4/29/10

Doubles, Brad Burns, Bobby Gagg, Twitter...and Fernando Nieve

Doubles:


My good friend Jim Storer just called to ask me who I thought held the Mets record for doubles. My response was Ed Kranepool, simply because Ed is the only hitter to have a long career with the Mets. I would have been correct two hours ago, but Wednesday afternoon, David Wright doubled, the 226th of his short career. That broke the tie with Kranepool, giving David the all-time record for doubles by a Mets player. Jim and I both found this fairly amazing, but when you think about it, the Mets really never had a franchise hitter. The Padres had Gwynn, the Astros had Bagwell and Biggio, the Twins had Kirby Puckett. Ed Kranepool was the Mets franchise hitter, and he’s remained in that position for 30 years. New York either picks good hitters up late in their careers (Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter) or lets them go early (Lenny Dykstra, Kevin Mitchell), or has them get into trouble (Strawberry). It’s tough to accumulate team records when you aren’t around that long. - link

Brad Burns:

The Mets released RP Brad Burns. From “The Keepers”…

82. Brad Burns – RP – A+ - 24/yrs.

Burns was drafted in the 26th round of the 2007 draft by the Mets.

Oklahoma right-handed pitcher Brad Burns was the sixth and final Sooner taken in the 2007 MLB Draft on Friday. Burns was selected 813th overall in the 26th round by the New York Mets. The organization also drafted the junior back in 2004 in the 37th round following his high school career at Lookeba-Sickles.

From: www.soonersports.com: - The Gracemont, Okla., native has 22 career starts under his belt at Oklahoma, including seven in 2007. Overall, Burns made 16 appearances this season and finshed with a 1-1 record and a 5.75 ERA. He earned his first career victory in 2007 on April 11 against Dallas Baptist after tossing a five-hit shutout with eight strikeouts across 5 2/3 innings.

From: www.metsbaseball.blogspot.com: - Most Mets fans probably don't know who Brad Burns is, but that will change if he keeps on pitching as he has for the Kingsport Mets. On Friday night, in an away game against the Princeton Devil Rays, a game the Mets won 2-1, Burns pitched five innings of four-hit ball. In the seven games in which he's pitched in his first season of pro ball, righty Burns gave up two runs once, one run twice, and no runs four times. His ERA now stands at 1.71, the fourth lowest in the Appalachian League. He's been particularly effective in home games and against lefties. His ERA in both situations is 0.00, which is also what his ERA is when the bases are empty. Thus he hasn't given up any solo shots. In fact, he hasn't given up a homerun.

Burns pitched 2009 with Savannah and St. Lucie, combining for 1-2, 1.45, in ten games, one start. He also had 24-Ks in only 18.2-IP. His combined three year stats are: 4-7, 3.88, 1.52, in 31 games, nine starts, 77-K’s, 81.1-IP.

Bobby Gagg:

The Mets released RP Bobby Gagg.


Gagg came to the Mets last year as an undrafted free agent, even though many of us draft weenies had him prior to the draft as a 20-35th round pick. He was immediately signed and split time in 2009 with the GCLMets, Kingsport, and Brooklyn.


His combined 2009 stats were: 2-1, 1.60, in 16 appearances, with 24-K and only 6-BB in 24.0-IP.

Twitter:

Multiple sources have confirmed to me that Major League Baseball is cracking down on Twitter usage, ordering MLB.com writers to cease tweeting about all non-baseball topics and scolding players for their Twitter usage in general. As someone who has every MLB.com beat writer and several MLB players in my Twitter feed, this is very unfortunate and strikes me as a massive overreaction. Allowing the writers and players to show a bit of personality and interact with fans/readers was a positive thing and certainly caused me to become a fan of those who did it well. - link



Fernando Nieve:

Oh, there’s a bunch of reasons why the Mets are playing so well this home stand, but let’s give a special “stock up” to relief pitcher Fernando Nieve. If I remember correctly he had a horrible outing the first week of the season but, since then, he’s been lights out for a manager that seems to use him every game. Most of the Mets starters have serious trouble getting past the sixth inning, maining doe to the amount of pitches they throw. Yes, the team ERA looks nice, but the WHIP is bloated. Pitchers like John Maine, Oliver Perez, and especially, Mike Pelfrey, have had to scramble to get out of innings that produced many baserunners, though little runs. In most cases, it was Nieve that came in from the pen first and settled things down with somewhere between one and two innings pitched. Hats off to Fernando.

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