Mets Minor League Roll Call
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 20, 2009 11:22 AM EDT
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PrintWith baseball season finally upon us, the full season leagues of MiLB are in full gear. For your consideration, here are some news and notes from the affiliates of the New York Mets:
Buffalo Bisons
The Bisons are off to a rough start, dropping to 1-11 today after Jonathan Niese turned in his second poor effort in three tries. Niese gave up seven runs, five earned, on nine hits over 5.1 innings, though he did strike out six Syracuse Chiefs while walking none. According to the report in MiLB.com, Niese actually faced the minimum over the first three innings, before allowing the Syracuse Chiefs to bat around in the fourth. This has been a theme in Niese's starts with the Mets, hopefully he learns to mix things up a bit better the second time through opposing lineups. Kyle Snyder and Ken Takahashi turned in 2.2 scoreless relief frames, but short of 2-4 efforts from CF Fernando Martinez and C Robinson Cancel which included a double for each, the Bisons pitching found little help from the offense. On a side note, Lastings Milledge was the number three hitter for Syracuse, and after taking an 0 for 4 is hitting just .182.
Here are some individual performance notes from the Bisons:
-Mets top prospect Fernando Martinez is off to a solid start in his Triple-A campaign. He's hitting .277 / .333 / .532 and already has nine extra base hits, seven of which are doubles, in 50 PAs. He is also back in the outfield after beginning the year at DH due to an elbow injury.
-On the flipside, 1B/LF Nick Evans is off to a very poor start, hitting just .122 / .280 / .366, though he has drawn nine walks and hit three homers in his 50 PAs.
-The poor outing for Niese brings his ERA to 8.65 over three starts. While this is obviously not what the Mets were hoping for from the young lefty, he has struck out 13 in 12.1 innings and given up just one homer, so hopefully he's just been catching some bad breaks.
-RHP Eddie Kunz and LHP Ken Takahashi are both pitching well out of the bullpen. Kunz has appeared in four games and has given up two runs and just four hits over eight innings while striking out seven, though also walking five. Takahashi has also appeared in four games and given up just one run on seven hits over 10.1 innings, striking out nine and walking four. Takahashi, a 40 year old Japanse import making his stateside debut this year, was originally signed by the Orioles this offseason, and subsequently released. The Mets quickly snatched him up on a minor league deal. Look for him to get a shot at cracking the Mets pen at some point if he continues to pitch well.
-The Mets called up LHP Casey Fossum after today's game. Fossum had made two starts for the Bisons, giving up just one run in 11 innings, striking out 12 and walking five. Nelson Figueroa was released, but Fossum will essentially take Darren O'Day's spot in the bullpen.
Binghamton Mets
The B-Mets are off to a much better start than the Bisons, moving to 5-4 today after a win over the Portland Sea Dogs. Though Amazin' Avenue favorite Josh Thole took an 0-3, he did drive in a run with a sac-fly, and it still just drops his average to .367. The Offensive stars of the day were third baseman Shawn Bowman and first baseman Lucas Duda, as the corner infielders both had two hits including their first homers of the year. The Bingo pen was the other star attraction here. Three relievers combined for a perfect 3.2 innings of work, allowing no hits or walks and striking out four. Adam Bostick picked up the win in relief, though Double-A relief wins are little consolation for all of Matt Lindstrom's big league saves. Future LOOGY Roy Merritt picked up a five out Save.
Here are some individual performance notes from the B-Mets:
-The big story of the early season here is C Josh Thole, who is has 11 hits in his first 30 ABs, including four doubles and four walks, good for a .367 / .444 / .500 line. I know many like Eric are more than ready for the Josh Thole era.
-Lucas Duda, a 23 year old first base product who spent last year in in the FSL, is also off to a rollicking start. Considered a fringe prospect, Duda is hitting .333 / .500 / .481, showing excellent plate discipline with nine walks in his first 36 PAs.
-3B Shawn Bowman is a guy to root for, and he's off to a good start, hitting .303 / .386 / .436 over 43 PAs.
