Great Pitching and More From Eudor Leads Savannah Over Greenville

Savannah Sand Gnats @ Greenville Drive

May 7, 2015

Brad Wieck @ Michael Kopech

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11		R	H	E
Savannah	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	3		7	14	1
Greenville	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	3	0	1		5	10	1

W: Roseboom (2-0, 0.60 ERA); L: McEachern (2-1, 1.47 ERA); S: Frias (1, 9.00 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Brad Wieck (4.13 ERA) – 5 IP, 4 H, R, 2 BB, 9 SO, 81 Pitches (50 Strikes), 3 GO: 3 FO

Jimmy Duff (H, 3, 2.35 ERA) – 2 IP, 4 SO, 2 GO

Josh Smoker (H, 2, 7.71 ERA) – 1.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 SO, 3 GO: 1 FO

David Roseboom (BS, 2) – 1.1 IP, H, 2 BB, SO, 1 GO: 2 FO, 2 IR – 1 S

Darwin Frias – 1 IP, H, R, 2 BB, 2 FO

Batters

Luis Guillorme – 1-6, 2 RBI (12), SB (2), 2 SO, GIDP

John Mora – 1-5, R, 3B (2), BB

Stefan Sabol – 2-4, R, 2 BB, CS

Jon Leroux – 2-5, 2 R, 3B (1), 2 RBI (12), HBP, 2 SO, GIDP

Eudor Garcia – 4-5, R, 2 2B (3), RBI (1)

Patrick Biondi – 2-6, R, 2 SO

Vicente Lupo – 1-3, RBI (6), BB

Recap

            The Sand Gnats got some great pitching early, and then fought back after the Drive tied it late to win their 3^rd straight game Thursday night. New addition Eudor Garcia continued his hot start, with four hits, including two doubles off the wall – he has now hit a double off the LF wall, the CF wall, and the RF wall. Brad Wieck had his best start of the season, striking out a pair of batters in each of the first four innings, and needing only 81 pitches to complete 5 very good innings. Jimmy Duff was the first to come in from the Sand Gnats pen, and all he did was throw an immaculate 6^th inning, which you can check out below. Josh Smoker look really good working around a throwing error from Garcia in the 8^th – Garcia threw the ball high on a very close play at 1B – striking out the final two Drive batters in the frame. But he got into some trouble in the 9^th, and then couldn’t get the 3^rd out against consecutive batters, so manager Jose Leger brought in David Roseboom to conserve the 4-3 lead. Unfortunately, the BOOM allowed a single to the first batter he’d face, before escaping with a loss. The Gnats would load the bases with nobody out in the 10^th, but failed to score, which was the third time a bases loaded opportunity went to waste. After a scoreless 10^th from the BOOM, Jon Leroux would provide a big, two-run triple to put Savannah back in front. Darwin Frias ran into a little trouble during the bottom of the 11^th, but was aided by a heads up play from Patrick Biondi in RF, who was able to double a runner off of 1B for a game-ending double play.

            The series wraps up Friday night at 7:05 PM, with Casey Meisner scheduled to pitch for Savannah.

Scoring Highlights

Mets Minors MiLB.tv Series Preview: Savannah Sand Gnats @ Greenville Drive

Dates: May 6-8

Current Record: 8-16, last place, 7.5 games back of Charleston

Probables

All times are EST

Wednesday at 7:05 PM

Corey Oswalt (2-0, 4.84 ERA, 2.30 FIP, 20.2 K%: 4 BB%, 0 HR/9)

@ Jeffry Fernandez (0-3, 4.91 ERA, 4.87 FIP, 16.1 K%: 8.6 BB%, 0.98 HR/9)

Thursday at 7:05 PM

Brad Wieck (0-3, 4.74 ERA, 4.08 FIP, 23.9 K%: 12.5 BB%, 0.47 HR/9)

@ Michael Kopech (1-2, 3.38 ERA, 3.56 FIP, 23 K%: 8.2 BB%, 0.56 HR/9)

Friday at 7:05 PM

Casey Meisner (1-1, 1.93 ERA, 3.60 FIP, 18.4 K%: 8.2 BB%, 0.39 HR/9)

