Mets Daily Farm System Report - 8/1: Mischter Met

AA - Binghamton (53-55)

• CF Kirk Nieuwenhuis: 2-4, 2B, 2 R, BB, CS(7) (.291/.339/.514) Only his second multi-hit game in nearly two weeks
• LF Sean Ratliff: 2-5, 2B, HR(11), 4 RBI, 2 R, 2 K, E(4) (.337/.365/.612) Error for the second straight night but also forcing people to take his power seriously
• 2B Josh Satin: 2-5, 2 R (.309/.408/.438) 
• 3B Zach Lutz: 2-5, HR(11), 2 RBI, R, K (.287/.410/.573)
• C Mike Nickeas: 1-4, HR(5), BB, 2 K (.286/.405/.418) Second straight day with a homer for the potential major league backup
• SP Robert Carson: 4.2 IP, 5 ER, 8 H, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, WP (0-4, 9.61, 19.2 IP, 29 H, 9 BB, 12 K, 4HR) He and Cohoon are showing why Double-A is considered by many the biggest leap forward in the minors

Hi-A - St. Lucie (51-53)

• CF Pedro Zapata: 2-3, 3B, RBI, R, BB (.296/.321/.407) Broke the six game 1-for-4 streak
• 2B Jordany Valdespin: 1-4, RBI, R, K, SB(12) (.305/.341/.457)
• SS Wilmer Flores: 0-4 (.318/.327/.422) 0 for his last 12, slash line plummeting
• SP Brandon Moore: 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 3 BB, 4 K (2-3, 2.61, 41.1 IP, 39 H, 17 BB, 33 K, 1 HR) Increased walks in PSL have made that pretty ERA much more of a high-wire act than in Savannah
• RP Nick Carr: 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 1 K (0-0, 4.91, 7.1 IP, 8 H, 10 BB, 8 K, 1 HR)
• RP Erik Turgeon: 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 2 K, S (2-0, 2.29, 4 Saves, 19.2 IP, 20 H, 8 BB, 20 K, 1 HR) Strong season continues (1.75 ERA overall in 2010) 
• INJURY UPDATE:  For anyone wondering why we hadn't seen OF Juan Lagares for a couple days, he fractured his right ankle running out a grounder the other night.  He's already wearing a cast over it and chances are he'll be out the rest of 2010.  Really sucks as he'd been having his strongest season as a pro.

SS-A Brooklyn (29-13)

• CF Darrell Ceciliani: 1-3, 2B, RBI, R, BB, 2 K(.389/.443/.564) Another day, another big hit
• RF Cory Vaughn: 0-2, RBI (.306/.395/.573)
• SS Rylan Sandoval: 2-4, R, SB(8) (.325/.400/.563)
• 3B Brian Harrison: 0-3, E(7) (.274/.325/.575) Second error in two nights
• SP Chris Hilliard: 6.1 IP, 0 ER (1 unearned), 5 H, 2 BB, 3 K (6-1, 4.22, 49 IP, 56 H, 9 BB, 28 K, 1 HR) Nice bounce back from the lefty

RK Kingsport (18-20)

• Rained out
• But today is the LAST DAY you can still vote for ZeErika in the Minors Moniker Madness tournament where his matchup (against Gift Ngoepe) is apparently one of the closest of entire second round!

RK GCL Mets (16-17)

• LF Julio Concepcion: 0-2 (.301/.341/.522)
• OF Tillman Pugh: 0-3
• SS Randoll Santana: 1-1, 2B (.260/.347/.337)
• RP Edioglis Villasmil: 5 IP, 2 ER (1 unearned), 5 H, 4 BB, 4 K (1-3, 3.21, 33.2 IP, 37 H, 14 BB, 13K, 2 HR) He'd help himself by cutting down those walks

Star of the Night

For the second straight day I think we've got to with the Bisons starter as our Star and today that means LHP Pat Misch off his eight shutout innings with just three baserunners allowed and seven strikeouts.  There was some discussion here yesterday about whether or not Ramon Ortiz would get the call should the Mets need someone suddenly and with Gee and Stoner struggling, Misch is the main reason for that debate.  He's been very strong in Trple-A this season and while we know pretty much what he is, he's absolutely a strong option as far as rotation depth goes.

On a night full of strong starting performances, I'm going to have to tap LHP Robert Carson as the Goat as he was hit hard for the fourth straight time since joining the Double-A ranks.  He obviously does not look quite ready but I don't think was a horrible promotion and I'm certainly glad we didn't trade him for Octavio Dotel.

System Roundup

• The Bisons won the series opener over the IronPigs 4-1 by virtue of a tremendous starting pitching performance out of LHP Pat Misch.  Misch went eight scoreless, allowing just three baserunners and continued his excellent ground ball tendencies (13-3 GB:FB rate in this game).  The Herd hitters weren't great but they didn't need to be.  FMart continued to break out of his slump with his third straight multi-hit effort while LF Lucas Duda just keeps racking up the extra-base shots.  Boxscore
• Though Binghamton fought back with five in the final three innings, they ultimately lost this slugfest with Erie 10-9.  The B-Mets were wearing their hitting shoes last night as half of their twelve hits went for extra bases (including homers from Lutz, Nickeas & Ratliff) but it was the pitching that doomed them.  LHP Robert Carson continues to struggle in his transition to Double-A baseball and reliever RHP Edwin Ramirez wasn't any better; but unlike Carson the 26 year old reliever has no excuse.  Boxscore
• The epic losing streak is over at ten games as the St. Lucie Mets beat Lakeland 4-1 last night.  There may have been some luck involved though as the Mets were outhit, committed more errors and allowed twice as many walks.  But in the end RHP Brandon Moore buckled down and made big pitches with runners on (2 DP's) and Mets batters got a few hits when they really counted most (3-10 with RISP).  Boxscore
• Savannah evened their series with Augusta after a 5-0 shutout victory last night.  RHP Armando Rodriguez had possibly his best start of the year, tossing seven shutout innings and just four hits while lefty reliever Brandon Sage finished it off with two more shutout innings of his own.  This made things easy for the Gnats offense so another big day from the surging RF Cesar Puello and multi-hit games from SS Wilfredo Tovar and DH Robbie Shields was more than enough.  Boxscore
• The juggernaut Cyclones won their fifth straight last night with a nice 3-1 victory over the hated SI Yankees.  The pitching did it tonight as five pitchers teamed up to allow no earned runs (one unearned) in this one.  Starter LHP Chris Hilliard bounced back after a tough month of July (5.46 ERA) while CF Darrell Ceciliani provided one of the big hits in this one (big surprise).  Boxscore
• Kingsport was rained out yesterday.
• The GCL Mets lost a rain-shortened game versus against the Marlins 3-0.  In six wet innings the Mets lineup managed just a single hit.  So yeah, not much to talk about here.  Boxscore

From my perspective, I'm seeing an athletic, early round selection out of a top baseball school who can play a premium defensive position and is having fantastic offensive success at a very high level in the Double-A Eastern League.  Is he a future star?  Probably not, his K:BB is just too poor to allow that but this is still a kid that's never batted below .300 in the minors, his walk rate is improving and clearly he has serious power potential.  If he can shift back to center once Kirk moves up and stick there, I would really start to consider him as a potential top drawer prospect.