5-1-12 - Daily Mets Minors Report

Date: 5-1-12

"You should always go to other people's funerals, otherwise, they won't come to yours."_____Yogi Berra 

Adam Kilgore – “In 56 innings since TJ surgery, Stephen Strasburg has 58 strikeouts, 8 walks and 0 homers allowed” 

You know that my main job here is NOT to give you my opinion. It’s to pass on to you what coaches and scouts say about players. Every single scout that I have talked to over a three year period said that both Kirk Nieuwenhis and Lucas Duda would never project to be more that a 4th outfielder. Some scouts liked the Dude at first, but that was about it.

No one gets it right all the time. Some, like Duda and Nieuwenhuis, get an opportunity they never were going to get ‘on paper’. The good part is the fact that this game is played on a field, not in a database. 

“Any lefthanded pitcher with enough talent to be given 100 innings in a season as a starter in a major league rotation, and who can maintain an average fastball velocity greater than 92 mph in those innings, is almost certain to be successful” – Nathaniel Stoltz/BTBS 

AAA-Buffalo:

C Mike Nickeas never made it the Mets game due to the flu. Tonight, Lucas May is starting behind the plate for the Bisons while Vinnie Rottino is playing LF… Fred Lewis debuted tonight in CF…  Buffalo got Zach Duke’d… even Josh Edgin got lit up, having his AAA-ERA soar to 5.40…  the best you could say about this game was the two scoreless innings by Chuck James (0.93).

A+ - St. Lucie: -   

Going into the game… Adam Kolarek:  13 IP, 9 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 20 K… let’s look a little deeper here…

Kolarek came out of the University of Maryland where he had 60-appearacnes in three years, nine as a starter… the 6-3 lefty was not known to be a velo guy in school, striking out only 89 batters in 111.0 innings…

He has been successful in the Mets chain since his arrival as a 11^th round draft pick in 2010… in Brooklyn (2010), he went 2-1, 2.89, 1.07, followed in 2011 in Savannah of 7-0, 2.22, 1.14.

Kolarek has an above-average 83-84 slider and now can run his fastball up to 94. Very clean delivery. 

Who didn’t hit a home run on Tuesday? Even C Frankie Pena got a hit!... RF Cory Vaughn hit his fourth homer in five games… 15 runs… 19 hits…