Archive for Buffalo Bisons
The Duda is Back and In the Lineup
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After last nights win against the Milwaukee Brewers the Mets announced that Nick Evans had been designated for assignment. The Mets now have 10 days to trade, waive, or outright send him to the minors. If sent to the minors Evans can decide to opt out of his contract and become a free agent.
Evans was hitless in 12 at-bats for the Mets with five walks.
To fill out his spot on the roster the Mets have recalled slugging Lucas Duda who has been on an absolute tear in Buffalo.
“Lucas Duda won’t have the International League to kick around anymore. The Mets intend to recall the 1B/LF today to replace Nick Evans, the replacement for the inured Ike Davis. The 25-year-old Duda belted three homers and three doubles this week for Triple-A Buffalo as part of a 10-for-25 (.400) week that included a solid 4-to-5 walk-to-strikeout ratio. He’s been one of the IL’s hottest hitters since May 1, hitting .390, compiling a 1.415 OPS (74 PA) and bashing nine homers in 19 games” – Baseball America.
Duda was 2-for-20 earlier and struggled early on after the demotion, but his absolute tear as of late as made his season numbers in Triple-A look like this, .302/.414/.597, 8 2B, 10 HR, 24 RBIs, and a 23:27 BB:K. By the way his OPS is only a mere 1.011.
Duda will hit sixth and play left field in the game tonight. Jason Bay will be riding the pine. Hmm…
Another Reliever With Control Problems
Posted by: | CommentsThe Mets have optioned reliever Mike O’Connor to Triple-A Buffalo and according to Adam Rubin are expected to announce that reliever Manny Acosta has been added to the roster.
O’Connor went 0-1 with a 2.70 ERA in 6.2 innings on five hits and three walks while striking out eight.
(Andrew Burton/Getty Images North America)
O’Connor looked good early on, but really labored in the last couple of outings. His command was off and he gave up some big hits, including a devastating one to Chase Utley in the Phillies series. The Mets are now left with just Tim Byrdak is a left-handed pitcher out of the pen.
In 20 games for Buffalo this season Acosta has gone 1-0 with four saves and a 1.77 ERA. On the positive side he has given up just 13 hits and struckout 27 men. On the negative side he has allowed 17 walks in just 20.1 innings.
It is a little frustrating to have yet another reliever who has struggled with is command come onto the team. Ryota Igarashi came up and posed an absurd 8.5 BB/9, Pat Misch and D.J. Carraso each posed a 5.1 BB/9, and Bobby Parnell‘s BB/9 is sitting pretty at 7.0 and it looks like he can’t throw a strike right now. Heck even Francisco Rodriguez has walked 4.3 per 9. The only pitchers that have been consistently good with their command all year are Pedro Beato and Taylor Buchholz, who is now sitting on the DL.
Acosta was much better in the month of May than April with his command so hopefully most of that was attributed to early season rust.
I like Acosta and he has earned the promotion, I just liked the idea of having two lefties in the pen and I get very irritated with relievers who don’t come in and throw strikes.
Time to Give Dale Thayer a Shot
Posted by: | CommentsThe Mets bullpen started off the year as Achilles’ heel causing some big loses on terrific starts by Jon Niese and Chris Young, but turned things around on the back of closer Francisco Rodriguez who is having a monstrous year.
Coinciding with the injury to Pedro Beato things went back to being bad, mainly as a result of having to rely on Ryota Igarashi so much. With Beato back and Igarashi gone things are getting back on track now with the Mets sitting comfortably with the 11th best bullpen ERA in baseball.
With the poor starting rotation they have this year, however, there cannot be even one weak link in the pen. Management has done a good job weeding out the bad seeds by DFAing Blaine Boyer, sending Igarashi back down to Triple-A, and getting fortunate that Bobby Parnell found his way off the roster due to injury.
There is one more change they can make to push the bullpen to the next level.
Pat Misch was terrible for Buffalo early in the year, but needed to be called up because of the need of a long man/spot starter with all the injuries affectin
g both the rotation and pen as well as the Mets having to deal with double headers. Not surprisingly he hasn’t fared much better since being called up posting a 7.50 ERA and showing a lack of command, which he needs to succeed.
Michael O’Connor has been given a chance and has emerged as a viable option out of the pen, having yet to give up a run in seven appearances.
O’Connor is death on lefties thanks to his nontraditional delivery and is showing the ability to get out righties as well. O’Connor along with Tim Byrdak gives the Mets two good left-handed options out of the pen making Misch expendable.
Enter the mustache wonder Dale Thayer. Thayer is a 30-year-old career minor leaguer who has been terrific at every level he has pitched at in the minors and unfairly been given just a couple tastes of coffee at the big league level.
He is no junkerballer either, with good stuff including a fastball that sits 91-94 mph and true plus pitch in a slider.
Thayer has continued his minor league success this year posting terrific numbers in Buffalo going 2-0 with a 2.05 ERA in 20 games, pitching 26.1 innings, striking out 25 men, and showing amazing command by walking just six batters.
The only thing Thayer has going against him is he is not a member of the 40-man roster. The Mets have two things they can do to accommodate room for Thayer on the roster. (1) They can DFA Igarashi who is sure to go unclaimed and send Misch down to the minors with the odds of him opting out being very slim or (2) just DFA Misch, which would essentially cut ties with him from the organization.
