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| Michael Fulmer and Gabriel Ynoa have been leading the way for a revamped B-Mets pitching staff |
The Binghamton Mets are 47-42 overall, but have a 19-12 record over
their last 31 games played, and they have some great pitching to thank for
their current run.
Coming
into the 2015 season, the Mets were considered to have a Top-5 farm system,
with the Las Vegas 51s ranked the third
most talented roster in the minor leagues by Baseball America, and much attention
given to the overall pitching depth within the system. While there are
interesting players throughout the system, the 51s
and the PSL
Mets appeared to have the most talented rosters coming out of spring
training, although the B-Mets initial
roster had some exciting names too. Still, the B-Mets were lacking Michael
Fulmer, who was staying back in extended spring training to get to full health,
and L.J. Mazzilli, who was suspended 50 games to start the season (for drugs of
abuse, not PED’s), and we all knew Michael Conforto was not far off, so the
B-Mets figured to finish the first half more talented than they started.
The
B-Mets actually got off to a great start, winning 14 of their first 22 games
before hitting a May slide that spilled into June. They would play to a 14-22
record over their next 36 games to fall 2 games under .500 at 28-30. It didn’t
help that they lost Brandon Nimmo to injury and T.J. Rivera to AAA in mid-May,
and then lost Jayce Boyd to AAA in late May, but the biggest culprit over the
first 2 months was the Binghamton pitching. While several starters weren’t
performing to expectations, the bullpen was just dreadful, as you can see in
Table 1 below.
Table 1 – B-Mets pitching stats prior to June 11th
B-Mets
|
IP
|
ERA
|
H
|
K
|
BB
|
HR/9
|
Starters
|
316.1
|
4.10
|
341
|
230
|
99
|
0.54
|
Relievers
|
191.1
|
5.22
|
196
|
173
|
88
|
0.47
|
Over the first 58 games, the B-Mets
pen had 27 save opportunities, and blew 8 of them for a 70% conversion rate –
they are 8-10 since – and were also responsible for 10 losses (they have taken
3 since). Even talented relievers start to falter when given too much work
though, and the B-Mets starters were only lasting an average of ~5.5
innings/start during this stretch, which is too low.
And then suddenly, everybody
starting clicking at the same time, with a start from Luis Cessa on June 11th
kicking off the stretch – Cessa threw 6 scoreless in the Bowie series finale
that day. Michael Fulmer followed with a great start that would be rain-shortened,
and has been the Mets hottest
pitcher since, with Gabriel Ynoa not far behind.
But the whole staff has stepped it
up lately, as you can see from the starters stats listed in Table 2, and the
reliever’s stats listed in Table 3.
Table 2 – B-Mets starters statistics since June 11th
Starters
|
IP (GS)
|
ERA
|
FIP
|
OPS
|
K%
|
BB%
|
HR/9
|
26 (4)
|
2.03
|
2.47
|
.614
|
18.1
|
5.7
|
0
|
|
37.1 (6)
|
0.48
|
1.79
|
.492
|
29.1
|
3.6
|
0.24
|
|
12 (2)
|
2.25
|
2.49
|
.649
|
18.0
|
6.0
|
0
|
|
6.1 (1)
|
4.26
|
4.82
|
.533
|
12.0
|
4.0
|
1.42
|
|
38 (6)
|
3.55
|
3.82
|
.712
|
12.7
|
7.6
|
0.47
|
|
34.2 (6)
|
3.63
|
3.58
|
.699
|
18.4
|
5.4
|
0.78
|
|
45.2 (6)
|
1.58
|
2.84
|
.424
|
12.0
|
1.2
|
0.20
|
|
Totals
|
200 (31)
|
2.30
|
2.90
|
.584
|
17.5
|
4.7
|
0.36
|
Table 3 – B-Mets reliever’s statistics since June 11th
