Last night on the farm the Mets got phenomenal pitching performances from Rafael Montero and Gabriel Ynoa. On the hitting front, both Cesar Puello and Alonzo Harris had great games with the bat. Let’s take a look:
Syracuse 4, Buffalo 3
Collin McHugh, already in his 10th AAA start, took the loss after giving up 4 runs on 6 hits with 2 walks and 8 strikeouts in 6 innings. Rob Carson pitched 2 scoreless frames, scattering 4 hits and a walk while striking out 3. Fred Lewis, Lucas Duda, and Mike Nickeas all had 2 hits. Lewis hit his 9th homer of the season. Nickeas is hitting .455 since his demotion.
Binghamton 9, New Britain 8 (Game 1, 7 innings)
Cory Mazzoni gave up a 5-spot in the 2nd inning, but the B-Mets fought back to tie it at 6. Then Adam Kolarek gave up 2 runs in the top of the 7th, but the B-Mets scored 3 in the bottom half and walked off on a force out that scored 2 runs (wish I had video of that play, cause I don’t know how 2 runs could score on a 6-4 fielder’s choice). Mazzoni ended up going 6 innings, allowing 6 runs on 9 hits with just 3 strikeouts. Adam Kolarek got the win, despite giving up 2 runs in an inning of work. Reese Havens hit a 2-run homer and walked 3 times. Juan Centeno was hitless, but had 4 RBI’s, including the final 2. Juan Lagares was 3 for 4 with an RBI and 2 runs scored.
New Britain 8, Binghamton 1 (Game 2, 7 innings)
Gonzalez Germen let up a 5 spot in the 5th inning, giving up 6 runs total over 5 innings, although he did strike out 8. On a night of a near no hitter, the last Mets minor league to pitch a no hitter: Brandon Moore, pitched a scoreless inning in relief, striking out 2. Francisco Pena homered, but the B-Mets managed just 2 total hits.
St. Lucie 9, Palm Beach 1
Rafael Montero was 4 outs away from a no hitter when he was pulled after 110 pitches, going 7.2 innings, allowing just 3 walks and striking out 5. Kyle Allen gave up 1 run and 1 hit, as he combined with Montero on a one-hitter. Montero has been phenomenal in 8 starts since his promotion to St. Lucie and has become the third prong in a trio of great A-ball pitchers along with Domingo Tapia and Michael Fulmer. Cesar Puello, in his 2nd game since returning form the DL, went 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and an RBI. He also stole 2 bases, including a steal of home but he also left for a pinch runner in the 8th; not sure why. Not to be outdone was Alonzo Harris, who went 4 for 4 with a double, a homer, a stolen base, and 3 RBI’s. Harris has been the main beneficiary of Puello and Darrell Ceciliani spending most of the season on the DL, and he is putting himself on the prospect radar. Aderlin Rodriguez also hit a homer, his 21st of the season. Danny Muno, T.J. Rivera, Blake Forsythe, and Richard Lucas all hit doubles.
Brooklyn 1, Lowell 0
Gabriel Ynoa was almost as good as Rafael Montero, going 7 shutout innings and allowing just 4 hits and no walks with 8 strikeouts. Paul Sewald threw 2 hitless innings, striking out 3. Sewald, a 10th round pick from the University of San Diego has thrown 19.2 scoreless innings to start his pro career, striking out 21 and allowing just 14 base runners. Jayce Boyd, Stefan Sabol, and Julio Concepcion all had 2 hits. Boyd hit his second professional homerun. Brandon Nimmo was out of the lineup for the second straight game.
Kingsport 8, Bristol 3
Persio Reyes got the win, after allowing just 3 runs on 5 hits over 5 innings. Alberto Baldonado and Marires Arias each threw 2 shutout innings. Arias struck out 4 and is having a decent year out of the K-Mets bullpen. Jorge Riverto was 4 for 5 with a double. Jonathan Leroux was 3 for 5. Anthony Chavez, playing shortstop for the injured Gavin Cecchini, tripled and drove in 3 runs.
24 comments
Stickguy
8/8/2012-8:21am at 8:21 am (UTC -4)
just keep Montero moving up to Bingo, to see if anyone there can hit him?
talent has to find its own level. And I think his is above PSL.
srt
8/8/2012-8:31am at 8:31 am (UTC -4)
Rafael Montero….another young good arm down on the farm. He wasn’t even on my radar.
Now if we only had some hitters to get excited about….
NJstuckinTX
8/8/2012-8:52am at 8:52 am (UTC -4)
Amen.