-SS Ruben Tejada, who has no business being in the Eastern League, is off to the kind of start you'd expect from a 19 year old who struggled through an FSL campaign in his previous season, hitting just .194 / .323 / .226 through 36 PAs.
-LHP Michael Antonini is off to a solid start, allowing just three runs in two starts totaling 9.2 innings.
-LHP Roy Merritt has also been solid out of the gate. The sidearming reliever has yet to allow a run in his 6.1 relief innings, and has earned a save in each of Binghamton's five wins.
St. Lucie Mets
The St. Lucie Mets are also off to a decent start despite losing to the Ft. Myers Miracle today. Their record now stands at 6-4 on the season. St. Lucie actually lead this game going into the ninth, after getting a combined eight innings of one run ball from starter Eric Niesen and relievers Nicolas Carr and Emary Frederick. But Jose De La Torre blew the save and took the loss, giving up three runs in the ninth. The only offense the PSL Mets could muster were solo homers from SS Reese Havens and C Fransisco Pena.
Here are some individual performances notes from St. Lucie:
-SS Reese Havens, one of the three 2008 first rounders on the St. Lucie Mets, is off to a great start. He's hitting .300 / .370 / .550 through his first 45 PAs, including a pair of homers.
-1B Ike Davis, however, continues to struggle in his early professional career. He's hitting .256 / .256 / .326. He's yet to draw a walk in 43 PAs, and yet to hit a home run in his professional career.
-22 year old 3B Zach Lutz, a 5th round draft pick in 2007, is also off to a hot start. He's hitting .324 / .385 / .471 over 37 PAs. Injuries have held Lutz back in his early professional career, but he's always gotten good grades on his ability to swing the stick. Hopefully he can stay healthy this year and start pushing his way through the system.
-20 year old 2B Greg Veloz looks like the heir apparent to the title of "Slappy McDasher," hitting .326 / .396 / .333 in 48 PAs. Unlike Ruben Tejada, the Mets wisely held the 20 year old Veloz back, letting him pick up where he left off in the FSL. He'll never develop much power, but he could turn out to be something like Luis Castillo pt. 2, Slappy's Revenge. Veloz has also already attempted seven SBs, but been caught three times.
-19 year old C Fransisco Pena is finally starting to show some signs of life with his bat. The Mets could have easily held him back to repeat the SAL for a third year, but they promoted him, and he's showing both a bit more patience and pop, hitting at .241 / .333 / .431 over his first 30 PAs. Though that line is hardly awe inspiring, especially in just 30 PAs, its a clear improvement over his .265 / .308 / .380 from the SAL last year. His homer today was his first on the year.
-22 year old RHP Scott Shaw, a 13th round pick from 2008, continues to look like a great late round find. After pitching very well last year in the NY-Penn League as well as the HWB, Shaw has turned in two solid starts to start 2009. He's given up just two runs on seven hits in 12 innings, striking out nine and walking just three. Mixed scouting reports on his fastball mean his ultimate ceiling is questionable, but he seems to have a bit more "stuff" than the brothers Dylan (Gee and Owen) and has already turned some heads with his early professional performance.
- Things haven't been quite as easy in the FSL so far for the Mets 2008 Supplemental first round pick, RHP Brad Holt. Holt's FSL debut was ugly, giving up seven runs in 3.2 innings. However he bounced back nicely, pitching six scoreless innings in his second start, giving up just four hits and one walk while striking out seven. Its tough to read into this one way or the other, but the FSL will be the first real test for Holt's developing curveball and changeup.
-19 year old RHP Jenrry Mejia, the Mets other fireballing right hander, has a prettier ERA than Holt, though he's allowed nearly as many baserunners and is having his innings limited more closely due to his age. Mejia is still something of a project for now, but he pitched very well last year in the NY-Penn league, and is someone to keep close watch on.
-Oft-injured reliever Brant Rustich is also off to a fast start. In two relief appearances, he's yet to allow a run while striking out eight in five innings and walking just one.
