5-31-12 - Daily Mets Minors Report

Date: 5-31-12

 In 1830, the average American was consuming 1.7 bottles of hard liquor per week.

Mets:

It’s great to see Josh Thole return to the Mets and you all know how thrilled I am for Elvin Ramirez. In my opinion, the Ramirez move is overdue, but I’m not in Buffalo standing in the pen live with him and his pitching coach. It’s obvious that the rag-tag team we call the 2012 Mets must have better production from the pen if they want to stay in the race.

Keith Law was asked during one of his Klaw-Blog events if the Marlins could possibly win the division. His answer was any team in the division could win, except the Mets. I can hear the ‘hits’ building.          

AAA-Buffalo:

SP Chris Young was tough today. Six shutout innings and only two singles. I’m not sure how sharp he was because the Columbus batters didn’t play the count. They swung early and swung often and Young’s junk is perfect for ground outs and pop ups. Frankly, the few batters that waited him out tended to walk. My guess there is at least one more Buffalo start. Chris commented after the game: "I feel like I'm pretty close to being ready."

Add on: - Young will throw again for Buffalo on Tuesday night.

Pedro Beato -  1.2IP, 0R, 1H, IP, K. 23 pitches/16 strikes. I watched him today and, frankly, he wasn’t as good as the stats show. Beato was brought in to clean up a mess on the field and didn’t. The runs weren’t charged to him so that stats look clean. You know how much I hate ERA and this is one of the reasons why.

So… you come into a game and it’s bases loaded, and you hang a curve and give up a triple. Your ERA is still 0.00? I’m sorry, that sucks.

That was about it for this game… one note… it was very sad watching Josh Satin still playing at this level. It seems Queens has called everyone there and here is Josh still plugging away in a town that starts with the letter ‘B’. He’s a hell of a bat, a decent second baseman, a nice guy, and a smart one with a proper education. Here’s hoping he gets on to the rest of his life someday soon.

Manny Acosta was outrighted to Buffalo.

CF Corey Wimberly left last night’s game with arm soreness and was scratched for the game today.

AA-Binghamton:  

RHP Zack Wheeler took the mound again tonight. I just got off the phone with a scout-friend of mine and we talked about Wheeler. The scout told me that he has never heard a bad word about this kid from other scouts. There was concern during his last year with San Francisco because the Giants were trying to change Zack’s mechanics which are less than perfect. It wasn’t working, which could have led to him being traded; however, the Mets told him it was okay to go back to the way he’s pitched all his life. The rest is, as they say, history.

Zack also took a little flak from his teammates before the game. This is going to the first time he has professionally hit… ever.

Wheeler went under the 2.00 ERA mark after the first batter (Miguel Abreu) struck out. He also started off at 97 and even hit 100 in the first inning. 84% of his pitches in the first two innings were strikes.

After three - 0H 0ER 0BB 4K (35 Pitches, 27 Strikes).

After five -  1H 0ER 0BB 6K (63 Pitches, 48 Strikes)

After six -  1 H 0 R 0 BB 7 K. 78 pitches 58 strikes(74%).

All this against the team that is leading the league in just about every offensive category
Wheeler proved human in the 7^th when Darin Ruf and Brandon Tripp had back-to-back doubles.

After 7 -  3 H 1 R 0 BB 8 K. 90 pitches 69 strikes. A scout at the game said Wheeler is more advanced than Hughes and Joba were when they were in Eastern League.

2B Reese Havens (.148) back in the five slot. It figures that 4-runs and 4-hits managed to be hit all around him in the 2^nd inning and he still popped the ball up (.146). He did single the next time up and actually stole a base! Yes, he’s healthy.

We don’t talk much about IF Josh Rodriguez, but maybe that should change. J-Rod hit a 3-run homer in the 4^th, raising the score to 8-0. His BA is up to .282, it is his 5^th home run of the season, and this is a defensive specialist. Hmm. Rodriguez was a heralded 2006 2^nd round pick out of Rice, who hit 20-HRs, 82-RBIs in 2007 at A-ball and Cleveland thought they had a live one. Turned out they didn’t and the Mets signed him in the off-season after being released. Yeah, we need to write about this guy soon, or, did we just do that?

Two quality innings from LHRP Robert Carson (1.45), still tempered by the fact that he’s pitching at least a level than once projected.

A+ - St. Lucie: -  

It was good to see LF Rafael Fernandez (.289) back in the lineup. Raffy has done little wrong in his 7-year Mets career; however, he has never been considered prospect material. And, he’s only 23-years old.

Lucy wasted little time, scoring two runs in the first on an CF Alonzo Harris (.258) single, a 3B Wilmer Flores (.321)walk and steal, and C Blake Forsythe’s (.278) 7^th double of the season. These are first time BA highs for Forsythe professionally and make us all dream about the numbers he put up in his sophomore season at the University of Tennessee. Blake came into tonight’s game hitting .400 in his last ten games. He continued his hotness, singling in another run (4-0) in the 5^th (.286).

Blake’s 2009 stat line:  .347/.490/.663/1.153, 15-HR, 46-RBI, 52-K, 40-BB

“Zo” Harris continued his fight to keep his job, with a run scoring triple in the 3^rd inning. The always-serious Harris went into this game hitting only .220 in the past 10 games.

More Zo in the 6^th… Harris’ 12^th double make it 6-0 Lucy.

There’s not much more that 3B Wilmer Flores can do at this level. ’Flo’ had three hits in the same amount of at-bats, raising his average to .332.

Yohan Almonte was the starter tonight. He came in giving up 48-hits in 41.2-IP, and he gave up four more in the first three innings tonight. Sure, the score was still 3-0 St. Lucie at the time, but a pitcher isn’t going to make his way to the majors by giving up more hits than innings pitched at the A+ level. Everyone online was busy following either Michael Fulmer or Zack Wheeler tonight; however, Almonte held his own here. 5.0-IP, 5-H, 0-R, 5-K, 4.24

A – Savannah:

Two very good young studs faced off against each other tonight.

Cuba and Greensboro’s RHP Jose Fernandez is one of the top pitching prospects in baseball. He came into tonight’s game at 5-0, 1.67, with 70-Ks in 54.0-IP. He left 6-0, with a 1.50-ERA.

The Gnats matched prospect with prospect. RHP Michael Fulmer continues his dream the season after high school.  You just know this game is going to be a short one. After three - 3 IP 1 H 0 R 1 BB 4 K.  Fuller was done after five – 4-H, 1-R, 5-K, 2-BB, 3.49.

LF Dustin Lawley (.288) broke up the no-hitter Fernandez was throwing, in the 4^th.

A – Brooklyn:

Season starts June 18

Rookie – Kingsport:

Season starts June 19th

DSL Mets:

Season starts June 2^nd.