Mack Attack: July 3, 2008

By John Mackin Ade
Posted Thursday, July 3, 2008

Phils: 39 losses - Marlins: 40 – Mets: 43 - Braves: 45 – Nats: 52

In 30 day games, Mets slugger Carlos Delgado was batting .293 with a .349 on-base percentage and .629 slugging percentage. At night, in 50 games, he was hitting .187 with a .282 OBP and .286 SLG. -- Newsday

Rotoworld’s take on:

Tony Armas Jr. picked up a win in his first start of the season for the Mets on Tuesday night, yielding four runs on eight hits over six innings of work in a 7-4 victory over the Cardinals. Armas Jr. was pitching pretty well in Triple-A, but he hasn't been an effective major-league pitcher in several years. To his credit, he kept the ball in the zone tonight, throwing twice as many strikes as balls and issuing only one walk. He got the win tonight thanks to a strong night from the Mets offense, which scored seven times in the first six innings.

According to Ken Rosenthal:

At least three teams have inquired on the Rangers' Vicente Padilla: the Mets, Yankees, and Brewers

A Look Back at the Trades:

12/5/05 - Traded:
OF Dante Brinkley:
Still in AAA - .228 BA in 2008
RHP Gaby Hernandez:
Still in AAA – 2-5, 5.32 in 2008
Acquired:

C Paul Lo Duca:
Played 2 years for the Mets (2006/07)
Batted .318 in 2006

Conclusion: so far, the Mets are the winner of this trade

So, did the current Mets come from the Mets system:

A good indication of this would be to look at the rosters of the 4 St. Lucie teams since 1996 that have won the divisional championship. You have to figure they would generate the best players, right? And, every Met player goes through Lucy, so that’s a good team to use in this case.

First team: 1996

22 every day players and 26 pitchers, totaling 46 (not counting rehab assignments).

Only 12 out of the 46 made it to the Bigs.

They were:

Current Mets: - None

Big Time Players: - None

Marginal Pros:

C Vance Wilson - 8 year pro career
SS Guillermo Mota - yeah, the relief pitcher
OF Preston Wilson - 2 great years
OF Jay Payton - 11 year MLB career
RP Scott Sauerbach - 3.82 ERA in 7 yr MLB career
P Jesus Sanchez - 7 bad MLB seasons

Cups of Coffee:

1B Jarrod Patterson - 63 major league at bats
OF Kevin Flora - 2nd rounder – 84 ML at bats
P Dan Murray - 5.76 ERA in 15 MLB games
P Ramon Tatis - 2 bad MLB seasons
P Rafael Rouge - 3 cups with Milwaukee
P Shannon Withem - pitched 1 game for Toronto

Baseball America recapped this week’s minor league transactions:

Draft picks signed: LHP Brian Valenzuela (10), 1B Ike Davis (1)

Released: RHP Robert Paulk, 2B Jose Valentin

Recalled: RHP Carlos Muniz

Optioned to Triple-A: C Robinson Cancel

Outrighted off 40-man roster: RHP Claudio Vargas

Placed on 7-day DL: RHP Junior Guerra, OF Brian Burgamy

Placed on 60-day DL: RHP Thomas Paredes

Reinstated from DL: OF Brahiam Maldonado

B-Mets:

The Eastern League announced today that Binghamton Mets position players Mike Carp and Nick Evans and pitchers Salvador Aguilar and Bobby Parnell have been chosen to represent the Northern Division in the Eastern League All Star Game. The game will be played Wednesday, July 16th at Merchantsauto.com Stadium, home of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

Carp returned to Binghamton this season after an injury-shortened 2007 and has been an anchor in the middle of the B-Mets’ order. The 22-year-old is 10th in the EL with a .320 average and his 90 hits put him in a tie for third. Carp is also second on the club in both homers (10) and RBIs (47). The first-baseman/leftfielder had a 14-game hit streak in April and has also put together three four-hit games.

A Double-A rookie, Evans has been with the B-Mets all season, save for a two-week stint with the New York Mets. Evans, 22, made headlines when he hit three doubles in his Major League debut May 24th at Colorado and he has dazzled fans in Binghamton with his steady play. The first-baseman/leftfielder is third in the EL in slugging (.558), tied for second in triples (7) and tied for fifth in homers (13), all while maintaining a .309 batting average.

