SHORT SEASON LEAGUES FINAL RECAP AND "SHARK RANKINGS" by Tom Brennan

It's time for my Mets' short season wrap up.  As those who have read my Sunday missives over the past several weeks, you've seen my rankings of the best and brightest from Brooklyn, Kingsport, and GCl Mets teams.  I have considered player hype, but I love weighting guys based heavily on their performance.  Because you, for instance, can have a “hyped Grandy” whose performance ain't worth a hill of beans.

I love the underdog who outperforms.  Overdogs who perform are also valued very highly!

Anyway, before my "best and brightest" rankings, what about the teams themselves?

Three teams, no playoffs - that stinks.  The GCL Mets team (33-27) had a good reason: no playoffs in GCL.  Brooklyn (42-34) got tantalizingly close to a play off slot, but a final day, come from behind win by Connecticut zapped the Cyclones.  But there are silver linings: the best of the Cyclones hitters got promoted to Savannah for their playoffs (Conforto, Urena, Rosario).  The lethal 3 joined “Luis the Glove” Guillorme, who was jumped from Kingsport to Gnat Land a few days prior.

Kingsport (34-34) also got close to playoff heaven but pulled up short. 

Overall, the 3 teams were a combined 14 games over .500.  Pretty good, pretty good.

PLUS / MINUS SYNOPSIS FOR EACH TEAM:

BROOKLYN:
Plus:
Great starting and relief pitching, leading the league in ERA (a glistening 2.74), shutouts (10), and Ks (666 in 671 innings), thanks to strong starting pitching from Molina (1^st in ERA, WHIP, Ks), Oswalt (4^th in ERA and WHIP, 8^th in Ks), Meisner (2^nd in Ks) and others, and a host of excellent reliever performances led by Brad Wieck (sub 2 ERA, 39 Ks in 25 2/3).
Minus:
Except for Conforto, Mora, Rosario, and Urena, Cyclone hitting was lackluster.  A league low 22 homers in 76 games left them 33 behind the league-leading State College Spikes.  The team hit a middling .254 and was 7^th in runs at 307 (4 per game).  Conforto lacked enough at bats to vie for the batting title, but got close, and his .331 would have slotted him 2^nd.   Urena was 5^th in the league at .300, and Rosario was 12^th at .289. 

KINGSPORT:
Plus:
Led Appalachia in long balls with in 47 in 68 games. (Wilson, Becerra, and Lupo combined for 25 of those.  Lots of Ks too, especially Wilson).  K Mets came in 2nd in runs scored and 3^rd in average at .258.  Yanks can keep their A Rod, we’ve got J Rod, who hit a robust .312/.387/.422.
Minus:
Pitching was lackluster, with a 2^nd to last 4.05 ERA, and last in Ks to boot.  With a few exceptions, pitching did not stand out in the land of Appalachian professionals.

GCL METS:
Plus:
Out of 13 teams, 4^th in ERA (3.27) and 5^th in Ks (434).  Canelon (1.45/.0.72) and Badamo (1.74/1.00) were terrific, but the spectacular Martirez Arias was 4-0 with a 0.50 ERA before going 2-0 in Brooklyn.
Minus:

A dead ball era 11 homers in 60 games, and only 7^th in runs scored out of 13 teams.     Manny Zabala was homerless but led the squad with a .301/.356/.367 split.  John Mora split his time between the GCL and Brooklyn and slashed at a sweet .307/.388/.392.

Overall, well above average starting and relief pitching coupled with decent hitting but generally low in much-desired power.

“WE'RE NO LONGER GUPPIES, WE'RE SHARKS AND PROUD OF IT!”

All along in my weekly updates, I went with a Top 20 and added a 10 man honorable mention as I went along primarily because so many relief pitchers were excelling (see my article last week if you care to, about the firemen on those 3 teams.  They were exemplary).  This week, I am going to scale that down – cut to the chase – stop equivocating – make the tough calls.  After all, the full season results are in. 

SO….which guppies deserve a Top 10 rating and to no longer be referred to as Guppies, but instead as Sharks?

Here we go, in order:

	SHARKS	YOUR BASIC UPDATE BLURB
1.	RHSP Marcos Molina – Bklyn	Clearly the Cy Young of the NY Penn League.  Awesome.  Future star, I’m betting.
2.	OF Michael Conforto- Bklyn	My only disappointment is it took him a month to start playing.  Great season: .331.
3.	RHSP Corey Oswalt - Bklyn	Consistently terrific pitching all year long.  Brooklyn’s Koosman to Molina’s Seaver.
4.	RHSP Martirez Arias - Bklyn/Kport	6-0, 1.11 ERA.  Superb.  He promises to do better next year.
5.	3B Jhoan Urena - Bklyn	Surged to .300 in a league stingy with hitters and played in all but one game.
6.	LHRP Brad Wieck – Bklyn	1.56, 36 Ks in 23.2 innings.  Smoking hot reliever.  Huge dude.
7.	RF Wuilmer Becerra - Kingsport	Hit for average and power after a slow start.  Another Dickey Dividend.
8.	SS Amed Rosario – Bklyn	.289 in Brooklyn at 18 shouts lots of potential.  Neck & neck with fellow SS Guillorme.
9.	3B Jean Rodriguez – Kingsport	.321/.384/.424.  Again, how do you spell “SWEET”?
10.	CF John Mora - Bklyn/GCL	.319/.406 in 210+ PA, only 30 Ks.  Hit a HR for us!!

These are my next 10 favorites (in no particular order – you rank them if you want to):

B RATED	MORE BLURBS
LHRP Kelly Secrest – Bklyn	Very similar #’s to Brad Wieck.  A little less WOW.
SS Luis Guillorme – Kingsport	Nice bat, fine glove, excellent contact guy.
RHSP Casey Meisner – Bklyn	Casey came on strong as the season progressed.
LHRP Shane Bay – Bklyn	Saves leader on the short season teams.
LHRP Dave Roseboom – K'port	Excellent relief work, Dave.
LHP Kevin Canelon – GCL	1.45, 0.72 WHIP – superb.
RHRP Alex Palsha GCL	Fine saves runner up to Shane Bay.
RHP Tyler Badamo – GCL	Great as a starter and reliever in GCL.
RHRP Nabil Crismatt – Bklyn	Nabil was tremendous as the season wore on.
OF Vicente Lupo – Kingsport	Terrific August.  7 HR.  Potential future lethal bat.

This is the Guppy Groupie signing off.   Next year, the fish tank gets restocked.  Yahoo!  Stay tuned.  Feel free to weigh in.

OH, I ALMOST FORGOT - LET'S GO METS.  Let's go Dekker, let's go Flores, let's go Dilson.  Let's go Alvarez. 

HAVE A GREAT SUNDAY, FOLKS.