METS MINOR LEAGUES PLAYOFF
PICTURE - Tom Brennan
It's been a long, tough battle throughout the season for the Mets affiliates and for their players. So who made it, who didn't, and what might that mean?
Las Vegas was a revolving door of talent this year's, with pitchers and hitters being called up, especially Thor and Matz, sent down, promoted from lower levels, or moving to or from Asia, and a season with both a double digit winning streak and losing streak. When the dust settled, the Las Vegas 51s had to win its division to make the Pacific Coast League playoffs.
If tied with another team at season's end, head-to-head records come into play. After squandering a solid division lead, Vegas was tied after 142 games with El Paso for the division lead, With just 2 games to go, tied but El Paso had won the season series, so in the event of a tie breaker, Vegas goes home.
So what happened? Logan Verrett dropped the ball with a weak start in game 143, rendering game 144 moot in terms of playoff hopes. No Vegas post-season.
Binghamton had guys like Michaels Conforto and Fulmer come and go, Gavin Cecchini get lots of hits and errors, three guys (Lawley, Pina and Aderlin Rodriguez) released at the same time (mid-season), and some fine starts and bullpen work, especially Paul Sewald.
The best 2 teams in each of the 2 Eastern League divisions make the playoffs. All of the B Mets' efforts added up to a playoff berth against Reading, a team finishing several games ahead of our boys. Series starts on Wednesday. Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks.
St Lucie started with a brief dose of Conforto, got a season-long jolt of 20 year old MVP Dominic Smith and Jeff McNeil, and a mixed bag of pitching, all of which got them to around .500 ball and no playoffs. To get in, they had to win their Florida State League division in the 1st or 2nd halves of the season. Not even close, as they had a hard time moving anywhere north of .500.
Savannah started 2015 like crapola and finished it like nirvana, losing 16 of the first 23 and then winning close to 70% of their games the rest of the way. They just played really well as a team, with solid hitting and fine pitching. Another 20 year old MVP, Luis Guillorme, hit over .400 with an OB % close to .500 after July.
South Atlantic League format to get into the playoffs was similar to that of the FSL (they had to win their division in the 1st or 2nd halves of the season). That got them into the playoffs easily, as they won their division in both the first half and 2nd half.
Brooklyn was the polar opposite of Savannah, winning like crazy at the start (14-5) and then losing with great regularity thereafter (65% of the time) due to very dormant bats, although a pretty solid rotation and fine pen tried to keep them above water. For them, it all resulted in a sub-.500 record.
You either win your NY Penn League division or a wild card, so did the lack of hitting cost the Cyclonics a spot in the playoffs? Well, their season ends September 7, with the playoffs a long ways off. Vince Siena and Alex Palsha got promoted to St Lucie at season's end as a reward for very solid Cyclone seasons - but no playoffs.
Kingsport had a big 4 hitting machine (likely league MVP Pat Mazelka, batting champ Kevin Kaczmarski, HR champ Dash Winningham, and Luis Carpio), and 3 strong starters (Tom McIlraith, Nabil Crismatt, and Audry German, who were a combined 18-2).
All of that talent was good enough to lead them to a 40-28 record. First 2 teams in each Appalachian League division made the playoffs. As a result of winning the West, the K Mets played Greeneville, which barely snuck into the playoffs with a 34-33 record.
So, how’d it go? not good, unless your favorite color is Greene.
This playoff series started earlier than others, and on Sept. 5th, the K Mets lost the deciding game in the best of 3 series after winning game 1, and went home without a championship.
Nice try, though, guys.
Lastly:
The neophyte Mets in the GCL? They had their ups and downs; only the winners of each of the 4 divisions get in. They did notmanage to do that, finishing under .500. No playoffs.
So that's the playoff outlook recap, folks. Keep watching the daily Down Under reports to see how our 2 remaining minor league playoff teams fare.
2 comments:
Hey, let's hear it for the hometown ankle biters:
http://content.sportslogos.net/logos/37/5076/full/3110_el_paso_chihuahuas-primary-2014.png
The angry puppies got it done.
Hey Reese, I don't know if all the churning of players in Vegas also happened for El Paso, but it was one big turnstile at both Vegas and Binghamton this year. The opening day rosters for both looked a whole lot different than the year end ones for both teams. Maybe Vegas lost its mojo along the way.
For Binghamton, Gavin Cecchini will miss the playoffs due to a hip contusion. He had not played since Aug 19, so hopefully it will heal with time.
Curious also what is wrong with Ceciliani, who has been out for a few weeks on DL. Since he is not in AAA playoffs, wondering if he will be healthy enough to be called up.
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