The Mack Attack - 5-2-08

By John Mackin Ade
Posted Friday, May 2, 2008

May 2, 2008

Mets News

Darryl Strawberry is writing a memoir of his achievements as a baseball superstar, a career that was often clouded by brushes with the law and his struggles with substance abuse and cancer. "Straw" will be published in 2009. The 46-year Strawberry was an eight-time All-Star who play in the World Series with both the New York Mets and New York Yankees. He had a career 335 home runs in 17 seasons. "Straw" will give details of the battles Strawberry faced in his battle with colon cancer and spotlight both his religious awakening and his marriage to the love of his life. -- Trans World News

New Mets:

The Mets sighed OF/1B Valentino Pascucci and assigned him to New Orleans.

Valentino Martin Pascucci OF/1B 6-6 235 11-17-78 University of Oklahoma

Pascucci was originally drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 11th round of the `996 draft, but he decided to attend college instead. He was drafted again, by the Montreal Expos, in the 15th round of the 1999 draft, who he signed with.

He played 6 years in the Montreal organization, rising to the parent club in 2004 (.177 in 62 at bats). Pascucci then played the 2006 season in Japan for Chiba Lotte (.222 in 203 at bats) and signed with Florida in 2007 (.284/.389/.577 in 447 at bats for AAA-Albuquerque – 34 HRs, 96 RBIs).

Mets Contracts

Adam Bostick lhp - 1 year (2008) - re-signed 3/4/08 - 1 year (2007), re-signed 3/07 - 1 year/$0.327M (2006), re-signed 2/06 - contract purchased 11/05 - drafted 2001 (6-182) - ML service: 0.000

B-Mets

Nick Evans had two hits and scored three times, but the New Britain Rock Cats came from behind to beat the Binghamton Mets 7-4 at NYSEG Stadium Thursday, sweeping the three-game series. The B-Mets have lost six in a row.

New Britain (13-12) went ahead in the first when Luke Hughes led off with a triple and scored on a Jose Sanchez wild pitch. However, the B-Mets (10-17) rallied to tie in the second. Evans hit a leadoff triple off Ryan Mullins before Caleb Stewart’s sacrifice fly brought him in. Evans scored the go-ahead run in the fourth, when he singled off Mullins (2-2), moved to second on Mike Carp’s base hit and scored on a ground ball through the left side by Ambiorix Concepcion for a 2-1 B-Mets lead.

The Rock Cats chased Sanchez (2-2) from the game in the fifth, with Brock Peterson driving in a run with a fielder’s choice before Matt Moses and Felix Molina followed with RBI doubles for a 4-2 advantage. Dustin Martin’s RBI single and a Moses double-play groundout tallied two more for New Britain in the sixth, increasing their lead to 6-2.

Binghamton rallied to pull closer in the sixth. Mullins departed after walking Evans, Stewart and Concepcion to load the bases. Reliever Jason Miller then issued a free pass to Jose Coronado, forcing in Evans. Rafael Arroyo followed with a sacrifice fly, bringing in Stewart and cutting New Britain’s lead to 6-4. Hughes led off the eighth with a homer for the game’s final run. Armando Gabino tossed a 1-2-3 ninth for New Britain, earning his first save in as many chances.

John Sickels on Mike Carp:

Carp isn't much of a fielder, but if his bat continues to develop at this pace he can be as starting first baseman in the majors. If I were the Mets, I'd leave him in Double-A until the end of June, then promote him to Triple-A on his birthday (June 30th) and see how he handles the International League. I have no idea how the Mets plan on fitting him into the lineup in the long run, but grade-wise I'm moving him back up to Grade C+ right now, and if he is still hitting like this on June 30th I will make that a B- or perhaps a straight B.

 

Ex-Mets Dustin Martin (.347) and Drew Butera (.161) play this week against the B-Mets.

 

Roster changes:

OF Josh Petersen assigned to High-A St. Lucie.

Added OF Caleb Stewart from AAA New Orleans.

-Here begins the demotions that will take place in the next week or so. Peterson will get plenty of play at 3B, while Stewart is needed in the anemic outfield; however, both these moves are handwriting on the way for these 2 ex-almost prospects.

