I heard from a great ex-Met today, pitcher Tim McNab:
Yes sir, I'm pitching.....Ill be in the Atlantic League with the Lancaster Barnstormers.......I wanted to extend my hand through the computer and tell you I appreciate all the nice things you've written through my career with the Mets organization. A lot of nice things were found and II truely thank you.....Ideally, getting called up to the bigs by the team that drafted me 7 years ago would have been a perfect script......but change sometimes has to happen and its on me to hopefully open some eyes elsewhere......but thank you very much......Tim McNab
Tim is a class act that deserved to be called up last year. It's a shame how teams play minor leaguers for 5-7 years with no intention of ever making them a major league player. In retrospect, Tim should have said sayonara to the Mets after the Rule V process and gone to a small market team organization. We wish him well and will try and keep tabs on him throughout the season.
After hearing from Tim McNab, I checked out the roster of the Landcaster Barnstomers and found another ex-Met on their roster.
Pitcher Tim Hamulack, who pitched for Binghamton (2-2, 1.26), Norfolk (3-1, 1.02), and the Mets 0-0 (23.18) in 2005, is also on their active roster. Hamulack went on to pitch in the majors for the Dodgers in 2006.
So... I went to the recent press release section of the Lancaster web site and guess who I found?
"Former New York Mets organization right-handers Jose Sanchez ... Sanchez, 25, won 10 or more games in a season three times in the Mets minor league system, including a career-best 13 with Class AA Binghamton in 2008, finishing second in the Eastern League in that category. The Venezuela native fired 133 or more innings in four consecutive seasons before being limited to only 81 2/3 innings of work last season due to illness. He recovered during this past winter and was 4-0 with a 3.24 ERA for Magallanes in the Venezuelan League. Sanchez has a career strikeout/walk ratio of 2.5."
The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League has signed ex-Mets pitcher Connor Robertson. From their press release:
Capping the latest round of signings is right-handed reliever Connor Robertson. Entering his seventh pro season, Robertson reached the Major Leagues briefly in 2007 with the Oakland Athletics, and then again in 2008 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Robertson finds his way to Southern Maryland after spending last season with the New York Mets organization at Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Buffalo. He was drafted by Oakland in 2004, and remained in that organization through ’07. In 273 career games (all in relief), Robertson is 29-18 lifetime in the majors and minors combined. (374 innings pitched.) He also adds 36 career minor league saves to a Crab bullpen already overflowing with many closer options. 11 of those saves came last season for Binghamton.
See, I still had him on the Buffalo roster. Thanks Tim for starting my journey in the Atlantic League...
My last journey today in the Atlantic League is to the York Revolution, and their new outfielder:
"... (ex-Met Scott) Grimes comes to York after spending the 2009 season in the New York Mets organization. He was picked up by New York following a spectacular 2008 season in Worcester where he was named Can-Am League Player of the Year, after hitting .365 with 21 homeruns and 17 steals in just 93 games. The 26-year-old resides nearby in Kennett Square, PA, and begins his sixth pro season in 2010. He is a career .302 hitter..."
I remember McNab in Mets camp for a couple seasons. You always remember the autograph signers, and I think I have him from 2 or 3 different Spring Trainings with the Mets. After a while, I was a bit surprised to keep seeing him at Spring games but never in New York (kind of expecting the turn in his career that eventually happened to happen).
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