New York Mets

Jack Leathersich is mowing down hitters this year. Photo courtesy of MMO contributor Gordon Donovan Last Night’s Quick Scores Las Vegas dropped to Omaha 4-3. Binghamton dropped Portland, 8-5. St. Lucie lost to Bradenton, 8-1. Savannah topped Augusta, 12-10.  Prospect Pipeline If you haven’t heard the news, Rafael Montero was brought up to Triple-A, and will be making a spot start with Las Vegas this week. With Zack Wheeler on the seven day DL, and Collin McHugh joining the Mets in Queens, they were short on arms. This is said to be a spot start, but we’ll see. Everyone will be watching to see how Montero does. Cesar Puello continues to hammer the ball. After three more hits in last night’s game, he has brought his season average up to .305. He also ranks second on Binghamton, with nine stolen bases this season (Alonzo Harris, 13). Jack Leathersich only had one strikeout last night in one inning (sarcasm). He now has 34 strikeouts on the year, which is more than a couple of starters, and only one less than Logan Verrett on the year. He has accumulated those 34 strikeouts in 18.2 innings pitched…ridiculous. Joe Bonfe was ripping last night. He went 4-for-4 at the plate and brought his season average up to .320. Playing in only his third game this season, Savannah catcher Nelfi Zapata homered and drove in five runs…wow. Andrew Brown, who appeared to be heading back to Flushing to play first base, had to leave yesterday’s game with an apparent oblique injury. Wilmer Flores homered last night for Las Vegas, and now has hit three out of his four home runs over the past ten games. Looks like the young infileder is starting to heat up a little bit. Stat Lines of the Day Cesar Puello: 3-for-5, 2 R, 1 SB Joe Bonfe: 4-for-4, 1 2B, 3 RBI, 2 R, 1 SB Nelfi Zapata: 2-for-3, 1 HR, 2 BB, 5 RBI, 2 R Jeff Reynolds: 4-for-4, 1 2B, 1 BB, 2 RBI, 1 R Transactions Rafael Montero to Las Vegas. Tweet of the Day  First rehab appearance of the season today! Been a long road. So glad to finally be back in a game today and get the season underway — John Mincone (@Jmincone) May 20, 2013

Rather odd Sunday afternoon on the farm, as the Lucies struggled on the mound, the Gnats won a shootout, and some rarely heard names were the stars on offense.  Let’s have a look: Omaha 4, Las Vegas 3 Chris Schwinden gave up 2 runs in 4 innings and then got bounced.  Armando Rodriguez ends up wit the loss, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits in 2 innings of work.  Wilmer Flores was 1 for 4 with his 4th homer of the season.  Zach Lutz was 2 for 4.  Andrew Brown left the game with an oblique strain after starting to get work at first base.  Josh Satin has played a lot of first base for Vegas this year; Eric Campbell could be a sleeper, as he plays all four corner positions and is hitting .311/.416/.541 this year. Binghamton 8, Portland 5 Cory Mazzoni got the win, but allowed 5 runs on 10 hits in 6.1 innings, striking out 4 and walking 1.  Jack Leathersich picked up his second save of the season.  The offense bailed out Mazzoni, wit Joe Bonfe getting 4 hits and 3 RBI’s.  Cesar Puello was 3 for 5 with his 9th stolen base of the year.  Danny Muno and Cory Vaughn had 2 hits each.  Muno and Darrell Ceciliani doubled. Bradenton 8, St. Lucie 1 Hansel Robles had a brief day, giving up 4 runs in 4 innings, on 4 hits and 3 walks with 6 strikeouts.  Wanel Mesa gave up 4 more runs.  Matt Reynolds was 2 for 3 with a double and a walk.  Dustin Lawley also doubled, but the Lucies managed just 5 hits. Savannah 12, Augusta 10 This game was quite the aberration with 22 total runs being scored.  Luis Cessa gave up 6 runs on 11 hits in 5 innings of work.  Tyler Vanderheiden gave up 1 run in 2 innings, but ended up with the win.  Beck Wheeler earned his 3rd save of the season with a scoreless 9th inning.  Nelfi Zapata was 2 for 3 with a homer and 5 RBI’s in his first appearance of the season.  Jeff Reynolds was 4 for 4 with a double and 2 RBI’s.  Eudy Pina doubled and drove in 3 runs.  Maikis De La Cruz, Cole Frenzel, and Stefan Sabol all had 2 hits.  This was all done without Kevin Plawecki and with Jayce Boyd going 1 for 6 with 2 strikeouts.

