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New York Mets Daily Farm System Report- 5/20/11: The Fisher King

By Jeffrey Paternostro

New York Mets Daily Farm System Report - 5/20

Send all of your questions about the Mets farm system to AAProspectMailbag@gmail.com!

 

*All results from games played on Thursday, May 19th 2011

AAA - Buffalo Bisons (18-24)_______________________________________

BUFFALO 5, INDIANAPOLIS 1 (Box)

RHP Brian Sweeney held the AAA Indians to four hits over seven strong innings, and 2B Michael Fisher continued his hot run since his promotion, knocking four base hits, including a solo home run, as Buffalo captured their first victory of the series. I was rather surprised when Fisher got the call up to Buffalo over  IF Josh Satin. Satin had been raking for the B-Mets, and both he and Fisher play basically the same positions. But so far Fisher has been producing for Buffalo, while Satin gets to keep playing Robert Neville in the post-apocalyptic wasteland that is the Binghamton offense. 

  • CF Kirk Nieuwenhuis: 2-4, 2 R, BB (.309/.413/.546); His MLE is .255/.341/.434, in case you were wondering.
  • 2B Michael Fisher: 4-5, HR (1), 2 RBI, 2 R (.313/.347/.513); Hitting .423 since promotion to Buffalo. 
  • C Mike Nickeas: 0-1, HBP (.194/.268/.194)
  • RHP Brian Sweeney: W, 7 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 HR (1-2, 17, 6.35, 14 K, 2 BB, 21 H, 5 HR) 
  • LHP Justin Hampson: 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K (1-0, 18.2, 1.93, 17 K, 5 BB, 11 H, 1 HR)
ROSTER MOVES: The Mets picked up 1B/DH/AAAA slugger Jason Botts from the York Revolution and assigned him to the Bisons.
 
INJURY REPORT: C Mike Nickeas, left the game in the third inning after being hit on the wrist by a pitch, but he appears to be okay. 

 

AA - Binghamton Mets (13-24)_____________________________________

NEW HAMPSHIRE 7, BINGHAMTON 2 (Box)

So on May 2nd I tweeted this. Since then, RHP Brad Holt has made three starts, not gone more than four innings or walked less than four batters in any of them. Today was a complete disasterl as he walked 8 Fisher Cats in four innings of work. It was bad from the start, as Holt walked three batters in a row with two outs in the first, the last somehow leading to Bingo pitching coach Marc Valdes getting ejected. In that sequence he also mixed in two wild pitches and balked in a run. He would throw four wild pitches on the day to go with his eight free passes. Holt looked like he had turned a corner early this season with the addition of a cutter, but now he might need to be skipped or moved to the pen temporarily to clear his head. On the other side of the ball, as has been the story all year, the Binghamton offense couldn't muster much of an attack. They managed only six hits and went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position. With their win, the Fisher Cats completed a three game sweep of the B-Mets, leaving Binghamton a mere half game ahead of the Portland Sea Dogs for the worst record in the Eastern League.

  • SS Jordany Valdespin: 1-3, RBI, K (.273/.322/.417)
  • 3B Eric Campbell: 1-4, RBI (.211/.333/.285)
  • 2B Josh Satin: 0-2, 2 BB (.313/.431/.473)
  • 1B Allan Dykstra: 0-3, BB, K (.259/.402/.432) 
  • RHP Brad Holt: L, 4 IP, 4 ER (1 unearned), 2 H, 8 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, 4 WP, Balk (1-3, 38.2, 3.72, 25 K, 28 BB, 27 H, 2 HR); Last three starts, 11 1/3 IP, 18 BB

Hi-A St. Lucie Mets (25-16)________________________________________

TAMPA 6, ST. LUCIE 4 (Box)

St. Lucie continues to scuffle some after their hot start, dropping their fourth in a row to run their record in May to 6-11. The early start led to a lot of the regulars getting a day off. Not CF Matt Den Dekker, though, who continues to rake against FSL pitching. RHP Colin McHugh had a bit of an unlucky day, recording 9 of his 11 outs by K, yet giving up 7 hits in his spot start. He still left with a lead, but the St. Lucie bullpen took care of that. RHP Michael Powers was the victim this time, giving up back to back to back two out hits to the Tampa Yanks in the 7th to provide the final margin of defeat. Powers has been hit hard this year, giving up 33 hits in 23 2/3 innings.

