Daily Mets Minors Report – 7-2-12

 Date: 7-2-12

MLB - Mets:

Pittsburgh and Mets are 1-2 in NL June scoring runs.

The first reason why is that the Mets' core group of players are aging. New York's top three players according to WAR are all at an age where it's not typical for players to improve any further. Wright has experienced a big rebound at age 29, but he's dealt with some major injuries throughout his career and there was concern that he was in decline last year. It's a miracle that 33-year-old Johan Santana is pitching this well after missing the entire 2011 season with a shoulder injury. And while Dickey has been phenomenal, he's also 37. They've all churned out great performances this year, but there should be a healthy dose of skepticism as to w hether they'll be able to replicate their performances next season. espn

Adam Rubin‏ - ESPN Stats & Info: David Wright’s .355 BA is 2nd-highest in Mets history entering July -- Mike Piazza .364 in 2000 only higher.

Buster Olney‏  -  Very interesting around the Mets the last couple of days. Pretty clear they are feeling better and better and better about their chances.

New power rankings: 1. Texas. 2. NYY. 3. Angels. 4. San Francisco 5. Washington. 6. Cincinnati. 7. White Sox. 8. Mets. 9. LAD. 10. Boston 

AAA – Buffalo:

RHSP Jeurys Familia  gets the ball for the 17th time this season. The righty has allowed three earned runs or less in each of his last six home games. On Tuesday, Familia yielded just one run in five innings of a no-decision against the Bats. On the season, Familia is third on the Bisons with 65 strikeouts. Buffalo is 9-7 in his 16 previous starts.

2B Josh Rodriguez  (.382/.400/.676/1.076) has hit in seven of his first eight games with the Bisons, including four multi-hit efforts. Combined with his 57 games with Binghamton (AA), Rodriguez is hitting .302 (75-248) with eight home runs, 34RBI and 36 runs scored

Today:

            Jeurys Familia -  3.1 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP. 70 pitches (34 strikes).

            Pedro Beato  - 3.0-IP, 0-R,  32 pitches

            Sloppy infield wrok with throwing errors by 2B Jordany Highlight Film (.283) and SS Josh Rodriguez (.395).

            7^th AAA HR for 1B Josh Satin (.292).

            Cold spell… only 82 degrees at game time. 

AA-Binghamton:  

OF Pedro Zapata placed on disabled list (right hamstring strain), retroactive to June 29

1B Allan Dykstra transferred from St. Lucie (High-A) to Binghamton (AA)

Wilmer Flores, rated by Baseball America as the 10th-best prospect in the New York Mets farm system, was 3-for-4, the only B-Mets player with more than one hit on Friday night. A resident of Valencia, Venezuela, Flores wrapped up the series going 6-for-13 with a home run, three runs, and three RBIs. He batted .289 with 10 home runs and 42 RBIs in 64 games with Single-A St. Lucie in the Florida State League, and he has not slowed down since being promoted to Double-A on June 21. - link

RHP Cory Mazzoni (1-1, 4.15) makes his third start of the season for the B-Mets. The righty comes off a loss to the Bowie Baysox on June 26. He allowed a career-high seven runs (six earned) on ten hits over six innings. He walked on and struck out four, suffering his first loss as a B-Met. Selected in the 2nd round of the 2011 draft out of North Carolina State, Mazzoni started his season with the St. Lucie Mets (High-A), going 5-1 with a 3.25 ERA in 12 starts in the Florida State League.

RHP Matt McSwain (2-2, 4.76) makes his fifth start of the season and 18th appearance for Altoona. The North Carolina native has mainly pitched out of the bullpen for the Curve and sprinkled in a handful of starts, with his last coming against the Baysox on May 27. McSwain has gone 1-2 as a starter with a 4.09 ERA. All six games for the righty in June were relief outings. He issued 9 walks in 10.1 innings and allowed an opponent’s batting average of .293. McSwain faced just one B-Met on June 17, striking out pinch-hitter Joe Bonfe in the sixth inning in a 15-6 win for Altoona.

Today:

            SP Cory Mazzoni list this game: 4.0-=IP, 9-H, 6-ER, 3-K, 1-BB, 6.35, 79-51... oh, he is hitting 1.000.

            RP Jeff Stevens pitched well (1.59), but let’s remember this is someone who was demoted from a bad AAA half-season.

            LF Eric Campbell (.327) continues to rake. He plays RF-3B-1B-LF and owns AA pitching this year. The next Vinnie Rottino.

