MINOR LEAGUE TIDBITS

MINOR LEAGUE TIDBITS by Tom Brennan

A few minutes before church, so what is happening in the minors?  Who's cookin"?

Tom Szapucki is always happening.  Cooking with gas, as they say.  He had his worst start of 2016, with 3 hits, 4 walks, 2 HBP in 5 innings, but he struck out 10 more.  We should all have such bad starts.  86 Ks in 52 innings.  That's 15 K's per 9 innings, folks.  Phew!  His fellow teammate and phenomenal starter Harol Gonzalez approves.

Nabil Crismatt is a promising dude, too.  The 21 year old hard thrower tossed 7 shutout, 2 hit innings last night while striking out 10.  Ad him to the list of strong young lower minors Mets starting pitchers.

Desmond Lindsay has been on base 36 of 76 times this year, and had a 7 RBI night the other day.  Sweet.  His teammate Peter Alonso was tearing it up before he broke his finger, leaving all Mets fans in Alonso Mourning.

IF Phil Evans has played the opposite corner from Dom Smith in AA this year.  Dom is back up to .295, but the under-the-radar Evans has hit .313/.349/.460 this year, and the radar is starting to pick him up.

Tomas Nido has almost identical numbers as a catcher in St Lucie as Evans has in AA.  When you watch "Runners Gone Wild" against Mets catchers in Queens, it is good to know that not only can Nido hit, but he has thrown out slightly over 40% of would-be base stealers in 2015 and 2016.

Josh Smoker has tightened up his control, with just 3 walks in July and August.  My guess is he is definitely a September call up, along with his righty AAA pen counterpart Paul Sewald.

On a very sad note, Jeff McNeil bulked up this off season and I was expecting great things of him after a really fine 2015, but after 3 games in April, he needed abdominal hernia surgery, and it has now wiped out his whole season.  The one blessing is it gave Phil Evans more playing time to shine, and he has.  Come back 100% in 2017, Mr. McNeil.

Off I go - have a great day, everyone.