Brooklyn Cyclones 2019 Championship Season Recap

Monday Night, July 8, 2019.  I was seated in the second row behind home plate at Joe Bruno Stadium in Troy, New York to watch the Tri-City Valley Cats play the Brooklyn Cyclones.  I had been there the night before to see Brooklyn win 6-2 but what happened that Monday night in July showed me just how special this Brooklyn team was.  Oh, and Brooklyn ended up losing this game 4-3, but it was the way they played that caught my attention.

In the top of the first, Antoine Duplantis singled.  Guillermo Granadillo, the Brooklyn right fielder that night, hit the other way against the shift to reach first.  Duplantis made second and seeing that no one was covering third due to the shift, kept running to third base.  Granadillo then stole second.  Duplantis later came home on a passed ball and Granadillo later stole home on another ball that got away from the catcher. 

Two first inning runs on aggressive base running and hitting the ball the other way.  Welcome to 2019 Brooklyn baseball. 

This Brooklyn team was different than any other Brooklyn or Mets affiliated team I had ever seen.  They were the most aggressive base running Mets team from top to bottom.  They played tight defense.  They manufactured runs. 

The NY Penn League can give a manager a very diverse group of players that are together for the first time in their life.  Some are college players that have come right from the June draft.  Others are coming up from the Dominican leagues for their first taste of American baseball.  Others are non-drafted free agents that are trying to get a chance to play.

Thirty different position players and thirty-seven different pitchers came through Brooklyn in 2019, yet manager Edgardo Alfonzo kept the team focused on playing winning, fundamental baseball.

Fonzie used his roster magnificently.  He played players all over the diamond while at the same time having the best fielding percentage in the league.  He had hitters work on bunting every day.  It was a total team effort.

What’s more, until they called up 2019 draft picks Mathew Allen and Brett Baty at the very end of the season, very few websites had any Brooklyn players on the Mets top 50 prospect lists. 

Don’t just give the credit to Fonzie, the entire coaching staff excelled.  Endy Chavez joined the team as bench coach and first base coach and the running game excelled.  Delwyn Young became the hitting coach and players excelled at productive outs to move runners over and get them in.  Josue Matos became the pitching coach and he showed the very difficult skill to get pitchers that were struggling to make in game adjustments to pitch effectively. 

For more examples let’s look at the individual players. 

Wilmer Reyes – B-R/T-R; Shortstop (38 games), Second Base (2 games), Third Base (10 games), First Base (2 games), DH (5 games).  Wilmer was the hands down MVP of the team hitting a team leading .333 (fifth in league), 5 HR, 33 RBI, 12 SB.  He was solid at short and made great plays when it counted in the playoffs.  He also played well all over the diamond as Fonzie kept his bat in the lineup when giving others the chance at short.  In his two previous pro seasons, Wilmer hit .260 and .250 but came alive in 2019. 

Joe Genord – B-R/T-R; 2019 9^th round draft pick from South Florida; First Base.  Joe led the team with 44 RBIs (third in league) and 9 HRs (tied for fifth in league).  Joe struggled getting hits at home, hitting just .140 in Brooklyn while .266 on the road for a .206 total average.  Joe has tremendous power.  I saw him pull a ball down the left field line in Troy that had to go close to 450 feet in about five seconds.  A bullet.  Joe hit 5 home runs the first three weeks of the season and was hitting over .300.  Then pitchers figured out that you can’t throw him a fastball anywhere near the inside part of the plate.  From then on it was lots of off-speed pitches on the outside of the plate.  Through it all, Joe still had the ability to drive in runs even when he made outs.  He had six sacrifice flies.  In the first playoff game, Joe hit a pop up to the infield that the Hudson Valley catcher did not handle.  Genord never stopped running and wound up on second base later scoring on a single. Sorry, this day and age, plays like this make a player stand out.  It embodied the way this team played. 

Yoel Romero, B-R/T-R; Shortstop (23 games), Second Base (7 games), Third Base (19 games), Left Field (1 game), OF (1 game), DH (4 games); .251, 4 HRs, 15 RBIs, 6 SBs; Yoel hit .340 in July cooling off a bit after that.  Still, he was one of the main offensive players for Brooklyn into the playoffs with the ability to play all over the diamond.  This flexibility has put him on some of the Mets’ 50 prospect lists.

