The Ponies almost won a championship…
…but fell short in the finals.
Overall, including the playoffs, they were 76-63. Not bad.
Hey, in 2022, the Rumblers finished 30 games under .500, so quite the uptick here.
Not quite good enough, however.
The season was, as it typically is in the minors, a changing landscape. Early in the season, hitting was scarce except for a great run by Matt Rudick, where the little guy broke out some power and had a wide lead in the league's on base % category. He got near mid June on fire, playing like an MVP, hitting a league-best .313/.460/.538 as of June 8.
His stats thereafter seemed very injury-affected, as he went 8 for just 59 the rest of the way and played 4 games after June.
Rowdey Jordan also hit and played well, before cooling late, and is now an AFL participant off to a hot start, and high-fanning, high-homering Luke Ritter hit 14 HRs in 149 AA at bats before his promo to AAA. A sizable bunch of guys meanwhile were unfortunately sub-.200, and Wyatt Young to my surprise hit poorly most of the year in AA. Offense was quite substandard.
Mike Vasil pitched well early on in AA pre-promotion, Hamel not so well early on, and the Ponies were not winning a lot nor scoring much.
Later in the season, though, they added the dynamic Drew Gilbert and Jett Williams, and also slugging Jeremiah Jackson and Luisangel Acuna, who did OK, while JT Schwartz got hot and Rhylan Thomas excelled after his rapid promotion to AA. Kevin Parada showed up to bolster the line up too.
Sadly, as noted, first half MVP Matt Rudick hurt his shoulder and barely played the last 3 months - had he played at that level, and not been promoted to AAA, the Ponies offense would have been lethal.
Even with the infusion, they hit just .230 with 580 runs over the full season. Not sure of the exact post-All Star split, but I am guessing .260 - .270 range. The team was six games under after July 18, due to anemic hitting, but the hitting infusion led to a 35-16 season finishing surge. Of course, a pitching surge helped too.
Pitching-wise, later in the season, Christian Scott got hot, Dom Hamel became torrid, Joander Suarez went completely and berserkly dominant on the mound, and beastly Paul Gervase (10 innings, 20 Ks) was promoted to help bolster the bullpen.
And we got a glimpse of Tyler Stuart pitching in AA before he vanished to the IL, hopefully with something not severe, as he had a fine year.
Also Blade Tidwell, who is talented but needs further improvement. He was really hot in A for a good stretch before reaching AA.
And 16th round righty Trey McLoughlin had a fine pen season and is in the AFL, and 22 year old Wilkin Ramos had a fine relief year, too, about 30% of which was in AA, the rest in High A.
The team ended up with a fairly decent 4.08 ERA.
Those 6 just-named fellas (Hamel, Scott, Stuart, Suarez, Gervase, and Tidwell) will most assuredly help the Mets in the future, hopefully bigly, some in 2024. It seems possible that McLoughlin and Wilkin might make it to Citi in late 2024.
On the flip side, towering righty Junior Santos was mediocre all year and finished 4-8, 5.94. Junior needs to start pitching like a senior, as he is falling behind his organizational competition. Please don’t repeat your junior year, Junior. Graduation (to AAA) is the only true career option.
In summary:
It all, almost, got the Rumbling Rumblers to a championship crown.
Oh, let me mention their being second lowest in errors with just 88 (best team had 84), which was something to boast about.
It will truly be exciting to see what the best of all of these dudes will do in 2024.
A few will absolutely show up in Queens before season's end in 2024, IMO.
8 comments:
It was a great season for the Rumble Ponies, highlighted by their late surge with a team stacked with prospects. Really fun to watch - hope for more next year.
My favorite was JT Schwartz. This is a guy to watch. Smoothest swing in the minors - he can flat out hit. His stats would have been even more impressive except for weeks on the IL.
Junior Santos is an imposing figure on the mound. Not quite sure what drove his lack of success, but I did notice that he just blew people away in his first turn through the lineup, then got hit hard the next time through. Maybe a limited set of pitches, or a few "tells" in his delivery. My put is that he could be very effective in late relief - so try him there.
Junior sounded like Jeurys Familia as a starter. He was not good, but much better in pen. Relief may arrive in 2024 from Junior. Both jobs can pay handsomely, if successful.
Interesting observation on Santos
Junior has allowed 357 hits in 309 innings over the past 3 seasons. Plus 138 walks and HBPs.
That’s a LOT of hitters getting on base.
But he did just turn 22, I guess. And he was better as a reliever than a starter in 2023, especially in August and Sept. That seems a more suitable role.
Rule 5 eligible? Doubt anyone would grab him. Not ready to face big leaguers, based on his performance.
Maybe he finally leaps forward as a reliever next year.
He was in his (effective) first 3 inning start in 2018 in the DSL. 3 innings, one run, 6 Ks. Almost 5 1/2 years ago.
People are talking about Schwartz,keep your eye on him.
Yeah, Lou. He's my favorite guy to watch in the Mets' system. He can rake!
If Pete leaves…
And don’t forget Vientos. He might come through as the DH we need so badly.
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