@ Dedgar Jimenez (1-0, 3.60 ERA, 2.16 FIP, 21.7 K%: 4.4 BB%)

Last series for Mets

Lost 3 of 4: L 2-1, L 4-0, L 6-4, W 6-3

Top prospects for the Boston Red Sox with Greenville

Organizational rankings are from the 2015 Baseball America Prospect Handbook

Wieck K's 9, Beccera and Nido Go Deep, But Gnats Lose

Savannah Sand Gnats @ Charleston River Dogs

April 23, 2015

Brad Wieck @ Andre Del Bosque

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Savannah	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0		2	11	2
Charleston	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	X		4	7	0

W: Del Bosque (1-0, 3.18 ERA); L: Wieck (0-3, 3.60 ERA); S: Coshow (4)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Brad Wieck – 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R (3 ER), BB, 9 SO, 84 Pitches (55 Strikes), 5 FO

Jimmy Duff (3.86 ERA) – 2 IP, 2 SO, 4 GO

Batters

Luis Guillorme – 2-4

Jean Rodriguez – 1-4

Wuilmer Becerra – 2-4, R, HR (3), RBI (8)

Tomas Nido – 2-4, R, HR (1), RBI (4)

Recap

            After finishing up a blowout game that had been rain-shortened this past Sunday, the River Dogs got off to a hot start against Savannah’s big lefty Brad Wieck in the 1^st inning of the regularly scheduled game, and never looked back. The first four hitters would reach on singles off of Wieck, which brought home all 3 runs, before Wieck would recover to strike out 3 in the inning – he had a chance for a fourth strikeout after his breaking ball got away from Nido for K #2. The River Dogs would again use their speed to score a run off Wieck in the 2^nd inning, but Wieck was locked in by that point, and would only allow a walk and a single through the 6^th. The Sand Gnats would pick up a hit in each of the 4^th through 9^th innings, but couldn’t do anything with runners on base all night. Wuilmer Becerra and Tomas Nido provided some fireworks in the 4^th, each blasting a solo shot off of Charleston spot starter Andre Del Bosque. Jimmy Duff would replace Wieck for the 7^th, and he looked great while not allowing a base runner over his two innings. Check out the offense and pitching highlights below, including some from the last 3 innings of Sunday’s make-up game.

Scoring Highlights

Reviewing Initial Minor League Rosters for the Mets Affiliates: Savannah Sand Gnats

Image from SportsBizDaily

Reviewing the initial 2015 rosters announced for the Mets 4 full-season affiliates: Las Vegas 51s, Binghamton Mets, St. Lucie Mets, and Savannah Sand Gnats

            Good news everybody, Major League Baseball has begun and Minor League Baseball is on its way! Last season the Mets had 3 full-season teams make the playoffs: Las Vegas, Binghamton (won championship), and Savannah. This year, they might go 4/4, as these rosters are loaded – they’re not a consensus top-5 farm system for nothing. Considering the Mets are carrying an extra relief pitcher for now, with two strong relief options are on their way back from injures (Vic Black and Bobby Parnell, who can rehab with Las Vegas for a few weeks), there will likely be a lot of roster adjustments coming over the first few weeks. It seems unlikely the Mets would hold a top prospect down a level just for the first few weeks of the season – major prospects got their promotions in June during the 2014 season – so these roster adjustments are likely to be minor for now. With full-season minor league baseball set to debut Thursday, let’s take a look at the initial rosters that have been announced for the Mets affiliates. By the way, if you’re interested in following along at home this season on MiLB.tv, you can find a summary of the games that will be available for each affiliate here – there are 249 scheduled, including nightly 51s games starting as Mets games end.

St. Lucie, Binghamton, Las Vegas

Note: I plan to update these posts with any roster news I see break before Thursday

UPDATE: MiLB.com has Corey Oswalt listed as starting Thursday for Savannah.