After beginning the season in the bullpen, Aguilar was moved into the rotation after a month, where he has been nothing short of spectacular. The righthander has won eight of his 10 starts, and his nine wins put him in a tie for the EL lead. Aguilar has just one loss and a 2.82 ERA, which is good for sixth in the circuit and nearly three runs lower than his ERA with the B-Mets in ’07.

After a rough April, in which he didn’t win a game and posted a 7.15 ERA, Parnell has gotten better as the weather has warmed. The righthander has a 3.04 ERA since the calendar turned to May, giving him a 4.04 mark for the season. Parnell has won his last three starts, pushing his record to 8-4 and putting him in a tie for third in victories among EL hurlers. The 23-year-old Parnell returned to Binghamton this season after making 17 starts for the B-Mets in 2007.

To get an idea of how Jonathon Niese is progressing as a pitcher, look no further than his start for the Double-A Binghamton Mets on June 27. The 21-year-old left-hander had a shaky start, giving up four runs in the first four innings, and received virtually nothing in run support. But he went the distance in a losing effort, striking out four batters in nine innings and throwing fewer than 100 pitches. "Early in the game, he wasn't sharp with his command," said Binghamton Mets pitching coach Ricky Bones. "As the game went on, he made some adjustments. He was attacking the zone and going after hitters. He was using the selection much better. He's a smart kid, and he knows the adjustments he needs to make."

It appears the 6-foot-4, 215-pound southpaw -- considered the Mets' top starting prospect -- figured out the necessary adjustments after a not-so-stellar May, during which he was 2-2 with a 5.10 ERA. In the five starts leading up to his June 27 appearance in Binghamton, he went 2-0 with a 1.55 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 29 innings. Instead of losing confidence and becoming tentative with his delivery, he did the opposite.

The Mets picked Niese in the seventh round of the 2005 draft, giving the high school standout a $175,000 signing bonus. After becoming the first player to win back-to-back Ohio High School Baseball Player of the Year awards, Niese played rookie ball in 2005 and then Class A for the next two seasons. He spent much of 2006 in Hagerstown, where he and Fernando Martinez -- his current teammate and a player considered by Baseball America to be the Mets' overall top prospect --- shared the Sterling Award given to the team's most valuable player. In 2007, Niese posted a record of 11-7 and a 4.29 ERA in 27 starts with the St. Lucie Mets. He was third in the Florida State League in wins and complete games (2). Now, he's making the adjustment to Double-A ball. More than halfway into this season, he has a record of 5-5 with a 3.14 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 91 innings.

"It's very different," he said. "The guys are a lot more patient. They hit the mistakes much more often than in A ball. That's the big difference."
Scouting opinions say that Niese shows a good deal of promise but is not quite ready for prime time. The consensus, according to a June 22 report in the New York Post, is that he needs more innings in the Minors next year. – Bmets.com

Gnats:

Jose Carrero has joined the Gnats as the 1st Base Coach. He was formerly a player for the Montreal Expos organization.

K-Port:

Former Kingsport manager Nick Levya, who left last week to join the coaching staff of Cito Gaston’s Blue Jays, said that he had “seen stars come and go in this business…and there’s no question about Wilmer Flores’ ability…His study of the game is beyond his years. He watches pitches and breaks down tendencies.”

GCL Mets:

Former Met Bobby Malek has joined the GCL Mets as the 1st Base Coach.

Ex-Mets:

Deolis Guerra had about 100 pitches to work with on Tuesday, and he made each and every one count. Guerra tossed his first career shutout, a three-hitter, to lead the Fort Myers Miracle past the visiting Tampa Yankees on Tuesday, 4-0. One of the prized pitching prospects acquired by Minnesota in the Johan Santana trade, Guerra (8-4) struck out four and walked three in the longest outing of his career. The 19-year-old was in control all night and retired 19 consecutive batters after a first-inning single by James Cooper. Andres Perez's one-out single in the seventh snapped the streak. Guerra, an All-Star Futures Game selection last summer, has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 12 of his 15 starts this season – MiLB.com