Around the Minors (Week 7) ~ May 17th – 23rd

BUFFALO BISONS
(Triple A, International League)

RECORD:  Overall – (27-17) Tied 1st place in Northern Div. (even)  — Week 7 – (6-1)

BATTING RANK:  1st out of 14 teams (.284 Team BA) – up .007

PITCHING RANK:   8th out of 14 teams (4.07 Team ERA) -  down 0.22

The Bisons stormed back in Week 7 with their best week of the season going 6 and 1 including a 5 game winning streak.  Perhaps they were the only recipients of good fortune after the cyclone of player movements around the entire Met's organization.  In all, 4 players made their Buffalo debuts this week as well as the return of Mike Cervanak from the disabled list.  Unfortunately, in the process they did lose Pridie to an injury, but St. Lucie centerfielder, Emmanuel Garcia was called up in his place and batted a respectable .280 in his first 5 AAA games.  Ryota Igarashi made two appearance in Buffalo after his brief stint in Florida pitching 2 innings giving up 1 hit and 0 runs.  Starting pitcher, Dylan Owen earned a victory in his Buffalo debut with a 7 inning effort of 3 run ball.  Owen also recorded 7 strikeouts while walking only 1 batter and will be taking the place of RA Dickey who appears will be staying with the Mets until their rotation comes to form.  With the promotion of Elmer Dessens to the Mets, the Bisons called upon Jose De La Torre from Binghamton to close out the games.  He had a rough time in his only appearance giving up 3 runs in 2 innings of work.

Buffalo moved into first place in the division as well as batting average in the league with a .284 team average.  A quadruplet of players (Jesus Feliciano, Russ Adams, Josh Thole and Ruben Tejada) were mainly responsible for the uprise.  Each batted over .434 for the week with a combined 17 extra base hits between the 4 of them as well as knocking in 16 RBIs.  Mike Hessman hit his first rough patch of the year going 7-27 (.259) but did add 2 homeruns and 7 RBIs to his league leading totals.  Mike Jacobs added another homer, but struck out 12 times in the process.  The pitching staff had an equally dominant week and dropped their team ERA down 0.22 points to 4.07 on the year.  Aside from a few rough spots from Tobi Stoner, the entire staff pitched very well.  Dylan Gee won both of his starts this week and is now (5-1) on the year.  Gee pitched 12 2/3 innings while giving up only 7 hits and 3 earned runs.  He managed to strike out 12 batters and gave up 5 walks.  He will be receiving a lot of attention from the Mets if either Niese or Maine hit any snags in their recoveries.  Pat Misch will also be on that list as he provided Buffalo with another solid outing giving up 3 hits and 1 run in 7 innings for the win.  Pettyjohn and O'Connor gave nice effforts in relief with 4 2/3 innings of shut out ball between the two.

MVP of the Week: Jesus Feliciano finally gets the league's attention even though he has been leading the league in BA for most of the year at .373.  Feliciano was named the International Player of the week going 14-29 (.483) with 4 doubles, a triple and 5 RBIs.  Feliciano also scored 8 runs for the Bisons and only struck out twice.

Pitcher of the Week:  Both Gee and Misch pitched well enough to earn the spot this week, but my hat goes off to Bobby Livingston who has had a tough year to date.  Prior to his win against Charlotte, Bobby was 1-5 with (5.20) ERA.  In his last start, he pitched 7 solid innings of 2 hit ball giving up only 1 earned run.  He also recorded 6 strikeouts.  Nice job Bobby, keep the momentum going buddy.

Week in Preview:  Buffalo closes out their series with the Iron Pigs on Monday and Tuesday night.  They'll then return home for an 8 game homestand with four against the Toledo Mudhens and 4 against Steven Strassburg and division leading Syracuse Chiefs.

BINGHAMTON METS:
(Double A, Eastern League)

RECORD:  Overall – (20-22) 4th in Eastern Div  (6 games back) — (Week 7) -  (1-4)

BATTING RANK:  Tied for 4th out of 12 teams (.261 Team BA) – down .006

PITCHING RANK:  Tied 11th out of 12 teams (5.05 Team ERA) – up 0.14

Just when things couldn't get much worse in Binghamton, they did.  The B-Mets took a NINE game losing streak (yes 9 fricking games) into Saturday's game before finally getting a win from newly promoted (St. Lucie) pitcher Chris Schwinden, who was able to mercifully stop the bleeding.  They have now lost 10 of their last 11 games and have fallen 6 games off of the lead.  Once a top team in contention, the B Mets have fallen apart thanks to injuries and poor pitching.  It got so bad that Marhall Hubbard, the team's DH was called upon for relief duty in a 14-2 loss to New Britain and unfortunately may have pitched the best out of anyone that day going 2 innings while giving up 1 run.  I would like to say it's due to new players joining the team and still getting adjusted to the better competition, but they have actually played better and got their only win of the week since the new guys joined.  All four players (the aforementioned Chris Schwinden, relief pitchers, Manny Alvarez and Emary Frederick, and 1B Eric Campbell) have contributed since joining Binghamton and will hopefully put the team on the right track as they begin to feel comfortable in their first full week with the team going forward.

