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| Justin Rocke and Johnny Gadamowitz, Brooklyn Cyclones Broadcasters |
The Mets not only have one of the best farm systems in Baseball, they have some of the best minor league announcers. The Minor League Games on the MiLB Website or App are filled with player information you can't get anywhere else.
On Sunday September 14th, before the Brooklyn Cyclones played Game 1 of the South Atlantic League Championship Series against the Hub City Spartanburgers, I had the privilege of talking to Cyclones Broadcaster Justin Rocke about the 2025 Brooklyn season and some of the promising prospects that he saw.
John From Albany: Justin, with just a few games left, what are your impression of this year's Brooklyn Team?
Justin Rocke: The biggest thing about this group has been their resiliency throughout the course of the year. I mean, there have been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of roster changing, particularly between the first half. This team that's in the playoffs, you look at the lineup for Game One of this Championship series, and only one, two, three guys in the starting nine were really part of that roster, and Diego Mosquera missed the last month of the first half because of an injury. They have found a way to get things done even when the cards have been stacked against them. They've played with good energy, they've always found a way to bounce back.
One of the more impressive things about this group is this might be the best team I've worked with in my years of minor league baseball in terms of their ability to put what happened the day before behind them and start fresh the next day. They've been very good at just being able to leave what happened in the past in the past and push on to the next thing, which I think is not only just important as a pro athlete, but especially being a pro athlete in New York.
JFA: How big a factor do you think Gilbert Gomez has been in that?
Justin Rocke: Tremendous. He's won championships in Florida, he's won championships in the Dominican. The coaching staff has done a phenomenal job all year long.
The players really take after Gomez well. Bryan Muniz has done a great job as the hitting coach. Jordan Kraus has done a phenomenal job with the pitching staff this year.
The coaching staff has done a great job of keeping guys focused, but also having a little levity and fun.
JFA: We've seen a lot of good pitchers come up to the major leagues from the Mets minors recently. Is there anybody that you were impressed with, pitching-wise, that you thought could be the next guy that we could see in Flushing?
Justin Rocke: I mean, it's been really impressive what they've done over the last couple of years with the pitching lab down there. The amount of guys they've churned out, I mean, ERA-wise, I think our pitching staff is top ten in minor league baseball for the entire season.
But, you know, they're seeing a lot of guys move on up from here this season. I mean, I'm shocked that Brendan Girton hasn't become a top 30 prospect in the organization yet with the season he's had.
Bursting onto the scene, Will Watson was phenomenal for us coming up at the tail end of the first half. I mean, his third high-A start was the clinching game of the first half. Was able to, you know, didn't have his best stuff, but was able to battle through it and give, you know, four-plus innings of shutout ball and help, you know, set the tone for what was to come the rest of the night.
Obviously, Jonathan Santucci got off to a slow start this season, but got out of the bases loaded jam about mid-May, early in the game against Winston-Salem, and from that point forward he just sort of took off and has obviously finished the season incredibly strong up in Binghamton.
R.J. Gordon's had a tremendous breakout season. I don't know what people were expecting from him, but he's had an incredible campaign. Zach Thornton, before he got hurt, was obviously the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Month for April and was absolutely phenomenal.
Noah Hall's had a great bounce-back season from injury.
I'd be interested to see what happens going into next year with Joel Diaz. You know, this is really his first full year back off of Tommy John surgery, first full year of health. You know, second season back and second year back from a major surgery like that is usually the year that things start to normalize and return back to where things were pre-injury.
4 comments:
Great announcer great guy great interview
Would this coaching staff get promoted to Syracuse in 2026 and perhaps in line for a promotion to Citi when Mendoza eventually gets fired?
Great interview. I thought the comments were very accurate.
Justin is great indeed. He knows all the players very well. Gilbert Gomez is close to Albert Pujols and could wind up on his staff if gets the job in Anaheim.
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