4/19/16

AM I THE ONLY ONE EXCITED? WEEKLY MINOR LEAGUE RECAP - Tom Brennan



AM I THE ONLY ONE EXCITED?  WEEKLY MINOR LEAGUE RECAP  - Tom Brennan

As I noted last week, in the past 2 years that I've been writing for Mack’s Mets, the Mets' minor league teams collectively have been far above .500, and I suspect (without checking) that those teams had the best collective win-loss records of any organization in baseball over that time span. No complaints there!  The Mets promoted, and traded, a slew of minor league fellas, especially of the pitching persuasion, in 2015…but it's a new day and a new season down under.

Sooooo....how's 2016 going? What went on last week?

So far, through Sunday's games, AAA Las Vegas is 5-4; Binghamton post-snow is 5-3; St Lucie with no snow is 7-4; and Columbia is close to .500 at 5-6.  A combined 22-17, which ain't shabby.

How'd they do in this first full week (Mon. through Sun., Apr. 11-17), after the opening short week?  Some guys did great, some not so great. Like most weeks.

One not-so-great aspect is the dead ball era lives in Mets Minors Land, with the 4 squads tallying just 13 homers in 39 contests so far. I love the long ball, and so I don't love that.
STARS OF THE WEEK: 
PTICHERS!  The best of the best for this week were the starting pitchers, especially Sean Gilmartin, the Giz (Rob Gsellman), and Mickey Jannis. And Tim Peterson has been sterling out of the pen in St Lucie, too. Others excelled as well.  Read more on these cool cats below.


AAA LAS VEGAS 51'S: I think this 5-4 Vegas team has real offensive potential, but is slower out of the gate than the teams from 2014 and 2015, which both exceeded 6 runs per contest in the early season.  The 2016 squad is way off, hitting just .256 with 4 homers and 43 runs, with a .369 slugging %, in 9 contests. 

The week featured a great start by misplaced major leaguer (we want you back) Sean Gilmartin (7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 8 Ks, 0.84), another great one by Gabe Ynoa (6.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2.38 ERA), and yet another fine outing by Seth Lugo, who bounced back from a tough first start with 6 innings of 1 run, no walk, 6 K ball.  Tossing mighty well out of the pen is Paul Sewald, naturally, with 5.1 innings of 3 hit, one walk, 7 K ball so far, and 2-0 Chase Bradford (1.29, 7 IP).  Not so well?  Dario Alvarez (13.50).

No 51's hitters had a dazzling week, but Roger Bernadina, Travis Taijeron, TJ Rivera, and Matt Reynolds are all hitting well, and Matt is still catching his breath after tripling twice in one of the weekend's games.  Matt and Johnny Monell, however, cooled down after the season-opening week.

Disappointing so far are the "highly rateds": Gavin Cecchini, Brandon Nimmo, and Dilson Herrera combined are hitting .220 in 91 at bats, no HRs and 6 RBIs.  Slugger Marc Krauss is off to a bad, high K start as well. 


AA BINGHAMTON METS: Ah, warmth returned to the Northeast, relatively speaking, and helped spur a strong week for the B Mets, despite lackluster hitting in their first 8 games (.251, 3 homers).  

Journeymen Niuman Romero and Derrick Gibson each have played in 7 of the 8 games and been on base a combined 29 times, good for a .450 OB %. The only 2 hitters doing poorly are another first rounder, Dominic Smith (.194 in 36 ABs) and Stephan Sabol going 3 for 22.  Jeff McNeil has been in just 3 games to date.


Pitching-wise, Rob "the Giz" Gsellman followed his first week gem with another nearly-as-fine start and sits at 1-0, 1.46.  Rainy Lara tossed 5 innings of 7 hit shutout ball in his first start, Kelly Secrest has been solid in the pen, and Akeel Morris had one bad outing to taint his early stats. 

Logan Taylor has been strong early, tossing 4 shutout innings in a recent start, and Mickey Jannis nearly knuckled his way to a no hitter before faltering a bit late, but still getting the win.  Tyler Pill has now been miserable thru 2 starts (8.38 ERA) but he started poorly last year too, then ran off a slew of consecutive wins for the B Mets.   Let's go, Tyler. 

 
A - ST LUCIE METS:  This 7-4 juggernaut went 4-3 on the week, after getting shellacked on Sunday, and 2 hit to boot.   Hitting has not gotten them where they are, as they sit at .242 with a mere 3 HRs in 11 games. The pitchers, tho', sport a 3.18 ERA and an impressive 108 Ks in 99 IP.

Top prospect Amed Rosario went hitless, like most everyone, on Sunday, slipping under .300 at .298.  Tomas Nido declared that hitting .400 was cake as he was sitting at, well, exactly .400. 


Casey Delgado and Ricky Knapp are each 2-0. Corey Oswalt and Chris Flexen's starts in week 2 went much better than the bad ones in week one, thank you for asking.  The ugly side: Scarlyn Reyes is 0-2, 10.57.