Lo-A Savannah Sand Gnats (19-21)__________________________________

CHARLESTON 4 SAVANNAH 3 (12) (Box)

The Sand Gnats lost a tough one in extras after clawing back from an early 3-0 deficit. Outside of the three run fourth RHP Gonzalez Germen was dominant, striking out 7 in five innings, and LHP Angel Cuan continued to do good work in long relief. The Savannah offense had trouble making contact all night, as they combined for 14 strikeouts. They were also terrible with RISP, going 1-14. They managed to force extra frames, though, tying the game up on a two run fielding error in the seventh inning. The teams then traded zeroes until the bottom of the 12th, when Charleston's Anderson Feliz ended the evening with a walkoff home run. Feliz was a true Sand Gnat killer tonight, going 3-6 and finishing a single short of the cycle.

★ Star of the Night ★

2B Michael Fisher is the easy pick here on a rather lackluster night for the affiliates.

 

Goat of the Night

We might need a stand in for RHP Brad Holt soon. Hopefully George Michael is still available. 


A Closer Look at Gonzalez Germen

Savannah RHP Gonzalez Germen has intrigued me for a bit. He, like most of the Savannah staff, is a little old for the Sally league, but in his last two years in the Mets system he has been absolutely dominant, striking out 125 and walking only 15 in 125 IP. He is not just a soft tossing control guy either. His fastball sits in the low 90s and his change-up is a plus pitch. So I tuned in to the Charleston radio broadcast to take a closer look. 

His final stat line doesn't look outstanding, but almost all the damage was in the fourth inning, and was partially due to Cory Vaughn and Blake Forsythe both losing their footing on consecutive plays. The Vaughn slip stretched a double into a triple, and then Forsythe's cost Germen what would have been the first out of the inning. Germen still had a chance to get out of the inning with minimal damage, getting a strikeout and a short fly after giving up a run-scoring double, but a walk loaded the bases, and then gave up a 3-2 bleeder to River Cats RF Eduardo Sosa after being up 1-2 in the count. 

Otherwise, Germen clearly overmatched the Charleston line-up. He threw 56 strikes and 30 balls and generated 15 swings and misses , including on all seven of his strikeouts. His change-up is clearly his best pitch, and he is not afraid to throw it in any count, or double up on it.  He was starting hitters off with it, throwing it down 2-0, and throwing it for strikes. His breaking ball was effective as well. I am still unclear if it is a slider, curve, or both, but he generated three swinging strikes with it (them) and had a 6:1 Strike:Ball ratio with it overall. (as usual, this is all based on the announcer's call, and I only have pitch types for about half his pitches last night)

Now while this sounds like a rather glowing review, there are some caveats. For one, Germen is probably not a starter in the end. This is his first year starting mostly full time and he was much more effective in innings 1-3 than in innings 4-5. He's listed at 6' 1" 175, as well, so he's not a big guy, and I have trouble seeing him developing the stamina to start. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as it might allow his fastball to stay in the 92-94 range rather then the 90-92 range. The other issue is that this is his fourth year in the Mets minor league system. It seems unlikely he will be on the 40 man roster before he is Rule 5 eligible and he's exactly the type of player who tends to get picked. 

You expect a twenty-three year old to dominate in the Sally league, but I think Germen is still a bit of a sleeper. My overall impression is that the stuff is good enough that he could be a late inning reliever, though probably not a closer. I know the Mets are using a lot of tandem starters at Savannah to keep everyone's innings down, but they might want to consider moving German back to relief and promoting him soon, or else he will probably be in someone else's bullpen in a couple years.


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