Tom Brennan: Repost: Columbia Fireflies 2019 Recap

pictured: a harmless little firefly

I thought it might be fun to re-post some old articles involving 2019 Mets minor leaguers, since 2020 is indefinitely delayed. 

Here is the first repost...

It was not a good year for the Columbia Fireflies.

Not good at all.  

52-81 (.390) is not good at all.

Columbia started out hitting glacially as a team, dropping at one point to .193 in mid-May.  

They improved thereafter to being an average hitting team the rest of the way, mostly, and that allowed them to finish 2nd to last (barely) at .226 and 2nd to last (barely) in runs scored with 483 in 133 games.    

Greensboro, by comparison, scored more than 200 runs more than the Flies.

Some other league comparisons: 

Doubles? 12th of 14 with 197 (league leader 272).

Triples? 9th of 14 with 26 (league leader 45).

Homers? 10th of 14 with 73 (league leader 140).

Steals? Last with 54 (league leader 154).

Bases on balls? Last with 334 (next worst 394; league leader 497).

One reason for the low offensive production was that the team was quite young, with top prospect Ronny Mauricio (18) hitting over .280 most of the season, before settling in at .268.  His 23 errors in 110 games at SS indicates need for improvement, and he was only successful in 6 of 16 steal attempts.  My take? Time to add some off season bulk, work on the glove, and be ready to attack 2020 in 6 months.  Work on base stealing skills, too.

Mark Vientos (19), the former 2nd rounder, started slowly, hit well for a good stretch, then cooled to .252 with 40 extra base hits and 62 RBIs in 111 games.  Still, for 19, and ignoring freaky super-young guys like Soto and Acuna Jr, Vientos' bat produced solid production for a 19 year old. 23 errors in 100 games at 3B, though, indicate a problem that needs to be tightened up on.   No speed.

OF Wagner Lagrange hit a team-leading .282 with 4 homers in 71 games, then got promoted to St Lucie, where in 36 games he hit .293 with 2 HRs.  Adding power should be a huge off-season goal for Wagner, as he plays next season at 24.

2B Sherveyn Newton, a high ranked prospect, had a bad season, hitting .209/.283/.330.  He started out 6 for his first 61, then hit .231 the rest of the way.  

Even when he went 5 for 10 the last 3 games, the other 5 at bats ended in strikeouts.  139 Ks this year, about 1 every 3 PAs, indicates an area where the athletic Newton needs to drastically improve to stay relevant.

Everyone else on the Fireflies with the bat was mediocre - or less than mediocre.

PITCHING?  

THOUGHT YOU'D NEVER ASK.

ANSWER: Also not great.

ERA? 12th at 4.10 (league leader 2.97).

Ks? 2nd to last at 1,131 (8.88 per 9 IP).  League leader 1,353, a significant gap.

Walks? 6th best at 416.  That's good.

WHIP? 12th at 1.33 (leader 1.17).

Tylor Megill and Tom Szapucki are two top tier pitchers who pitched for the Flies but did not stay in Columbia for long.  

Megill is intriguing to me in that his last start was in AA (with 9 Ks in 5 innings), and the big 6'7" fireballer ended up 6-7, 3.52 with 92 Ks in 71 IP, an eye catching number.  

Szapucki, back from TJS, was almost identical to Megill - 3 levels, AA one start, just 1-3 (mostly because he did not pitch long enough to qualify for wins most times), 2.63 ERA, 71 Ks in 62 innings.  

Megill and Szapucki are two fireballers to watch closely in 2020, as both could rise FAST.

Allan Winans registered 11 saves out of 13, and was 1-3, 2.74 in 30 outings - nice work by the 24 year old (17th rounder in 2018).

Danny Hrbek, undrafted, went 4-0, 3.12 in 40 innings with 50 Ks - very nice work by the 24 year old.

Zeke Zabaleta, also 24, pitched to a 1.69 ERA for the Flies, then went 3-3 with St Lucie.  Nice job.

Andrew Longstreet Mitchell, another 24 year old drafted in 2018, had a fine year mostly with Columbia (0.92 ERA) and St Lucie.  Overall, the lefty was 3-0, 2.19, 63 Ks in 49 innings.  Quite the season, but he will start 2020 as a 25 year old, so he needs another season just as good at higher levels to progress in a timely manner. 

Jose Moreno, in his 5th pro season, did well, going 3-5 with 3 saves and a 2.18 ERA with 56 Ks in 45 IP.  26 walks by the 23 year old are too high, though - at least that's what Jeurys Familia tells me.

Other solid pitchers, used exclusively or almost exclusively in relief, were Justin Lasko Cole Gordon, and Alec Kisena.  Also, Jake Simon pitched well at times, poorly at other times.

Starter-wise, 18 year old uber-prospect Simeon Woods Richardson was 3-8 before his trade for Marcus Stroman, when SWR pitched much better in High A.   (SWR is now listed as Toronto's # 6 prospect, while his fellow traded Met, Anthony Kay, is Toronto's # 4.)

Colin Holderman, Jose Butto, Daison Acosta, and Dedniel Nunez were decent starters (Colin and Dedniel both dealt with injuries during the year, Dedniel missing the last several weeks with an undisclosed injury).  

Chris James (3-11, 5.07) and Willy Taveras (6-11, 5.14) did not fare very well as starters.  When a team does not hit, and your ERA exceeds 5.00, you are going to lose a lot.

Overall, it was not the Fireflies' finest season, yet there were some prospects there that could help the Mets in a few years.  My favorites going forward are Mauricio, Vientos, Megill and Szapucki.  Lagrange will get me more excited when he starts hitting more homers.