Savannah Sand Gnats
The Sand Gnats are off to the best start of any Mets affiliate, sitting at 7-4 after completing a four game sweep over the Augusta Green Jackets today. Savannah should be one of the more interesting teams to watch for fans of the Mets farm system this year, with teen sensations SS Wilmer Flores and 3B Jefry Marte manning the left side of the infield. Indeed, they both played a role in today's game. Flores' 3 for 4 effort brought his SAL batting average to .359 over his first 10 games, while Marte's 2 for 4 effort brought him to .317. Marte and Flores have been batting back to back, second and third in the order, respectively. On the pitching side, RHP Eric Beaulac turned in five scoreless innings to pick up his first win in his first start of the season. He's yet to be scored upon in nine innings, including one relief appearance. Kyle Allen picked up a 12 out save, finishing up the rest of the game by giving up one run in four innings.
Some individual performance notes on the Gnats:
-The pleasant surprise with this team so far has been 24 year old 2B Josh Satin. Satin is 13 for 30 to start the year, and though he has yet to produce an extra base hit, with his five walks thats good for a .433 / .500 / .433 batting line. Consider Satin a sleeper moving forward given his age, but someone worth peeking at every now and again.
-Though Flores and Marte are off to good starts, they're yet to find their power strokes. Considering these are 17 year olds we're talking about, that's hardly a concern. However, the uber-duo has combined for just four extra base hits in their 84 combined PAs, a pair of doubles for Flores and a pair of triples for Marte.
-21 year old 2B Jordany Valdespin is giving Satin a run for his money and the position. Valdespin is hitting .316 / .333 / .516 with a pair of homers in 39 PAs.
-The pitcher to watch for the Gnats is Beaulac. The big 22 year old righty was taken in the 8th round of the 2008 draft, and scouts seem to love his slider.
-22 year old RHP Chris Schwinden and 21 year old RHP Elvin Ramirez are both also off to solid starts and could bear watching.
-Though RHP Kyle Allen has a 10.80 ERA in his 6.1 innings, the 19 year old is an interesting sleeper after posting a 2.12 ERA in the GCL last season. He was taken in the 24th round of last year's draft.
That's it for now. Short Season leagues don't open for a few months, but if you guys are interested I'll try to keep some updates on the full season leagues rolling in from time to time.
By the way, If I'm encroaching on someone else's turf doing a minor league check-in, please let me know, and I will kindly yield to the Amazin' Avenue vet who usually handles this. I haven't seen much discussion on the minors in the fanposts, and since I was poking around the Mets minor league stats, I figured why not try to get one started.
This FanPost was contributed by a member of the community and was not subject to any vetting or approval process. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions, reasoning skills, or attention to grammar and usage rules held by the editors of this site.
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Definitely
Though St. Lucie should be a lot of fun too. Hopefully Davis finds his stroke sooner or later, but Havens and Holt are both there too along with Mejia, Pena, and Veloz plus a whole bunch of interesting sleepers like Shaw, Lutz, and Rustich.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 20, 2009 3:45 PM EDT up reply actions
First year I'm excited about watching Savannah ball
I’ve already been to two games and plan on seeing 20-30 more this season. Flores and Marte are very impressive, but have a long, long way to go. That pitching staff is lights out though; Probably 2nd best in the league behind Hickory.
Mike Newman
baseballhandyman.com
by Baseball Handyman on Apr 25, 2009 9:30 AM EDT up reply actions
Very good analysis.
I hope you continue to do a fine job updating us as the season progresses.
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
This is fantastic
I don’t have the attention span to follow all the levels of minors all season long, so a nice summary like this is perfect. Good job
Or the time
Keep up the good work Meddler. You rock.
I'm super super excited about Havens
As of right now he’s probably the only prospect I think could be a significant contributor as soon as next year. And a good significant contributor.
Uh, F-Mart?