Relievers
|
IP (G)
|
ERA
|
FIP
|
OPS
|
K%
|
BB%
|
HR/9
|
9 (9)
|
0.00
|
1.90
|
.198
|
38.7
|
12.9
|
0
|
|
12.2 (8)
|
4.26
|
3.00
|
.744
|
16.1
|
5.4
|
0
|
|
13.2 (11)
|
0.66
|
2.14
|
.412
|
27.8
|
9.3
|
0
|
|
1 (1)
|
0.00
|
6.24
|
.733
|
0.0
|
20.0
|
0
|
|
6.1 (7)
|
8.53
|
3.40
|
.647
|
23.3
|
16.7
|
0
|
|
6 (6)
|
1.50
|
4.40
|
.609
|
13.0
|
0.0
|
1.5
|
|
3 (3)
|
0.00
|
-0.10
|
.364J
|
45.5
|
0.0
|
0
|
|
8 (6)
|
2.25
|
2.49
|
.320
|
12.0
|
0.0
|
0
|
|
10.1 (8)
|
0.87
|
2.85
|
.417
|
36.1
|
8.3
|
0.87
|
|
Totals
|
70
|
2.19
|
2.71
|
.491
|
25.0
|
8.1
|
0.26
|
Luis
Cessa was since promoted to Las Vegas, but John Gant has taken over his
production since returning to the rotation. Seth Lugo got off to a quick start
(1.93 ERA over his first 6 starts/32.2 IP), hit a rough patch in late May/June
(6.75 ERA over his next 5 starts/28 IP), but has made the necessary adjustments
during this stretch (2.28 ERA over his last 4 starts/23.2 IP). Michael Gibbons
wasn’t terrible in his spot start, and AA is a tall order for someone making
his fourth professional start. After dominating in the Florida State League,
Robert Gsellman has come up and stayed afloat with Binghamton, which is a good
start after making the biggest jump in the minors – also, Tradition Field is a
pitcher’s park, while NYSEG Stadium is pretty much fair.
In
the bullpen, Beck Wheeler’s turnaround started in mid-May, and he has a 0.49
ERA in his last 18.1 IP, with a .385 OPS allowed and 19 K: 6 BB. Adam Kolarek
made a mechanical change in late April and has a 3.25 ERA/.507 OPS allowed in
36 IP since, but he had gone through a rough patch during the B-Mets May swoon.
Matt Koch has actually allowed multiple runs for the first time as a reliever
during this stretch, as he had a 0.42 ERA in his first 21.2 IP out of the
bullpen. Paul Sewald and Jon Velasquez have been extremely reliable as the
B-Mets closer, with Sewald taking over sole responsibility of the job when
Velasquez has been with Las Vegas, and Velasquez taking it back over recently
with Sewald at the Pan Am games. Dario Alvarez has shown huge L/R splits this
year (.772 OPS vs. RHB/.399 OPS vs. LHB), but he’s been very consistent after
allowing runs in 3 of his first 4 appearances, with 22 of 25 scoreless
appearances since.
As
the second half begins, Michael Fulmer is scheduled to kick things off against
the ‘rival’ Trenton Thunder Thursday night at 6:35 PM, looking to continue his
dominant run. Rainy Lara is expected to return to the rotation in what is
initially being called a 6-man rotation, but we’ll see how long that lasts, or
at least how long these 6 stick there. Overall, the team had the 8th
best team ERA in the Eastern League over the first half, and it’s a 12-team
league, so that’s not great, but they’re still only 2.5 games behind the
Thunder in their division. Moving forward, unless there are drastic changes to
the rotation during the second half, the B-Mets should jump up the team ERA
rankings, and that should help as they make a push to return to the Eastern League
playoffs so they can defend the title.
Q of the Day! Where in the galaxy would you find Type I and Type II supernovas?
Answer: http://t.co/RLuhen54Ep pic.twitter.com/XzwQr9PoGm
— Chandra Observatory (@chandraxray) July 16, 2015
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