Last Night’s Quick Scores

• Las Vegas dropped to Round Rock, 9-5. 
• Binghamton topped Trenton, 3-1. 
• St. Lucie defeated Daytona in extras, 6-5. 
• Savannah had the day off. 

Injury and Health News

After being called a hand contusion and nothing serious, it seems that Brandon Nimmo will be headed to the disabled list after all.

We have our Savannah Beat Writer Wally Murphy at the game right now and he will give us the official report later this evening with his game recap.

Yesterday, Joe D. posted the following in our Mets Minors Report:

Brandon Nimmo still has not returned to the lineup since April 29 because of a hand contusion. The Mets now consider it more serious than initially thought and will have him seen by team doctors with a possible MRI as well. DL stint looming.

According to freelance journalist Robert Brender, Mets catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud is due to be examined in New York on May 17 and currently remains in a walking boot.

“I’m in a boot that I’ve been wearing all the time, except when I sleep,” d’Arnaud said.

“It’s really frustrating. I just want to be out there playing and some freak injury happens and I can’t do anything about it. It just takes away time from playing and being on the field. I was feeling really good and was having fun playing (before the injury). I think just not being able to play is the worst part about it.”

“I already had the last half of last year not playing and now this happens. I just want to get back on the field playing again.”

Baseball’s top ranked catching prospect suffered a fractured first metatarsal in his left foot with Triple-A Las Vegas last month. Depending on how the examination goes, he may be able to begin an injury rehab at the Mets complex in Port St. Lucie sometime this month. He was originally expected to return to games around mid-June.

Prospect Pipeline

• Zack Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard, Rafael Montero, Luis Mateo, and Domingo Tapia are all in the Mets farm system, yet Logan Verrett has pitched the game of the year for the Mets minor leagues, just coming off of one of the more impressive starts I’ve seen in a long time from Montero. As Satish Ram said in the Binghamton Game recap, “Verrett went ahead on Wednesday and tossed perhaps the best game of his career – as he nearly finished the game with a complete game victory. He was taken out of the game after 99 pitches, which perhaps was pitch count related, before he could achieve the final out. At that point, he had allowed just the one earned run in the bottom of the fourth, and was utterly dominant throughout the entire game. His nine strikeouts were demonstrative of that fact.”
• Verrett is flying under the radar this season, but he has been pitching very well. He now has five wins on the year, which is good for tops in the Mets organization, and also tops the Eastern League. He also leads the EL in innings pitched (47.1). Verret is also ranked third in the organization in opposing hitter’s batting average (,207), and fourth in the organization, fifth in the EL, in WHIP (0.97). Pretty impressive. After last night’s performance, it’s safe to say that Verrett is no longer flying under the radar.
• Cesar Puello: All he does is hit home runs? He extended his hit streak to 15 games in grand fashion again by crushing another two home runs last night, one of which was an absolute bomb. His last three hits are now home runs. He’s showing off that power we all have heard so much about and is now batting.296/.360/.531 in 24 games.
• Aderlin Rodriguez has been smoking the ball over the past three games. In that span, he is 7-for-14 with four doubles, two home runs, and eight RBIs. He now leads the Mets organization with six home runs on the year, and he had the walk-off hit to plate T.J. Rivera in the tenth inning of last night’s victory.
• Here is what the Trenton Thunder pitching coach, Tommy Phelps, had to say about Montero after his start on Tuesday night: “Our guys were talking about facing Montero last year in the Florida State League and were very impressed with him…He’s got real good stuff.”
• I’m not sure how many caught this in the transactions section yesterday, but the Mets promoted catcher Xorge Carrillo from Brooklyn, to St. Lucie. This was a major head scratcher here. Kevin Plawecki has earned a promotion at this point, absolutely dominating and overpowering the Low-A pitching in the SAL. What would prompt the Mets to promote a player in Carrillo, who has had 26 hits in 39 professional games? Plawecki has 44 hits alone this season, and showing no signs of slowing down. It’s either the snub of the year, or like I predicted, there serves no point in skipping Plawecki to High-A ball, because the level of competition is not much different. When Plawecki is ready, he will be in Binghamton.
• Adam Rubin reported yesterday that Collin Cowgill and Kirk Nieuwenhuis would both be seeing time in centerfield with Las Vegas this year. Things are going to get real crowded out there once Matt den Dekker returns from his wrist injury.
• Juan Lagares and Andrew Brown were dominating at the Triple-A level, but have looked lost against big league pitchers. The question I raised when I heard they were promoting the two outfielders, was why the Mets would promote offensive players, coming from a “hitter’s league,” when their numbers were inflated, and seemingly ignore the pitchers, because their numbers are deflated due to the same reason. When looking at the PCL players, you have to take the offensive and pitching statistics with a grain of salt, and rely more on good old fashioned scouting when judging whether a player is ready or not.
• I have but one thing to add to this report. Remember back in February when I said that signing Carlos Torres was a useless move that will only create a logjam and keep pitchers at lower levels because of the trickle down effect? Pitchers like Jacob deGrom and Rainy Lara paid the price because they were squeezed into lower levels that would present no challenge to them and that’s exactly what happened. Torres has allowed 23 earned runs in 27.0 innings for a 7.39 ERA. The other two have proven that they should have started at higher levels and one (deGrom) already has been promoted. Lara will be promoted soon as well. Carlos Torres? A 30-year-old flop who was released twice by teams desperately starving for starting pitching? Are you freaking kidding me? (Joe D.)

Stat Lines of the Day

Logan Verrett: 8.2 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 1 ER, 9 K

Cesar Puello: 2-for-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R

Aderlin Rodriguez: 3-for-5, 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 R (game winning, walk-off hit)

Organizational Leaders

Sounding Off

B-Mets pitching coach Glenn Abbott talks about Rafael Montero’s last start and sheds light on the rest of his dominating pitching staff.

Quote of the Day

Today’s quote of the day comes from the Star-Ledger regarding if Jeremy Hefner is hearing Zack Wheeler‘s footsteps:

“If it was right now, if he came up today, then yeah I would probably be the one that gets sent down,” Hefner, 27, said Tuesday. “I’m realistic enough to know that, but I can’t control that.”

“I came up early and then it was all the talk about, ‘When’s Matt coming up?”’ Hefner said. “And much like Zack, they deserve all that press because they’re that good. What it comes down to is I can only control what I can control. If the effort I give every fifth day is good enough to stick, then it’s good enough to stick. And if it’s not, I have stuff I need to work on. If Zack comes up for me, that’s not going to make me hate Zack Wheeler.”

Photo of the Day

After a long hot day on the farm, I like to chill out with my MMO Mets Minors Report.