Impressive out of the pen are Tim Peterson (5 IP, 1 H, 10 K) and Kevin McGowan (8.1 IP, 2.16, 13 Ks). Oh, let's not forget hard throwing Al Baldonado (4.2 IP, 1.93, 7 Ks).


A - COLUMBIA FIREFLIES: Another Mets Minors squad that is allergic to the long ball, so far, with a scant 3 dingers in the first 11 contests.  Can't blame the weather.  The two hitting stars so far have been IF Vinny Siena, who's been on base almost 50% of the time (not shabby) Anne 3B David Thompson, hitting .333 with 7 extra base hits in the early going.

Ivan Wilson has not hit well yet, but it is great to report that his strikeouts are relatively low so far (struck out 13 times in 43 PAs), and just 5 Ks in his 6 starts last week.   Keep it up, Ivan.

Kevin Kacsmarski, Jeff Diehl, Milton Ramos, and Dash Winningham are all off to slow starts but promise to do better.

The Fire Flies' Flingers who are doing well include Joltin' Joe Shaw (2-0, 1.50, 16 Ks in 12 IP) and Chase Ingram (1-0, 1.80, 15 Ks in 10 IP).  Let's not forget Stingy Tom McIlraith, allowing just 2 hits in his first 10.2 IP.
 
Lots of great stories. Can't wait to do next week's update. 

10 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

Since there was no Macks Mets Update ready early this AM, I moved this article up.

What I witnessed over the weekend is yet another reminder of why I wanted Citifield's fences even closer. It is darned hard to hit balls out in the ball-don't-carry-in-the-wind-and-cold-weather scenario early in the season there. Were they hitting that poorly the first several games, or just victims of Citifield's unfriendliness to hitters in cold weather.

I still postulate that if the fences had been made 5-7 feet closer, our pitchers (except for Bartolo) would have adjusted and minimized extra homers, while our hitters would feel they had a reasonable dimensions to attack and hit a bunch more homers - fans would be happy, and more would come out. Too late now.

But we are rolling, and hopefully Jake is ready to come back healthy very soon.

Anonymous said...

Tom wrote:

>> As I noted last week, in the past 2 years that I've been writing for Mack’s Mets, the Mets' minor league teams collectively have been far above .500, and I suspect (without checking) that those teams had the best collective win-loss records of any organization in baseball over that time span. <<

I'm sorry, Tom, but you can't make a claim like that by completely making something up. It's pointless. Either do the research, provide real facts, or don't say it. It's one thing to write about players, and what they have done on the field, but here you are making a huge claim that could easily be false. So why say it? If you don't know, you don't know.

I do know that current rankings by the usual experts places the Met system somewhere around the middle in terms of overall talent. It does seem that thought the Mets lack superstar prospects, the overall base-level talent has gone up. More depth. For what that's worth.

James Preller

Tom Brennan said...

James, I am virtually certain that the Mets' minor league teams, excluding DSL which is sub-pro ball, had the best collective win-loss records of the past two years of any organization in baseball. Does not mean they are the best. Please research it yourself and correct me if I am wrong. I'm sure you have plenty of time to do so. Have a great day.

Bob Sugar said...

Preller, Why bother with negativity? Thomas writes not for pay checks but for our entertainment. Let it be or move on

Ernest Dove said...

Hey Dom Smith hit a homer recently. .....he's well on his way to 30 a year now ;)

Tom Brennan said...

How are you, Bob?

I will add that from my recollection, without looking back, that the Mets' 2014 farm teams (ex-DSL) were more than 100 games over .500.

Last year, Vegas had a winning record, Bingo was way over .500, St Lucie struggled around .500, but Savannah was around 40 games over. Brooklyn sagged, but Kingsport countered that, and Gulf Mets were around .500, so overall, those teams were close to 100 games over .500 again. For seven teams to be 100 games over .500 two years straight is around .550. It is almost unimaginable that any other organization with 7 teams considered would approach .550, since the more teams, the closer to the mean (.500) they normally will be.

Of course, that does not mean the Mets' organization had the best prospects, just that collectively, they won a tremendous lot - and seem poised (at least for the top 4 currently playing) to be well over .500 again.

I am very impressed after so many pitchers were promoted or traded in 2015, that the pitching has been this strong so far down under.

Ernest, maybe that will get Dom Smith going...I want to see him hit 20, at least.

Tom Brennan said...

Eleven homers in the past 4 games - wonder when the last time the Mets did that was?

That Adam Smith said...

Thompson, Oberste, Katz. Three slightly under the radar bats that I will be keeping an eye on this season.

And thanks, Thomas for all that you do here. It is much appreciated.

Ernest Dove said...

Hey Adam
Oberste is definitely a man amongst boys but if he does get to MLB level it might need to be in the AL as a DH.

Tom Brennan said...

Thanks, Adam.

Katz is my most suspect of those 3, due to a high K rate, the bane of guys like Taijeron.

Oberste: I hope he adds pop - he did surge to crack .300 last season.

Thompson off to a strong start in his first full season after a weak short season in a tough hitting environment in Brooklyn - hopefully, it will continue. It would be almost too much to ask for him to follow on the Conforto glide path, but how great would that be.