Just saying. And I think there’s a good chance that Thole comes up at the same time. But I know what you mean. Thole is probably never going to be better than an average catcher (which is still better than what we have), and F-Mart is still too young for anyone to tell what his ceiling will be. But Havens could really be a productive bat at 2B, while playing like Gold Glove level defense. A Chase Utley Lite, if you will.
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
Yeah I think f-mart may be called up
But I don’t think he’s going to be ready. And as for thole I still would have to know more about his catcher defensive numbers before thinking he’s ready.
you seem really bearish about F-Mart
and I’m just curious why, since at every age/level he’s outperformed both Wright and Reyes so far (and Miggy Cabrera, who I’ve seen him compared to), and all 3 of them came up and produced in the bigs at an early age. If he progresses like the above 3 he should be ready by the end of this year or early next.
Well as far as Reyes
You can’t really compare their production since Reyes plays ss. A .750 OPS from a short stop=/= a .750 OPS from a left fielder. Plus Reyes clearly wasn’t ready the first few times he was up, I definitely wouldn’t say Reyes produced in 04 or 05, it didn’t hurt his development but a team in contention couldn’t have lived with that production, even from a short stop let alone a left fielder.
It’s really hard to say he outproduced, or didn’t, Cabrera or Wright because of the aggressive schedule the mets have had him on, you’d be comparing his AA numbers to Wright/Cabrera’s A numbers. I can see how you would say he outproduced Wright at 19, but if you look at wrights bb and k numbers it was pretty clear he had an advanced command of the strike zone and pitch recognition/plate discipline whatever you want to call it, the power just hadn’t come yet. Where as F-mart seems to be the exact opposite. He definitely didn’t outproduce Cabrera, but once again Cabrera was in A ball so it’s not really a fair comparison, plus like with Reyes Cabrera and Wright came up at positions with lower offensive expectancies, although whether he’d outproduce what we’re currently getting might be different.
But as far as his production basically his bb/k numbers were awful last year and have been awful so far this year. He hasn’t really shown a command of the strike zone and his power output has been sort of sporadic. I think the power will come, and I hope his k & bb numbers improve but I just don’t see how those numbers could improve significantly enough for him to be a significant contributor in the next year.
Awful?
I don’t know if I’d call them awful. They’re certainly not good, but one of the things I like to harp on with F-Mart is that while both his K rate and BB rate are poor, neither is really past that “major red flag” threshold. He’s got just under 130 Ks in just under 650 Double-A PAs now, and just under 50 BBs in the same span. That’s obviously poor, and a real concern, but for a guy way ahead of his age group, I’m just happy that he’s in somewhat reasonable territory in both categories. He’s not way off in extreme-outlier land in either case, despite the fact that his ARL IS in extreme-outlier territory.
I do agree though, it makes it tough to see him being a real contributor in the near future, and it makes it tough to read his development curve. But I feel like he’s given me just enough reason for optimism where, more than anything, I feel like he just needs to stay on the field and actually get a full season’s worth of PAs in one season to take that giant step forward we’ve been waiting the last few years for.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 20, 2009 3:35 PM EDT up reply actions
Not a problem
I’ll try to run at least an update every couple weeks, or if something really notable happens.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 20, 2009 3:39 PM EDT up reply actions
Also is there any explanation for the continued rushing of Tejada?
Other than just wanting to get him time with Havens in A+? Does he have to hit .113 for the mets to realize it’s not working? You would think the surprise contributions of Evans/Murphy, who were handled in a way that seemed to follow a logical path, would tip them off that maybe players develop well when they’re not rushed. It seems like it’s best to not be a high profile prospect with the mets or they’ll rush you for no reason.
I think we have a ton of SS
in the lower levels of the system and it’s either promote one too soon or have one sit on the bench.
I guess the question is whether he'd be better off getting less time in A ball until Havens was promoted
And I expect Havens would be promoted relatively soon, like mid-year or something, or struggling in AA ball for now.
