, a batter later, Morgan made up for it by explaining how Hideki Matsui’s weak swing showed he was looking for the wrong pitch.
Then, in the second inning, Kaz Matsui went to his right, deep in the hole to short, picked the hop on Derek Jeter’s bouncing ball, set and quickly fired high and wide to first off his back foot for an error. It was a difficult, but not exceptional play. Morgan, a player turned broadcaster, and thus an apologist for the players, quickly launched into a speech about how difficult Matsui’s transition to Major League Baseball is, and lectured Mets fans to be patient. Initially, I was annoyed by Morgan’s logic. After all, we’re paying him real US money to produce real US results, and we moved a future superstar off his natural position to make room for Kaz. Also, scouts I’ve talked to recently say that a prospect’s arm is matched only by his feet in determining whether he’ll be able to play SS at the major league level. Kaz does not have a major league shortstop’s arm. Every night, I watch a 19-year old, a single-A shortstop, Joaquin Arias, who has a far better arm than Matsui. I went through all of that in about a minute. And I kept thinking…
What if Joe Morgan is right in this situation, and not just defending a player for the sake of defending a player? Imagine that play happened in Japan for a moment. In Japan, most fields are Astroturf, and if Kaz had fielded that ball in the same position, deep in the hole, it would have gotten to him much more quickly than on the Yankee stadium grass, and he would have had time to lob the ball to first and throw out the runner. In fact, I watched a comparable situation earlier in the day in the College World Series. In the CWS, where the players swing aluminum or some other space-age material, the balls get to the shortsop much faster, almost as through they were playing on Astroturf. I saw the Texas shortstop make a play at short, straighten and lob the ball to first, in time to record the out. The lackadaisical throw struck me as funny, and it wasn’t until Morgan’s Kaz comment later that I figured out why it bothered me. With a wood bat, shortstops almost never have time to lob the ball. So maybe Morgan was right. Or maybe he was just making excuses. You decide.
The question remains, however, why did the Mets sign Matsui to be a sub-par defensive shortstop, to move Jose Reyes to second?
One other thought about the difference in style struck me today. Most of the American hitters I talk to have been schooled to “lock-out” with their front leg at contact. On Matsui’s basehit in the seventh, his front leg was very flexed. For comparison, Sierra was locked out on his single to left in the bottom half of the inning that made it 9-5 and effectively ended the game.

True Story:
Tuesday. Stockton Ports at San Jose Giants, Ports batting, top of the seventh inning. Runners on second and third, two out, score tied 3-3. Ports infielder Seth Taylor batting. The pitch, it was 2-2 I think, runs inside, and hits him on the left wrist. Taylor doubles over in pain clutching his arm. Meanwhile, the ball rolls weakly out toward the pitcher’s mound. The alert San Jose pitcher picked up the ball and threw to first, prompting the field umpire to make the out signal for out number three. Taylor, at this point, was holding his arm near the on-deck circle being attended to by trainer Brian Bobier. The Giants sprinted off the field, and no Port took the field for a few moments. After a lengthy argument, the Ports took the field, at which point the homeplate ump, ejected someone from the Ports dugout. (He didn’t even know who he’d ejected.)
I saw the X-rays on Wednesday morning and they were very easy to read. Seth Taylor had broken his left arm - the bone was sticking in two directions. As the players might say: No Bueno.
Wednesday. Seth Taylor, with his left arm in a cast, exchanges the lineup card at homeplate with San Jose Giants Manager Len Sakata. One ump refused to acknowledge him. One expressed sympathy for his injury. Seth then coached first for the first inning, where the ump wouldn’t say a word to him.

The Mets have now signed 4 of their first picks, but haven’t been able to come to terms with either of the first two selections: Phil Humber or Matt Durkin. Thirdrounder Gaby Hernandez, fourth rounder Aaron Hathaway (one of the top defensive catchers in the draft), fifth rounder Nick Evans, and sixth rounder Evan Coultas are all on payroll.

I hear some very worrisome things about Matt Durkin. He reportedly is seeking a $900,000 bonus. The Mets offered him $750,000. In one scout’s opinion, he’s barely worth one tenth of that. I was told me that he was no better now, than when he was drafted out of HS, in the tenth round. His fastball, on good days will sit at a legitimate 95-96. However, other days he will throw 89-92. Also, he’s essentially stopped throwing his curveball, which had potential to be plus major league pitch a few years ago. Scouts have big questions about “his makeup.”

On the other hand, most folks I’ve asked who are in a position to know, and I don’t run into many out here in California, think the Mets made the right choice with Humber over his teammate, Niemann in the first round.

It’s a small world. I met a girl who went to Bullard HS in Fresno. At first, I had no idea why that sounded familiar since I don’t know anyone in Fresno. I figured it had something to do with some baseball player. I was right: with their 50th pick, that’s the last one, the Mets scooped up a lefty named Sean Cunningham. They don’t expect him to sign, but the chances that they’ll draft him next year, when he will sign are good. You heard it here first.

Norfolk
The Tides have now lost six in a row, after a sweep at the hands at Scranton-Wilkesbury this weekend. Norfolk couldn’t manage more than three runs in any of this weekend’s games.
Sunday, Bob Keppel gave up four runs on eight hits in 6.1 innings.
Saturday, Aaron Heilman was solid, allowing just one earned run in six innings. He fanned six, gave up six hits, walked one and plunked one. He did allow one unearned run. The Tides allowed three unearned runs in the game, including two by Jason Roach. Tyler Yates struck out two in a perfect inning out of the bullpen.
Friday, Scranton-WB used a six run (not that again) fourth to cruise to a 7-2 win. Scott Erickson gave up seven runs, four of them earned on eight hits in six innings. He struck out six and hit a batter.
David Wright was a modest 5-16 vs. Scranton-WB with two home runs and two doubles. It’s only a matter of when, not if.

Binghamton
Like their AAA brethren, the B-Mets were 0-for-the weekend, losing three to Trenton.
Angel Pagan was 6-14 with two doubles in the series and is now hitting .321/.375/.435. He’s swiped 20 bags, and has only been caught twice.

