Tom Brennan - FIREFLIES ON FIRE!
I was not high on this Columbia Fireflies team this spring.
Lots of hitters moving up from Brooklyn where, last year, hitters below the Mendoza Lines were an all-too-common occurrence.
This year, though, in 4 games through Sunday, the Flies are a juggernaut indeed. The Flies dismantled their opponents in those games, hitting .313, drawing 32 walks, stealing 12 bases, and scoring 36 runs.
With Tim Tebow quarterbacking the team, the only piece of the opponent carcass left was a wishbone.
Tebow sat one game, but homered in 2 of his three 3 games. The first HR was opposite field; second was over 400 feet.
Mack, though, knows two flukes when he sees them :)
But Timmy T is very far from being the only Fireflies story.
Two extremely legit pitching prospects (Jordan Humphreys and Merandy Gonzalez) were spectacular in their 6 inning shutout debuts.
Gene Cone starts out 3 for 14, but walks 6 times. ON BASE. He might be the best Mets Cone since David.
Speedy Jacob Zanon has a 4 Star start to his season with 4 hits, 4 walks, and 4 steals in 3 games. Signing him was a steal, I think.
Dash Winningham has a career year in his first 4 Flies games, hitting .412/.474/.647 with 9 RBIs. (Somewhere, Travis d'Arnaud is thinking: "NINE RBI'S IN 4 GAMES?? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE??")
Other guys flew out of the hitting gate, too.
Only Milton Ramos (1 for 12) has struggled at the plate. Another few games like that and he'll be 20th on the Mets' minors infield depth chart.
And the bullpen has been strong, with Jungle Joe Zanghi striking out the side ( he does that a lot, I'm noticing...)
Starter Harol Gonzalez was strong for 3 innings before a bad 4th, but my guess is it was a one game aberration.
These Flies are flying high. My guess is they will continue to do so. They're showing very quickly they are very good.
LATE NOTE: The Flies move to 5-0 Monday night with a 3-0 win, as Colin Holderman tossed a major gem with 1 hit and no walks, with 11 Ks, in his 6 innings of work. Impressive!
FLUSHING, QUEENS, NY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:
On the major league front, it is great to have guys like Thor and Jake as stabilizer bars. They are both incredibly good. but you already know that, I suspect. The Bruce Juice is also on the loose.
12 comments:
Jose Reyes has an OPS of .108 after 7 games, Reese. What will Terry do?
Tom -
Will be writing about last night's starter in my Thursday Morning Report.
Regarding Reyes... I say give him the week off in the dugout... play Flores on third in his place
Mack, I totally agree on Reyes. So now that's a agree, he'll play tonight and get 3 hits.
Scary thing about Reyes....besides the 1 hit, Only 1 walk in 7 games.
If this keeps up, opponents will play for a bunt by putting a shift on Reyes by bringing all the outfielders in the infield
He will say to reporters about Reyes, "We've just got to get him going."
Nothing will change. Being a veteran under Terry Collins is like having a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket.
I can't wait for three more months of "trying to get Granderson going" while Conforto rots on the bench or in AAA. And yeah, give Reyes some time. I can't imagine that either Wilmer or TJ wouldn't be an upgrade at this point.
Adam, one of the writers for the Post today was really pushing for the Mets to get Conforto a lot more playing time, starting NOW. Sandy can ignore Macks Mets comments, but NY Post pushback, given its readership, has to enter their equation at least a bit, as it relates to Conforto.
Gosh, I hope Reyes is not becoming this season's de Aza.
Playing devil's advocate, the Mets are hitting like shite, two of their starters were lit up, and the pen is quaky... and STILL are in first place.
Lastly, since comments have not been about Columbia, let me add that it appears early like they have a BIG 3 emerging:
Merandy Gonzalez, Jordan Humphreys, and Holderman have each started a game so far, totaling 18 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 26 Ks, and few if any walks.
And they also have Harol Gonzalez, who I think will have a big year.
Pitching is not dead in the minors.
First place on April 11. Let's stay there.
The Holderman kid looks interesting. I've read "low 90's" but he's 6'6 and still only 21. It'll be interesting to see if that velocity ticks up. No walks for a kid that tall in his first start of the year is a good sign.
Adam -
He is an interesting kid that took a step back to take a step forward.
I will explain in my Thursday report.
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