Yes, I’m about a week late on this, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts regarding the Terry Collins – Jordany Valdespin – hit by pitch story in St. Louis last Tuesday. If you were visiting MetsToday in the spring, you may or may not remember a cautionary post comparing Jordany Valdespin to previous Mets problem children. It was in reaction to a story in NJ.com by Jorge Castillo about Valdespin’s “complicated clubhouse presence.” This is what I typed: … to see a story like this come out so early in a player’s career, before he’s really done anything, and knowing he’s swimming in the often-turbulent fish bowl of New York, playing for a team that is likely going to be less interesting on the field as the season progresses … well, it’s not what I’d say is an ideal recipe for the young man. This story came out mainly because there isn’t much else to talk about in Port St. Lucie right now — what happens in late July, if/when the Mets are out of contention, and again the beat writers are searching for stories and headlines? Valdespin might be the lightning rod, and — whether deserved or not — the result could be a public perception that becomes damaging to both the player and the organization. Honestly, I thought if ‘spin was going to be at the center of a public storm, it would happen later in the summer — certainly not in mid-May. So here’s my question: do you think this most recent issue of Valdespin-as-problem-child going public has more to do with Valdespin, with the Mets’ losing record, or Terry Collins? Some suggest Collins is a ticking time bomb, about to explode in a way similarly to every other managerial job he’s had. Some say the Mets players and manager simply don’t appreciate Valdespin’s flair for the game. What I wonder is how much about the Valdespin situation are we NOT hearing about? Is this just the tip of the iceberg? It might be, considering how infrequently ‘spin gets into the lineup. I also wonder — is the Collins / Valdespin bomb going to go off just in time for the All-Star Game? Will the Mets considering jettisoning one or both of the two men prior to July, to avoid marring what may be the singular celebration at Citi Field in 2013? Fire away in the comments.

A quick down and dirty video.  Contains scenes not seen on State Run Media.The post Video slideshow from Mets fans trip to Wrigley appeared first on The Mets Police.Related posts:My Mets Trip to WrigleyHey Mets fans, take the train to Wrigley this weekendVideo from the 4/20/13 Mets Game

It was a short and ineffective outing for Chris Schwinden, resulting in a long Sunday for the Las Vegas 51s as they went on to fall to the Omaha Storm Chasers by a final score of 4-3. Schwinden took the mound looking to bounce back from his last outing in which he allowed five runs in just five frames. Sunday against Omaha, the 26-year old only last four innings allowing two runs on three hits while walking one and punching out five. He allowed one run to cross in the third on a Paulo Orlando RBI single to right that scored Brett Hayes who led off the inning with a ground-rule double. Then in the fourth, Max Ramirez led things off with a solo shot to right field to tie things up at two. Schwinden’s numbers on the day weren’t all that bad, only the fact that he lasted merely four innings makes this outing one to forget. On the offensive side of the diamond, the 51s started off swinging the bat well, however once they fell behind, their bats were as cold as ice. In the top of the third, Landon Powell led off with a two-bagger and two straight knocks from Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Josh Satin drove him in with the first run of the ballgame. Later on in the inning, Andrew Brown brought home Nieuwenhuis on a fly ball to right fielder Anthony Seratelli and handed Vegas a 2-0 lead. Then in the fifth, with the game tied at two a piece, WIlmer Flores stepped up with two outs and delivered a solo shot to right center to give the 51s a slim, and unfortunately short lived lead. After Justin Hampson pitched a scoreless fifth,  Armando Rodriguez came on in relief and had much less success. After walking the first batter to face him in Christian Colon, Rodriguez retired the next two batters before melting down. Giving up a double to Xavier Nady and a knock to Anthony Seratelli, Rodriguez surrendered two runs and putting Omaha in the driver’s seat for good. With the loss, the 51s fell to 20-21 on the year, now under .500. Key Stats Zach Lutz 2-for-4 Wilmer Flores 1-for-4 HR, 3K’s Josh Satin 1-for-3 BB, RBI Brian Bixler 1-for-3 2B