Lucy:

Lucy has another of those rare nights when the bats woke up. They beat Daytona 7-3, pounding out 12 hits, that included 1B Josh Thole’s 2nd HR of the year, and multiple hit games from newly activated 3B Josh Peterson, Thole, and 3 hits for Ezequiel Carrera.

The teenage Carrera has risen his BA to .272 and is starting to show those prospect skeptics that this kid in the real deal.

SP Dylan Owen (5 IP, 2 ER, 2-3) did okay, but Tim Stonach put in the hard work, throwing 3 scoreless relief innings.

 

Gnats:

The Sand Gnats had the tying run on second base in the ninth before Moises Robles induced a pair of groundouts to end the ballgame as the Hickory Crawdads hung on for a 6-5 win before 2,314 at Historic Grayson Stadium on Thursday night.

Trailing 5-1 in the sixth, the Gnats scored four times to tie it. Hickory countered with a run in the eighth on a bloop single from Jose de los Santos to give the Crawdads a 6-5 lead.

 

Robles entered in the ninth and surrendered a leadoff single to Joaquin Rodriguez. Rodriguez then took second on a sacrifice bunt from Richard Lucas. Matt Bouchard pinch-hit for Jake Eigsti and hit a slow roller to third and was called out on a very close play at first. Rodriguez took third on Bouchard’s groundout but was stranded when pinch-hitter Darren Clark grounded out to end the game.

 

Hickory took an early lead in the third when Austin McClune plated a pair with a triple to left-center. McClune scored on a single from Miles Durham to make it 3-0 Hickory.

 

In Savannah’s four-run sixth, Jordan Abruzzo provided the clutch hit: a bases-loaded doubled that scored a pair.

 

Harrison Bishop (2-0) pitched 2.0 scoreless innings of relief for the win. Josh Stinson (1-2) took the loss, allowing 1 run on 4 hits in 3.0 innings.

 

RP Wendy Rosa continued to put up numbers that rank him the top 5 relief pitchers in the organization with the lowest WHIP. Rosa through 2 more scoreless innings tonight, lowering his ERA to 1.35.

Minor League Bios

Joshua Peterson IF R R 6-4 215 1-2-84

Peterson was originally drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 24th round of the 2002 draft. He decided not to sign and later became an un-drafted free agent signed by the Mets in 2004.

In 2004, he hit for Kingsport (.253/.341/.371 in 53 games), playing both first base and third.

2005 was first spent in Brooklyn (.276/.323/.418, skipped Class A, and went straight to St. Lucie (.234/.274/.334). he also struck out 71 times in 320 at bats.

In 2007, Peterson played the entire season for St. Lucie (.277/.318/.417 in 307 at bats).

Adrian Pirela OF R R 6-0 205 12-23-88 Marazibo Zulia, Venezuela

Pirela played for the VSL Mets in 2007, hitting .051/.288/.051 in 39 at bats.

Julio Polanco P L L 6' 0" 163 11-29-1986 Dominican Republic

Polanco came out of the 2005 DSL team, where he was 3-4 with a 3.81 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 54 innings.

In 2006, he started 12 games for Kingsport, posting a 1-3 record and a 4.53 ERA. His fastball tops off at 92, plus Polanco has a very sharp tight rotation curve ball. OnDeck updated their 2006 end of the year ratings for the Appalachian League and ranked Polanco as the 8th top starting pitcher in the league (190.35 rating) and the 33rd top overall league prospect.

2007 was a sub-par season at Savannah, going 3-8, 6.67, 1.73 in 21 games, 17 starts.

Observation: Every 5th outing Polanco looked like Johan Santana. The problem was he looked like Carlos Santana the other 4 outings. He’s young, so he may be back, but there’s a good chance he will be released this year, what with all the good, young rookie talent in the organization.

Ex-Mets:

Carlos Gomez went 3-for-4 with a double, stolen base, and 2 runs scored

Catcher Paul Lo Duca went 0 for 2 for Class A Potomac

Astros activated infielder Ty Wigginton off the 15-day disabled list.

 

This Day in Mets History:

2002 - Just missing hitting his fifth homer in the 15-4 victory over the White Sox, Mariners outfielder Mike Cameron becomes the 13th major leaguer to hit four homers in one game. The first two dingers were followed by round trippers by second baseman Bret Boone making it the first time the same two teammates have hit back-to-back homers twice in one inning.