Minors Stuff

The Herd:

Niese is 5-0 with a 0.72 ERA in his past seven starts for Triple-A Buffalo. Manuel actually had downplayed those stats before Sunday’s 7-1 loss to the Braves, but that was more in the context of supporting Livan Hernandez, who was woeful in his final two first-half starts (a combined 15 runs on 21 hits and eight walks in seven innings against Philadelphia and Los Angeles). Manuel had said Sunday afternoon that there’s a tremendous difference between success in the International League and the majors. The manager said he judges Niese based on what he’s seen, and that hasn’t been quite as good (a 6.57 ERA in five starts for the Mets since last September).

Who knows now what to make of Redding’s status? The Mets had resolved to release him and eat what remained of his $2.25 million contract at some point during this trip. And Redding didn’t distinguish himself Sunday, although three of the five runs charged to him were unearned. Three of the five scored after he departed with the bases loaded, too.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/mets/#ixzz0LoYNjzH1

The Buffalo Bisons are almost hopelessly mired in last place in the International League's North Division, but that doesn't mean manager Ken Oberkfell has given up on the season.

"I want to finish strong," Oberkfell insisted as he expressed his disappointment with the lackadaisical effort by some of his players in Sunday afternoon's 5-3 loss to the Toledo Mud Hens. It came in the final game of the four-game series at Coca-Cola Field before an announced crowd of 10,783 paid.

Instead of drawing enthusiasm from Saturday night's shutout sweep of the Mud Hens, the Bisons seemed to roll over and die easily after Toledo took a 4-0 lead in the first three innings against Buffalo starter Ken Takahashi (0-2).

Box score

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/bisons/story/738490.html




B-Mets:

Mike (Utica, NY): Have you heard anything new about Jenrry Mejia injury status? Also who would you take, Holt or Mejia?

Matthew Eddy: In a recent conversation with a Mets official, he indicated that Mejia would return sooner rather than later. He was noncommittal, though, when asked which pitcher was the organization's top pitching prospect. If only because of his physical, 6-foot4 build, I'd side with Holt. However, Mejia's three pitches may grade out a tick higher than Holt's. It's just that he may face a move to the bullpen if he reaches the big leagues.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/prospect-hot-sheet/2009/268574.html


The Binghamton Mets dodged the no-hitter Sunday but ultimately came up short in their bid for three straight wins.

That first hit came courtesy of Ike Davis, who grounded a single up the middle with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. But that did little to take the shine off a sparkling outing from Erie starter Thad Weber, who lifted the SeaWolves to a 5-1 victory at NYSEG Stadium.

"He was just mixing it up, throwing a lot of strikes, challenging everybody," Davis said of Weber, who faced the minimum number of batters over the first 6 2/3 innings.

The 24-year-old right-hander's bid to become the first to no-hit the B-Mets in eight years got serious in the seventh, when he started through the Binghamton lineup a third time. He got leadoff hitter Emmanuel Garcia to fly out to center field, then got all-star catcher Josh Thole to ground out to second.

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20090720/SPORTS02/907200319/1118/Sports/B-Mets++batters+baffled++nearly+no-hit+by+Erie+pitcher+Weber



Clones:

Before his last start on Friday, Brooklyn Cyclones Ace Collin McHugh gave up eight earned runs in just 7.2 innings, put a bit of a damper on an otherwise excellent season. Confident and unwavering on Wednesday, McHugh believed he was ready to get back on the right track. “You come into work every day and you work through these things,” he said. “It’s nothing I’m worried about.” Hurling six shutout innings yesterday, McHugh bounced back well and is now 4-1 with a 3.94 ERA in just six starts. “I feel good,” he said. “This is a long season, so it’s just a matter of dealing with things as they come.”

http://www.dembrooklynbums.com/2009/07/18/mchugh-rebounds-after-a-few-shaky-starts

Another winning streak — this one is only up to three games, but still — is upon us, thanks to a classic pitchers’ duel to close out the three-game sweep of Auburn.

As usual, the 21-9 Cyclones got on the board first, this time with the new 1-2 punch of Justin Garber (single) and Robbie Shields (walk) getting on base. Garber later scored on a groundout.
After starter Darin Gorski (1-1) gave up a solo shot in the fourth, the Cyclones got him the W, thanks to a Nicholas Santomauro homer in the fifth.

“It’s a huge win,” Santomauro said after the game. “We definiteley feel like we’re back on track.”
He credited his starter for the victory. “He’s got some filthy stuff,” he said.
Relievers Wes Wrenn and Mike Powers closed it out cleanly.

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/29/32_29_gk_game_sum_30.html



Queens:

"Now I can say it," Alex Cora said. "I've never seen anything like this. I probably could have said it last week, but now I'm sure of it."

It has been nothing short of piling on by whatever force now has eight Mets -- Billy Wagner, class of '08, included -- assigned to the disabled list. Nieve is a possible ninth as well as the second starting pitcher. "It's tough to take," manager Jerry Manuel said. "Especially in the area of pitching when we need that to stay competitive."

But how competitive are they? With Nieve's successor, Tim Redding, allowing five runs -- two earned -- in three innings, and their offense doing next to nothing, the Mets lost for the 14th time in 20 games and the eighth time in their past nine games against teams in the National League East. The loss that put their record five games under .500 again also put their deficit in the division standings at nine games, as it hadn't been since their 159th game in 2005.

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090719&content_id=5949658&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym


2010 Free Agent Pitchers:

Brandon Backe HOU
Miguel Batista SEA
Josh Beckett * BOS
Erik Bedard SEA
Daniel Cabrera WAS
Bartolo Colon CWS
Jose Contreras CWS
Doug Davis ARZ
Justin Duchscherer OAK
Adam Eaton BAL
Kelvim Escobar LAA
Jon Garland * ARZ
Tom Glavine ATL
Mike Hampton HOU
Rich Harden CHC
Tim Hudson * ATL
Randy Johnson SF
John Lackey LAA
Cliff Lee * CLE
Braden Looper * MIL
Jason Marquis CHC
Kevin Millwood * TEX
Brett Myers PHI
Vicente Padilla * TEX
Carl Pavano CLE
Brad Penny BOS
Odalis Perez WAS
Andy Pettitte NYY
Joel Pineiro STL
Sidney Ponson KC
Jason Schmidt LAD
John Smoltz BOS
Jarrod Washburn SEA
Brandon Webb * ARZ
Todd Wellemeyer STL