Mets 4 Cubs 3 Mets win the rubber match to pass their sweet sixteen and gain win number seventeen at the quarter point of the season. Mets Game Notes A quarter of the season gone and the Mets have 17 wins. So, they’re on pace to win about 68 games. And they’ve already been through the easiest part of their schedule. Oh boy … long summer ahead. Dillon Gee was again not great. His performance was again not acceptable. He hurled five frames and allowed three runs and nine baserunners. His ERA is now above six. His fastball was getting too much plate and elevated at a level too high. He tried very hard to get the curveball going, but couldn’t throw it for a strike — and left it up hanging hhigh far too often. His change-up was pretty decent in terms of location and movement, but it was thrown at 85 MPH, which isn’t much of a difference in velocity from his 88-90 MPH fastball. Or maybe that WAS his fastball? Only Gee and catcher Anthony Recker know for sure, though, I did see the radar gun light up at 90 and 91 on occasion. Gee’s slider was even slower than his change-up, at around 83-84 MPH. So in effect, the slider was more of a change-up than his change-up. I don’t know how a pitcher can be successful with that menagerie. Travis Wood is an example of why I am profusely anti-DH. While most pitchers are not very good hitters, it doesn’t mean they have to be completely ineffectual offensively, and further, it is very possible to have good-hitting pitchers — and when there IS a good-hitting pitcher, it changes the landscape of the game. To me, having that variable in place is much more interesting than extending the career of an old, one-dimensional slugger — or creating a career for a hitter who can’t play a defensive position. Baseball, like life, has its flaws, and managing those flaws as well as being surprised by unlikely events is part of what makes the game so interesting and enjoyable. I’m wondering if Daniel Murphy is Keith Hernandez‘s illegitimate son, because in Keith’s eyes, Murphy can do no wrong — and when he does wrong, Keith excuses it with stupid comments like, “but I like the aggressiveness!” Yes, it was Murphy’s homerun that won the game for the Mets. But his persistent stupidity on the basepaths is maddening, and in the long run, detrimental to the goal of winning. In the top of the third, with one out, Murphy hit a comebacker to Wood, who initiated a rundown that retired Juan Lagares. Murphy ran wildly into second base and barely made it safely after Lagares was put out — and I think the ump might have missed the call. Though Murphy was safe, the ends do not necessarily justify the means — it was a bad decision by Murphy due to the risk. He does this all the time — he makes baserunning decisions thinking he has Jose Reyes-like speed rather than the reality, and that’s a problem. There’s nothing wrong with being aggressive, but a player has to know his strengths as well as his limitations, and know how to leverage both. In the end it didn’t matter, because Murphy was safe and it made no difference to the final score. But it’s all about the process, and the process was flawed. Murphy blasted his solo homer after I wrote at length about his waving at the ball with half-swings. So, yes, the post-game dinner for me was crow. But I still don’t like how he looks at the plate, despite his current hot streak and the dinger. Speaking of homeruns, Juan Lagares also hit one, as well as a double. Does that mean he’ll get more starts, or only against LHPs? Or is it a bad idea to take at-bats away from the immortal Rick Ankiel? (For the record, Ankiel has always been a favorite of mine — but it doesn’t cloud my objectivity in terms of what the Mets should be doing with their young players.) The Mets might just have something with Bobby Par

The Texas Rangers put second baseman Ian Kinsler on the 15-day disabled list on Sunday because of bruised ribs. View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – New York Mets News

