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 today we focus on the St. Lucie Mets, who were 37-30 in the first half, finishing 8 games out of first place behind Fort Myers, and are 4-5 in the second half. They’re managed by Ryan Ellis, and their pitching coach is the extremely well respected Phil Regan. Much of the prospect hype was centered on St. Lucie preseason, concentrated on a pair of flame throwing righties, Noah Syndergaard, and Michael Fulmer.
Fulmer’s lost the first half of the season to a long recovery from a torn menicus suffered in spring training, and Syndergaard pitched his way into the Eastern League (3-3, 3.11, 63.2 ip, 61 h, 16/64 bb/k, 1.21 WHIP, 2.60 fip). Last season, pitching for Lancaster in the Midwest League, Syndergaard had a 2.69/10.59 bb/k per 9, and both metrics declined slightly in 2013, he cut his walk rate down to 2.26, and his K rate dropped slightly from 10.59 to 9.05, still a very high mark, as the Mets have had him work on developing his changeup/slider, and tighten up his curveball. Syndergaard has been promoted to AA, and has one start where he went 6, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits while striking out 7.
All of the other prospects on St. Lucie were and are in the middle of the pack in the system, liberally between slots 12 and 35 on most prospect lists. Travis Taijeron, who had a miserable 2nd half in the FSL last year (.203/.304/.373/.677 in 158 ABs), had a phenominal first half here this year, hitting .303/.396/.564/.960 and earning a promotion to Binghamton.
Aderlin Rodriguez has battled injuries and ineffectiveness all season, hitting a middling .260/.295/.427 with 14 2b and 9 HR in 246 ABs, with only 11 walks (4.28% walkrate). The somewhat promising catching duo (Camden Maron and Albert Cordero) have both been horrendous, with Cordero earning a demotion to Savannah, and Maron having been relegated to the bench with a sweet .629 OPS.
The recently promoted college bash bro duo of Jayce Boyd and Kevin Plawecki have been lighting it up in their first 2 weeks, hitting to 1.093 and .970 OPSes respectively. 2012 2nd rounder Matt Reynolds has been a big disappointment, as well, hitting .242/.327/.370/.697 in 265 ABs, with a 22/49 BB/K.
Pitching has been the Mets strength, they are 3rd in the FSL in staff ERA (3.54), 2nd in Ks (617), in the middle of the park in walks, and 8th in hits, leading to them being 4th in WHIP (as in, the 4th best WHIP in the FSL at 1.30). Domingo Tapia has taken a step backwards this season, he’s walked 30 in 58 innings while allowing 54 hits (1.45 WHIP), and striking out 53.
His future is likely in a bullpen, honestly. Matthew Bowman, nicknamed “Princecum” for his Lincecum esque delievery, and the college he graduated from (Princeton), has been nothing short of brilliant in 2013, combined between Savannah and St. Lucie (he’s got twice the IP in St. Lucie), is 8-1 with a 2.44 era in 88.2 innings, with a 0.99 WHIP (71 hits, 15 walks) and 87 strikeouts.
Bowman’s periphs in high A are a bit… unsustainable, though, with a .259 BABIP and 85.8% LOB, both skewed to his favor. His FIP is 3.06 while his ERA is 2.33. Rainy Lara has also pitched extremely well between Savannah and St. Lucie, with a composite 1.67 era in 80.2 innings, split 50/30 Savannah/St. Lucie.
He’s got a composite 0.99 WHIP (67 hits, 12 walks) and 80 strikeouts. Hansel Robles had 7 starts before getting hurt, he’s on the return shortly. As is the aforementioned Fulmer.
In St. Lucie, the promotions would be Matt Bowman and Angel Cuan, and you would move Alex Panteliodis to the bullpen. Your new St. Lucie rotation would be: Michael Fulmer, Gabriel Ynoa, Steven Matz piggybacking with Luis Cessa (to limit Matz’ innings), Hansel Robles, Domingo Tapia and Rainy Lara.
Don’t forget to check out my own site for daily minor league recaps and minor league Gameday links, www.metsprospecthub.com.
