Please note: This article was written before/during the games played on June 29th, 2013, and all statistics are through games played on June 28th.
Hello there, new people. For those who don’t know, I’m Tejesh Patel, the co-founder and writer for MetsProspectHub, where I post daily minor league reports, occasional commentary, and daily Gameday Links for every level in our system. I’ve agreed to do minor league recaps for The Daily Stache for the remainder of this season, so here goes.
For the first one, I’m going to recap the first 3 months or so, highlight some of the standout performances and the biggest disappointments, and also throw in more commentary than I do over on MPH.
We’ll start with the AAA team, the Las Vegas 51s. Managed by Wally Backman, the 51s are 41-38, 1.5 games out of first place in the Pacific Southern Division, behind the Tuscon Padres.
The good story of the first half for Vegas have to be Wilmer Flores, who is “playing” second base – how well… is a different story, reportedly it’s pretty bad. Keep in mind, though, that we’ve heard that the infield he calls home is basically like playing on a parking lot, so… there is that.
However, it’s on the offensive side where the good is happening, Wilmer is hitting .309/.345/.505/.850 in 77 games, 95 for 307, 47 runs, 25 2b, 4 3b, 9 HR, 61 RBI, 17/42 BB/K, Wilmer Flores’s .850 OPS ranks 26th in the PCL (remember, hitter’s league).
However, there is only one player ahead of him who is younger, every other person ahead of him is older, in some cases way older. What Wilmer’s doing is special. However, his walk rate is down from last year (6.92% in A+, 7.38% in AA; it’s down to 5.25% this year in AAA), and that corresponds to his K rate declining ever so slightly, as well (11.02% in A+, 10.67% in AA, up to 12.03% in AAA).
It is interesting to note that his best plate discipline numbers came in AA, so maybe he can get on track re: discipline in AAA (not that he’s still not performing very well, he is).
Other good stories in Vegas: 1B/3B/LF/RF Eric Campbell is hitting .280/.377/.452 in his first taste of AAA, with a very nice 23/38 BB/K in 168 ABs. Francisco Pena is experiencing a PCL-fueled resurgance, he’s hitting .258/.283/.515/.798 in 97 ABs, with 5 2b and 6 HR.
Andrew Brown was obliterating the PCL with a .346/.432/.660/1.093 line in 153 ABs, currently in the majors. Josh Satin (#HAIL) was hitting .305/.420/.491/.911 in 220 ABs, he’s also currently in the majors, and performing well. Off the pitching staff, Carlos Torres (6-3, 3.89 in 71.2 innings) and some guy named Zack Wheeler (4-2, 3.93 in 68.2 innings) are in the majors.
Gonzalez Germen is a sleeper guy to get time in the majors, he’s got a 5.74 era, but a 10/47 BB/K in 42.1 innings, and a 3.84 FIP.
Don’t forget to check out my own site for daily minor league recaps and minor league Gameday links, www.metsprospecthub.com.
