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MMN Player of the Week: Mike Baxter

By Former Writers

September 9, 2013 2 Comments

mike-baxter

Congratulations to Las Vegas 51s right fielder Mike Baxter for being awarded with the MMN Player of the Week honors.

When I think about Mike, the first thing that comes to my mind is a “Journeyman”. That is what I think of when I look at Mike’s current career. Especially since he has spent time in the majors, playing well and contributing some key hits for the Mets, then moving down to the minors when it was time to make room for a player returning from the disabled list, and still performing well.

After being sent down to Las Vegas on August 24 to make room for Lucas Duda, Mike took a few games to get back into rhythm. The first three games he was 2 for 8, but then in his fourth game back, Mike started to hit. It started on August 27th when he went 2 for 4, a home run and four runs batted in.  In the next five games, he would bat .381 (8-for-21), 7 runs, 5 doubles, a home run, and 4 runs batted in.

Going into this past week, Mike would find himself and his teammates in the midst of chasing a championship. The hope was that the 51s would continue their good fortunes from the season and breeze through the first round and into the championship series, but it just wasn’t meant to be.  They lost to the Salt Lake Bees 3 games to 1, and their hopes of winning a championship ended.  Mike played well in the series and now has turned his attention back to where we all know he would rather be and that is with the big club at Citi Field, especially since Mike is a native New Yorker out of Whitestone.

Reports indicate that Mike will be called back up to the Mets today. For what he has accomplished these last few weeks, he surely deserves another chance. To be a journeyman is to have a strong will to succeed;  the road may not always lead to where you would hope, but with hard work and dedication the road most times will end where you belong. I can only guess that Mike would hope the road ends with a permanent spot on the big club.  I can say that Mike has earned at least another shot to show what he can do. This Week: .385, 5 for 13, 3 runs, double, triple, RBI, and 3 walks.

Honorable Mentions

Las Vegas 51s – C Juan Centeno

Juan came into the week hitting very well. In his last ten games prior to Monday, Juan was batting .333 (8-for-24), 4 runs, with 3 multi-hit games.  For the good numbers he has put up this season, reports indicate that he will be promoted to the Mets today when the team expands their rosters.  This will be Juan’s first trip to the majors and he has earned it. This Week: .357, 5 for 14, double, 2 triples, RBI.

B-Mets – 2B Daniel Muno

With the summer that the B-Mets had, it is very shocking to not see them in the championship round.  But in this game of baseball, anything can happen and you can never predict that the team will have a happy ending.  Daniel had a good week at the plate, but not taking anything away from the rest of the team, I think they just met a hot team in Trenton. They should all hold their heads up high; they had a great season worth being proud of. This Week: .400, 6 for 15, run, 3 doubles and 3 walks.

Sand Gnats – CF Brandon Nimmo

Brandon is no stranger to our Player of the Week honors or even being named in our honorable mention section.  He had a very good week at the plate which also turned out to be a very good week for the Sand Gnats. They won their opening round series and have advanced to the championship.  With Brandon heating up again at the plate and with the balance of the Sand Gnats lineup, a championship win looks very promising. This Week:  .400, 4 for 10, run, triple, 4 runs batted in, and a walk.

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This will be the last installment of the MMN Player of the Week for 2013.  I took over this feature on August 5th and it has been one exciting ride.  I have really gotten to know the Mets Farm System and I was really thrilled to have been able to witness such a great season for all the levels.  The Mets’ future looks extremely bright and I am honored to have had the opportunity to showcase some of their players.  I look forward to 2014 and I will continue to do my part to make MetsMinors.net one of the best, if not, the best Mets Minor league blog site on the web.

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