If you were looking for exciting and winning baseball from the Mets this season, you got that in Binghamton in what was their inaugural season as the Rumble Ponies. Much like the Mets run in 2016, the Rumble Ponies were fueled by an exciting run over the last month plus of the season. From August 1st until the end of the regular season, the Rumble Ponies would go on a 27-12 tear to claim one a spot in the postseason.
Whereas we have seen baseball take a paradigm shift towards power hitting, the Rumble Ponies succeeded with a tried and true formula – pitching and defense.
When it comes to defense, you need not look any further than Luis Guillorme. From the moment you saw him catch Adeiny Hechavarria‘s bat in Spring Training, you knew he was in for a special year. As it turns out, this was just the first of many showstopping highlight reel plays Guillorme would make all season long. Guillorme was a fixture as MMN’s Defensive Player of the Month, and his defensive plays were featured in MiLB Plays of the Week:
However, it wasn’t just Guillorme flashing the leather out there. The Rumble Ponies were an exceptionally skilled defensive team with David Thompson at third, Gustavo Nunez at short, and an outfield comprised of Patrick Biondi, Kevin Taylor, Champ Stuart, and Kevin Kaczmarski. This was a fast, agile, and smart defensive team. Of course, no defensive team is complete without a good defensive catcher, and the Rumble Ponies had one with Tomas Nido.
A defensive team like is that is a pitcher’s best friend. It should then come as no surprise the Rumble Ponies had a number of outstanding pitching performances this season.
The Rumble Ponies had a fantastic starting staff, but overall, it would be Corey Oswalt, who would be the breakout pitcher on this staff. Not only did Oswalt emerge as the staff ace, but he would put up arguably one of the best seasons by any pitcher in the Eastern League in 2017. The starter in the All Star Game would lead the league in ERA, finish second in wins, and he would finish sixth in strikeouts. The four pitch pitcher armed with a mid-90s fastball certainly took the league by storm, and he has caught everyone’s attention.
In that way, he’s not too dissimilar from Chris Flexen. Like Oswalt, Flexen had taken the Eastern League by storm. However, his stay was much shorter as he was called to the majors straight from Double-A. This made him the first Mets pitcher to do so since Mike Pelfrey did it back in 2006.
The sudden rise of Oswalt and Flexen is certainly a credit to Rumble Ponies Pitching Coach Glenn Abbot. Abbot not only got breakout seasons from Oswalt and Flexen, he worked with an entire pitching staff with seemingly all of them making strides towards being Major League players.
P.J. Conlon learned how to adapt to a higher level earning multiple Pitcher of the Week awards and leading the league in complete games and shutouts. Mickey Jannis was able to re-harness his knuckleball to get his career back on track after a tough 2016 season. Corey Burns would finish second in the league in saves. Ben Griset was a dominating LOOGY. As dominating as both were, Tim Peterson might’ve been more dominating with his 1.14 ERA and 0.777 WHIP. Overall, there were special performances in the rotation and bullpen that are too numerous to highlight.
While the pitching and defense proved to be special, teams do not win on pitching and defense alone. Rather, you need a complete team that has the ability to score runs.
This was a different offensive club than the one we have seen the Mets try to build at the Major League level. This was a roster full of players that would get on base and use their speed to build rallies and score runs.
In the starting lineup, the Rumble Ponies had four players with an OBP of at least .360 with Guillorme leading the team with a .376 OBP. Stuart, Biondi, and Kaczmarski would all have double digit steals with Stuart leading the league with 35 stolen bases. There were eight players with 15 or more doubles.
As a team, the Rumble Ponies would finish third in the Eastern League with a .337 team OBP, second in the league with 111 stolen bases, and first in the league in walks (503). Overall, this was an exciting brand of baseball where the Rumble Ponies got on base, took the extra base, and they scored runs.
This brand of baseball took them to the postseason, and behind their ace Oswalt, the Rumble Ponies would take the first game in the series. Unfortunately, that’s where the ride ended. The team would lose the next three games, with two of them being close hard fought games, and they were eliminated by the Trenton Thunder from the postseason.
Even with the Rumble Ponies not winning the Eastern League Championship, this was unequivocally a great season. Luis Rojas and his staff got the most out of their players, and they helped their players become better ballplayers. They did this while winning games and playing exciting baseball. Ultimately, this is minor league baseball at its best. To that end, no team in the entire Mets system would have a better year than the Rumble Ponies.
Coaching Staff
Manager: Luis Rojas
Pitching Coach: Glenn Abbot
Hitting Coach: Valentino Pascucci
MMN Top 40 Prospects
13 Luis Guillorme
14 Corey Oswalt
22 P.J. Conlon
29 David Thompson
Awards
Player of the Week – Stuart (4/24/17),
Pitcher of the Week – Conlon (5/1/17 & 7/17/17), Flexen (7/10/17), Oswalt (7/31/17)
All Stars – Nido, Guillorme, Conlon, Oswalt, Taylor
Postseason All Stars – Guillorme, Oswalt, Conlon
Pitcher of the Year – Oswalt
Batting Leaders
PA Luis Guillorme 558
AB Luis Guillorme 481 (7th Eastern League)
R Luis Guillorme 70 (6th Eastern League)
H Luis Guillorme 136 (4th Eastern League)
2B David Thompson 29 (4th Eastern League)
3B Kevin Kaczmarski 5 (4th Eastern League)
HR David Thompson 16
RBI David Thompson 68 (10th Eastern League)
TB Thompson 204 (9th Eastern League)
SB Champ Stuart 35 (League Leader)
BA Kevin Taylor .292 (8th Eastern League)
OBP Luis Guillorme .376 (6th Eastern League)
SLG Cody Decker .526
OPS .877
Starting Pitching Leaders
(Minimum 100 IP)
W Oswalt 12 (2nd Eastern League)
ERA Oswalt 2.28 (League Leader)
GS Oswalt 24 (10th Eastern League)
CG Conlon 3 (League Leader)
SHO Conlon 3 (League Leader)
IP Conlon 136.0
K Oswalt 119 (6th Eastern League)
WHIP Oswalt 1.176 (3rd Eastern League)
Relief Pitching Leaders
(Minimum 50 IP)
W Tim Peterson & Corey Taylor 5
ERA Peterson 1.14
G Taylor (6th Eastern League)
SV Burns 19 (2nd Eastern League)
IP Taylor 62.1
K Peterson 53
WHIP Peterson 0.777
Previous Season Recaps