Sylow59
8/8/2012-9:22am at 9:22 am (UTC -4)
There’s nothing at A or above. A potential back up catcher, a defensive MI (Tovar), a DH (ARod, Duda?), a defensive OF (den Dekker), a 4OF (Kirk), and Flores – who I’m becoming less sold on. And every last one of them would be 24-26 when they’d hit the majors. There’s nothing on the horizon any time soon, and there’s nothing to trade.
Theyre a good three years away. They need to trade RA and Wright this winter. By the time they’re competative these two will be fading. Bite the bullet and deal with some horrible records.
srt
8/8/2012-10:07am at 10:07 am (UTC -4)
Don’t burst my bubble on Flores, Sylow……Give me some bat to look forward to – other than Nimmo who is years away.
Trading Wright and RA? La-La-La, I can’t hear you.
Sylow59
8/8/2012-11:13am at 11:13 am (UTC -4)
I love RA and Wright, but they’re the only two players they can move other than the good young ones (ex. Harvey, Davis, Tejada).
There’s not a whole lot to move. It’s going to be ugly for a few years.
Hazmet
8/8/2012-7:24pm at 7:24 pm (UTC -4)
You said the same thing to me last year about Reyes leaving.
NJstuckinTX
8/8/2012-10:13am at 10:13 am (UTC -4)
I disagree on Wright, but could agree with you on Dickey. Wright will still be more than productive in 3 years (guessing on that, but hey, it’s just a hunch. woman’s intuition, if you will). He’s the face of the franchise, puts fannies in the seats, about the only RH bat they have, etc. etc. He is what Chipper is to the Braves.
Regarding Dickey, if he could bring back a blue chip OF prospect, you almost have to consider it. He’s in the upper 30′s, is a knuckleball pitcher and is sort of having a flash in the pan type season. He could be traded in the offseason and the team getting him back would be able to get prospect compensation for him by controlling him for the whole year (and at a bargain of a contract deal as well!). To further this, the Mets minor league system has many good arms on the way (not saying all are excellent, but there are way more good arms than good bats), so while losing Dickey would hurt, it would not hurt as significantly as getting rid of Wright.
You could, in theory, trade Dickey for 1 blue chip OF player and re-sign Young to take his spot on the roster, resign Pelf as insurance and roll with Santana, Niese, Harvey, Gee, Young and have Wheeler on the way (along with McHugh and then Pelf and whatever other retreads you find.
Dickey is a good man and a heck of a pitcher and competitor, and in a perfect world I would hate to see him go, but as we all know, it all rainbows and cotton candy in Met-land.
srt
8/8/2012-10:28am at 10:28 am (UTC -4)
Ugh……
I hate that you make sense here on trading Dickey.
But I still don’t want to see them do it.
NJstuckinTX
8/8/2012-10:46am at 10:46 am (UTC -4)
Me either. The odds of Santana and Young both not having their arms fall off at the shoulder would worry me beyond all belief.
Sylow59
8/8/2012-11:19am at 11:19 am (UTC -4)
Wright is 29. In 4 years he’s 33. I think that’s agamble. A bigger gamble IMO is re-signing him. Every idiot on the block hates him and it’s not like he’s on a team that wonlt be horrid for a few years. It’s not an easy sell.
RA is 38. If the Mets were winning I thinnk he’d take a hometown discount. But they’re not and I think the competitor in him will take a discount to sign with a team that contends.
They need to move both this year and deal with 45 wins next year. Otherwise it an endless stream of 72 win seasons.
NJstuckinTX
8/8/2012-11:57am at 11:57 am (UTC -4)
With a 33 year old pitcher, I’d start to get worried. With a 33 year old 3B, not so much. I get the point you are making, but stripping the team of it’s draws to the ball park would be suicide. I live in Houston. They can’t give away tickets here. The only way that the team keeps going is they have a stadium that isn’t mortgaged up the ying yang and brand new fresh money from a new owner. They (the Mets) lack flexibility to do a complete tear down. I don’t think they need to take it down to 45 wins before they get up to 90. Might take slightly longer, but I can’t see trading Wright for some potential could be goods.
Sylow59
8/8/2012-12:15pm at 12:15 pm (UTC -4)
@NJstuckinTX
I see your point. But I still think re-signing either given the current state of affairs will be a massive risk.
I don’t think RA is happy. Just some of the thinkgs he has said and this 4 days rest idea.