Savannah Sand Gnats

            This might be the final season of Savannah baseball for a while, so hopefully they can make it memorable and win one last SAL title for the faithful locals. Their most recent SAL title came in 2013, with Steven Matz on the hill for the clincher for his first time – he’d do that again for Binghamton in 2014. It's not clear how much offense this team will get on a consistent basis, but the pitching staff is mostly an advanced group for this level (except for staff 'ace' Casey Meisner), so they should keep them in most games. I think the outfield can be pretty potent, but the infield was left pretty unproven when Amed Rosario and Jhoan Urena were skipped to A+. There might be a couple of prospects missing from this initial list still heading to Savannah: Octavio Acosta is a little older, but finished the season with some strong appearances for Savannah; Alfredo Reyes might be a more interesting 2B option than Johnson and Rodriguez, though I do want to see more of Rodriguez too; Michael Katz is a 2014 draftee who was having a strong season with Brooklyn before an injury; Dash Winningham is a teenage 1B prospect from the 2014 draft with some pop and some serious #want; Eudor Garcia is a nearly 21-year old 3B prospect (might be a future 1B prospect) from the 2014 draft who didn’t stand out in his pro debut, but has raw power and good plate discipline – Eudor and Dash could join the team after some time in XST (or sooner) to try and give a boost to the corner infield spots if needed. I’m not guaranteeing any of those players are with Savannah early this season, and there are likely less interesting depth options I haven’t considered, but I could see an argument for them making the roster, especially since the infield could be a potential weak spot. Also, although no catchers were mentioned, this roster is light on catching experience, so I wouldn't be surprised if some 'veteran' depth piece bounced on and off the roster.

Astromets Top 83 Prospect Series: 75-83

            For this top prospect list series I tried to include as many players as possible, as I watched a lot of talented Mets prospects in 2014, and was following the progression of those I couldn’t watch. I do not include any Dominican Summer League players here, as I know next to nothing about those guys and they are so far away. I started by separating players into different groups and then essentially ranked those groups. Still, a lot of these players become interchangeable beyond the top 25 or so prospects. Also, there are a number of ’50+ future value’ players (per Fangraphs Kiley McDaniel), so the very top of the list is pretty interchangeable too. I don’t think I missed any obvious stateside prospects, but I apologize in advance for when I did. I will add some gifs when possible.

Other entries from this series: 1-9 | 10-15 | 16-24 | 25-33 | 34-45 | 46-55 | 56-62 | 63-74 | 75-83

*All stats listed are regular season only and from Fangraphs; age to start 2015 season listed; pitchers roles are based on what they did in 2014, not what they might do in the future

Rain Doesn't Wash Away Rough First from the Defense for Meisner and the Cyclones

Brooklyn Cyclones @ Aberdeen Iron Birds

July 23, 2014

Casey Meisner @ Patrick Connaughton

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Brooklyn	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0		2	8	3
Aberdeen	3	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	X		5	8	0

W: Schuh (1-0, 4.50 ERA); L: Meisner (0-3, 6.75 ERA); Save: Bleeker (1)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Mike Hepple (1.53 ERA) – 3.1 IP, 3 H, R (0 ER), BB, 3 SO, 3 GO: 3 FO

Brad Wieck (2.38 ERA) – 2.2 IP, H, R, SO, 5 GO

Edioglis Villasmil (4.97 ERA) – 1 IP, 1 GO: 1 FO

Batters

Adrian Abreu – 1-3, R, BB

Amed Rosario – 3-4, R, 3B (2), SO, 2 E (14)

Jhoan Urena – 1-4, 2 RBI (20)

Michael Conforto – 2-4, 2B (3), SO

Will Fulmer – 1-3, HBP

Recap:

            The rain could not save the Cyclones Wednesday night in Aberdeen, as the Cyclones and Iron Birds waited it out and then got all nine innings in. After jumping out to a 1-0 1^st inning lead, some poor defense in the bottom half made things tougher for Brooklyn starter Casey Meisner than they had to be. After the lengthy rain delay, the Cyclones offense could not get much going against the Iron Birds bullpen, managing only a run on six hits the rest of the way. The Cyclones got a good extended effort from their bullpen too, allowing only the one earned run (and one unearned) on four hits the rest of the way. Amed Rosario continued his hot hitting, though he had a rough night in the field, which is not too concerning for a NY Penn league player.