Mack's Mets: 5-19-12 - Daily Mets Minors Report

5/19/12

5-19-12 - Daily Mets Minors Report

Date: 5-19-12

I bet every team loses tonight. Look for rattled players after the Muno announcement.

David Wright is having one crazy season. Though his .470 BABIP is obviously nowhere near sustainable, check out that line drive rate! Oh, and he has yet to hit even one pop up all season. He also has just four home runs, but that’s because his fly ball rate is by far a career low. He is too busy hitting liners like mad, so it’s tough to hit many over the wall. The good news is that his HR/FB rate is back to where it typically has stood after last year’s slightly down year. Also worth nothing is that his strikeout rate is at its best career mark, and much improved after suddenly hitting a new lower level beginning in 2009. While his average is sure to drop, he is clearly back to being the five-category contributor he used to be and so there is no reason to try selling high. http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/hitter-babip-leaders/

Kirk Nieuwenhuis has been quite the pleasant surprise in New York. Unfortunately, a .422 BABIP has only led to a .291 average, making it scary to think what it might be once that regresses. Like Wright though, Nieuwenhuis has been a line drive machine, suggesting that the current BABIP hasn’t required much luck, but that doesn’t mean such a high LD% is actually sustainable. Jason Bay should be back soon, so Nieuwenhuis is going to be at risk of losing at bats once his luck runs out. He simply doesn’t make enough contact to keep Bay on the bench or have enough power to offset the high strikeout rate. http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/hitter-babip-leaders/

Adam Foster -

Every time I see a young baseball writer/tv personality succumb to using old man baseball thinking (with bad numbers), I get a little sad.

This will never happen with me. I’m an old man using old man baseball thinking… period.

Eric Simon‏ -

David Wright (.210) has a lower isolated power (ISO, or SLG-AVG) than Jason Bay (.220).

This is a perfect example of using saber numbers wrong… ISO is a useless number that equates that a certain hitter has a higher percentage of extra base hits vs. singles, without any factor for total amount of hits or at-bats. Any attempt at saying that Bay is doing a better job than Wright is useless twitter space.

AAA-Buffalo:

Josh Satin starts at 2B…

SP Matt Harvey gave up back-to-back home runs in the first… from tweet at game to Adam Rubin: "Velo 93-96 mph with decent run on fastball but no sink."… 25-pitch first inning… jitters err… unjittered… 6IP, 3R, 4H, 3BB, 11K. Pitches: 99-63 strikes

The Bisons’ came back quickly with three runs in the third, two on Val Pascucci’s 9^th home run of the season… and then two more in the 5^th on Val’s 10^th… buy, do the fans in Buffalo love this guy…

AA-Binghamton:

MATT DEN DEKKER, CF METS - Team: Double-A Binghamton (Eastern) Age: 24 - Why He's Here: .400/.429/.840 (10-for-25), 2 HR, 5 2B, 7 RBIs, 6 R, 4 SO - The Scoop: Matt den Dekker's hot week at the plate extended his hitting streak to 11 games and bumped his batting average up to .305 for the season. The Mets' 2010 fifth-round draft pick had a three-hit game yesterday and a ninth-inning leadoff double on Wednesday that set the stage for an eventual Binghamton walk-off victory. Dekker hit just .235 in 72 games with Binghamton last season but this year leads the B-Mets in almost every offensive category and sits atop the Eastern League in total bases. The center fielder out of Florida still has a high strikeout rate, averaging close to one per game throughout his professional career, but his improving average and power numbers show signs of promise for the future. http://ht.ly/1jRSwi

The Giants may end up regretting letting RHP Zack Wheeler get away to the Mets in the Carlos Beltran deal last year. Wheeler, 21, held Double-A Trenton to two runs in seven innings this week while striking out eight, and his ERA now sits at 2.15 with 45 whiffs in 37 innings http://ht.ly/1jRSwi

Reese Havens, 2b, Mets. A 2008 first-round pick, Reese Havens' path to the big leagues has been slowed by injuries—not performance. The hard-nosed Havens has played just 93 games over the past two seasons because of a variety of injuries, but, when healthy, has performed to the tune of .301/.379/.505. Havens' third season at Double-A Binghamton has produced uncharacteristic struggles as his 2012 season line sits at .140/.246/.240, after a hitless week in 16 at-bats. The second baseman's inability to make contact has hampered his performance, striking out in half of his at-bats on the week and over 30 percent on the year. http://ht.ly/1jRSwi

Closer Adrian Rosario has been promoted to Binghamton.

SP Gonzalez Germen on the bump… pitching battle early against Billy Buckner… Portlandia breaks the ice with two in the fifth… then two more in the 7^th (Jefry Marte’s 5^th error of the season)…

GG pitched good (6.0-IP, 1-ER, 6-K, 3-BB) but had absolutely no support… The B-Mets finished with only four hits… including two singles and 2 walks by Marte (.323)…

A+ - St. Lucie: -

Wilfredo Tovar started at SS…