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8/29/10

STOCK: - Yohan Almonte, Brandon Moore, and Orlando Tovar

Stock Up: - A lot of people were questioning me earlier in the season why I had SP Yohan Almonte so high up my “Keepers” list (currently #6 in the organization). Well, after last night, nobody should be questiong it as the Cyclones head their way into the playoffs with the ace. Almonte went the distance with a six-hit, 9.0-IP shutout. He also struck out five, while walking one, and lowered his seasonal ERA to 2.00. I’m telling you, the only way this kid ever sees Savannah is if his plane to Port St. Lucie next spring gets diverted due to weather.


Old Yohan:


Almonte was signed as an international unsigned free agent in 2007.


He pitched well in his first pro season for the DSL Mets (2008: 3-3, 2.95), and split time in 2009 with the GCL Mets and Kingsport… 4-1, 3.45, in 13-starts. Almonte also struck out 57 in 62.2-IP.


7-4-10: - Almonte pitched another good outing for Brooklyn Saturday night. The 20-year old righthander went 5.2 innings, gave up one earned run, and struck out four. His season ERA is down to 3.63 in four starts


7-19-10 from Pete Spiewak/Mack’s Mets: - Cyclones starter Yohan Almonte allowed seven hits in five innings on Monday, while the ValleyCats scored three unearned runs off of the 20-year-old righty. The Dominican Republic native lowered his ERA to 2.37 and now has a 24/8 K/BB ratio through 38 innings pitched for Brooklyn. He has only given up one earned run in his last three outings, and the last time he gave up more than one earned run was June 23 against Hudson Valley, when he gave up four runs over 6.2 innings in a loss to the Renegades.


7-31-10: - Almonte continues to elevate himelf, both as the ace of the Clones staff, and as a Mets prospect of the future. Last night, he went 7.0-IP, 0-ER, 3-H, 4-K, 0-BB. The 20-year old is now 4-3, 2.31, 1.04, with only 10-BB in 50.2-IP.


8-5-10: - We hate to write about somebody that we recently wrote about, but, at the same time, you have to recognize a player when he is accomplishing something special. This happened earlier this year when Mark Cohoon just kept throwing shutouts for St. Lucie. Well, in Brooklyn, right now, Yohan Almonte is all that. His stats last night: 7.0-IP, 0-R, 3-H, 5-K, 1-BB, 2.03.


8-7 from: - http://www.brooklyncyclones.com/news/topstories/index.html?article_id=929 - Almonte is 5-3 with a 2.03 ERA, good for fifth-best in the league. In 57.2 innings, he has allowed 46 hits, 21 runs, 13 earned runs, and 11 walks, while striking out 37 batters. He has allowed one earned run or less in seven of his 10 starts, and has given up just one home run all year. Almonte ranks second in the league in innings pitched. Yohan -- a 21-year-old native of Sabana de la Mar, in the Dominican Republic -- was signed by the Mets as a non-drafted free agent in 2007.


8-9-10: - Almonte dealt up another great Cyclone outing, raising his record to 6-3. This time his stats were: 8.0-IP, 7-H, 1-ER, 9-K, 0-BB and his yearly ERA has fallen below two at 1.92. He’s going nowhere because the Mets want him to pitch game one in the Cyclones playoffs coming up at the end of the month.

Stock Up: Brandon Moore seems to be getting the knack of pitching at the A+ level. Too bad the season’s end is just around the corner. Moore pitched 6.0-IP last night, compiling only 1-ER, while striking out 10. His Lucy ERA is now 3.82, which when added to his 2.49 in Savannah earlier this year, totals out for a nice 3.08 in 26 games, 24 of which he started. I’ll stay concervative here and say that he will return to St. Lucie to start the 2011 season, but… ya never know.


Old Moore stuff:


From local paper day after first day of draft: - After Day 1 of the Major League Baseball draft, (Brandon) Moore and Cameron Hobson still remain hopeful. Although the Crawfordsville graduates weren't drafted Thursday, they still have 44 more rounds to go. Moore just completed his senior year at Indiana Wesleyan University, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school in Marion, Ind. He finished with a 9-3 record this year and led the Wildcats to the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) championship game and runner-up finish. He ranked third in the NAIA in strikeouts per nine innings (12.21), sixth in opponents' batting average (.164) and eighth in ERA (1.64). He was also recently named a Second-Team All-American NAIA player and NCCAA Pitcher of the Year.



From: http://www.thepaper24-.com/main.asp?SectionID=24&SubSectionID=23&ArticleID=16213  - From the article "This is huge," Indiana Wesleyan Coach Mark DeMichael said. "(Brandon Moore) has an unbelievable opportunity. Scouts liked his size, his height and the fact his build is going to get stronger . . . You put that along with the increased velocity on his fastball, it's increased by mile per hour or two every year since his freshman year, and you combine that with his body improvement, and he hasn't his reached peak. He also has a major league slider and throws in the low 90s. You throw a slider, you're a prospect."



In 2008, Moore pitched for both Kingsport (2-0, 0.90, 1.00, in six games, two starts, 22-K in 20.0-IP) and Brooklyn (3-1, 9.00, 2.14 in 8 relief appearances).



He returned to Brooklyn for a complete season in 2009 and did good: 6-3, 2.09, 0.95, in 13 starts, 2-CG, 2-SH, 71-K, 17-BB, 82.0-IP.



Moore’s combined two-year stats are: 11-4, 2.31, 1.04.



1-1-2010 Forecast: No one expected this much from Moore, so this is all bonus time. Frankly, he’s had one of the better first two years any Mets SP has had in the past ten years. I expect him to bypass Savannah and go straight to Lucy in the spring.



