Blast From The Past - Savannah Sand Gnats – 2008 Season Wrap-up Report Card

A. Develop Talent - people who understand minor league baseball know that the win-loss record is secondary to the development of players that go on to other teams playing in higher developed levels. Usually, a team that promoted 5 or 6 players during a season has done a good job at the level Savannah plays. This year, the Gnats coaches just kept punching out pitching talent all year, promoting a bevy of beauties: Mike Antonini (4-4, 2.71), Angel Calero (2.57 ERA, 1.04 WHIP), Nicholas Waechter (2-0, 2.91), Jose Bierd (3-1, 3.20), Edgar Ramirez (3-1, 3.13), Julio Polanco (2-1, 1.30 WHIP, 60Ks in 68.2 IP), Jose Bierd (3-1, 3.20), Nick Abel (3-1, 1.16), Junior Guerra (1-1, 1.75), and Josh Stinson (3.52 ERA). That’s 10 promoted pitchers, who were joined in mid-August by 3B Greg Veloz (.286, 28 SB). Trust me, any A-level team that promoted this many players in one season gets many gold feathers in their caps Grade: A+

B. Coaching – The team of Donavan Mitchell, George Greer, Jonathan Hurst, Matt Thayer, and Nick Wright have all done a remarkable job, being there every step and never asking one player for more than they do themselves. Grade: A+

C. Player of The Year – Close race here, with a bunch of pitchers and OF Carlos Guzman coming in a close 2nd, but the steadiest player all year was OF Casey Craig. The Mets have chronically under-sent bats to this team, but the minute Casey arrived, the Gnats had a hitter they could build their lineup around. Season stats at print: .283/.343/.387/.729 in 357 at bats, 16 doubles, 5 home runs, 47 walks, 24 stolen bases, and only 2 errors in the field.

D. Defense - Poor defense was one of the negatives last year, but it did improve greatly with this year’s returnees and newbies. Only 4 players (1B/IF Joaquin Rodriquez, Veloz, IF Juan Legares, and SS Matt Bouchard) had double digit errors this season, and catcher Francisco Pena continued to struggle with past balls, but there were also players that played an entire season (OF Craig: 2, C Sean McCraw: 2, OF Darren Clark: 3) at Golden-Glove caliber. Grade: B+

E. Offense – For some reason the Mets have not sent enough adequate hitters to this level team. There seems to be an un-written rule that all ‘sticks’ that get drafted, go directly to Short-season Brooklyn, to be showcased in their home city, and then jump directly to A+-St. Lucie the following year. The initial team sent to Savannah in April was pitifully anemic offensively, their best hitter (OF Raul Reyes) had a horrific broken leg, and it looked like another long, hot summer. But Mets brass/coaches started putting some pieces together. First, it was 2 journeyman minor leaguers (Craig and Michael Hernandez) which gave them a spark, followed by a steady year from Veloz and awesome numbers from reserve catcher Jordan Abruzzo. Lastly, OF Guzman, and C/1B Jeffries Tatford turned it on at the end of the season. All this resulted in a competitive ‘500 range’ season, which far surpassed last year’s record setting dismal W-L record. Grade: C+

F. Prospect Development – The 2008 Sand Gnats came to camp with some heavy duty prospect names on the pitching staff. The funny part is that 10 pitches were promoted to the next level during the season, and all of the original prospects (Scott Moviel, John Holdzkom, and Brant Rustich) remained with the team through the last weeks of the season. That being said, a lot of pitching talent went through this team this year and some of next year’s crop (Michael Olmstead, Mark Cohoon, Eric Beaulac) have already put on the Gnats uniform this past month. Grade: A

G. Support From Queens – What support? Sure, the normal array of ‘roving coaches’ came through the town, but GM Omar Minaya didn’t visit this team once in the two years that Savannah was a Mets affiliate. Come on now, it’s a 2 hour direct flight from LaGuardia. I don’t expect the Mets to be back in Savannah next year and my guess the team will affiliate with the Rays. The Mets have used this town as a dumping zone. Most of the hitting prospects go to Brooklyn, which is a partial season A-level team, though the Mets tend to feel they are more important than their full affiliate in the Coastal Empire. Being a lifelong Mets fan, I have mixed feelings if they leave. I’ll be sad as a fan but much better off as a baseball reporter. A different team would give Savannah the opportunity to operate like a real 4th ranked minor league team in a system, not the 5th like the Mets use them. Grade: F