With the way he has been pitching Thayer has earned a spot in the bullpen and with the precedent Sandy Alderson has already set having a short leash on players that don’t produce, Misch is making it an easy decision to give the journeyman reliever his first legitimate shot at being a major league reliever.
Hu & Iggy Gone, Beato & Tejada Up, Evans to Follow?
Posted by: | CommentsIn a merciful act the Mets announced, after the 2-1 loss to the Florida Marlins, that Chin-lung Hu and Ryota Igarashi were sent down to Triple-A Buffalo. To replace them on the roster shortstop/second baseman Ruben Tejada was called up and relief pitcher Pedro Beato was activated from the DL.
I do not think I have seen a batter be worse at the plate than Hu was, but the Mets players will surely tell you, “It took a lot for Hu to come in cold in that one game against the Nationals and deliver a sac fly with one at to put the Mets ahead, but not get the base hit to crack the game wide open.” This was one of the only times Hu made contact all year. The surest thing to an automatic out in the MLB.
Igarashi at least has good stuff, but his command was still atrocious and at his age he is unlikely to improve it all that much.
Getting into a 3-ball count, against the pitcher, hitting in late innings is a situation a Major League pitcher should never find himself in. Igarashi put himself in a situation where everyone in the ballpark knew he had to throw a fastball down the middle and he got burnt. You know what they say about playing with fire. At the very least he should have thrown that ball down the middle with 1 ball so the batter still had it in the back of his mind there was a chance Iggy threw a slider.
Should be the last we see of either of these players in a Mets’ uni.
Tejada should get significant time at 2nd base with Justin Turner getting most of the playing time at third base. Tejada was struggling at shortstop defensively, but his hitting looked much improved posting a .267/.337/.407 line. He is on pace to shatter his career high of five homeruns.
There were also some rumblings that David Wright will be placed on the DL Tuesday and Nick Evans called up. Evans has played third base in the past and can play first allowing Daniel Murphy to play third on occasion. The addition of Tejada and Evans creates a lot of versatility with the infield for Terry Collins to work with although this move is not 100% confirmed yet.
Evans has been heating up in May hitting .316/.391/.404 with a homer, double, 3 RBI, and a 7:8 K:BB in 15 games.
Jenrry Mejia Has MCL Tear
Posted by: | CommentsThe Buffalo Bisons have announced that New York Mets top prospect Jenrry Mejia has an MCL tear in his right elbow.
According to the release Mets Medical Director Dr. David Altchek found a complete tear in the right elbow and has suggested that Mejia have surgery to repair it. The Mets are sending Mejia for a second opinion.
In five starts in 2011 Mejia was 1-2 with a 2.86 ERA in 28.1 innings. He only gave up 16 hits, but walked 14 while striking out 21.
Patients with a grade 1 tear of the MCL are likely to need 2-8 weeks of recovery while grade 3 patients (what Mejia is) will require surgery and “significantly” longer recovery time.
This is a major blow to an already pitching thin Mets. If there are any setbacks Mejia could wind up missing the whole season because surgery is all, but a guarantee at this point. Not only does this set back a top prospects development for a year, but it handcuffs the Mets for options of pitchers to call up. The Mets never seem to be able to catch a break.
If Mejia does have Tommy John surgery, he likely wouldn’t return to the mound for a year, costing him the rest of the 2011 season and part of the 2012 season. The surgery would probably push back his timetable to be able to pitch competitively in the big leagues until 2013.
- BA
D.J. Carrasco Optioned to Triple-A, Zach Lutz to the DL
Posted by: | CommentsThe Mets activated starting pitcher Chris Young today from the DL to make his start Tuesday night against the Nationals.
A spot needed to be made on the 25-man roster and in a bit of a shocking move the Mets optioned D.J. Carrasco to Triple-A Buffalo. Carrasco has been terrible in 2011 posting a 5.91 ERA and struggling with his control.
(Ezra Shaw/Getty Images North America)
In an off-season in which the Mets front office was reluctant to give anyone more than a one year deal they were willing to give Carrasco a two year deal.
Carraso will be stretched out in Buffalo in attempt to convert him into a starter, a role he prefers. Dillon Gee will be placed into the bullpen for the major league club. Gee has great control and should help fix some of the problems from earlier in the season.
In some minor league news Bisons’ third baseman Zach Lutz was placed on the DL with a right hamstring strain the same day Fernando Martinez was activated from the DL with the right hamstring strain.
How ironic is it that two most injured sluggers in the Mets’ pipeline swap spots on the DL with same injury on the same day. Stuff like this cannot be scripted.
Final: Buffalo 6 – Pawtucket 10
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Elsa/Getty Images North America)
Josh Stinson finally got his promotion back up to Triple-A, but the results were not what he was looking for. Stinson got smacked around all day giving up six runs in just four innings. His downfall was the three free passes he issued along with the five extra base hits. Stinson and catcher Dusty Ryan did a terrible job holding base runners on giving up four stolen bases.
It’s about time to vault Kirk Nieuwenhuis into the red hot category. He is now on a seven game hitting streak which has seen his batting average get up to .324, but the most surprising . Nick Evans delivered the biggest blow of the game for the offense with a two RBI single. Zach Lutz is just as hot as Captain Kirk with a six game hitting streak of his own with six extra base hits over that time.
Stars of the Game: 1. Nick Evans (6pts) 2. Kirk Nieuwenhuis (14pts) 3. Zach Lutz (10pts)
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