4-14-10: - Moore pitched a “perfect” first outing, giving up nothing and ending with an organizational leading 0.00 WHIP. I asked him “you're the organizational leader in lowest WHIP (0.00)... after the first week... know it's early, and you're not going to deal up any secrets here, but what's working well for you right now?”Moore answered: “I’m just getting on the mound and pitching the way i always have. I have the mind set no one can beat me. My thing is I dont care who is at the plate. I know i can get them out.” Boy, we could use a little of this thinking in Queens right now.



5-30-10 from: - http://myworldofbaseball.com/wordpress/?cat=42  - Brandon Moore RHP - Brandon is the righthanded version of Mark, though he is much lighter in weight. Last year he was 6-3, 2.09, but missing out on making the All Star team. This year with Savannah he is 2-3, 1.92 with an impressive 6/67 walk to K ratio in 52 innings. He was drafted two rounds after Mark Cohoon.



6-27-10: - Moore had his first A+ outing and faired a lot better than his buddy Cohoon… 6.0-IP, 2-ER, 6-K, 3-BB, 3.00 ERA… and the win



7-10-10: - As we all know, Moore has had a wonderful career so far as a Mets. This year, he pitched excellently at Savannah (2.49, 0.9i in 14-G) and has been making the adjustment at the A+ level with St. Lucie. Friday night was a good outing: 6.0-IP, 1-ER, 4-Ks. He did give up four walks, but, for the season, he's 1-1, 2.65, .141 for Lucy. We're all still waiting for Moore to show some cracks... he's 15-9 as a Met... but so far, he easily has cracked the Mets top 25 prospect list.



7-14 from: - http://www.amazinavenue.com/2010/7/14/1567569/mets-farm-system-mid-term-review  - After a flat-out dominant first half in Savannah and now a very strong start to his Hi-A career, Moore has yet to show a true weakness thus far in his short pro career. Moore only reinforced the fact that he can strike guys out as evidenced by his runaway victory as first-half SAL strikeout king; pair that with his ridiculous eleven walks for the full effect. And though as a college product, Moore has been facing younger competition, you can't really be upset with ERA's in the 2's at every stop so far (including Brooklyn in '09). I suppose in his three starts for St. Lucie he has shown a bit more wildness, but it's still early to call that a trend. As long as that issue doesn't flare up and he can keep his K/9 at or near nine, he'll go into the winter as a pitching prospect worth much more attention come 2011.


7-16-10: - Moore pitched five more excellent innings last night, giving up 0--ER, striking out eight, and walking only once. 12 of his outs were flyouts. Moore seems to have made the conversion to A+ with ease, with four game stats of: 2-1, 1.80, 1.20 in 25.0-IP. I think it is obvious that the Mets will keep moving him on (24-yrs old) and I expect him to be in the Binghamton rotation next spring.


8-1-10: -Moore seems to be the one Savannah graduate this season that is settling nicely into the A+ St. Lucie rotation. Last night, he went 5.1-IP against Lakeland, giving up only one earned run. Season stats at Lucy: 7-G, 2-3, 2.61, 1.35. We’ve learned in the past not to get too excited about pitchers below the AA level, but Moore is definitely on our watch list. One caveat… he is playing A+ at 24-years old, which might be one of the reasons he’s doing well at that level.




8-19-10: - First, let’s talk about Brandon Moore. This is a kid that has done very little wrong so far in his professional career. I tend not to judge minor league pitchers on their win-loss record, because, in many cases, their best outing was cut short due to pitch count. ERA is okay, but WHIP and K/IP are much better. Moore was a 14th rounder in 2008 and has been successful at four levels in three years. His combined WHIP in 2008/2009, for 27-G, 15-starts, for Kingsport and Brooklyn, was 1.04. He also had 104-K in 109.0-IP. He started this season (14-G, 12-St) for Savannah and posted a 0.92 WHIP and 98-K in 79-2-IP… currently, he’s pitching for St. Lucie and has put up a 1.43 WHIP, 49-K in 56.0-IP in 10 starts. Every pitcher goes through at least one level hiccup and if a 1.43 WHIP is his, all is fine with the world. Wednesday night, Moore got back on the horse, tossing 6.0-IP, 2-H, 1-ER, 9-K, and 3-BB. Okay, here’s the rub. There is considerable chatter on the net about his lack of speed. I’ve watched the kid pitch and read a numerous amount of people that have seen him pitch and I estimate his fastball is sitting around 88-8, with a top speed of 92. Is this good enough to make a major league rotation? That’s not the problem. The problem is a pitcher that only hits 92 are a dime a dozen, so you better have serios control on that pitch, coupled by nasty secondary stuff. We’ll keep an eye on his A+ WHIP as the season comes to an end.


Stock Up: - You veteran Mack’s Metters know I’ve been talking about Orlando Tovar for well over two years. The toughest thing on some of these kids is getting back into the role they naturally play better in. Tovar has always been a natural starters, who has put up his best games in the role, but, at the same time, he has had to wait out his turn in the past three years of excellent lower level SP performances. Well, he’s getting another chance in Kingsport late in the season and he’s making the best of it. Last night, he pitched: 7.0-IP, 4-ER, 4-K, 1-BB, and raised his seasonal record to 4-0, 3.43. More importantly, he’s now 3-0, 2.92 in his four starts this season. Let’s hope the powers to be recognize this and send him to Savannah next spring to join their rotation.


Old Tovar:


The Venezuelan lefty started his Mets career in 2006 with the VSL Mets: 1-0, 2.20, 1-SV, 6-G.

He returned to the VSL team in 2007 and three’s a charm in 2008 with the VSL Mets, stating out at: 0-1.1.54, in 8 starts. This included a whopping 52-K in 41.0-IP. 2009 bought a trip stateside to the GCL mets, where he debuted with a 1-5, 4.31, in 12 games, 9 starts.

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