Minors Stuff

B-Mets:

Monday, June 29 at Akron 7:05 pm RHP Dylan Owen (0-5, 6.83) vs. RHP Jeanmar Gomez (6-2, 3.06)

Tuesday, June 30 New Hampshire 7:05 pm RHP Eric Niesen (0-3, 7.20) vs. RHP Brandon Magee (4-5, 5.06)

Wednesday, July 1 New Hampshire 7:05 pm RHP TBA vs. LHP Luis Perez (4-6, 3.41)

Thursday, July 2 New Hampshire 7:05 pm RHP Brad Holt (0-1, 9.45) vs. RHP Rey Gonzalez (3-5, 3.18)

Clones:

The Brooklyn Cyclones (7-2) stayed undefeated at home thanks to a 13-3 victory over the division rival Hudson Valley Renegades (4-5) on Sunday in front of a crowd of 8,760. LHP Oliver Perez made a rehab appearance for the Cyclones, and pitched brilliantly. Perez struck out six batters and allowed just two hits as he dominated the Renegades through 5.0 shutout innings to earn the win. Perez has been on the Disabled List since May 6th for the New York Mets, with patellar tendinitis in his right knee. With the Cyclones already up 4-0, and the bases loaded in the fourth inning, CF John Servidio and 3B Matt Bouchard hit back-to-back home runs to left field. Servidio’s grand slam and Bouchard’s solo shot gave the Cyclones a commanding 9-0 lead, which would prove to be more than enough offense for the Cyclones' fourth win at home this season. Servidio notched five RBI in the game. Nick Giarraputo and Luis Rivera chipped in two RBI each, and Bouchard, Ralph Henriquez and Luis Nieves added one RBI apiece, as Brooklyn totaled 13 runs and 10 hits.RHP Erik Turgeon relieved Perez and allowed three unearned runs in his only inning of work. RHP Wes Wrenn earned his first save with a scoreless seventh, eighth, and ninth inning of work. Wrenn allowed no hits and struck out two in a scoreless effort. The Cyclones continue their series at Hudson Valley tomorrow and then return to Brooklyn to conclude this series with the Renegades on Tuesday, June 30th. That night, Reggy (the purple party dude) will appear at KeySpan Park, and the first 2,500 fans will receive a T-shirt, courtesy of the City University of New York (CUNY).
Click here to get your tickets, or call 718-507-TIXX



Buffalo Bisons to Dedicate Coca-Cola Field Plaza
as “James D. Griffin Plaza” – TOMORROW (4:30pm)

WHAT: The Buffalo Bisons will be joined by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and members of Jimmy Griffin’s Family in dedicating “James D. Griffin Plaza” at Coca-Cola Field in honor of the late Mayor of the City of Buffalo.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 30: The announcement will be made at 4:30 p.m.
Ceremony is prior to Bisons game vs. Charlotte Knights (7:05 p.m.).
The game’s promotion is Irish Festival Night, with post game pyrotechnics.

WHO: Mayor Byron Brown, City of Buffalo
Members of the Griffin Family
Mike Buczkowski, Vice President/General Manager, Buffalo Bisons

WHERE: The ceremony will take place just to the right of the Swan St. Gate to the ballpark.

PROGRAM: The dedication will begin at 4:30 p.m. Mayor Byron Brown will unveil a plaque honoring the long-time supporter of the Buffalo Bisons. Details of a memorial fund will also be announced to raise money to commission a statue of Mayor Griffin to be placed on the plaza just outside of Coca-Cola Field next season.



International:

http://taiwanbaseball.blogspot.com/2009/06/cubs-ink-another-signing-ping-chieh.html reports that the Cubs have signed Ping-Chieh Chen to a contract. The Cubs seem to be quite active in Asia and Chen is just another of a series of signings. He received a $300,000 signing bonus.
One of their recent signings, Hung-Wen Chen has 14 starts for the Tennesse Smokies and is struggling with an ERA of 6.18. Opponents are hitting him at a .311 clip, so perhaps AA is a bit of a challenge for Chen. Lefthanders are especially successful, ripping him at a .381 pace. Seems to me he needs to learn a pitch that effectively gets lefthanders out.

http://twitter.com/jorgearangure/status/2348687441 reports that one of the prime prospects in the Caribbean League 16 year old Dominican outfielder Wagner Mateo signed for $3.1 million with the St. Louis Cardinals. The San Francisco Giants were also in the running for Mateo. Jorge Arangure reports for ESPN.com.

The contracts for the Caribbean players can not be finalized and become official until July 2, so expect a number of Caribbean foreign signings at that point.

http://myworldofbaseball.com/wordpress/?m=200906


Prospects :

John Russell pitched a two-hit gem, and Brad Garrone hit a two-run home run to power Apollo to a win over Quality Construction.Russell took a no-hitter into the fifth before former New York Mets prospect Doug McNulty broke up his bid with a leadoff single. Russell struck out six and walked one.Despite recording just four hits, Apollo mustered enough offense to dispose of the hosts.Apollo went ahead 1-0 in the first and increased the lead to 3-0 with a pair of runs in the second. Garrone made it 5-0 with his homer in the third.Quality Construction avoided the shutout when McNulty scored in the fifth.

http://online.indianagazette.com/articles/2009/06/29/sports/10018492.txt


Mets Alumni:

Neal Huntington received an interesting trade proposal in the last few days.

The Washington Nationals offered Lastings Milledge to the Pirates for Nyjer Morgan is a straight-up swap of outfielders. Huntington, the Pirates’ general manager, apparently wants Nationals acting GM Mike Rizzo to add a second player before he would consider making the trade.

However a Morgan-for-Milledge deal is interesting to ponder as a one-on-one proposition.
Morgan offers great speed and defense. Milledge offers potentially outstanding power, something the Pirates has in short supply both the major leagues and minors, and good speed.
Morgan turns 29 on Thursday. Though he has improved greatly since first coming to the major leagues late in the 2007 season, he is almost assuredly at his peak now.

Milledge, meanwhile, is 24 and seemingly has quite a bit of upside despite spending part of the last four seasons in the major leagues.

Taking all that into account and knowing the Pirates have more of an eye on the future than the present, it would seem logical for Huntington to make the trade.

http://www.piratesreport.com/page/blogs.detail/display/147/Morgan-for-Milledge--Go-for-it.html


Remember how the 1981 Jays had the worst batting average of any team in the last 37 years? Well, the 1972 Mets were the team from 37 years ago with an even worse batting average: .225. Here’s their lineup on Bill Stoneman’s big day:

Name Avg
Barnes, 2B 0.236
Fregosi, 3B 0.232
Milner, LF 0.238
Kranepool, 1B 0.269
Sudakis, C 0.143
Schneck, CF 0.187
Hahn, RF 0.162
Martinez, T, SS 0.224
McAndrew, P 0.047

What dreck.
Please note that not only does Ed Kranepool possess the above lineup’s best batting average, but he has a lead of over 30 points on anyone else. That should never happen. I don’t care if Kranepool is the Mets’ franchise all-time leader in career games played, at-bats, plate appearances, doubles, hits, singles, and total bases, there’s still no excuse for having a lineup where no one’s within 30 points of him.

http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/tht_jaffe25