9/7/14

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 (1st in ERA, WHIP, Ks), Oswalt (4th in ERA and WHIP, 8th in Ks), Meisner (2nd 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 7th 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 2nd.   Urena was 5th in the league at .300, and Rosario was 12th 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 3rd 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 2nd 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, 4th in ERA (3.27) and 5th 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 7th 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.



2 comments:

Mack Ade said...

Thomas -

You have added here, at Mack's Mets, a depth of coverage that the site never had in the past.

I thank you for all your hard work each week and I look forward to what you write about in the off-season.

Tom Brennan said...

Appreciate it, Mack.

It was a pleasure doing it - so many guys, particularly pitchers, exceeded my expectations and made it easy. Only tough as to who to exclude from my lists.

Some interesting tidbits being drafted for future articles, coming up real soon. Hope the readers will like 'em.