Zach Lutz and Reese Havens saw very limited at bats (9 between the two) for the week.  I'm not sure if it was based off of minor injuries that are not being discussed or just trying to switch up the lineup, but their bats are sorely being missed.  The entire team only had 13 RBis for the week.  It was just ugly to watch.  Nieuwenhuis and Luis Hernandez played respectably, each batting over .300 for the week, but that was really it.  Mike Nickeas continues to play well behind the plate, with four more hits including a double two runs batted in.  The pitching, ahhh the pitching, was beyond brutal.  Brad Holt pitched 2 2/3 of an inning and gave up 7 earned runs on 8 hits including 4 walks.  I'm starting to get worried here.  Holt who is listed as the Met's second best pitching prospect by many, has pitched awful since returning from his injury.  For the year he now has a 13.20 ERA and an (0-4) record on the year.  I'd expect bigger things at this point from Holt in double A.  I think he might be spending another year there at least unless he is able to turn things around soon.  We may even see him demoted to St. Lucie.  The list goes on and on with poor outings.  Kunz, Shaw, Everts, even Mike Antonini had a bad start.  None of the 4 pitchers mentioned had lower than a 6.76 ERA this week.  That's just not going to cut it.  Let's just blow it off as a bad week (make that 2 bad weeks) and hope that Monday, the winds change.

MVP of the Week:  Nieuwenhuis and Luis Hernandez get co-MVPs of the week as for the second straight week, no one played well enough to deserve it.  At least these two were able to put some hits on the board.

Pitcher of the Week:  Fresh off of his arrival from St. Lucie, Chris Schwinden was thrown right into the mix and delivered the best pitching performance of the week.  Schwinden went 6 innings, allowing 6 hits while giving up one run in a 3-1 victory over the Rock Cats.  He didn't walk a batter on the night and added 5 K's as well.  Not extravagent, but enough to get the win on a new team, that desperately needed one.

Week in Preview:  Binghamton returns home for their longest homestand of the year with 4 games against the Richmond Flying Squirrels (starting monday night) and ending with 4 games against the Akron Aeros.  They could use a nice 6-2 record in the worst way.

ST. LUCIE METS:
(High A,  Florida State League)

RECORD:  Overall – (20-23) 4th place in the FSL South Div (6 games back) — (Week 7) – (2-5)

BATTING RANK:   2nd out of 12 teams (.267) – down .004

PITCHING RANK:  12th out of 12 teams (4.44) – down 0.40

It seems the further south down the east coast we travel, the more trouble seems to be brewing, such is the case down in St. Lucie, Florida.  All of the work the Lucie Mets did last week, climbing that ladder back up the FSL standings, took a hit this week.  It's as if something was gradually peeling each of St. Lucie's finger tips of the rungs and they eventually fell back to earth as well as 6 games back of first place.  It's tough to place blame on the team though as they were essentially dissected by Buffalo and Binghamton as they lost eight players to promotions.  But this is the life of low A baseball teams.  Throughout the course of the year,  the best players on the team are swept away as major and minor league call ups go on, but this also opens the door for fresh faces to shine in the lineup which in itself is exciting to see.  Outfielder, Joey August made his debut this week and played very well going 5 for 12 (.417) with a run, a double and 2 RBIs.  Cody Holliday, who last played in the Gulf Coast League last summer, contributed right away scoring a run while going 1 for 4.  Whether these two will play prominent roles with the team will only be told with time.  I'm sure this will not be the last crop of youngsters we see moving to Lucie.