I’m done for the day. I’ll be spending the California League All-Star Break out of the Central Valley, and back in civilization, San Francisco or there-abouts.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 6-23

2004-06-24T02:36:00.000-07:00

I met the Northern California Mets scout today who drafted Matt Durkin, the San Jose State pitcher, and Ryan Coultas, the UC Davis shortstop. He thought Coultas if he didn’t sign today, would ink very shortly. He was not expecting Durkin, who is represented by Scott Boras, to pitch anytime soon. He was also very high on seventh round draft pick Scott Hyde, who led George Fox to the DIII championship, and I like if only because his name has a certain ring to it.

Stars of the Day:
AA:Wayne Lydon/Jose Diaz
High A: Jay Caligiuri/Kevin Deaton
Low A: Ryan Harvey/Vincent Cordova
SSA: Corey Coles/Joseph Williams

Norfolk
Off.

Binghamton 5, Norwich 3
Wayne Lydon was 2-4 with a double and walk and scored a pair of runs. Centerfielder Angel Pagan had a 2-5 night with two stolen bases to raise his average to .316/.431/.375 from a nadir of .190 on May 3rd. The speedster has 13 doubles, five triples and 19 stolen bases while only being caught twice. Chris Basak singled home a run, as did third baseman David Detienne.
Jose Diaz improved to 4-3 with the win. He gave up three runs, seven hits, and two walks in five innings. Ken Chenard was terrific out of the ‘pen: four scoreless, one hit innings with one walk and four strikeouts.

Clearwater 7, St. Lucie 11
Every St. Lucie starter had at least one hit, but no one had more than two. St. Lucie used two big innings: scoring six runs in the first, and five in the seventh to put away the Threshers.
First baseman Jay Caligiuri homered and drove in four in a 2-5 night. 25 year old DH Andres Rodriguez plated three with a homerun and a single.
The recipient of all this run support was Kevin Deaton who won his fifth decision. He allowed just one solo home run and one other hit while striking out six to lower his ERA to 2.87.

Asheville 2, Capital City 4
The first three Bombers reached base, and all scored. Lastings Milledge and Rashad Parker singled, and Ryan Harvey bombed a three run homer to bring them both home. Harvey’s .360/.439/.553 line puts him first in the league in average, first in active players in OBP and sixth in the league in SLG, but he’s 25, and in low A.
Vincent Cordova won with six innings of one run ball striking out six Tourists. He gave up five hits and walked just one, but hit two. Shane Hawk struck out three in a perfect ninth for his ninth save.

Brooklyn 6, Tri-City 3
Derran Watts drilled a solo home run, singled, and scored three runs. The 24 year old was hitting .273 with Capital City. Centerfielder Corey Coles was 2-5. The 22 year old lefty from Louisiana-Layfayette hit .333/.396/.406 for Kingsport last summer. Ambio Concepcion was 2-4.
Joseph Williams, 23, from St. Xavier and making his first career start, went five scoreless innings and allowed only two hits. He struck out five and walked two.

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Mets Minor League Recaps for 6-21

2004-06-22T02:34:00.000-07:00

I attended my first major league game of the year: Blue Jays at Padres, on Sunday afternoon. Jays won 3-0, but don’t ask me for details about what happened, I was paying scant attention because I was preparing for my broadcast later that day. The real point of that story is that PETCO Park is really stunning. It now passes SBC as my favorite new ballpark. Really, everything about PETCO is done right: the feel – very southern Californian, the setting- on the water, in the middle of downtown, the colors- Padres blue, and the white, with exposed brick, amenities– including the park in centerfield. There’s one downside: the upperdeck is roughly a mile from the field. I sat briefly in the nosebleeds nearly even with first base and felt very far away from the action. The Padres brag about their “cantilevered” upper deck, but it’s just far away. I used to love sitting in the upper deck at Shea. Maybe I’m just picky now, or spoiled, but I didn’t remember feeling that divorced from the field. Or maybe I didn’t care.
One mechanical note, I realized that I was losing home/away info by putting the winning team first, so I’ve begun listing the visiting team first, followed by the home team.

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Jeff Duncan/Prentice Redman
AA: Chris Basak/ Wayne Ough
High A: Alhaji Turay/Matt Lindstrom
A: Yusmeiro Petit/Andrew Wilson
SSA: Michael Devaney/Dante Brinkley

Norfolk 3, Pawtucket 9
David Wright did what he does: a double and a walk in four total plate appearances. Prentice Redman was 1-4 with a triple and 2 RBI. Old-timer Jeff Duncan was 2-5.
Jason Roach gave up four runs in 3.2 innings. Jake Joseph allowed 3 in 1.1. Mike Meyers gave up just 2 in 3 innings.

Binghamton 9, Norwich 3
Leftfielder Wayne Lydon tripled and drove in three. Ron Acuna was 2-5 with a double. Thirdbaseman Chris Basak did his best David Wright imitation: 3-4 with a double.
Wayne Ough won to improve to (2-3, 5.37) by allowing three runs in six innings. He struck out four and walked three while giving ups seven hits. Tim Lavigne was a walk away from perfection in his three relief innings to pick up the long distance save.

Palm Beach 3, St. Lucie 4
Alhaji Turay hit a two-out walkoff homerun in the bottom of the ninth to win the ballgame for St. Lucie. Jonathan Slack’s two run triple tied the ballgame in the bottom of the eighth. Bobby Malek added a 2-4 effort.
Starter Matt Lindstrom kept his team in the game with one earned run over 5.2 innings. He gave up four hits and walked three. The bullpen of Tim McNab, Michael Cox and Robert Paulk didn’t allow a run after that.

Augusta 1, Capital City 6
Lastings Milledge was 2-4 at the top of the order. Rashad Parker, the Mets 23rd round pick in 2002, drilled a three run homer. Andrew Wilson homered and doubled a drove in two.
Nineteen year old (at least in Venezualan years) Yusmeiro Petit improved to 9-1 with the win. Petit was just selected as a representative for the World Squad at the All-Star futures game, so someone’s noticing what he’s doing. He gave up just one hit, a solo home run, over 5.2 innings. He fanned 11, while walking only one. Petit lowered his ERA to 2.10, and the league is hitting just .157 against him. I’m not a big fan of the win statistic, but he’s won his last five decisions, and hasn’t been defeated since April 28th, when he gave up five runs, the most in any outing this season against Savanah. Petit has also picked up a win in each of his last three starts, allowing 1, 0, and 1 run respectively in 6, 6, and 5.2 innings. He’s reached double digits in strikeouts as well, striking out 10, 14 an 11. Petit’s struck out 112 batters in 77 innings and has walked just 21!!!
How does he do it? Petit’s fastball is average: just 88-91, but apparently, it’s very hard to pick up. His pitching coach, Blain Beatty recently compared him to a righthanded Sid Fernandez, in Baseball America, for the way batters have trouble picking up the ball out of his hand. Petit throws a change, is working on making his slider tighter, and at the Mets’ urging dropped his curve before the season to focus on his slider. His coaches have praised his presence and leadership qualities, but how long will he stay in Capital City? Meanwhile, there isn’t an obvious spot for him one level up since the St. Lucie rotation of Scott Kazmir, Matt Lindstrom, Brian Bannister, and Kevin Deaton has been good – Kazmir and Lindstrom are the only ones with an ERA over 4.00.

