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Mets Minors Weekly Top Performers: Francisco Alvarez Slugging

By John Sheridan

July 15, 2019 No comments

Photo by Ed Delany. MMN

Syracuse Mets – Rene Rivera

Season Stats: .270/.323/.484, 7 2B, 15 HR, 15 RBI
Week Stats: .357/.438/.786, 2 HR, 3 RBI

This season, Rivera has set a career best for home runs at any level with 15 homers for Syracuse this year. His home run surge and overall good offensive season continued with him hitting two home runs this past week. In addition to the two home runs, Rivera has a hit in eight of the 10 games he has played in July with him having four multi-hit games.

Rivera is hitting better than he ever has while doing his usual good work behind the plate. We have seen pitchers like Drew Gagnon and Chris Mazza benefit from working with him and get rewarded with a promotion to the majors. This past week, we would also see Anthony Kay have his best start since his promotion to Triple-A.

Binghamton Rumble Ponies – Jason Krizan

Season Stats: .237/.324/.390, 12 2B, 3B, 7 HR, 39 RBI
Week Stats: .417/.500/.667, HR, 2 RBI

While Krizan has struggled much of the year at the plate, he has had a big July hitting .353/.429/.525 this month. He has reached safely in each of the 10 games he has played, and he currently has a three game hitting streak. His best game of the past week was his going 2-for-4 with a home run, walk, and two RBI against the Portland Sea Dogs.

St. Lucie Mets – Hansel Moreno

Season Stats: .237/.300/.359, 6 2B, 3 3B, 6 HR, 25 RBI, 11 SB, 7 CS
Week Stats: .429/.500/.905, 2B, 3 3B, HR, 5 RBI

With his having a four game hitting streak beginning at the end of June, Moreno would be promoted back to St. Lucie, and he would be sizzling hot since the promotion. In his 13 games since being promoted, he is hitting .375/.432/.625. This past week he has one-third of his season total of extra base hits and all of his triples. Another positive development from the past week was his drawing more walks (3) than strike outs (2).

Columbia Fireflies – Shervyen Newton

Season Stats: .225/.291/.335, 12 2B, 3B, 4 HR, 18 RBI, 3 CS
Week Stats: .421/.421/.684, 2 2B, HR, RBI, CS

Newton dealt with injuries early in the year, and he would struggle. Recently, he looks fully healthy and the type of player we expected to see coming off his terrific year with Columbia. Newton has a hit in seven of his last eight games with all of them being multi-hit games.

Of note, Newton is doing this while becoming more versatile in the field playing second and third base in addition to the shortstop he played most of his professional career. He has gotten more comfortable at the positions, and he has been playing better not having made an error at third in over a month and having just two errors at second over the same time frame.

Brooklyn Cyclones – Ranfy Adon

Season Stats: .245/.250/.362, 3 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 7 SB, CS
Week Stats: .435/.435/.739, 2 2B, 3B, HR, 3 RBI, 3 SB

Adon just had a monster week where he accumulated 67 percent of his season total of extra base hits and nearly half of his stolen bases. After having just two multi-hit games in over the first 15 games of the season, he had three this week alone including a 4-for-4 game with a double, two RBI, and a stolen base.

Kingsport Mets – Francisco Alvarez

Season Stats: .404/.516/.673, 5 2B, 3 HR, 14 RBI, SB
Week Stats: .667/.750/1.000, 2B, HR, 3 RBI

The 17 year old catcher had surpassed Amed Rosario and Ronny Mauricio for the largest signing bonus ever given to an international free agent. So far this year, he has been proving to be well worth the money by tearing the cover off the ball while being better than advertised behind the plate.

When Alvarez was tearing the cover off the ball in the Gulf Coast, he was promoted to Kingsport. After a brief adjustment period, he has begun destroying the baseball again. He currently has a five game hitting streak where he is hitting .563/.650/.813. This past week he has struck out as many times as he has walked. Overall, Alvarez looks like a very special player, and it will be very interesting to see how he finishes out this season.

Gulf Coast Mets – Anderson Bohorquez

Season Stats: .241/.268/.389, 5 2B, HR, 6 RBI, SB, 2 CS
Week Stats: .400/.438/.533, 2 2B, 3 RBI, 2 CS

Half of Bohorquez’s RBI for the season came over a two game span. He would also have three consecutive two-hit games over the past week which tripled his season total of multi-hit games for the season. His best game of the week and the season was Saturday against the Nationals’ Gulf Coast affiliate where he was 2-for-5 with two runs, a double, and two RBI.

DSL Mets – Luis Castillo

Season Stats: .300/.406/.378, 3 2B, 2 3B, 11 RBI, SB
Week Stats: .417/.500/.583, 3B, 2 RBI

Even though he has played some second base, no, he is not that Luis Castillo. Like Alvarez, he was signed as an international free agent last year. The 17 year old shortstop currently has a three game hitting streak, and he has reached safely in four straight games. As impressive as his two multi-hit games might’ve been this week, he also had a game where he drew three walks.