Minors Stuff

B-Mets:

Tuesday, June 30 New Hampshire 7:05 pm RHP Eric Niesen (0-3, 7.20) vs. RHP Brandon Magee (4-5, 5.06)

Wednesday, July 1 New Hampshire 7:05 pm TBA vs. LHP Luis Perez (4-6, 3.41)

Thursday, July 2 New Hampshire 7:05 pm RHP Brad Holt (0-1, 9.45) vs. RHP Rey Gonzalez (3-5, 3.18)

Friday, July 3 New Hampshire 7:05 pm TBA vs. RHP Randy Boone (5-4, 4.46)



Dylan Owen threw 7.2 innings scoreless, his best outing of the year, and Josh Thole drove in the winning run in the top of the tenth inning pushing the B-Mets to a series split with Akron 1-0 at Canal Park Monday night. After losing the first two games of the four-game set, Binghamton came back to win the next two 6-4 and 1-0 in 10 innings. The B-Mets had not won back-to-back games since May 27 when they beat Connecticut 6-5 in 11 innings at NYSEG Stadium.

After nine innings of offensive futility for both teams, Binghamton (29-46) finally broke through in the tenth. Ruben Tejada started off the inning with a clean single down the right-field line off Aeros’ closer Vinnie Pestano. Then with two strikes against him, Mike Nickeas laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved Tejada into scoring position. Emmanuel Garcia followed with a groundout to second that moved Tejada within 90 feet of scoring. It was then that Thole grounded a ball just inside the line at third scoring Tejada to give the B-Mets their 1-0 margin.

Akron (50-25) made things interesting in the bottom of the tenth against Jim Ed Warden. Jared Goedert led off the frame with his first hit of the contest, a single into center. Jose Constanza sacrificed him up to scoring position with a well-placed bunt. Warden then hit Jerad Head putting the winning run on base. Connor Robertson was summoned from the pen to finish the job. He induced a weak groundball from Nick Weglarz to second on which Head was forced out on at second. Then, Robertson got Carlos Santana to groundout to first to end the game, notching his first save and securing the shutout.

Owen set season highs with 7.2 innings scoreless and seven strikeouts. He allowed just four hits and walked a season-low one batter.

Akron starter Jeanmar Gomez output his fifth scoreless start of the season as he went six innings allowing just five hits with three walks.

Roy Merritt evened his record at 4-4 with the win in relief. He threw the final 1.1 innings of regulation.

Pestano was hung with his third loss by allowing Tejada’s run in the tenth.



Gnats:


Tommy Baldridge hit a high chopper on the infield to score the only run the Charleston RiverDogs needed to win the rubber game, 1-0, over the Savannah Sand Gnats. It is only the second time the Sand Gnats have been shutout in 2009.

The knock came with runners on second and third in the seventh inning and Abraham Almonte beat Josh Satin’s throw to the plate to bring home the only RiverDogs run, spoiling a terrific outing by Jeurys Familia (5-5). The sidewinder from Santo Domingo allowed just two hits, one out of the infield, with three walks and seven strikeouts in 6.1 innings pitched.

Savannah managed to get a rally going in the third on a one out double from Jefry Marte and a two-out infield single by Josh Satin. Sean Ratliff flew out to center, however, to end the inning.

Manny Banuelos (6-3) stifled Savannah over 6.2 innings scattering seven hits and picking up his second win against the Gnats. Dan Kapala recorded the last out of the seventh as well as finishing the final two frames for his first save.

Savannah (2-3) says goodbye to the RiverDogs (3-2) until the final week of the season when the two clubs hook up for the final series of the season with five games at Riley Park.

The Gnats welcome the Asheville Tourists to Georgia’s First City for a four-game set to continue this season-long nine-game homestand. Chris Schwinden (4-3, 3.67) is on the bump for Savannah against Asheville’s Dan Houston (2-6, 6.39).

Mr. Met makes his first visit to Historic Grayson Stadium tomorrow night and the first 1,000 fans through the gates for the 7 p.m. start will receive a Mr. Met bobblehead. For tickets to the rest of this homestand or more information, log on to sandgnats.com or call 912.351.9150.


2010 Draft Prospects :


1. Bryce Harper – Las Vegas High School –

From Rob Nyer, in 2008, as a 15-yr. old: Harper has a power bat and a plus throwing arm that "already grades out to 70 on the 20 to 80 scouting scale," according to Dave Perkin of Baseball America. During infield prior to the game, Harper, in full gear, rifled the ball out of a crouch to second and third base with precision. Upon seeing him in action, I marked down "+ + arm" next to his name in my program. Although the rap on him is that he's not all that fast, I thought he ran very well from home to third on that triple, especially considering his age, size, and power. The kid is nothing if not impressive.

As a 16-year old, Harper hit .626 in 2009, with 14 home runs and 55 RBIs in 115 at-bats for the Wildcats this season. He hit 22 doubles, nine triples and stole 36 bases. He only struck out five times. He also scored nine times on wild pitches… from 2nd base.

5/09: played a three-game travel schedule… hit 11-12, with 10 HRs and one double



Saber:


The Mets have the 2nd worst Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) in baseball, at -20.1 runs. Only the embarrassing Nationals measure out worse. This number jumps off the page because the Omar Minaya Mets have been strong defensively. They were worth +27.1, +6.8, and +9.8 defensive runs in 2008, 2007, and 2006, respectively. Team ERA outperformed team FIP in each of these seasons, consistent with a team that plays above average defense. We’ve seen that UZR correlates decently with FIP-ERA. Based on how poorly UZR rates Mets defense this year, one would expect team ERA to underperform team FIP. This is not the case, as ERA is once again better than FIP by 0.11. Compare to the Nationals, whose ERA is worse than their FIP by 0.52. It’s always prudent to seek another opinion on defense statistics, so I looked at plus/minus (+/-) and Revised Zone Rating (RZR) to maybe figure out what the heck is going on here.
...The disparity between UZR and RZR regarding outfielders once again stands out. R.J. Anderson noted at Fangraphs that UZR is still using Shea Stadium park factors for its calculations. He proposed that this might be having an effect on Carlos Beltran’s poor UZR this season, but ultimately decided that such a small sample isn’t enough to make any conclusions. Still, the 4 players who have played the most outfield innings for the Mets this season all rate worse per UZR than +/-. It would be useful if a home/away UZR breakdown was available at Fangraphs, but it isn’t (yet). Also useful would be an analysis of these stats for all team’s outfields to provide some context, but teamwide +/- data is not readily available.
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/amazin_avenue_uzr_hates_the_mets_outfield/