I think Wright will be very difficult to sign unless there is a large improvement next year (which I don’t see) so you’re left with a sandwich pick or a couple near MLB ready guys. I don’t see him here after next year, and it would be by his choice,
Bryan
8/8/2012-10:21am at 10:21 am (UTC -4)
Tovar, Flores, and ARod are barely in their 20′s. Also, you can’t just tank for a few years in New York while you rebuild, the fan base will not stick by you. They need to do what they can to be competitive without rushing the prospects they do have. Being in it at the all-star break is exactly what they need to continue to do, until they get the horses to stay competitive all season.
srt
8/8/2012-10:31am at 10:31 am (UTC -4)
No argument from me on this.
No fan base will stick with you for long when you’re losing. Just read Philly’s sell out streak just came to an end. Doesn’t surprise me. Looking at their organization, I think they’re in worse shape than we are. They’ve got really nothing in the high minors and they’re barely under the luxury tax cap right now.
Stick
8/8/2012-10:41am at 10:41 am (UTC -4)
they have more overall talent on the roster though (not that it really came through this season). So they are in “if they stay healthy and play up to their talent” mode (that Met fans know so well). problem is, their ceiling (talent level) is still pretty high (they did win 102 games last year).
If the SP recovers/rebounds, they could still be very good. I hope not, but you can’t count them out.
plus you get Howard fully back, maybe utley pulls a beltran after rehab, etc.
but mainly, they will still have a payroll nearly double the mets.
srt
8/8/2012-10:49am at 10:49 am (UTC -4)
‘If all stay healthy’…..is the key.
They don’t have much in the way of reinforcements so it’s gonna come down to what they pick up for bench players. Something they’ve pretty much ignored the past 5 years.
Sylow59
8/8/2012-11:10am at 11:10 am (UTC -4)
Tovar is 20, but outside of PSL this year hasn’t really accomplished a lot offesnivey. And even there it wasn’t all that.. He doesn’t have a lot of trade value. That was my point.
ARod has a lifetimne .894 FA at 3B so yuo can’t really call him a 3Bman. 1B or DH. He hits HRs but doesn’t walk or hit for average. Granted he is 20, but we all heard the same about FMart. Lifetime .256 BA (.242 if you exclude Kingsport). Again, he has no real trade value.
Flores is in his age 20 season. He’s not likely a MI so that leaves 1B/3B. He looks like he can hit enough for 3B, but not for 1B. The Miggy comparisons need to stop aas Miggy put up a .793 OPS in the 2nd half of his age 20 season (as a ML) vs. Flores’ (current) .730 OPS at AA.
There’s really nothing position-wise on the farm to trade, or that can really help in 2013 (nor 2014).
Stickguy
8/8/2012-11:22am at 11:22 am (UTC -4)
trade chips is really the big issue. And quite possibly a reason Sandy did not make some moves already (unless you want to start moving pitchers).
The ML team is really quite young overall, but a few injury backups would still be nice to have! And lessens the need to go out and find all your bench guys on the open market.
gategem
8/8/2012-12:06pm at 12:06 pm (UTC -4)
Let’s assume the Mets have a secondary plan they are implementing behind their primary plan (Hannibal Smith – i love it when a plan comes together) to keep the franchise in the Wilpon family. Now let’s suppose (wait I see Tinker Bell on the horizon) that they can build a strong five man rotation, a quality bullpen and back them up with strong defense (The Carpenters – I Can Dream Can’t I) then if they can scratch a run or two they can definitely be WC contenders. This will put fannies in the seats and help the Wilpons straighten out their financial mess and increase expenditures in the IFA market (thus keeping their minor league system strong) as well as pick up a bat or two from major league free agency. With the arms they have in the minors perhaps they could implement this plan (if it does exist) in say three years. Damn, Tinker Bell just read my post and left laughing hysterically.
NJstuckinTX
8/8/2012-9:17am at 9:17 am (UTC -4)
Go Go Havens!
Mr North Jersey
8/8/2012-12:45pm at 12:45 pm (UTC -4)
Havens is T-Minus 15 games from matching his career high of games played in a single season.
srt
8/8/2012-10:47am at 10:47 am (UTC -4)
OT: but have to post this clip, compliments of Patrick Flood.
http://www.patrickfloodblog.com/2012/08/07/love-the-astros/
All I could thing was better them than us. We’ve managed to look this silly a time or two.
Mr North Jersey
8/8/2012-12:48pm at 12:48 pm (UTC -4)
This play why I don’t know reminds me of the Pagan throwing to an empty 1st base last season.