Mets Minor League Blog Report 9-22-08

[Toby Hyde]

            The Buffalo Bisons press conference to introduce the New York Mets will be Monday at 10:30 am.  You can watch the announcement online here.  The ceremonies are expected to include Bisons officials including GM Mike Buczkowski, Mets GM Omar Minaya and COO Jeff Wilpon.  Mike Harrington in the Buffalo News points out that this will be the beginning of a busy off-season for the Bisons:

The announcement of the affiliation is the first step in some sweeping changes at the ballpark before the start of the 2009 season. The Bisons are expected to go to new uniforms, likely some sort of blue to reflect the Mets’ primary color.

In addition, Dunn Tire’s naming rights are expiring and a new title sponsor to the 21-year-old stadium will be announced at a later date.

 

 

Also in this issue:

1. Full HWB Rosters
2. KG: Mets Two Steps Back
3. AAA Affiliation Shuffle Done

 

 

1. Full HWB Rosters

            Friday evening, Hawaii Winter Baseball released their official 2008 rosters.  The Mets will send (age in parentheses): RHP Stephen Clyne (24), LHP Roy Merritt (23), RHP Josh Stinson (20), C Francisco Pena (18), SS Ruben Tejada (19), and 2B Greg Veloz (20) to Oahu to play for the Honolulu Sharks. 

            No Reese Havens.  

            HWB mixes minor leaguers from 22 MLB teams, six Japanese teams and one Korean club.  The level of play is most comparable to advanced-A, although the Japanese pitchers, who rely more heavily on breaking balls than their American counterparts, offer a different challenge.        

            With exception of Josh Stinson, the Mets are sending older relievers (Clyne and Merritt) and younger, Latin position players. 

 

HWB Average Age By Position
P	Everyday	C	INF	OF	Overall
22.66	21.96	21.42	22.21	22.00	22.32

 

            There are 16 players out of the 114 who will not be 21 on the league's opening day and cannot legally buy beer in America.  Four of these players are Mets.  There are seven players in the league who will be teenagers on the League's Opening Day.  Two of these are Mets.  The Mets position players average 19 years of age, nearly three full years younger than the HWB average.  Mets pitchers are right in line with the average age for HWB pitchers. 

 

Mets Players Average Age in HWB
	Pitchers	Everyday	All
2007	21.00	21.00	21.00
2008	22.33	19.00	20.67

           

            In 2007, over the course of the HWB season, the Mets sent a delegation to Hawai that included: Mets SS Jose Coronado (21), SS Manny Garcia (21), C Sean McCraw (21), 3B Daniel Murphy (22) , 1B Lucas Duda (21), RHP Nick Carr (20), RHP Jose De La Torre (21), and RHP Brant Rustich (22) to Hawaii when the Mets were Waikiki Beach Boys.  The position listed next to each player was his primary position in Hawaii and his age on the 2007 HWB Opening Day. 

            The position players the Mets are sending to Hawaii in 2008 average 2 full years younger than their 2007 counterparts while the pitchers are a year and a half older.  Don’t expect to see big numbers from Mets youngsters in Hawaii this year. 

             

 

2. KG: Mets Two Steps Back

 

            At Baseball Prospectus, Kevin Goldstein took a look at two players in each organization who took Two Steps Back in 2008.  The numbers in parentheses are his pre-season ranking of each player in the Mets system. 

            The italicized commentary is mine. 

After an impressive pro debut in the Gulf Coast League, the Mets inexplicably sent 18-year-old infielder Ruben Tejada [10] to High-A St. Lucie, where he quite explicably struggled, batting just .229/.293/.296 in 131 games.

In 2007, Tejada hit .324/.434/.423 split between 32 games in the VSL and 35 games of .283/.401/.367 production in the GCL.  In some ways this isn’t fair to Tejada, because of the extremely aggressive assignment to the FSL after an abbreviated GCL season. 

Runner-up: Right-hander Bobby Parnell [10] has always had a great fastball, but his inability to develop secondary offerings caught up with him at the upper levels, as he has a 4.62 ERA between Double- and Triple-A.

I think the following chart I’ve prepared on Bobby Parnell will be instructive:

	K	BB	IP	K/9	BB/9	K/BB
A+ '07	62	22	55.3	10.08	3.58	2.82
AA '07	74	38	88.7	7.51	3.86	1.95
AA '08	91	57	128	6.41	4.02	1.60
AAA '08	23	9	20.1	10.30	4.03	2.56

3. AAA Affiliation Shuffle Done

            Saturday, the Washington Nationals signed a two year PDC with the Syracuse Chiefs.  The Nationals were pleased with the condition of the field, facilities, the proximity of Syracuse to Washington and MLB cities and the local economy which has “affordable housing” for the players. 

            The Marlins are going from Albuquerque to New Orleans.  The Dodgers are moving from Las Vegas to Albuquerque.  The Blue Jays are moving from Syracuse to Las Vegas.  The Nationals are moving from Columbus to Syracuse.

            Buffalo News writer Mike Harrington drilled the Syracuse Chiefs management online:

            The folks running the Syracuse Chiefs are pretty challenged when it comes to running a 21st-century Triple-A operation. ….

            Not a good few months for [Chiefs GM John] Simone. In April, by the way, he was widely quoted as saying, "No one wants to get stuck with the Nationals." Now, of course, he's full of praise for them. And sensitive folks in the Salt City wonder why this franchise is the laughingstock of the International League.

Yikes.  Laughingstock. 

 

 

 

Toby Hyde has written about the Mets organization since 2004.  Please pass this along to friends, family, co-workers, and Mets fans of all stripes.  To sign up for the email newsletter, click here.  Even better, please visit my site at http://www.metsminorleagueblog.com.