The biggest addition to the lineup was not a newcomer however, it was the return of Daniel Murphy that had everyone talking down in Florida.  Although he only saw 11 at bats prior to his Buffalo promotion, Murph got 8 hits (.727) with a double, 2 runs, a homerun and 6 RBI.  With the emergence of Ike Davis as the everyday first baseman, Murph will have to increase his versatility to make his way back to New York.  If he keeps hitting at this rate, it'll be tough keeping him down.  Great start to the season from Danny boy.  The rest of the team offensively was pretty sub par this week.  First baseman, Stefan Welch continues to impress with another homerun and 5 RBIs.  He batted a modest .286 for the week but has now raised his average up to .318 on the year.  The pitching this week, was really not very good, but some how they were able to drop their team ERA down .40 points to 4.44.  I guess that just shows how poorly they had been pitching as a team early in the season.  Marcos Tabata made his Mets debut but did not fair very well at all giving up 4 earned runs over in 4 1/3 innings.  One nice touch was the return of Jeurys Familia to the lineup after missing three weeks due to an injury.  In 5 innings, Familia struck out 5 batters and gave up only 1 earned run.  A nice return and something we hope to see him build on.

MVP of the Week:  MVP of the week goes to Richard Lucas who has really struggled to begin the season.  Lucas belted 2 homeruns and drove in 7 runs batting .333 for the week.  He also scored 4 runs but still struck out 10 times which is something the coaches are still concerned over.

Pitcher of the Week:  Robert Carson, who started the year 0-3 with an ERA somewhere in the snowman direction, has really turned it on of late.  He has now won his last 3 starts to even his record, including both of St. Lucie's wins this week.  In 11 innings, Carson gave up 4 runs while striking out 11.  Not unbelievable, but when the team wins only 2 games during the week and you get both wins, thats enough for me.

Week in Preview:  The Mets are at the tail end of an 11 game road trip.  Monday night will be the first of three against the Jupiter Hammerheads.  They then return home for the start of and eight game home stand with 4 games against the Clearwater Threshers.  That's like a hammerhead or something.

SAVANNAH SAND GNATS: 
(Low A, South Atlantic League)

RECORD:  Overall – (26-18) 2nd in the South SAL div (2.5 games back). — (Week 7) – (2-5)

BATTING RANK:  12th out of 14 teams (.238 Team BA)  down .013

PITCHING RANK:   1st out of 14 teams (2.49 Team ERA) up 0.07

Well after getting swept in a four game series against the now first place Augusta Green Jackets, Savannah rebounded nicely splitting a four game series in Charleston, South Carolina.  Overall it wasn't a good week, yet still the Gnats have managed to stay within 2.5 games of first place after finishing a brutal 8-game road trip.  They now have a .500 record at 12-12 on the road for the year, certainly nothing to be ashamed of.  One alarming note has been their recent drop in batting average as a team.  Lagares and Flores continue to hit well, but overall the team has dropped down to .238 for the season.  The trend continued this week and even the mighty struggled.  Six different players in the regular starting lineup batted below .150 for the week and that includes Mr. Wilmer.  Flores was 4 for 28 with only 2 RBIs.  He does still lead the team however in every major offensive category, so it's nothing to get worried about.  What is a bit worrisome is the continued bad play from 3B prospect Jeffrey Marte, who many believe is a top 15 even top 10 prospect in the organization.  Marte was 3 for 25 with 7 strikeouts.  When your 3-4 hitters go a combined 7-53, you're bound to have a rough week.

Catcher, Kai Grounauer continues to improve, batting .313 for the week with 2 RBIs and has now raised his average to .268 after a  slow start.  The one homerun of the week was hit by centerfielder, Rafael Fernandez which was his first of the year.  Even after winning only 2 games out of 7 for the week, the pitchers were still able to keep their team ERA tops in the SALLY, raising it only 0.07 points.  The Gnats received some excellent relief appearances from a number of different players.  Erick Turgeon, Collin McHugh and Brandon Sage combined for 10 innings or 2 run ball in support of the starting rotation.  Over that time, they struck out 10 batters and did not allow a walk.  The usual suspect, Cohoon and Fuller pitched well this week, but neither of the two were able to get a victory.  Armando Rodriguez had his toughest outing of the year, lasting only 2 innings while giving up 5 hits and 4 runs.

MVP of the Week:  Leadoff man, Pedro Zapata gets top billing this week.  Although he only hit .250 for the week, he scored six runs, with a double and two triples.  He also led the team with 5 runs batted in.

Pitcher of the Week:  Far and away the top pitcher for the Gnats this week was right handed starter, Brandon Moore.  Moore only recorded in 9 innings in two starts, although his second game had a 2 hour rain delay after the completion of the 2nd inning and he was forced from the game.  In his first start of the week, Moore wend seven innings, giving up four hits and zero earned runs.  He fanned a season high 12 batters and didn't walk a soul.

Week in Preview:  The Sandies finally return home on Monday night for a four game series against the Kannapolis Intimidators.  They'll then hit the road again for four games against the Rome Braves.

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HOJO

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