Brooklyn 4, Hudson Valley 5
A nice debut for Cyclones starter Michael Devaney, the Mets 23rd round draft pick started who went the first four innings, and gave up just one run on two hits and a walk. He whiffed five.
Offensively, a funny night, four guys had two hits, and no one else had one. Dante Brinkley (23rd round, 2003) tripled, singled, walked and scored every time he was on base. Twenty second rounder from the University of Kentucky, left fielder Caleb Stewart drove in two with a single and a double.

Kingsport 11, Johnson City 1
11th Rounder Josh Wyrick was 1-6 in the leadoff hole. Marcos Cabral homered in a 3-6 night. Cabral was a draft and follow in 2002, and hit .198 last year for Kingsport. Carlos Gomez was 3-4 with a triple. Gomez hit .240 for the DSL Mets last year. Seth Pietsch was 2-4 with a walk. He hit .200 for Kingsport last summer.
Orlando Rengel went the first three innings without allowing a run, and gave up three hits. Jeff Brewer got the win for his five innings of one run ball during which he struck out five gave up just four hits without walking a batter.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 6-16

2004-06-17T02:11:00.000-07:00

AAA: David Wright
AA: Justin Huber/Blake McGinley
High A: Brett Harper
A: Celso Rondon/Shawn Bowman

Norfolk 3, Syracuse 15
Pat Strange was hit hard, giving up nine runs, seven earned in his 5.1 innings. He allowed ten hits and walked three. Strange’s ERA increased to 6.19 with his performance.
David Wright had two hits: a double and a solo home run in four trips. Victor Diaz was 2 for 4 with a double. Craig Brazell’s only hit was a homerun.

Binghamton 10, Akron 5
Binghamton has now won four in a row, while Akron has dropped four in a row. Akron couldn’t retire Justin Huber who doubled, homered, drove in three runs and walked three times. Gil Velazquez doubles and drove in a pair in going 2-5. Wayne Lydon, Ron Acuna and Josh Pressley each had two hits.
Wayne Ough only went 1.2 innings and gave up three runs and walked four. Injured? Blake McGinley came on in relief and allowed only one run on a solo home run in 4.1 innings to pick up the win to advance to 5-1.

Lakeland 7, St. Lucie 4
Brett Harper had a three run home run that accounted for most to the Florida Mets offense. Jonathan Slack drove in the other run with an RBI single. Aarom Baldiris was 1-3 with a walk. No Met had more than one hit, and Harper’s homer was St. Lucie’s only extra base hit.
Brian Bannister allowed four runs on seven hits and a pair of walks to take the loss in five innings. Robert Paulk struck out 3 in an inning and a third, but gave up one unearned run.

Greensboro 4, Capital City 6
Strange pitching night, four pitchers, and each went at least 2 innings, but none went three innings. Celso Rondon pitched a perfect 2.1 innings and struck out three for his third win. Greg Ramirez fired two scoreless for his sixth save and struck out five of the six outs he recorded.
Shawn Bowman provided half the offense with a three run jack. Ian Bladergroen drove in a pair with a sacrifice fly and a single in a 1-3 performance. Lastings Milledge walked, stole a base, and stole a base. Catcher Yunir Garcia singled and doubled.

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Mets Minor League Recaps for 6-15

2004-06-16T02:04:00.000-07:00

A 4-4 night for the organization is nice, and throw in the big club and it was a perfect 5-5. Two different players drove in 6 runs and neither were named Wright.

Stars of the Day
AAA: Pedro Feliciano/Chris Basak
AA: David Detienne/Gil Velazquez/Jason Scobie
High A: Brett Harper/Matt Lindstrom
A: Wilson Batista/Yusmeiro Petit

Norfolk 15, Syracuse 8
Aaron Heilman was hit hard in 4.1 innings. He gave up all eight of Syracuse’s runs on seven hits, six walks and a hitsbatsman. He fanned five. The bullpen was solid. Pedro Feliciano walked three and struck out three in 2.2 scoreless innings for the win. Royce Ring and Jose Parra each dealt scoreless innings of their own to lower their ERA to 2.67 and 1.69 respectively.
Chris Basak had a huge night. He homered twice, and singled on the way to driving in six runs. Craig Brazell had three singles in five trips. The boys from AA made themselves right at home in the lineup as well. Prentice Redman doubled twice and drove in one, as part of a 3-4 night. David Wright went 2-4 with a sac fly, two RBI and three runs scored. His batting average in two AAA nights fell to .625.

Binghamton 8, Akron 6
Binghamton continues to roll, and got it going tonight in a seven run first inning. Third baseman David Detienne tripled and scored a pair of runs. Shortstop Gil Velazquez drove in a pair with two singles. Ron Acuna doubled in a run and scored one as well in five trips. Jose Reyes was 0-3 with a walk, sacrifice fly and a stolen base.
Jason Scobie won his third game of the year to improve to 3-1 with seven innings of five hit, four run ball. Those four runs were all unearned as his ERA dropped to an even 3.00. He fanned six and walked three. Jeremy Hill snagged his tenth save, when he struck out two, but left the bases loaded in the ninth.

Lakeland 3, St. Lucie 11
St. Lucie led the entire way thanks to a three run first, but broke the game wide open with a seven run eighth.
Brett Harper led the charge going 4-5 with a pair of RBI. Last night’s hero Joe Jiannetti was 2-4 with two runs scored. Bobby Malek also had two hits, a single and a double in five plate appearances. Jonathan Slack singled and walked twice.
Matt Lindstrom fired six innings and gave up just two runs and three hits. He fanned three while walked one and hitting a batter. The 24 year old was the Mets 10th round pick in 2002 and has good size at 6’4” 210 lbs.