Yeah I think you hit it
They wanted to get him ABs and were more concerned with being patient with Havens. I wonder if Havens had had a healthy and productive 2008 campaign, maybe he’d be the one in Bingo. As it stands, there was significant reason to be patient with all three of the first rounders from 2008.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 20, 2009 3:41 PM EDT up reply actions
And even though they're still rushing some of the Latin American guys
At least they’re being appropriately patient with the 2008 draft class. I feel like after Davis, they did a really nice job in that draft, even in the later rounds. They’re giving Holt time to work on his offspeed stuff before throwing him into the Easter League fire. They didn’t read too much into Allen’s quality GCL stint last year. They’re taking their time before slotting Beaulac as a reliever or starter. All positive developments, IMO, that go somewhat against what the player development philosophy had been over the last few years.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 20, 2009 3:51 PM EDT up reply actions
I think they usually do a pretty good job in later rounds
It just seems like the early rounds, usually, is where we get the meh picks. Like guys like Allen, and Shaw and Carson, Lutz, a catcher who’s name I can’t remembr, Duda, Murphy Evans and a bunch of other guys were really smart later round picks. And moviel and vineyard, speaking of him is he done for good or does anyone know, were pretty good kind of early picks, but the first/supplemental round they seem to be unwilling to take any kind of risk, like they’d rather take a player who is likely to be a meh/bench player than one with a high ceiling who will come at a higher cost/risk.
Idk about Vineyard.
At this point, I think we should assume he’s gone for good.
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
They've been a bit better lately though
They just haven’t had many first round picks. Pelfrey in 2005 (I guess you could complain that they didn’t go after Lincecum, but Pelfrey dropping to 9th was a huge blessing at the time), none in 2006 or 2007, and then Davis was an aggressive first pick in 2008, Havens was safer, and Holt was more intriguing than anything else.
But you’re definitely right, they do seem to have more a knack for finding interesting talent in the later rounds.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 20, 2009 4:14 PM EDT up reply actions
My bad
got confused, Lincecum was 2006. Pelfrey’s holdout in 2005 before signing always confuses me between those two drafts.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 20, 2009 4:15 PM EDT up reply actions
I'd say it was worth it for
K-Rod Frankie. Though signing Lowe and letting Ollie walk would have replaced our second rounder with a first rounder and a supp, if you don’t mind my beating a dead horse.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 20, 2009 4:26 PM EDT up reply actions
Tell me about it.
That pissed me off almost as much as the stupidly large contract.
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
yea, no complaints about signing frankie
but signing lowe over ollie and getting (at least) a supplemental would have been nice
Havens
Great job. I love following the lower levels.
While I don’t want to get into the FMart debate, I agree with Gina on Havens. I love that kid. I think he’s our 2B as by 2011 if not midway through next year if Castillo is not producing. Excellent defense, some pop, and even lots of grit. Hopefully he sees Bingo by year end.
Thanks for putting this all together, Meddler
Impressive to see F! leading the Bisons in OPS at his age, even though we’d all like to see some improvement in the K:BB.
No Problem
Though I’m not sure F-Mart leading the Bisons in OPS is so much a positive for F! as it is an indictment of the offensive firepower (or lack thereof) playing for the Mets Triple-A affiliate. Bobby Kielty is 4th on the team with a .740 OPS, and they have two guys with 40+ ABs below .450 (Malo, Coronado). Ouch.
It is nice to see Fernando off to a nice start though.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 20, 2009 4:20 PM EDT up reply actions
malo had a good Spring
So now you have to wonder which is the aberration.
Another thing.
Between ST and the start to this year, I can see what Mets management were seeing in Nick Evans. Despite his poor start to the season, I think it’s unquestionable that the kid has some good power. I was higher on him than most, and I think he can be a productive player in MLB.
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
True
He could come up and send Murphy down for more outfield work (with less pressure).
Another big day for Havens
3 for 5, HR (3). Not sure why Holt didn’t start that game though, he appeared to be scheduled.
by Mark Himmelstein on Apr 22, 2009 12:32 AM EDT reply actions
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