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3/22/10

Mar 22 - Minors Stuff - Merritt, Ruben, Jordany, Keppinger... and yesterday's ST games

Spring Trainings:

The "A" team beat the hell out of Michigan and the "B" team was rained out in the Tampa area.

Future Japanese pitching star, Nelson Figueroa, pitched three more excellent innings that don't even count in my "Rotational Circus". That's a total of four innings he has pitched for the "SS" squad (do you think they could come up with a better nickname that this?) that doesn't come into play in his spring ERA.

Like it really matters.  The Mets aren't going to offer him a job and he's going to pack up his family and hustle off to Tokyo.

No one was happier when the rain came than Jonathan Niese. He was off to another Nieve-like start... and I'm starting to wonder if these two guys are identical twins.

My man, RF/1B Chris Carter, went 3-3 against Michigan. I'm not sure at this point he can do anything more to prove to the Mets brass that he can hit. Wouldn't it be great if Omar & Co. just took a deep breath, agreed that 2010 is already toast, dump the Tatis' of the team, eat a few contracts, and rebuild this team with 2011 in mind?

Never gonna happen.


AA-Binghamton:

Something seems to have happened to RP and once future closer, Roy Merritt.

(btw... Baseball Cube still has him listed as a regular day player and only lists his college hitting stats... boy, they're not as sharp as they used to be, are they?)

Merritt was an unheralded 29th round pick in 2007 that broke in with K-Port that year. In 2008, he went crazy for both Brooklyn and St. Lucie, and was used primarily as a closer.

Last year, the Mets rewarded him with an invite to big boy ST camp,  (I stand corrected about this...)and many Mets writers, inclusing myself, were calling for the Mets to take a long look at him for the 2009 pen in Queens.

It didn't happen... in fact, Merritt didn't pitch well last spring, and was assigned to Binghamton, where he went 4-5, 3.45, in 56 games. Normally, one would say these are decent numbers, but nowhere compared to his past accomplishments. He also saved only 14 games and began to not be used as the closer anymore. Was this another bonzo decision by a roving coach?

Saturday, Merritt began the 2010 season with stats of 2-IP, 3-H, 2-ER, 1-HR for the B-Mets ST game, and things look like they are continuing to go wrong here.

Something happened here... maybe he just couldn't sustain his success from lower levels like many double-digit draftees. Or, maybe someone tried to change him, something that keeps going around in Mets camp under Omar and Co.

I don't know...

Mike Silva of  NY Baseball Digest wrote: "Tejada has been a shortstop a majority of his minor league career, playing only 33 games at second base. I haven’t seen him there enough to tell how effective he will be. Everyone has raved about his speed and defense so I don’t know why he couldn’t do just fine. Remember, he isn’t replacing a top tier defensive player either."

I sort of agree, but let's get back to the 33 games at second base.

I played well over 2000 games as a third baseman.

I played one inning as a second baseman.

The regular second baseman on my Air Force team got hurt and I told the coach I could fill in there. I mean, how hard could second base be, forgetting that my mind has processed the distance between third and first as the norm... I stabbed my first grounder, posted up, turned to the first baseman, and threw the ball, around 85, four rows into the stands...

It ain't the same.

Let the kid learn second base in Binghamton, not even Buffalo.

The Mets took a short-squad to the Houston complex on Sunday... and you just might have had the first peak at the someday full time second baseman for the New York Mets.
His name is Jordany Valdespin, and when he's not pissing off coaches, he's hitting the snot out of the ball.

You simply don't see Baseball Cube give a ballplayer a 100 rating on contact, but Valdespin has one. Of cource, his patience rating is 16, making patience to him people in hopsitals.

His Latin stats were off the charts, and his 2-year totals for the GCL, Brooklyn, and Savannah team are: .292/.335/.432/.767, in 377-AB... only 61-Ks... and 21-SB, 63-R, 7-HR, and 45-RBI

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