Capital City 16, Greensboro 2
It was all good for the bombers as they bombed the Bats into submission with thirteen runs in the first four innings. Wilson Batista drove home six runs and missed only a home run for the cycle. Lastings Milledge doubled twice and scored three from the leadoff spot. Baseball America’s #4 ranked prospect is now hitting .333/.375/.583 with 10 doubles, a triple and four HR in just 96 AB. Wilson Andrew drilled a two run homerun in three trips. Rightfielder Jamar Hill singed and doubled and drove home three runs.
Yusmeiro Petit was the beneficiary of all this support. He was almost as good as the offensive dealing six scoreless innings. He allowed just four baserunners: two hits, a walk, and a hit by pitch. He also whiffed fourteen Bats. Petit advanced to 8-1 with a 2.14 ERA. He’s just 19 years old and a solidly built 6’0” 230 who can throw in the low 90s with a “potentially plus” changeup according to JJ Cooper at Baseball America and solid curve. Petit dropped his ERA to 2.14 and now has whiffed 101 batters in just 71.1 innings while walking 20.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 6-14

2004-06-15T01:57:00.000-07:00

The BIG news of the day is David Wright’s promotion to AAA, where he joins Prentice Redman on the Tides. Both men were among the top five in Runs Above Replacement Level, (a measure of offensive prowess at www.baseballprospectus.com), in the Eastern League, with Wright leading everyone. After scaling for the difficulty level of the competition, David Wright’s stats project to a Major League Equivalent Average of .287, better than Ty Wigginton’s .275, where .260 is the major league average. Put simply, David Wright is not only better than Wigginton, he would already be among the top half of major league third basemen. EQ Average attempts to measure all of a batter’s offensive contributions adjusting for OBP and power and scales for park and league effects. If you don’t read BP, you should.

Stars of the Day:
AAA: David Wright/Jeff Duncan
AA: Neal Musser/Wayne Lydon
High A: Scott Kazmir
A: Evan MacLane/Ian Bladergroen

Toledo 13, Norfolk 6
The Mudhens scratched and pecked away at Scott Erickson who surrendered eight runs, all in the first two innings, and ten hits in five innings. The bullpen didn’t provide much help as each pitcher gave up a run. Jake Joseph gave up a pair in his two innings. Jason Roach only needed one inning to give up two. Heath Bell allowed a solo homer in the ninth. In all, Jason Roach was the only Tide not to allow a homer.
Wright and Redman seem to be handling their transition to AAA just finely thank you. Wright was 3-4 with a double and a walk. Redman was 2-4 with a pair of singles. Centerfielder Jeff Duncan was 3-5 with a triple from the top of the other with two runs scored. Danny Garcia, Victor Diaz and Tom Wilson each drove in a run. Strangely, Norfolk had 6 runs, but only 3 RBI.

Binghamton 7, Bowie 4
Neal Musser improved to 6-2 with eight innings of one run ball. He gave up seven hits, but did not walk a batter and struck out six. He dropped his ERA to 3.42. Kole Strayhorn was tagged for a three run home run in the ninth.
The B-Mets knocked out 14 hits, thirteen of them singles. David Bacani’s solo homerun was the only extrabase hit of the night for Binghamton. Wayne Lydon was 3-5 with two RBI, a runs scored, and a stolen base. Angel Pagan was 2-4 with an RBI and a run.
The game was played in a brisk 2:31.

St. Lucie 4, Lakeland 3
St. Lucie won the first meeting of the season over the Tigers, thanks to a couple of encouraging performances. Jose Reyes doubled to lead off the bottom of the first, and came around to score on Jonathan Slack’s double. The double was Reyes’ only hit of the night and he committed an error.
The other encouraging performance belonged to Scott Kazmir who has struggled with a muscle pull. He gave St. Lucie 5.1 innings and allowed just 2 earned runs and three overall. He struck out six and walked only one. This was the deepest Kazmir has worked into a game in 2004, and one of his two best starts.
Pinch hitter Joe Jiannetti drove in a run in his only at bat in the bottom of the ninth to deliver the win for St. Lucie.
Randy Keisler, down from Norfolk, where he started seven games, got the win for his 3.2 innings of scoreless relief work.

Capital City 5, Augusta 0
Lefty Evan MacLane hurled six scoreless innings to improve to 4-2. He allowed just two baserunners: one double and a walk. The former All American and California JUCO pitcher of the year in ’03 now boasts a 2.30 ERA. Anderson Garcia picked up the three inning save, his first
Ian Bladergroen doubled twice in a 3-5 effort, which included scoring once and driving in a run. Secondbaseman Blake Whealy also doubled twice in going 3-4. Wilson Batista and Yunir Garcia each added a pair of hits.

A June Catch Up

2004-06-14T02:07:00.000-07:00

I’ve been entertaining my parents out here in California for the last week, so I chose family over Mets box scores.
And now for some shameless self promotion…If you wish, you can now listen to my broadcasts on the internet. The Stockton Ports just struck a deal and we will now put all of our road games online. Our next broadcast is this Friday at 7:05 PM PDT at Lake Elsinore. You can get to the broadcasts through our website www.stocktonports.com. All games will be archived at www.baysportsradio.com.
This is a busy time of year as the short season rosters take shape, and I’d be on the lookout for movement around the system. I think the Mets had a fine draft, but I also think it’s crazy to get really excited about a baseball draft. The odds on each guy making the show, especially for those picked after the first few rounds, is just so small. The Short Season teams start this weekend.

