9/5/14

CINDERELLA STORY - DARIO ALVAREZ by Tom Brennan


Here follows a remarkable story of a guy who must have found the glass slipper, put it on, and found out it fit.

A short glimpse at the career, and remarkable turn in career, for one Dario Alvarez: 

He pitched decently in 2007 thru 2009 in Phils’ developmental league then disappeared for 3 years.  Pitched nowhere.  Injury, whatever.  Who knows.  Gone.

Then in 2013, Mets sign the 24 year old and assign him to Brooklyn. 
First 5 outings? 23 innings, 17 runs.  Yuk.  Mistake signing this bum, right?

Then from out of nowhere, a 6 inning, 1 hit, 12 K gem.  Then 2 more games with 7 innings and 8 runs.  Back to yuk. 

Then it clicked.  Last 4 outings in 2013, 22 innings, 2 runs, 20 Ks.  Hmm....

Overall, a decent, but improving 2013.  No real sign this guy is really a guy you’d ever see in majors

2014:

He's 25 now.  Gotta promote him, right, so off he goes to Savannah. 
To recap the Alvarez renaissance in Savannah, he had only 3 weak outings, in which he gave up 10 runs in 7 innings.  Otherwise, in 17 other games there, he gave up 2 runs in 54 innings and averaged 15 K’s per 9.  Ridiculous.  Koufax would approve.

He then gets in 9 games and 12 innings with Bingo and Lucie in August, and gives up no runs and K’s 19.  Jumps two levels - that's remarkable.

But wait - there's more: 

He's called up to the majors.  12 innings above midlle A ball.  Just like that.  What just happened??  Cinderella story.  Something you rarely ever see.  Something I can't ever recall since the Mets called Ryan after his Class A (and brief AA cameo) back in 1966.

Then, in his first major league game, he is thrown into a pressure spot!!  One run game, man in scoring position!  A guy who was in Savannah a month ago!  Sad to say, he gave up a hit, but man, a remarkable story.

Congratulations, Dario.

8 comments:

Mack Ade said...

I have a funny feeling this story hasn't come to an end.

My guess is he will return to Las Vegas next season to work on his game. You can't have enough good left handed pitchers coming out of the pen and the Mets don't have enough. If they did, this guy wouldn't be in Queens right now.

Tom Brennan said...

My guess is you as an owner don't want to jerk around your minor leagues too much, so what would have been your first lefty call up choice, Jack Leathersich, was left in Vegas for the playoffs.

If Jack does not self-destruct in the playoffs, my guess is he'll get called up by the Mets as soon as they end. His AAA work may be shaky overall (less so this year than last) but he certainly has a lot more seasoning than Dario. And then he'll get the innings that Dario will get until he gets here.

For all the quality in the Mets minors pitching-wise, lefties are a scarce resource in their "inventory".

Ernest Dove said...

Great move by Terry Collins to have Dario face lefty hitting yelich, who by the way was hitting .322 against lefty pitching going into that at bat..........

Tom Brennan said...

At least Terry did not put Alvarez in against Barroid Bonds with the bags full in 7th game of the Series. We have to cut Collins some slack, right, Ernest (and Reese:)

Steve from Norfolk said...

Thomas,

Good article on Dario.

There was one guy between Nolan Ryan and Dario Alvarez that jumped from Middle-A to the bigs - after 38 starts between rookie ball, short-A, and A ball. You might remember him as Doc.

Good company to be in! Nolan Ryan, Doc Gooden, and ... Dario Alvarez! A glimpse of good things to come for him.

Tom Brennan said...

So true on the Doc, Steve. For some reason, I thought he had a brief AAA stint, but having brushed away the cobwebs, the answer is no. But there was no human like Doc at that age, ever.

The highlight of his rookie year was those two 16 K games back to back in Sept 1984 after, of course, his prior gem of a game (1 hit shutout with 11 Ks). Not bad for 19.

Steve from Norfolk said...

Thomas,

Doc's first AAA start came in 1987, on his way back from the Smithers Institute. He did 1 start in Single A and 4 in AAA( I was lucky enough to catch 2 of them) before he got back to the Mets.

Reese Kaplan said...

@ Tom Brennan

I'll have you know that tomorrow I will post an article on the positives Terry Collins brings to the table. It was tough to write but sometimes it helps trying to see things from the other point of view :)