Previewing the Minors Mets Coverage in 2015

            For those of you who are familiar with Astromets Mind, you know that I love watching the minor league Mets on MiLB.tv, and most of my coverage here in 2014 was about what I saw through that wonderful subscription. In case you were considering getting a subscription to MiLB.tv, here’s what will be available to you in 2015. One thing I should note about my coverage for this upcoming season is that I won’t be trying to offer pitch-by-pitch coverage, as I felt I was not good enough at identifying pitches without velocities in 2014. If you're interested, there will be 249 Mets affiliate games available with MiLB.tv this season, making the subscription more than worth in my opinion.

UPDATE: It appears that the B-Mets are participating in MiLB.tv coverage at home this season!

Las Vegas 51s

            All 144 51s games are available on MiLB.tv, although they have the worst home TV coverage of any minor league team I’ve seen. As expected, MiLB.tv coverage as a whole is not near what you get with MLB coverage, as there are no pitch velocities shown, and rarely even a score bug, but Las Vegas makes those other feeds look amazing. For those 72 home games, you’ll be stuck watching the games from an awkward angle behind home plate. This would be more acceptable if you could see the whole field, but right field is not within the camera angle. The one redeeming factor of the home field angle is the view of the scoreboard in LF, which, with some strain, will provide you with a pitcher’s velocity throughout the game. If I do offer pitch-by-pitch coverage this season, it will only be on home games for the 51s thanks to this feature. On the plus side, the 51s have one of the best announcers in the business in Russ Langer, although he’s technically just the team’s radio announcer being played alongside the stream. If you’re fine just listening to the radio stream, you can listen to all of the games for free on TuneIn radio.

This is still better than nothing, right?

Binghamton Mets

            The B-Mets unfortunately do not offer home MiLB.tv coverage – the 51s are the only Mets affiliate who do – but there are several teams in the Eastern League that do, and so you can usually get at least a week of coverage per month. There will be 61 BMets games covered in total. The month-by-month coverage breaks down as follows:

April: 14 games. In Akron and then Erie from the 9^th - 15^th, and then in New Hampshire and Portland from the 23^rd – 29^th.

May: 9 games. In Akron from the 8^th – 10^th, then Harrisburg from the 19^th-21^st, and then in Altoona from the 29^th - 31^st.

June: 11 games. In Portland and then New Hampshire from the 16^th – 22^nd, and then in Akron and Erie from the 27^th – 30^th.

July: 14 games. In Erie from the 1^st – 3^rd, then Portland from the 10^th – 13^th, and then in New Britain and Trenton from the 20^th – 26^th.

August: 10 games. In Altoona and New Britain from the 11^th – 16^th, in New Hampshire from the 21^st – 23^rd, and then in Reading on the 31^st.

September: 3 games. Concluding the series in Reading from the 1^st – 3^rd.

            The BMets get great radio coverage from Tim Heiman and, just like the 51s, play that coverage over the TV stream when available, or you can listen to it for free on TuneIn radio.

St. Lucie Mets

            Unfortunately, no team in the Florida State League offers any TV coverage yet, so you’re limited to radio coverage from ‘Adam Mac’. On the plus side, Adam is another great radio announcer, so it’s definitely worth listening to St. Lucie games if you want more Mets minor league coverage.

Savannah Sand Gnats

            The SAL offers several chances to watch the Sand Gnats while they are on the road, with about two series per month except in June, and 35 games total. On the downside, I had trouble accessing the home radio station with TuneIn for much of the 2014 season. The month-by-month coverage breaks down as follows:

April: 7 games. In Rome from the 13^th – 15^th, and then in Charleston from the 23^rd – 26^th.

May: 7 games. In Greenville from the 6^th – 8^th, and then in Rome from the 21^st – 24^th.

June: 0 games offered in June, which is often a transition month for the team anyway.

July: 9 games. In Greenville and then Lexington from the 4^th – 12^th.

August: 7 games. In Rome and then Charleston from the 3^rd – 9^th.

September: 5 games. In Greenville from the 3^rd – 7^th.

Brooklyn Cyclones

            There are two teams that offer MiLB.tv coverage in the NYPL – the Aberdeen IronBirds (Orioles) and the Staten Island Yankees – although the coverage is generally not that great, and SNY tends to cover a few of the Cyclones home games. The Yankees coverage is decent when they have someone at the camera, but if not, you’re stuck with a 3B-side view of the batters box. The month-by-month coverage breaks down as follows:

June: 2 games. In Staten Island on the 19^th and the 21^st.

July: 2 games. In Staten Island on the 15^th and the 17^th.

August: 5 games. In Staten Island on the 9^th and the 10^th, and then in Aberdeen on the 21^st – 23^rd.

"Oi! Red dwarf! Get back here!!" A stellar runaway implicated in solar system hit-and-run: http://t.co/GwINzl9xE9 pic.twitter.com/yzje8rCVil
— Dr. Ian O'Neill (@astroengine) February 18, 2015