Norfolk

The Tides (29-32) sit in last place in the International’s very tightly bunched South Division, four games behind division leading Durham. Although they are just 4-6 in their last ten games, the Tides are 6-6 in the month of June.
The good news, at least on the surface in the starting pitching rotation is limited to Jeremy Griffiths. This month he’s 2-0, with a 2.33 Era in 19.1 IP. He’s allowed opponents just a .203 batting average, and he’s struck out ten and walked seven. However, any improvement since last year when he was successful at AAA before struggling with the big club is hard to discern on numbers alone. His K/IP rate hovers around .5 in AAA and his K/BB which last year was nearly 3 is down to just over 1 in 2004.
The rest of the rotation has not been good recently: Aaron Heilman, Pat Strange, Bob Keppel, have all struggled in June, and really all year. Aaron Heilman is 0-2 in the month, and the International League continues to hit him hard to the tune of a .306 batting average against that includes four home runs that account for many of the eight earned runs he’s allowed. He’s fanned seven and walked five in his 12 June innings. Bob Keppel has been a little worse: 0-2 with an 8.15 ERA in 17.2 innings and the league is hitting .351 against him. Keppel’s struck out eight and walked seven, but hasn’t allowed a ball out of the yeard.
The bullpen has been better than the starters lately. Royce Ring has only given up one run in his last four appearances and Jose Parra hasn’t been scored on since June 1st. Meanwhile, Tyler Yates is still adjusting to his role in the ‘pen.
Victor Diaz is the hottest Tide hitter going .362/.412/.511 with four doubles and a homer in the last two weeks – and he’s stolen two bases. Craig Brazell has cooled off considerably, and his now hitting just .222 in twelve games in June.

Binghamton
The B-Mets lead New Hampshire by five games and lead the Eastern League with a 37-25 record, although they are just 5-7 in June.
David Wright continues to mash: .463/.520/.756 with 6 doubles and a pair of homers in the month. On the year he’s hitting .363/.467/.619 with 27 doubles, and 10 HR. He’s got 39 walks and just 41 strikeouts. I read his name in trade rumors again last week. I don’t take it too seriously, but I really do think that he should be absolutely and completely off limits. I honestly don’t think you can construct a single realistic trade that would convince me to give up Wright. Can you think of a single player who’s available who would make sense? Please let me know, and no, the answer is not Carlos Beltran who is dedicated to testing the market this winter. In other good news, catcher Justin Huber has gotten hot going .314/.479/.486 in June, he’s walked nearly as much as he’s struck out, 8 and 11 times respectively.
The best pitcher in June has been Ken Chenard who struggled earlier in the year. He dropped five innings of scoreless relief on June sixth and allowed only three runs in five innings Saturday when he started the second game of a doubleheader. Each of his three starts has come as part of a twinbill this year. In each five inning outing he’s struck out four, and has walked just two batters in his ten innings this month. Overall, he’s struck out 37 in 39.1 IP so the stuff is there, but he’s uncorked 9 wild pitches.

St. Lucie
The Florida Mets sit at 32-29, four games behind Palm Beach in the Florida State League’s Eastern Division.
The League took their All-Star break this past weekend for the first domestic all-star game of the year, hosted by St. Lucie at Tradition Field. The West beat the East in case you were worried. St. Lucie’s representatives were pitchers David Byard (3-3, 2.97), Joey Cole (1-3, 4.84), Kevin Deaton (3-1, 2.98) and Robert Paulk (5-3, 3.58). The only St. Lucie position player to be honored was Bobby Malek who is currently hitting .253/.314/.421.
Some of you might notice that Scott Kazmir didn’t make the team, nor did he deserve the honor. He’s 0-2 with a 6.23 ERA, and the league is hitting .307 against him. If you’re looking for a good sign know that he has struck out 24 in 21 innings.

Capital City
The South Atlantic League announced its all-stars, and Capital City placed five players on the team--Yusmeiro Petit, Greg Ramirez, Ian Bladergroen, Wilson Batista and Ryan Harvey.

Mets Minor League Weekend Wrap - Memorial Day

2004-06-01T00:49:00.001-07:00

Well, the workweek begins a day late, and the big weekend wrap follows on a similar schedule.

Norfolk has won three of five including the last game of a four game set with Rochester and split the first four of a five game series against Buffalo to finish the month of May one game under .500 at 14-15. While the team’s ERA of 3.53 was solid, the offense managed only a .316 OBP percentage for May. There were a bunch of encouraging pitching performances over the weekend from Jake Joseph, Jeremy Griffiths, Pat Strange and Tyler Yates, but Aaron Heilman’s struggles continued on Monday.
On Friday night, in a 7-2 Tides victory that manager John Stearns called “our best game of the year overall” Jeremy Griffiths got the win when he allowed just one run over seven innings. He allowed just one run on six hits while fanning three and walking a pair. It’s only the second time this year that Griffiths has gone seven innings, and ranks with his outing on May 14th when he went seven scoreless as his top performances of the campaign. Gerald Williams and Craig Brazell each went 3-5. Tyler Yates struck out two and allowed one run on two hits in the eighth.
In Game 1 of the doubleheader Saturday which Norfolk lost 5-3, Jason Roach gave up a pair of home runs and five runs overall in his five innings of work. Out of the bullpen, Royce Ring tossed two scoreless innings and gave up just one hit. He has now allowed just three runs in his last 15.1 innings for an ERA of 1.76 stretching back to the end of April.
Norfolk won the nightcap 4-1 behind five scoreless innings from 26 year old Jake Joseph who gave up just four hits and a walk. He fanned two and hit a batter. Joseph began this year in Binghamton where he was dominating: 1.90 ERA and a .165 batting average against. He fanned just 15 in 23.2 innings and walked 7. This was his first start for the Tides after a rough outing last Wednesday out of the ‘pen. Originally the Mets supplemental round draft pick in 1999, Joseph has reached AAA each of the last two years with most of his innings coming last year when he posted a 5.93 ERA in 71.1 innings.
Sunday was a laugher as the Tides won 12-2. Victor Diaz was 3-3 with a homerun, 5 RBI and two walks. Gerald Williams was 3-4 with a double as well. Craig Brazell was 3-5 with three RBI on three singles. Tyler Yates added a scoreless inning in relief.
On Monday, Aaron Heilman gave up eight runs and eight hits in just four innings of a 8-6 Tides loss. In fairness, only four runs were earned, but I really do believe that total runs allowed is a better measure of a pitcher’s overall effectiveness. He gave up one home run, walked one, and struck out one. Pat Strange kept the Tides close: five innings of scoreless three hit ball with five strikeouts and no walks. Craig Brazell homered twice in the eighth and ninth innings, but it was too little too late.

Binghamton
The B-Mets are a comfortable 5.5 games ahead of New Hampshire and still leads the league in average and runs scored.
Saturday night in Binghamton Matt Peterson was solid again giving up just one run and four hits while throwing five innings. He gave up five walks and struck out three. Kole Strayhorn pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save. Ron Acuna, Gil Velazquez and Wayne Acuna each tripled. David Wright doubled in four trips.
Sunday night in an 8-0 loss Jose Diaz was solid early, but Ken Chenard was hit hard. Diaz gave up three runs, two earned on four hits and three walks in four innings. He gave way to Chenard who allowed five runs and a homer in the following four frames.
Monday’s game was rained out.