Don’t look now, but your woebegone New York Mets are winners of three of four. They’re hot! My recent advice stands: Find something else to do with your summer, with the possible exception of every fifth day, and let the Christmas carolers be a reminder to check on the team’s financial condition. That, more than anything else, will determine whether you should pay attention in 2014 or wait for new ownership. But the fact that you’re reading this suggests you aren’t any better at taking advice than I am at practicing what I preach, so there we were at 2:20 p.m., a time that will always suggest “Wrigley Field matinee.” Which is a thing to be appreciated even in the worst of seasons. The Mets fell behind early, thanks to Dillon Gee surrendering a titanic shot to opposing pitcher Travis Wood, which seems more pathetic than it was — I’m not familiar with Wood but he looks doggone Hamptonesque up there. They fell behind, but they kept the snowball from turning into an avalanche leaving behind nothing but scattered orange and blue gear and pissy calls to the FAN. David Wright got them within one on a little bloop, they fell back again when Ryan Sweeney homered and thus avoided being called out at third while actually being safe, but in the seventh Juan Lagares got a 2-2 curveball that hung right over the middle of the plate. Wood gazed at the unrecallable pitch in horror for a split-second before Lagares mashed it into the back of the left-field bleachers for his first big-league home run. (Lagares would get the ball back when a bleacher inhabitant heaved it back onto the field, a tradition that’s fine at Wrigley and annoying everywhere else.) An inning later Daniel Murphy — who’d hallooed the Cubs batboy into handing over his teammate’s dinger — golfed a Kyuji Fujikawa fastball to the back of the right-field bleachers for an honest-to-goodness Mets lead, leaving Bobby Parnell to record a spotless ninth and sending the Mets home with a 3-and-4 road trip when 0-and-7 would have surprised none of us. A win in the daytime at Wrigley is always a satisfying thing, but the reason for this post’s title is that the clout that mattered came from Lagares. He’s 24, one of those maybe-prospects whose weaknesses get discussed as much as his strengths. Lagares, it’s generally agreed, shouldn’t be in the big leagues yet — he’s been rushed. Yet when the Mets acquired Rick Ankiel, they compounded the weirdness of that acquisition by keeping Lagares around as half of a platoon instead of sending him back and taking a peek at the barely glimpsed Andrew Brown. Ankiel’s story is one to admire, yes, but all of that was long ago, and what you get now is a soon-to-be 34-year-old outfielder who struck out 35 times in 62 at-bats with the Astros, who decided even they could do better than that. Lagares is raw, but even as he’s struggled you’ve been able to see that sweet swing and the power potential. This is a platoon between “Maybe” and “Why?” — Lagares has a slim to moderate chance to be something, where Ankiel has an excellent chance at making us think more fondly of Jeff Francoeur. Given that the Mets aren’t going anywhere near the playoffs this year, I’d sure rather watch “Maybe” than “Why?” All of our hopes for this club are bets on some future that isn’t slated to arrive until 2014 or 2015 … if it arrives at all. The uncertainty is corrosive and infuriating, but we’re stuck with it. Since we are, it would be a small mercy to see the Mets win or lose with guys who might be a part of that future, instead of worn-out vets whose role in the present is baffling enough.

The strongest argument I believe anyone has is that Collins has failed to change the culture — that there still are too many Mets who feel like they have accomplished something when they haven’t, or that the roster still has no collective idea what it takes to put aside individualism and alibis and prioritize winning on a daily basis. But this might be more of a problem from the top of the hierarchy down than someone in middle management, like Collins, could impact.via Mets’ roster of rubbish makes it impossible to evaluate Collins – NYPOST.com.The post Mets’ roster of rubbish makes it impossible to evaluate Collins – NYPOST.com appeared first on The Mets Police.Related posts:Terry Watch: Mike Vaccaro: Terry Collins may not be right man for Mets, but problems not his fault – NYPOST.comTerry Watch: Mets have issues, but selfless, patient Collins isn’t one of them – CBSSports.comTerry Watch Watch: Not Right How Mets Are Judging Terry Collins | The John Delcos New York Mets Report

Despite conspiracy theory claims from one of the Mets beat writers, Rafael Montero's stay in Triple-A Las Vegas will be a short one. After Collin McHugh's promotion to the Mets' roster earlier this week, the Las Vegas team needed a starter for Monday. For this turn in the rotation, that will go to Rafael Montero. The 22-year-old right-hander has been a rising star in the Mets' system and has flourished at Double-A Binghamton this season, recording a 3.47 ERA in 46.2 innings while striking out 54 and only walking six. According to Marc Carig of Newsday, Montero will make one start in Las Vegas before heading back to Binghamton. It's unclear who will replace McHugh after Montero gets sent back down. There was some speculation that Montero's stay in Vegas would be longer after Andrew Brown was placed on the disabled list, but that did not turn out to be the case.