            Two more hits for 3B Wilmer Flores (.372). The 2B experiment was just that and his combined AA/A+ numbers are: .302/.347/.470/.817, 285-AB, 11-HR, 51-RBI, only 34-K, 22-BB. Flores will play somewhere, every day, in Flushing, come 2014.

            Would someone explain to me the fascination of Travis Ozga (.179)? First, he plays 1B and now that Alan Dykstra is back, they put him in LF. Am I missing something?

A+ - St. Lucie: -  

Tonight:

            Lucy just can’t seem to get her shit together since the break.

            SP Angel Cuan (3.34) just gets up on the bump every 5^th game, waiting for the phone to ring. This is Cuan’s 5^th season as a Met. There’s some kind of rule about that, right?

            There’s nothing else to say about this team right now.

A – Savannah:

Rained out.

A-Low – Brooklyn:

SP Rainy Lara was the 22^nd pitcher in franchise history to strike out 10 or more batters in one outing.

Brandon Nimmo, who is slumping, changed his number from 8 to 9. Also, he killed his Facebook account.

Tonight:

Allright, SP Luis Mateo is eating up the NY-Penn league. Six more scoreless innings today, with yearly stats of: 3-starts, 17.2-IP, 1-ER, 22-K, 2-BB, 0.51. I don’t want to go through this again, but Mateo might be 37 years old and originally born in Qatar. Seriously, he should be at the St. Lucie level. Now.

Only four Clone hits.

Rookie – Kingsport:

Tonight:

You know this team isn’t that good. And you know my thoughts on the lack of projectable major leaguers from the 2012 draft. And lastly, you know the majority of this team are 2012 draft picks and International players that didn’t get big bonus money. Any questions?

SP Akeel Morris (8.31) continues to be just freaking horrible… but that was nothing compared to RP Miller Diaz (13.50). How’s this for a line:  1.0-IP, 8-R, 4-BB.

C Tomas Nido left the game due to injury in the third inning. Nido, the Mets' 10th-round pick in June's draft, was knocked out after a wicked collision with Toney at the plate. That play began when Morris' pitch went in the dirt, giving Jean Batista the opening to advance to second base. When Nido threw to second, Toney broke for home. Shortstop Anthony Chavez fired the ball to Nido, who tagged out Toney despite the impact of the collision. Alex Machillanda replaced Nido

DSL Mets:

Getting stats from the Australian Leagues are easier than the DSL… (think about that).

No games today.

League leaders:

            OF Oswal Caraballo – 3^rd in league with .400 BA

            OF Vincente Lupo – 6^th in league with .385 BA (also 4^th with .659 slug%, 3^rd with 1.121 OBP, 9^th with 4-HRs)

            C Adrian Abreu – 6^th in league with .591 slugging percentage (also 7^th with 1.048 OPS, 2^nd in league with 5-HRs)

C Tomas Nido Knocked Out From Collison

Look up "hard-luck loser" in the dictionary, and you might find a picture of Akeel Morris. The Kingsport Mets' starting pitcher retired the side in order in all but one of his six innings on the mound, but still came away from Hunter Wright Stadium with the loss as the K-Mets dropped a 12-0 decision to the Greeneville Astros on Sunday.
Morris allowed the first four runs -- all in the fourth inning on five hits. That's the only offense, and the only base runners, Morris gave up during six total frames of work. And, even then, Morris only gave up one hard-hit ball, on a double by Ernesto Genoves that accounted for the final two runs. Before that, Morris gave up two bunt singles, a bloop to right field and a groundball through the left side of the infield.
Unfortunately, for Kingsport, Morris' counterpart was even better. Francis Ramirez worked six scoreless innings, allowing two hits in what can be described as an "effectively wild" performance -- five walks and seven strikeouts. Zachary Hardoin, Andrew Walter and Euris Quezada each worked an inning of relief.
Greeneville, meanwhile, broke open the game against Miller Diaz, the first guy out of the bullpen for Kingsport. Diaz allowed eight runs, seven earned, on four hits and four bases on balls. He allowed the first five hitters he faced in the eighth inning to reach safely, and the last -- James Howick -- did the most damage. Howick swatted a three-run home run to left field, that accounted for the final 12-0 score.
D'Andre Toney, Ernesto Genoves and Ariel Ovando each tallied two RBIs for the Astros.
Kingsport finished with only three hits, all singles by Maikis De La Cruz, Michael Bernal and Jeffrey Diehl.
The K-Mets will try to turn things around tonight, in what's sure to be a packed house. Admission is free for the game.

