HAPPY RECAP - GCL METS 2014 - VOL 7 OF 7

HAPPY RECAP – VOL. 7 OF 7 – GCL METS 2014 by Tom Brennan

Seven Met minor league teams above the DSL, and one of them has to be the most junior.  And that one is: the Gulf Coast League (GCL) Mets.

So, last but not least, I happily recap the GCL Mets, who are stationed, like their big brothers the St Lucie Mets in...you guessed right, St Lucie, in the great state of Florida.  The GCL is where the guppiest of the guppies of pro ball ply their trade (I guess, though, that makes the DSL lads tadpoles or amoebas or something).

Anyhow, on this 33-27 team (a decent .550 win %, BTW), we had very low power offense coupled with decent pitching. 

We had big bopper 1B Dash Winningham, who had 5 homers and 36 RBIs straight out of HS and has the size to mash.  Only turning 19 this month.  Another Duda?  One can only hope.

Other than Dash’s 5 homers, there were six homers in 60 games by guys not named Dash.  May I suggest Wheaties, gentlemen?

John Mora excelled (.318/.433/.427, 14 steals in 32 games), except for power (homerless), and headed off to Brooklyn, bypassing Kingsport.  The smallish lefty's aggregate #s were .307/.388/.392 in 56 games.  Nice.

In the exclusive .300 club, we also had solid offensive play from Enmanuel Zabala (.301/.356/.367 in 55 homerless games).  His name will be an announcer's dream should he make it to the majors.

Another offensive guy who was a draftee in 2014, 18 year old SS Milton Ramos hit OK (.241/.299/.355), but nothing spectacular.  Mets have him as their #11 prospect, 6 notches ahead of Brooklyn’s Molina the Magnificent, so I would imagine we’ll see great things from Milton in 2015.

Pitching-wise, we had excellent efforts from Ty Badamo, a lad who came out of Miller Place in Suffolk County, and Alex Palsha who turned in a very solid closer's effort and got promoted late to Kingsport.  He'd like to close for the Mets someday, but is afraid of copying Jenrry Mejia's saves celebration move in case, heaven forbid, he should get a hernia or something. 

Also excellent in mostly relief were Kevin Canelon and Nabil Crismatt. Lots of Ks and few runs for those young men.  In one sense, it is hard to highlight GCL pitchers, since none threw as many as 39 innings.  So 2015 will be much more telling for this entire contingent.

Our GCL offensive cadre could be synopsized as follows:

Its 11 homers in 60 games ranked it in a 4 way tie for last in the 16 team league, a throwback to dead ball era days.   The Yanks, who on the other hand yearn for power, had 62 homers...spread over 2 teams, so don’t go getting upset, Mets fans. 

Despite its lack of long ball prowess and despite a 10^th rank in average (.247) and being 11^th in slug %, the GCL Mets were only 36 runs behind the league leaders.  Likely some clutch hitting happening then, and they were also 3^rd in steals with 89.   Eric Young Jr would approve.

Pitching-wise, our GCL gunslingers were 4^th in ERA (3.27), 5^th in Ks (Yank teams, as a side note, were 1^st and 3^rd), and our boys were middle of the pack on WHIP.  

Defensively, certainly some issues cropped up, as their 67 unearned runs were only exceeded by one team.  Drill, baby, drill, let’s tighten that D up.

So….a team that had a good record buoyed largely by strong pitching.  Except for the good record part, sounds like a true Met squad.   I’d prefer more power, but maybe that’s just me.

So concludes my 7 part series on the 7 Met minor league teams that were collectively nearly 120 games above .500.  How could my recaps not have been HAPPY RECAPS.  Bob Murphy would have agreed, I’m sure.

I will probably do some further reviews of our minor league stars in the coming weeks and months.  Hope you read on as I do them.

Thoughts, questions, comments?