SPOTLIGHT ON METS MINORS STEPHEN NOGOSEK
Stephen Nogosek was born in California and had the pleasure of pitching in ch-ch-ch-chilly B-B-B-Binghamton in April this year. "Shovel that snow and let's play ball!"
But I'll get back to that in a minute.
Nogosek was a 6th rounder of Boston a few years back who was part of the booty the Mets received when they traded Addison Reed to the Red Sox.
Last year, as a 23 year old, was Nogosek's first in the Mets organization.
The hard thrower struggled with his control, with 39 walks (and 58 Ks) in just 52 innings, with an ERA of 4.99. In AA, in 20 innings, his ERA was an ugly 8.10.
Back to the frigid northeast:
This year, in frigid April in AA, in 8.1 IP, he walked 8 and fanned just 3, while nonetheless allowing just 2 runs. Improvement.
His control improved once the calendar turned to May, and I speculate it might be because he could actually feel his fingers and wasn't being treated for hypothermia.
Only scored on in one of his 6 outings, Nogosek had tossed 10.1 innings in May through May 19, and his walks (just 4) and Ks (a very high 17) were dramatically better than April. 17 Ks in 10 innings? Wow!
Just 2 doubles (no homers) among his hits allowed, and batters "hitting" at a paltry .203.
All in all, vastly superior to his inaugural stint in AA in 2018.
I had my doubts about Stephen in 2018, given his 3 walks-per-every-four-innings rate and his very rough AA debut, but he has performed vastly better in 2019, and have to wonder if he might be a pen piece in Queens at some time later this year.
It would be great to get a solid piece from that Reed trade - the other chips the Mets got were Gerson Bautista (traded, then hurt) and Jamie Callahan (long term injury).
We'll be watching and rooting for Nogosek and hope the improvements continue to materialize into reliability, low walks, and OUTS, OUTS, OUTS.
Of the great sell-off that Alderson bungled that year the only one who looked promising -- Drew Smith -- is out with TJS. The rest have not amounted to much.
ReplyDeleteLook at all the moolah they saved, Reese - that's all that counts.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Nogosek and Joe Zanghi were just promoted to AAA - congrats.
ReplyDeleteAt the Syracuse gane tonight. Casey Coleman and Sean Burnett hit hard. Tebow hit a nice double. Colton Plaia hit a pop up to the catcher, he did not run it out, ball landed fair, he was thrown out. Can't make this stuff up.
ReplyDeleteI saw that pop up on MILB.com, John. Crazy loss, 17-12.
DeleteTip of the hat to Nido tonight.
And how about Nido?
ReplyDeleteTebow hit the ball the hardest I've seen him all year. Hope he is out of his early season slump.
ReplyDeleteAlso Villines gave up first runs of year and Zanghi gave up one run in two innings.
ReplyDeleteI saw that Tebow double - laced it to left center for a ground rule double. Ten for his last 38.
ReplyDeleteVillines and Zanghi were up against a strong hitting AAA team...Yanks' farm system Scranton team, which had several of their quality surplus major league hitters playing on it. Good challenge for those 2 pitchers.
Agreed. Time for Mazieka to come up to AAA as well. After the play last night, release or demote Colton Plaia.
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