NOTES: Kingsport catcher Tomas Nido left the game due to injury in the third inning. Nido, the Mets' 10th-round pick in June's draft, was knocked out after a wicked collision with Toney at the plate. That play began when Morris' pitch went in the dirt, giving Jean Batista the opening to advance to second base. When Nido threw to second, Toney broke for home. Shortstop Anthony Chavez fired the ball to Nido, who tagged out Toney despite the impact of the collision. Alex Machillanda replaced Nido. ... Stephen Matz (0-1, 3.24 ERA) will go for Kingsport tonight against Christopher Lee (0-0, 10.80 ERA).

Welcome to Brooklyn, Brandon

by Christopher Gregory

Brandon Nimmo's seventh inning grand slam sent a capacity crowd of 7,939 home happy as the Cyclones knocked off the Aberdeen IronBirds 6-2 in the rubber match of a three game series on Saturday night at MCU Park.

Gabriel Ynoa pitched a solid game, going 6.0 innings while giving up three hits, surrendering two runs and striking out a career-high six batters. Tim Peterson (1-0) was the first pitcher out of the bullpen making his professional debut, and he earned the win after tossing 2.0 perfect innings.

The Cyclones wasted no time getting on the board this evening, putting up two runs in the first inning. After a sharp line out by Juan Gamboa to lead off the inning, Dimas Ponce and Phillip Evans both hit singles. Kevin Plawecki then came up and drew a walk to load the bases for the red-hot Cole Frenzel. He reached on a fielder’s choice allowing Ponce to score, and putting the Cyclones up 1-0. Stefan Sabol then came up and continued his hot hitting as he singled to left, scoring Evans and extending his hitting streak to six games. At the end of the first inning the Cyclones were up 2-0.

The IronBirds struck right back in the third inning with two runs. With Lucas Herbst and Anthony Caronia singling and each moving up a base due to a wild pitch by Ynoa, Roderick Bernadina stepped up with runners on second and third with two outs. He ripped a two-run double down the left field line. Ynoa limited the damage as he then struck out Creede Simpson to end the inning, but not before the game was knotted up at 2-2.

The Cyclones offense put up four runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a 6-2 lead. Phillip Evans led off the inning by hitting a double to the left center field wall followed up by a Kevin Plawecki ground out, moving Evans to third. Cole Frenzel was not able to bring in Evans as he also grounded out. Stefan Sabol and Nelfi Zapata both worked walks and the bases were loaded for Brandon Nimmo. With one swing of the bat, Nimmo hit his first home run of the season, and became the first player of the year to hit a grand slam, giving the Cyclones a 6-2 lead.

David Rubin Reporting From Mets-LAD Weekend- Recap on Tuesday

Mets Starters' Velocity vs. Strikeouts/9 and W.A.R.

Accurate visual representation of Niese's 90.7 MPH average fastball

Average Fastball Velocity


Niese- 90.7
Gee- 90.2
Santana- 88.4
Young- 84.4
Dickey- 83.4 (77 = average knuckleball)

Average Fastball Velocity- Rankings (105 qualifying starters)

Niese- 65 of 105
Gee- 73 of 105
Santana- 91 of 105
Young- 104 of 106 (if he had enough innings to qualify for the ERA lead, which he does not)
Dickey- 105 of 105

Strikeouts Per Nine Innings

Dickey- 9.24
Niese- 8.63
Santana- 8.54
Gee- 8.37
Young- 5.4

Strikeouts Per Nine Innings- Rankings (105 qualifying starters)

Dickey- 8 of 105
Niese- 22 of 105
Santana- 25 of 105
Gee- 32 of 105
Young- Does not have enough innings to qualify, but would be somewhere around 95th.

Wins Above Replacement

Dickey- 2.9
Santana- 1.8
Gee- 1.2
Niese- 0.7
Young 0.6

- The W.A.R. of 0.6 for Young is after only 5 starts and is a very strong number for such a small sample.

- The caveat here is Dickey who only throws the fastball 13.3% of the time and is not your average starter, in case you have not noticed.

- Only 32 MLB starting pitchers with qualifying innings have over 8.35 strikeouts per nine innings and the Mets have 4 of those 32 in their starting rotation.

