Minors Stuff

The Herd:

The Buffalo Bisons have had four attempts to go on a winning streak this season, and they've failed each time.

Chance No. 4 came here Tuesday night. The Bisons dropped a 3-0 decision to Lehigh Valley in Coca-Cola Park, being shut out for the seventh time this season. It was the first game of a doubleheader caused by Monday's rainout; Tuesday's second game was rained out.
In the first game of the season between the teams, Buffalo's batters could not solve IronPigs pitcher Justin Lehr, who was brilliant. He allowed only three hits in pitching a shutout. Lehr improved to 4-1 while striking out four and walking only two. He retired the first nine batters he faced.

Lehigh Valley got all of the offense it needed in the bottom of the third inning. Lou Marson walked and moved to second on a passed ball. Lehr walked, and Rich Thompson singled to load the bases. Mike Cervenak singled to right field to plate two runs.

Then in the sixth, the IronPigs added an insurance run. Cervenak doubled, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball.

The top of the order did all of the work for the Bisons' offense. Jesus Feliciano had two hits, while Ramon Martinez added one.

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/bisons/story/662264.html


B-Mets:

Japanese righty Junichi Tazawa provided a six-inning effort of one-run baseball and the Portland offense had just enough to outlast the B-Mets 4-3. Jonathan Malo and Ruben Tejada had breakout games at the plate hammering out three hits each in the loss.

Tazawa threw six innings mixing his fastball and curveball masterfully, allowing just one run on six hits with three strikeouts. The lone run he gave up came in the second when the B-Mets tied the score. Lucas Duda drew a one-out walk and Shawn Bowman singled to set the stage for Carl Loadenthal, who singled down the third base line to drive in Duda and tie it, 1-1.

The Sea Dogs pulled ahead for good in the fifth. Starter Fernando Nieve worked into the fifth inning for the first time and allowed the leadoff man to reach for the fifth straight inning when Bubba Bell singled to open the fifth. With one out, Lars Anderson doubled down the right field line to drive home Bell and knock Nieve out of the game. Then, Eric Brown came on in relief and proceeded to give up an RBI single to Aaron Bates to make the lead 3-1.

Portland (13-12) scored its final run in the sixth as they reached with their first two hitters when Jon Still doubled and John Otness singled to put runners at the corners. Then, Reid Engel grounded into a fielder’s choice to second to allow Still to score and expand the lead to 4-1.

Binghamton (12-12) fought back with a bases loaded single off Richie Lentz with two outs from Malo that scored a run to cut the lead to two.

The score was 4-2 in the ninth when it got interesting. Reliever Bryce Cox got the first out with ease, but then gave up a triple to Tejada. The next hitter Emmanuel Garcia grounded out to score Tejada from third to make it a one-run game.

Cox was removed from the game after giving up a two-out hit to Malo in favor of RHP T.J. Large. The first hitter Large faced was D.J. Wabick, who worked the counted to 2-2 before singling to shallow left putting the tying run at second. Manager Mako Oliveras sent Josh Thole to the plate to pinch-hit for Salvador Paniagua with a chance to tie or win the game, but Thole hit a come-backer to the mound that Large handled with ease to end the game.

Malo finished with a 3-5 night at the plate including a double and an RBI, while Tejada was a perfect 3-3, finishing a home run short of the cycle with a run scored and a walk.

Nieve had his longest start of the season going 4.1 innings giving up three runs on six hits to take his first loss of 2009.




Thursday, May 7 Portland 6:35 pm LHP Mike Antonini (3-1, 5.84) vs. RHP Blake Maxwell (0-1, 8.59)

Friday, May 8 at Trenton 7:05 pm RHP Dylan Owen (0-2, 6.66) vs. TBA

Saturday, May 9 at Trenton 7:05 pm RHP Jose Sanchez (1-3, 7.40) vs. TBA

Sunday, May 10 at Trenton 1:05 pm RHP Ryan Coultas (2-1, 2.60) vs. TBA


Lucy:


Reese Havens, SS, Mets (High-A St. Lucie) - Sunday’s stats: 3-for-5, HR (5), R, RBI - A first-round pick last June, the Mets had some inclination to convert Havens to a catcher due to his strong build and plus arm, but he’s a shortstop for now. Neither his .308 average, nor his 13 walks are a big surprise to anyone, but the five home runs and 13 extra-base hits out of 28 overall are borderline shocking for a player who entered pro ball with a reputation for little more than gap power

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/minorleagueupdate



Gnats:

Jefry Marte clubbed his first home run of the year at no better time for the Sand Gnats as he powered one over the left-center field wall in the bottom of the tenth inning to lift the Gnats to a, 6-4, win over Greenville Wednesday night. It is the second walk off win of the season for the Sand Gnats.