St. Lucie
Scott Kazmir went only 2.2 innings Monday in his first loss of the season. He allowed three runs on three hits, walked two and struck out five. I have a nagging fear that he might be injured, but couldn’t get it confirmed on the St. Lucie website or papers. Or maybe he just hit his pitch count, but why leave in the middle of the inning on a night when he had good stuff striking out five? I’m a little confused.
The bullpen was very good, shutting out the Hammerheads the rest of the day. Luz Portbanco, Tim McNab and Ryan Olson were each unscored upon. Jonathan Slack had two hits and Corey Ragsdale and Aarom Baldiris each doubled.
Good news (?) Sunday: in Scott Erickson’s rehab start – a 10 – 2 victory – was his six innings of five hit ball with five strikeouts. Corey Ragsdale doubled and homered. Bobby Malek doubled twice and drove in four.

Mets Minor League Weekend Wrap - Memorial Day

2004-06-01T00:49:00.000-07:00

Mets Minor League Recaps for 5/27

2004-05-28T02:05:00.000-07:00

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Royce Ring/John Pachot
High A: Luz Portobano/Aaron Baldiris/Jay Caligiuri
A: Ian Bladergroen/Shawn Bowman/Javier Ochoa

Rochester 5, Norfolk 2
Bob Keppel suffered through six innings during which he gave up four runs. He dealt with baserunners all night allowing eight hits and two walks and a homerun. His ERA is a nasty 6.35. Royce Ring followed with a scoreless inning of relief during which he allowed just one hit.
Bob Keppel, who is regarded as a top prospect ended last year with Binghamton, but started in St. Lucie this year. His ERA in the Florida State League was a microscopic .87 and opposing hitters managed to hit just .200 against him. However, at AAA, the league is hitting .348 against him in two appearances. That’s such a huge jump, high-A to AAA, that we should be patient with Keppel.
The offense managed just seven hits. Catcher John Pachot had a pair in a 2-4 night to raise his average to the .300 mark. Mike Collins also added two singles. The only extra base hit of the night for the Tides was Craig Brazell’s thirteenth home run of the year.
This team sits in last place in their division, and with that lineup, it’s not hard to see why.

Binghamton
OFF
By the way, last night, Jason Scobie fired 6.2 innings and allowed just one run. He gave up six hits, and three walks, but struck out five. Then Kole Strayhorn followed with 1.1 perfect innings in which he struck out three.
And David Wright was 2-3 with a walk, a HPB, and a stolen base.

St. Lucie 0, Clearwater 10
Well, the good news on the pitching side is that Luz Portobanco managed 2.1 innings without giving up a hit. Brian Bannister and Tim McNab were both hit hard.
Jay Caligiuri and Aaron Baldiris each had two of St. Lucie’s five hits. Caligiuri’s double was the only extra base hit of the night for the Florida Mets. Lets move on…

Capital City 10, Columbus 7
The Bombers did all of their damage against Columbus starter Phil Sobkow who gave up six runs in the fourth, and four in the fifth.
Many, many offensive stars tonight. Ian Bladergroen led the charge of course with his 3-5 night that included a pair of doubles. Third baseman Shawn Bowman was 2-3 with a double, RBI and a walk. (How about that for positional depth? I’ve mentioned Wright, Baldiris and Bowman tonight. The Mets just are stacked at third.) Lastings Milledge was 1-5 with a stolen base. Wilson Batista was 2-4 with a double and RBI to raise his average to .295/.392/.386
Tanner Osberg got the win for giving up “only” five runs in 6.1 innings. He struck out four and walked two. Javier Ochoa finished off the seventh and allowed just one basehit. Bryan King gave up two hits in the eight, but didn’t give up a run. Greg Ramirez gave up two runs, one earned in the ninth. He struggled with his control, walking one and hitting a batter.

The Mailbag

2004-05-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

My first mailbag on the website. Keep those questions coming. I'm in High Desert now, and it's off to Lancaster tomorrow.

Dan writes: How good of a prospect is Diaz? Believe it or not, the Binghamton game was
on TV last night in New Haven and I watched an inning. He looks like he has
good stuff with no control.

You've seen him throw one more times than I have, but the scouting reports and numbers are very promising for Jose Diaz. His ceiling is pretty high - read: big leagues. He's supposed to have a good arm, but is very raw since this is only his third year as a pitcher. Baseball America, which ranks him asthe 17th best prospect in the Mets system coming into the year, reports that his fastball can sit at 95-96, but since his arm was tired last fall in the Arizona fall league it hit just 91-92. This probably means that as a big league starter he could pitch at 92-94, whereas he might be able to hit the high 90s in shorter relief appearances...As of last fall he'd shown a change that some scouts thought could become a plus pitch, but they (the scouts) wanted to see it more during games. Apparently, last year he was throwing his curve too hard making it a slurve and very difficult to control. His motion needs work as it contributed to his lack of control.
Diaz was a catcher in the Dodgers system until 2001, when his light bat - he had a .185 career average- and strong arm suggested they try him out on the mound. Lets throw out the numbers from 2001, but in 2002 he was 3-1 with a 4.21 ERA in the SAL (low A).
His 2003 numbers certainly support your conclusion that he has good stuff, but no control. In Vero Beach (FSL) he was 5-2 with a 3.50 ERA and in 62 IP he struck out 69 but walked 48 while the league hit .181 against him. He made it up to AA jacksonville before the Burnitz trade and in 8 innings up there allowed just one run on five hits and struck out seven while walking 3.
His numbers this year basically continue the trend he set last year, nearly a strikeout an inning, almost as many BB as K, and the league hitting under .200 against.
2004: 3-1, 3.08 ERA, 38.0 IP, 19 H, 31 BB, 6 HPB, 36 K, .151 Avg,
I think this is very, very intriguing...

Wally writes:
toby...
a few questions for you, since we only know what we can read in boxscores
and recaps.
1- how versatile is danny garcia? i know he can play a solid 2b, and he
came up as a CF. but do you think his arm is strong enough to play a
credible 3b? could he handle SS in a pinch? what about 1b?
2- how is the victor diaz experiment going defensively? his bat is
obviously slow to come around. even now that he's starting to hit, his OBP
is still brazellian. but how's his glove? has he been adequate? or is it
time to move him back to the infield, where his bat could at least
potentially be a plus?

