Tom Brennan - FCL Mets Season Recap; The Insane Five Inning Win Rule; and Jacob Misery

All neophytes are guppies, a wise man once said.

 

Well, the Florida Complex League season has come and gone. 

I told you not to blink.

The weather limited teams to just 53 to 59 games. Shirt season.

The Mets squad finished 24-32, not quite keeping pace with the 42-11 Astros squad, which swept the playoffs, too.

The Li’l Mets scored 269 runs, almost 5 runs per game in a bad pitcher’s league, while surrendering 346 runs, about 6.2 runs per game.

Two hitters of note:

Vladi Gomez hit well over .300, with a ton of steals, and rightly headed up to St Lucie, where he is torturing that league’s pitchers now. 

Yovanny Rodriguez hit 7 HRs, drove in 34, and batted .280. Then also got promoted to the SL Mets. A few others joined them there.

Pitchers? I did really not look to see if any got promoted. 

Pitching was simply not good.

Well, 19 year old RHP Camden Lohman did get promoted. And a few others.

Camden had a 6.29 ERA, and 1.85 WHIP, 57 Ks/44 IP.

He had an unimpressive debut there, but smartly still got bumped to St Lucie.  Get better by pitching.

Likely, the 2027 season will show us a much improved version of Lohman.

Not much good to say about FCL Mets there, so I will leave it right there.

FIVE INNINGS TO WIN INSANITY

Because of the insane 5 inning rule for minor league starters, the Mets’ FCL starters were 0-17. You can pitch to one batter, give up a home run, and lose, but if you don’t throw five innings, you can’t win. 

Before you barf, consider this. 

It wasn’t an anomaly. The FCL Red Sox starters were 0-15. The Pirates? 1-17. The Phillis? 1-22.  

Add those 4 up, and you get 2 wins and 71 losses.

The best team’s starter result was 6-12.

CHANGE THE IDIOTIC RULE. 

You start a minor league game, go at least 3 innings with a lead that the opposing team never ties or overcomes, YOU should get the win.

This also applies up the line. Gabe Davis, who the Mets got in a trade, is a 6’9” fireballer now in AA at age 22, who in 2026  has had four starts with 4 innings and a run or less, and 3 starts with 3 innings and a run or less. No wins credited in those 8 outings.  

He is 0-5 this year. How deceiving.

SAW MISIOROWSKI START GAME WITH 21 STRAIGHT FASTBALLS

Where did I see it? On a video. Ferocious.

All 21 fastballs were 101-104 MPH. 

And 17 were strikes. Unhittable. ⚾️

Mets drafted the marginal Parada and li’l Jett ahead of the Fastest Jacob. 

Because the Mets were SCREWERS, the Miz instead went to the Brewers.

Some Mets drafting dopes should be forever reviled. Hall of Shame.

He is simply Jacob Misery to hitters. 

He could have been a Met.

Dopes doing the drafting prevented it. By being dopes.

BINGHAMTON SCORES 16, METS SHUT OUT

Binghamton bats are unstoppable. They gave the hottest hitter on the planet, Mitch Voit, the night off, and they still scored 16 runs. Jefferson Rojas has 3 hits, 2 of which were  doubles, the other a HR.

The NY Mets? They were not unstoppable. 

Nolan McLean sucked, giving up one hit in 6 innings to take the loss. 

I’m being facetious. Nolan is great. But he is a Met. 

Pitchers in Queens need to be perfect.

Jefry Yan sucked. As in 3 walks, no Ks. 

Time throw strikes, buddy. Start before you turn 30, please.

CLIFFORD COMES OFF THE AAA IL WITH A WHIFF, NOT A BANG

Goes 0-3, walk, K. 

Batting .182, which averages out to 2 hits every 11 at bats. Problem is, he needs 3 hits every 11 ABs (.273) to be a viable prospect.

In June, July, and August, he an astounding is 20 for 162, 3 HRs, 77 Ks. 

His batting average in that long 10 week span is, well, as easy as .123. 

Good grief.  Demote the dude to St Lucie and let him try to start over.

Hitting RESET BUTTONS is OK. Like rebooting your laptop. Works again.

Trying to have him battle thru is JUST NOT working. Try something else.

EXTREME DARK HORSE?

Calvin Ziegler, before his TJS in 2024, was in Brooklyn. 

Tantalized us with this:

6 innings, no hits, 2 walks, 13 Ks. Dang.

He is finally back in Brooklyn, an eternity later. Struggled a bit. 

But….Last two outings?

2 innings, no hits, a walk, 4 Ks. Dang.

Don’t write him off yet.

One hitless inning in 2023, 3 Ks. Dang.

Add those snippets of his 3 “micro-seasons” in Brooklyn?

9 innings, no hits, 3 walks, 20 Ks. Dang.

Don’t write him off yet. Oh, I already said that. Dang.