Things looked grim in the ninth with two out, nobody on, two strikes on Eric Campbell and the Sand Gnats trailing by two. That all changed when Campbell swung through a third strike from Hunter Strickland (1-3) but reached first on a past ball by Ryan Lavarnway. After a walk to Sean Ratliff, Josh Satin singled through the left side to score Campbell from second to pull within one.

Kai Gronauer followed Satin’s single with a single of his own to score Ratliff and tie the game at four to set the stage for the exciting finish in the tenth.

Kyle Allen (2-1) pitched brilliantly out of the bullpen, throwing five shutout innings while striking out six and permitting just two hits. Savannah’s starter Eric Beaulac pitched the first five and allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits with a season-high eight strikeouts. The 14 combined strikeouts tied a season-high for the Sand Gnats.

Marte was 1-for-5 on the evening heading into his at bat in the 10th inning. It’s the first walk-off home run for Savannah since August 23, 2008 when Casey Craig hit a solo home run in game one of a doubleheader with Rome to break a deadlocked 0-0 game.


Jefry Marte, one of the top prospects in the New York Mets organization, more than held his own last summer as a 17-year-old in the Gulf Coast League.

In 163 plate appearances, Marte posted a .204 IsoP and a .395 wOBA all the while not striking out all that often (16.5%) and walking at a halfway decent clip (7.4%).

That gave the notoriously aggressive Mets more than enough reason to fast-track Marte and they bumped him up to Low-A Savannah.

A month into the season, it certainly looks like it was a mistake. Marte has had 108 plate appearances and his numbers are not pretty.

He's been allergic to walks (1.9%) and thanks in part to a recent stretch where he's struck out at least twice in four of his last six games, his strikeout rate has ballooned to 25.9%. After showing solid power last summer, the third baseman has shown next to none this year, as evidenced by an anemic .069 IsoP.

Marte is still 17 – he turns 18 in June – and most players his age are finishing up their final season of high school ball, so he's way ahead of the curve by already playing in Low-A.
But the early returns point to all of it being too much too soon for Marte. It increasingly looks like the Mets should have held him back until the New York Penn-League, with the idea of putting him in Savannah to open 2010.

http://projectprospect.com/article/2009/05/06/minors-only-three-surprising-hitters


Queens:

Oliver Perez - Perez came limping out of the training room over the weekend with an ice pack on his knee. Was this a bit of Broadway in Flushing, or has Perez been hiding an injury from everyone, contributing to his own demise? No one's sure yet, but what is certain for now is that Perez is heading to the bullpen to work on some things (and by "some things," I think they might mean throwing strikes), while Ken Takahashi takes his spot in the rotation. The Mets are selling this as temporary and the problems as mechanical, but in Indianapolis, where he was sent a few years ago after having the same issues with the Pirates, no one seemed surprised. "He came down here and was supposed to work on things, but he just reminded people how much money he was making anyway," said one front-office member. There's a lesson to learn here in that Perez did come back, but only after a trade and some work with Rick Peterson, then the pitching coach for the Mets. No one, most importantly the Mets, seems to know what the fix might be this time, or when he'll get back. Don't be surprised if we hear more about that knee in the near future.

http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=8828


Mets Alumni:

For the past couple weeks, Lastings Milledge has been living out of a hotel room in Syracuse. His new manager, Class AAA skipper Tim Foli, does not view him as a leadoff man, and has been filling out lineup cards accordingly. Nobody from the Washington front office has contacted Milledge, and Milledge hasn't closely following the Nationals -- though he has kept in touch with Elijah Dukes and Willie Harris.

We know, at the very least, that Matt Gelb will escape Syracuse before Lastings ever does. Gelb, a talented soon-to-graduate senior at Syracuse University (or rather, Daily Orange University), contributed this piece on Milledge, whose career has taken a vicious curve in the last month.
Milledge is now trying to deal with what he calls the biggest disappointment of his professional career.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2009/05/leading_off_the_morning_readin.html?wprss=nationalsjournal