Tom Brennan - SEASON RECAP: BROOKLYN CYCLONES
Despite a late season surge, the Cyclones finished last out of 14 NY Penn league team's at 24-51 (.320).
The team excelled in base stealing (a league leading 100) and relief pitching by some of its relievers.
However, it's key rankings were quite subpar:
Runs scored: 231 - last place - league leader scored 355
Homers: 17 in 75 games - last place - one team hit 58
Average: .231 - 12th of 14
ERA: 4.13 - last place
WHIP: 1.41 - last place
Unearned runs: 67 - 12th of 14 team's
Ks: 612 - 9th of 14
No wonder they finished last!
The offense was keyed by 3 solid performers:
Walter Rasquin, 2B: 5th in average (.300); first in steals with 32 of 40. Only 1 homer.
Jose Miguel Medina, OF: .268; 25 of 31 steals. Only 1 homer.
Quinn Brodey, 3rd round OF: .268/.303/.348 in 54 games, with 10 of 13 steals. He also played 9 games for Columbia. 3 Homers.
The offense was dragged down by the trio of Carl Stadjuhar, Dylan Snypes, and Carlos Sanchez. The 3 combined for 418 at bats, hitting just .162 with a stratospheric 163 strikeouts. Those are last place numbers.
Starting pitching: guys with good ERAs included Nick Debora (2.33); Jose Geraldo (2.33); Chris Viall (3.42); and Jose Carlos Medina (3.53)...but on a bad team, those good ERAs resulted in 3 wins and 15 losses for those guys. Ouch.
Relievers did OK - who did well? Glad you asked - here are their Brooklyn #s:
Steve Villines did best: 1-1, 1.96, 18 IP, 29 K, 1 BB
Trey Cobb: 1-2, 2.73. 26 IP, 28 K, 10 BB
Conner O'Neil: 1-2, 3.04, 24 IP, 27 K, 9 BB
4th rounder Tony Dibrell struggled a bit, but was improving as the season rolled on. He ended up 1-1, 5.60, 11.2 IP, 25 K, 8 BB.
SUMMARY: many weak performances had a predictable result - last place.
1st round pick Peterson got a couple of starts... That was nice to see . As well as a couple of Harvey Day's thrown in.... Season not a complete loss 😀
ReplyDeleteSo Sandy Alderson can't put together a major league team and this series demonstrates he can't draft to put together a minor league team either. Remind me again why he has a job? Oh right...he doesn't spend money. Check. That's priority number one.
ReplyDeleteKevin - Hi, and true: Harvey and Syndergaard were, though, both Brooklyn side shows, but the 4 innings of Peterson showed his trademarks: low walks (1), high Ks (6). He will be on his way to Columbia or St Lucie for the start of 2018, no doubt. May he turn into a Mets ace soon.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see if TJS survivor Anthony Kay starts out in Brooklyn or Columbia, considering he has never thrown an inning as a pro. I wish Brooklyn's season were more like 100 games than 76.
Reese, so true - other than Binghamton, which made the playoffs on superior defense, pitching, and not much hitting, the other 6 teams collectively were abysmal, largely due to inadequate hitting.
I won't claim to know more than those who have spent their professional lives in baseball--my second guesses are just that and as such, worthless. Occasionally I get to brag about a first guess (e.g. Sale vs Harvey), but that's (A) rare, and (B) dumb luck.
ReplyDeleteI would like to know, however, if the mediocre at best Met Farm is due to inaccurate or insufficient scouting, or some defect in the analysis of otherwise accurate scouting data. Those seem to me to be different functions which require different (baseball) skills. SA is ultimately responsible for both, of course, but pinpointing the source failure (data or analysis) would seem to be of paramount importance.
I thought last season's Brooklyn team was the worst I'd seen. Just a brutal team.
ReplyDeleteThen this one came along and was worse.
Things are bad, folks.
Need a new GM.
The most important task was getting the farm system right, the foundation for the future, and Alderson has failed pretty spectacularly.
Is it hard? Yes. But it's time to move in a new direction. He did to the Mets what he already did to the Padres.
Anonymous, I agree wholeheartedly. I see this season on the major league level as an injury-plagued freak of nature, to a large degree...the Mets' Hurricane Irma struck them head on - just ask Wilmer.
ReplyDeleteBut the minor leagues - I have an article on that Saturday and 2 articles on the 2017 draft as well - all I can say is, come on, man, this is horrific. And since teams' rosters turn over each year in (in this case) the NY Penn League, to have brutal hitting teams there 3 straight years in utterly unacceptable and inept. I wish I could state it more kindly.