- Jon "Cholula" Niese is the flamethrower of the quintet with his average fastball velocity at 90.7. He ranks 65th out of 105 qualifying starters.

- The Mets rotation has been fantastic in 2012 and they have done it without a single pitcher having above average fastball velocity.

It's Donation Sunday!

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Wheeler Takes One on the Bump

Zack Wheeler allowed a season-high seven runs on nine hits and theBinghamton Mets extended their losing streak to a season-long five games in an8-2 loss to the Altoona Curve. The B-Mets’ seventh-straight loss at home putsthem seven games under .500, a new low-water mark in 2012.

Thegame started with high promise for the B-Mets as Wheeler faced just one overthe minimum through four shutout innings and Reese Havens blasted a leadoffhomer in the fourth against Tim Alderson.

Thelead would not last for long. The Curve struck back for three runs in the fifthagainst Wheeler. Altoona loaded the bases with three straight singles and tiedthe game on a sac fly from Drew Maggi. Brock Holt gave the visitors the leadfor good with a two-run single up the middle.

Wheelerhelped his own cause and cut the deficit to one in the fifth. With two outs andWilfredo Tovar at second, Wheeler dumped a run-scoring double to left for hisfirst career hit and RBI.

Itwould be the last highlight for the righty. Wheeler allowed two more runs inthe sixth and was chased from the game when Matt Curry stroked a two-run doubledown the first base line in the seventh. Altoona added another run in theeighth against relievers Brad Holt and Adrian Rosario.

Alderson(4-3) capped his fourth win with a perfect sixth. The righty allowed two runson five hits and struck out two before giving way to Mike Colla. A formerstarter, Colla took the game to the finish line, allowing just one hit overthree shutout innings to earn his second save. Wheeler (7-4) was saddled with theloss.

Every Day Player Progress Report – Mack Ade

We did pitching earlier, which, IMO, is in much better shape.

Let’s cut to the chase:

Potential every day major league players:  3B (2B-1B?) Wilmer Flores. 2B Reese Havens, 1B (currently player 3B) Aderlin Rodriguez, OF Gilbert Gomez, SS (2B?) Phillip Evans.

Potential utility major league players:  CF Matt den Dekker, DH Jordany Valdespin, 1B-3B-OF Eric Campbell, RF-1B Jefry Marte, OF Travis Taijerson, C Cam Maron

There are others in various stages of development (Blake Forsythe, Darrell Cecilliani, Cesar Puello, Brandon Nimmo, Eudy Pena, Eris Peguero), but none currently project past AAA.

I see no 2012 draft pick making Queens.

Pitching Progress – Mack Ade

Here’s where we sit right now.

The Mets have basically thrown their hands up on developing Jeurys Familia into a major league starter. Yes, he has two + pitches, but he can’t seem to get his slider above the minimum of the zone. Opposing batters now know that and his ‘go-to” pitch with three balls results in too many walks. On the surface, he looks “wild”, but it’s literally a matter of inches. Past that, his third pitch (curve) just isn’t developing. Look for him to remain in the Buffalo rotation through September if, for no other reason, he will get more pitches. There’s a chance you will see him in the Queens pen in September, but nothing more.

Jenrry Mejia is also all over the place, but he actually seems to pitch better in Flushing than Buffalo. He’s also closer than Familia. Don’t debate this: Mejia is a future member of the Mets pen, period. I think he’s be there before the Buffalo season ends, but, at worse, you will see him next to the chop shops in September.

Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler are kewl. Wheeler is currently one of the top five pitchers in minor league baseball and Harvey had his best AAA outing ever last night. You will see Harvey start a game in Queens before the season ends unless Chris Young and Dillon Gee go lights out. Even then, he’s get a few spot starts in September at worse. Wheeler won’t be pushed and may finish the season in Binghamton. Then again, he seems ready for Buffalo. He too could be called up in September, but he’s lower in the pecking order.

Beyond that, it’s all steak knives.

My ‘short list’ of potential major league starters are Harvey, Wheeler, Michael Fulmer, Marcos Camarena, Domingo Tapia, Luis Mateo, Rainy Lara, Juan Urbina, and Akeel Morris.

My ‘short list’ of potential major league relief pitchers are Josh Edgin, Pedro Beato, Elvin Ramirez, Jack Leathersich, Adrian Rosario, and Adam Kolarek.

Everone else is either trade bait, in development, AAAA pitcher, orassistant coaches in some college.

But, that’s just me.

Mack