Photo by Ernest Dove
Once again, there have been a number of outstanding performances in the Mets minor leagues during the Month of June with some players starting to raise their profiles. While we cannot mention everyone who has had a good month, here are the staff selections for the Player of the Month in each category.
Position Player Of The Month – 3B David Thompson
With all the issues surrounding David Wright, there are constantly questions about who the Mets third baseman of the future will be. During the past month, Rumble Ponies third baseman Thompson reminded everyone just why he should received due consideration.
Since April, Thompson has progressed in each and every area of his offensive game, but this past month, we began to see Thompson hit for much more power. In 27 games, Thompson hit .307/.386/.545 with nine doubles, four homers, and 14 RBI. The highlight of the month for Thompson was his June 18th game against the Reading Fightin Phils. In the game, Thompson was 3-3 with a walk, two homers, and three RBI.
It was an important month for a player who has made significant strides in his first full season in Double-A. If he continues to improve, he may very well figure into the Mets future plans.
Honorable Mention – 1B Peter Alonso began to find his power stroke this past month hitting .275/.352/.500 with nine doubles, three homers, and 19 RBI. He was named the Florida State League’s Player of the Week for the week ending June 25, 2017.
Starting Pitcher Of The Month – RHP Chris Flexen
In a somewhat surprising move this offseason, the Mets added Flexen to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. Certainly, Flexen had the stuff, but he had also never pitched above the Florida State League level. Flexen has been dominant all year, and he has been quieting those who have criticized the move.
After a dominant May in St. Lucie, Flexen was promoted to Double-A Binghamton, where he has been ever better. In the Month of June, he made four starts going 3-1 with a 1.69 ERA, 0.64 WHIP, and a 9.8 K/9. All four of his starts were quality starts, and he averaged 6.2 inning per start. What might be the most impressive part of his performance was he did not walk one single batter during the entire month. It should then come as no surprise that Flexen has been pounding the strike zone throwing 84.4% of his pitches for strikes.
Then again it is easy to pound the strike zone when your stuff is as good as Flexen’s, and you trust your stuff. So long as Flexen continues to trust his stuff, he will continue to dominate the minors, and his call to the majors may not be as far away as we all once thought it would be.
Honorable Mention – RHP Nabil Crismatt made four starts going 1-2 with a complete game, a 1.95 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, and an 8.8 K/9. He was named the St. Lucie Mets Pitcher of the Month.
Reliever Of The Month – RHP Adonis Uceta
The former starter Uceta has been moved to the bullpen, and he has been completely and utterly dominant for the Columbia Fireflies this season. A large part of that is not just because he can now get his fastball up to 98 MPH coming out of the bullpen, but also because the flame thrower has begun to cut down on his walks.
The end result has been a month where Uceta did not allow a single run in his eight appearances. Then again, it’s hard for a run to be scored off a pitcher when he allows only 10 base runners in 13.1 innings. Really, opposing batters have little to no chance against him.
For proof of this, look no further than his .159 batting average against in the month, or the 10.5 batters per nine he struck out. With numbers like that, it is no wonder Uceta was 1-0 while converting all four of his save chances.
Uceta keeps getting better and better. Likely, this will not be his last time on one of these lists.
Honorable Mention – RHP Kyle Regnault made nine appearances for Las Vegas going 1-0 with a o.75 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP. This is his second straight month being the honorable mention.
Defensive Player Of The Month – INF Luis Guillorme
On the one hand, you can say Guillorme once again being named the defensive player of the month is getting redundant. This is the second time in three months he has been dubbed as such. On the other hand, Guillorme is just that incredible in the field. The latest example is his June 7th play that was MiLB‘s Play of the Week:
Seeing plays like this, Mets minor leaguers are really going to have to have really outstanding months for Guillorme not to be named the Defensive Player of the Month each and every month going forward.
Honorable Mention – 1B Dominic Smith continues to be an outstanding first baseman not only posting an outstanding .994 fielding percentage this season, but also by helping save his infielders from errors with his glove work.
Oswalt another great performance. Oswalt and Guillorme should be promoted to AAA. Uceta should move to St. Lucie asap.
I think we’ll see a lot of movement over the next three to four weeks. Once the Mets commit to trading off the vets and calling up the AAA playes to replace them, there will be a big domino effect. There are also a lot of journeymen who can be released to make room for the deserving prospects.
Very true. Mets will be in sell mode so guys like Grandy, Bruce, Duda, Reed are probably moving creating vacancies that will have to be filled in by AAA & will trickle down. There’s a couple of AA starters that can replace the PooPoo platter of starters in AAA then the starters doing well in High A can take their spots.
Agreed. Its just a matter of timing. A couple of moves can be made at any moment, but August looks more likely than July for most of the moves: Oswalt is just about ready for a move up. Flexen has been dominant, but the Mets may want to give him 3 or 4 more starts at AA just to see whether or not the league figures him out the second time around. Similarly, Crismatt can easily be promoted. But Merandy and Humphreys only have a couple of starts each under their belts. (And do we even know when Humphreys is returning from the DL?)