1. Danny Gacia is versatile, and that's one of his major strengths. He was a centerfielder for two years at Pepperdine, before shifting to second base. He played 18 games at shortstop in 2002 for St. Lucie where he made 7 errors in 18 games. I don't know about his arm at third, I just haven't seen him play there enough, but he certainly could be a useful backup middle infielder.

2. I haven't seen Diaz all that much in the outfield, but his stats, and defensive stats stink, are just fine. He's made a pair of errors, but has 88 PO and 5 assists. I think you almost have to let him play the outfield, because the Mets infield situation is packed. The Dodgers tried him at first, second and third in 2002, but he didn't find a home anywhere. I'm more concerned with his walk rate, which is really, really bad: just 4 vs. 172 AB this year.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 5/24

2004-05-24T23:24:00.000-07:00

AAA: the heavens
AA: Jose Diaz/David Wright/Angel Pagan
High A: Robert Paulk/ Brett Harper/Jay Caligiuri
A: the whole lineup/Evan MacLane

Norfolk:
PPD “due to unsafe playing conditions caused by heavy rain overnight in Buffalo.”

Binghamton 7, Portland 0
Jose Diaz put together his second consecutive excellent start for the B-Mets. This time he went five shutout innings and gave up a mere two hits. He did walk four however while striking out five. Ken Chenard fired four scoreless innings during which he struck out six, gave up two hits and walked three for the long distance save.
The offensive attack was balanced as only two starters were held hitless, and only two had multiple hits. One of course was David Wright. It was just another average day at the park for Wright: ¾, with a pair of doubles, an RBI and a run scored. Angel Pagan was 3/5 with three singles and one run. Wayne Lydon hit a two run home run. Prentice Redman doubled home a pair with his only hit of the night. Justin Huber went 1 for four and is now hitting .268 after a very slow start.

Clearwater 4, St. Lucie 3
St. Lucie scored in the top of the tenth, but Clearwater got to Tim McNab for a pair in the bottom half to edge the St. Lucie Mets. Robert Paulk turned in a solid 5.2 innings, giving up just three hits and two runs. Paulk, the Mets 22nd round choice in 2002, had an up and down 2003. His numbers were very good for Capital City (2-1, 1.52 ERA 29.0 IP, 22H, 17 BB, 23 K) which earned him a promotion to Port St. Lucie where he struggled in two outings giving up five runs, three earned in just two innings. He returned to Brooklyn where was also excellent: 1-1 2.48 ERA 32.0 IP 18H 10 BB 38K. This year he’s been good, but in 42.2 IP he’s given up 54H so opponents are hitting .307 against him. Even so, he’s 5-1 with a 2.74 ERA. Alarmingly, his K/IP totals have fallen drastically in Brooklyn it was 1.18 now it’s down to .40. Paulk’s K/BB rate is still an impressive 2.8.
Bobby Malek, Dante Brinkley and Joe Hietpas each doubled in four trips. Brett Harper and Jay Caligiuri each had solo homers.
St. Lucie’s in second place, 3.5 games behind division leading Palm Beach. Brett Harper’s .358/.453/.568 put him third in the league in average, first in OBP and third in SLG. His 13 2B are near the tops in the league as are his 7 HR. Jay Caligiuri’s 8 HR lead the team. Almost as impressively, he’s walked thirteen times while striking out 16.

Capital City 12, Charleston 2
Big night for the offense which pounded out sixteen hits. Lastings Milledge went 3 for 5 with two 2B, 3 RBI and 2R from the leadoff spot. Ian Bladergroen went 2 for 5 with a double and an RBI. Wilson Batista added a 2 for 5. Tyler Davidson went 3 for five with two doubles and 2 RBI. Shawn Bowman was 2 for 4.
The beneficiary of all this offense was Evan MacLane who went five innings for the win. He only run he allowed was a solo home run. He struck out six and did not walk a batter. Domingo Acosta threw three scoreless innings for the save. Now defend that rule.

Mets Minor League Weekend Wrap 5/23

2004-05-23T23:18:00.000-07:00

.500 is better than not, and better than I hoped for from this season. Esix Snead, we hardly knew ye. I’m very happy that Tyler Yates is returning to the bullpen. Now he can maintain 90+ on his fastball in shorter spurts. In short, a smart move.

Norfolk
The Tides have lost five of their last six, falling in the final three games vs. Rochester, and losing two of three over the weekend to Buffalo. Their slide has put Norfolk three games under .500 in last place in the International League South. This team is dead last in the league in batting average, runs scored (by 42!), walks, and second to last in HR. The pitching is fourth in the league overall with their 3.90 ERA and middle of the pack in strikeouts and walks.
I won’t discuss any of the position players because it’s not worth it. I do think Craig Brazell will see some time this year in the bigs, but his .301 OBP is rather troubling.
Jeremy Griffiths did not have it last time out, and was knocked around a bit in his last start, giving up seven runs, five earned on eight hits and three walks in just 4.2 innings against Rochester Wednesday. His ERA is now 4.43. He’ll pitch Monday in a 10:35 at Buffalo.
Heath Bell picked up the lone Tides win since Wednesday for his scoreless 2.2 innings of relief of Bob Keppel Thursday night. He fanned two and gave up one hit.
Sunday, Aaron Heilman gave up five runs, all earned on seven hits in 7.1 innings. He walked two and struck out two, but left with the lead. However, the bullpen of Heath Bell and Jose Parra gave up the run to tie it in the ninth, and the winning run in the bottom of the tenth. Buffalo tied up the game in the ninth when Raul Gonzalez reached on a Brazell error and came home on a Mark Little double.

