3 Mets Minor Leaguer’s Win Pitcher Of The Week Awards In Same Week

Tyler Badamo, left (image from here); John Gant, center; Gabriel Ynoa, right

The Mets had a pitcher win the weekly award from last week at 3 minor league levels, and another starter got robbed.

            The Mets have promoted two starters with legit top of the rotation stuff so far this season (Steven Matz and Noah Syndergaard, if you weren’t sure), and one of their next best has been out for months with a sore forearm (Marcos Molina), so it would be understandable if there was little left down on the farm, but instead the minor league pitching has been heating up over the past month. The hot run has started near the bottom, where the Brooklyn Cyclones have had the league’s second best team ERA to date at 2.40 (Williamsport is 1^st at 2.15). Cyclones opening day starter Tyler Badamo earned the award for his 7 innings of one-hit ball against Hudson Valley last Wednesday. The Sand Gnats team ERA has been middle of the pack so far at 3.43, but they had a starter earn the pitcher of the week award 3 times in June (twice by Scarlyn Reyes, and once by Martires Arias), and Corey Oswalt pitched well enough to earn the award last week. It’s been a similar story to date for the St. Lucie Mets, but they’ve been getting more consistent starts lately, and John Gant dominated the league while there, earning the FSL Pitcher of the Week award in the same week he was promoted back to Binghamton. Finally, the B-Mets are actually near the bottom of the pack in team ERA after a rough stretch from a few starters and relievers, but everyone has been clicking lately, and they had two legit contenders for last weeks award, but Gabriel Ynoa’s one-hitter topped Michael Fulmer’s two great starts.

NYPL Winner! Tyler Badamo – 7 IP, H, 4 SO, 63 Pitches (46 Strikes), 9 GO: 6 FO

            The Mets drafted Tyler Badamo out of Dowling College with their 24^th round pick in 2014 after a dominant DII season (0.83 ERA, 108.1 IP, 129 K), and they sent him to the Gulf Coast League, where he kept on dominating as he slightly stretched his 30-inning limit (1.74 ERA, 31 IP, 26 K) – he talked about his first pro year here, if interested. He made the opening day start for the Cyclones this year, tossing 6 strong innings against Staten Island in a game that Brooklyn would go on to win, and has only been better since. For the season, he has a 1.35 ERA thanks to a 20.2 K%: 4 BB%, a .408 OPS allowed, and a 14% swinging strike rate. The 7-shutout innings he threw against Hudson Valley led to his first win of the season. He allowed one hit and faced the minimum over those 7 sparkling innings, averaging just 3 pitchers per batter faced (!!!).

Corey Oswalt – 2 GS, 13.1 IP, 12 H, R, 3 BB, 11 SO

            Corey Oswalt didn’t win the award, but it took a near complete game shutout from Yency Almonte of Kannapolis to rob him of the award. After a very nice 2014 with Brooklyn, Oswalt’s 2015 hasn’t been as consistent from a results perspective, but some underlying numbers suggest that he’s been better than his 3.70 ERA. Specifically, he has a 2.98 ERA in his 80.1 IP to date thanks to an 18.5 K%, which is about league average, and 4.6 BB%, which is much better than league average. He has been exceptional over his last 4 starts, with a 1.69 ERA over 26.2 IP, so hopefully he’s about to have a big second half.

FSL Winner! John Gant – 8 IP, 3 H, BB, 10 SO

            John Gant was so good during his 6 starts with St. Lucie that he came within 10 strikeouts of the team lead before the Mets promoted him back to AA. He had 8+ strikeouts in 4 of those starts, and reached double-digits twice, which makes 6 games with 10+ strikeouts in 64 pro games (61 starts). He was at his best during his final start of June, throwing 8 dominant innings against the Tampa Yankees – he’s already got a leg up on future Yankees competition! I recently ranked Gant 5^th of my list of starting pitcher prospects left within the Mets system, but that may prove to have been too low. While Gant was in PSL, St. Lucie pitching coach Phil Regan apparently tweaked his mechanics, which has Gant sitting at 93 MPH with his fastball.

EL Winner! Gabriel Ynoa – 9 IP, H, 6 SO

            After a slow start to the 2015 season, Gabriel Ynoa has turned it around over the last month, with a 1.17 ERA over his last 4 starts (30.1 IP) thanks to a 1.8 BB% and .426 OPS allowed, although he only has an 11.5 K% during that span. He’s thrown complete games for the B-Mets over his last 2 outing, although Binghamton took a 3-0 loss during his start on 6/27. Ynoa was on the outskirts of the Mets top-10 prospects this past offseason, but his slow start and underwhelming stuff (7% swinging strike rate is below league average) have dropped him behind some other starters in the Mets system on my list. He’s still just 22, and has a strong history of good control, so there’s still plenty of time to turn things around, and his recent success suggests a big second half could be looming.

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