As most of you know, I live in the Savannah area and am the Savannah Sand Gnats’ beat reporter for four of the Morris Communications’ newspapers in the area. This home of the A-affiliate has become a Hispanic-friendly town for the young Mets to hang their hats and develop into, hopefully, major league stars.
Young Francesco Pena came here in 2007, at the age of 16, and is expected back for his third season in a row. Other prospects, like Juan Legares, Hector Pellot, and Greg Veloz, have mad multiple visits here.
The town itself has a relatively large Hispanic population, which naturally includes a fair amount of local restaurants and food stores that cater to that percentage of population..
I found it interesting last week when the Mets announced that Edgar Alfonzo was being transferred from the Clones manager to the Sand Gnats, and I can’t help but speculate that some of the logic on this move might be his heritage, rather than his teaching skills.
It’s no big secret that the majority of Brooklyn’s roster comes from draft picks, which are primarily white ballplayers. On the other hand, the Mets have history in sending young, Latin prospects, to Savannah, and in the case of Pena, directly from playing ball in the Dominican Republic.
The last ‘no big secret’ is the fact that some of the top current Mets prospect talent are from latin America, and played ball last year at levels below Savannah.
All this makes one speculate the possibility of having a killer Sand Gnats team, stocked with the likes of SS Wilmer Flores, 3B Jefry Marte, and OF Cesar Puello.
Guess we’ll see next month.
Mack
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