Binghamton
Much more fun than Norfolk. The B-Mets lead the lead with their .614 winning percentage, and sit two games in front of New Hampshire after taking two of three from them this weekend.
David Wright is a stud. His .453 OBP leads the league, his .599 slugging is fourth, his 17 doubles are third, his eight home runs are 8th best and his 14 stolen bases are tied for second. However, I’ll happily wait until August or September to see him in NYC.
Alongside Prentice Redman is doing a little mashing of his own. His .610 SLG leads the league as do his 29 extra base hits. He’s second in the league with 19 doubles and sixth with 9 HR. One important difference is age: at 25, Redman’s time is running short. He had just three hits in 24 AB with the Mets last summer. His star was brightest after 2001 when he was named the FSL star of stars when he hit .261/.322./.366. This year’s .308 average and .383 would both be career highs. Remember, a standard career trajectory suggests that a player’s most productive year is age 27.
The best recent pitching performance belongs to Neal Musser for his six shutout innings on just four hits against Harrisburg. He was denied the win when Harrisburg tied it in the ninth, but it doesn’t diminish his six strikeouts versus just one walk. Musser, originally a second round draft pick in 99, gave up over a hit an inning last year, and walked 39 in 100.1 innings. His K/BB ratio has hovered around 2 since reaching the Florida State League in 2001. This year that’s declined to 29/19, but the league is hitting .255 against him, an improvement versus the last two seasons.
Jose Diaz who came from the Dodgers alongside Kole Strayhorn, Victor Diaz and cash improved to 2-1 with a 5 innings of two run ball this week during which he struck out 5 and allowed only three hits. The league is hitting just .153 against him in 33 innings. The problem: he’s walked 27 while fanning 31. I’d still rather have him in my system, than Burnitz in my outfield, which inevitably leads to indigestion in my system.

St. Lucie
Jose, Jose, Jose! Reyes of course is now 5-19 with a double and pair of stolen bases. Jose played all nine innings Sunday, and took an 0-5. This came on the heels of his best game: a 3-5 with a run, RBI and a stolen base Saturday. I read somewhere he might return Friday. Shouldn’t he be punishing A ball pitching before that happens?

More A ball tomorrow, but it’s party time out here on the left coast.

Mets Minor League Recaps for 5-18

2004-05-18T23:23:00.000-07:00

Stars of the Day:
AAA: Chris Basak
AA: raindrops

Slow day in the system as Norfolk was the only affiliate to complete a ballgame, and the two A teams were scheduled for off days.

Norfolk 3, Richmond 4
Aaron Heilman gave up four runs in the first inning on just one hit. He loaded the bases by hitting a batter, and walking a pair. Then came the big moment in the ballgame: a grandslam by Terry Tiffee who was 2-4 on the night. Heilman recovered to fire five scoreless innings so his final line was four runs on three hits, with three walks, one hit by pitch and four strikeouts.
Norfolk got three runs back in the bottom of the second, but couldn’t push across the tying run. Wilson Delgado singled home Victor Diaz. Chris Basak tripled home two as part of a 2-3 night with 2 RBI and walk. He’s now hitting .286 and has 2 HR in just 35 at bats, but hasn’t walked yet.
The other Norfolk pitchers kept the Tides in the game. Royce Ring threw two innings without giving up a hit or striking out a batter and Heath Bell pitched a perfect ninth.

Binghamton
Rained out. The B-Mets and the Senators will play two tomorrow.

St. Lucie
OFF

Capital City
OFF

Mets Minor League Recap for 5/17

2004-05-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

Stars of the Day:

AAA: Tyler Yates/Gerald Williams
AA: Matt Peterson/David Bacani
High A: Micah Mangrum/Corey Ragsdale
A: Greg Ramirez/Ryan Harvey

Norfolk 3, Rochester 0
Tyler Yates acted like he wanted to go back to the bigs. He threw 5.2 hitless innings while fanning five. The only blemish was three walks. The bullpen picked up right where Yates left off, although each of the three relievers allowed one hit. Jason Roach got out of the sixth and seventh fanning two. Lefty Pedro Feliciano walked a batter in the eighth, while Jose Parra struck out one for his ninth save.
Gerald Williams had a solo homer and the only RBI for the Tides as part of a 2-4 night. The only other Tide with multiple hits was 36 year old Jesse Levis who was playing in his first ballgame of the year. Craig Brazell was 1-4. Levis was drafted in 1989, and played last year in the Phillies organization, but was released following the season.

Binghamton 2, Harrisburg 1
The B-Mets came from behind to squeak by the Harrisburg Senators. David Bacani’s pinch hit triple drove in Chase Lambin with the winning run in the top of the ninth. Josh Pressley tied the game by singling home Prentice Redman in the eighth. Pressley was the only B-Met who had two hits and is now hitting .328/394/.426. Justin Huber went 1-4 to continue his hot streak. David Wright was actually held hitless for once, but did draw a walk.
Matt Peterson gave the B-Mets another excellent outing Monday night to improve to 3-0. In eight innings he allowed one run, on a solo homer. He struck out six while walking one and giving up six hits in all. He lowered his ERA to 2.35. Jeremy Hill gave up one hit in the ninth, but recorded his fifth save.
With the win, Binghamton reclaims first place in the Northern Division, and now boasts a one game lead over New Hampshire.

St. Lucie 6, Jupiter 2
Micah Mangrum threw the required five innings to even his record at (1-1) giving up just one run on five hits to lower is ERA to 0.73 in 12.1 innings. He struck out two without walking a batter. He’s struck out 5 and walked three, so he’s not overpowering hitters, but is getting outs. Mangrum, who is now 27, was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Royals in June 2000. He had 32 AA innings in 2002 for Wichita, and after being released by the Royals last spring pitched in the independent Atlantic League last summer.
Corey Ragsdale went 3-4 with two runs scored and an RBI at the top of the order. First baseman Brett Harper drove in two while going 2-3 with a walk, to raise his average to .375/.472/.561. Harper’s four home runs already tie a career high he set last summer while playing at nearly every level of the lower Mets system, in order: St. Lucie, Capital City, Kingsport and winding up in Brooklyn. After a slow start, Harper was demoted from St. Lucie to Capital City, where he did hit, but was sent down to the Appalachian League, which he demolished to a tune of .429/500/.800 clip and where’s he’s listed as a third baseman. Rightfielder Zack Clements had a pair of hits and a run scored. David Reaver and Jay Caligiuri each went 1-4 with an RBI.

Charleston 6, Capital City 0
Vincent Cordova gave up four runs, two earned in five innings to take the loss. He gave up eight hits and struck out seven, without walking a batter. Greg Ramirez came in to fire a perfect inning of relief, but Bryan King gave up a two run home to Clinton Johnson in the seventh.
The Bombers mustered only four hits on the night. Wilson Batista, Andrew Wilson and Jimmy Anderson each singled and Ryan Harvey doubled, and that was it for the Capital City offense against Justin James and pair of relievers.

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