Ranfy Adon, B-R/T-R; Outfield; One of the fastest players on a fast team, Ranfy stole 11 bases while playing all three outfield positions.  Fonzie had him in Right Field during the playoffs and Ranfy had a big homerun in the deciding game against Hudson Valley in the first playoff round. In the regular season Ranfy hit .270, with two homers and 13 RBIs. 

Jake Mangum, B-S/T-L; 2019 4^th round draft pick from Mississippi State; .247, 18 RBIs, led the team with 17 stolen bases.  Jake played solid defense in center field and right field.  In 33 at bats with 2 outs and a runner in scoring position, Jake excelled hitting .364.  With speed, good center field defense, clutch hitting and the ability to make things happen on the base paths when needed, Jake is someone to watch in the future.

Luke Ritter, B-R/T-R; 2019 7^th round draft pick from Wichita State;.245, 4 HRs, 36 RBIs, 5 Stolen Bases.  “Ritter the hitter” was often the number four hitter in Fonzie’s lineup.  Second on the team in RBIs, Luke excelled at hitting at MCU park with a .317 home batting average.  He also provided great up the middle defense at second.

Antoine Duplantis, B-L/T-L; 2019 12^th round draft pick from Louisiana State; .237, 20 RBIs, 5 SBs; Antoine played mostly left field and led off for Brooklyn.  He tripled in the tying run and scored the winning run in the championship game.  A good defender Antoine had 153 putouts, 16 assists, and just one error. 

Jose Peroza, B-R/T-R; Third Base and DH, played just 33 games for Brooklyn but hit 4 HRs with 22 RBI’s and a .225 average.

For catcher, Fonzie split the time between Jose Mena B-R/T-R; 31 Games, .299, 2HRs, 13 RBIs, 20% CS%; Jake Ortega, B-L/T-R; 27 Games, .237, 6 RBIs, 37% CS%; and Ariel Year, B-R/T-R;  23 Games, .221, 4 RBIs; 10% CS%;  Jose Mena hit the best of the three but as a lefty catcher who can bunt Jake Ortega also showed worth.  Fonzie did a great job mixing and matching these players to use them when they would be most effective.

Pitching was led by Garrison Bryant, B-L/T-R; the 36^th round 2016 draft pick.  In his fourth professional season, Garrison led the team with a 5-1 record, 2.39 ERA, 75 K’s in 75.1 innings, and a .84 WHIP.  With a fastball that tops out in the low 90’s, Garrison is not seen as a huge prospect.  However, the Mets signed Garrison as a 17-year-old which means that after the 2020 season, Garrison will be eligible for the rule five draft.  I think that means he may end up in Binghamton before the end of the year to see if he is worth protecting on the 40-man roster.

Matt Cleveland, B-R/T-R; the 12^th round 2016 draft pick.  3-3 record with a 3.78 ERA, 42 K’s in 66.2 innings, and a 1.28 WHIP.  Matt had a good year and was named along with Garrison Bryant, Joe Genord, Wilmer Reyes, and Mitch Ragan to the NY Penn All Star team.  Matt too will be eligible for the rule five draft after the 2020 season and could see promotions next year.

The pride of West Islip and free agent signee Frank Valentino racked up 63 K’s in 58 innings while pitching to a 2-4 record and a 3.41 ERA.  Frank’s biggest game was the last game of the season against Staten Island when he gave up just one earned run in 5.1 innings as Brooklyn clinched their division championship and home field throughout the playoffs.

In the bullpen, the team had a number of power arms,

Mitch Ragan, B-R/T-R; 2019 4^th round draft pick from Creighton; named to the NY Penn All Star team with a 3-2 record, 3.09 ERA, 31 K’s in 35 innings;

Free agent signee Andrew Edwards, B-L/T-L; 3-2 record, 3.30 ERA, 35 K’s in 30 innings;  Andrew pitched 4 shutout innings in the playoffs including the final two to win the championship.

Free agent signee Matt Mullenbach, B-R/T-R; 1-5 record, 2.84 ERA, 26 K’s in 25.1 innings;  Matt showed amazing stuff including one inning against Aberdeen on August 30^th where he struck out the side on 9 pitches!

Free agent signee Jared Biddy, B-R/T-R; 3-0 record, 0.96 ERA, 34 K’s in 28 innings; With a mid-90’s fastball, Jared showed lots of power and potential.  Hard to believe he did not get drafted.  Good for the Mets for picking him up.

Great team effort, great managing, great coaching.  Hopefully we will see more of this type of play on future Mets teams.  It sure was fun to watch in 2019.