(Photo by Chris Ruppert)

The St. Lucie Mets had an early 10:30 am start time on Tuesday, and apparently forgot to get out of bed, as they were dominated by the Marlins affiliate Jupiter Hammerheads 8-2.

Wuilmer Becerra was finally cooled at the plate going 0 for 4 with two K’s, and looked over matched vs Jupiter lefty Dillon Peters (who at 5’10” looks to be a Billy Wagner clone with not quite the velocity, sitting 92-94 MPH).

Joining Becerra in his struggles were Jhoan Urena and Amed Rosario, going a combined 1 for 7 with 2K’s and a GIDP, with Urena contributing an error in the field as well. Rosario on one particular strike looked more like Bartolo Colon than the Mets top SS prospect, swinging at a ball that almost hit him in the foot, while corkscrewing himself in the ground, helmet falling off to boot.

Rosario looked particularly disinterested today, with his weak effort at the plate being combined with half-hearted jogs to 1st base and a lack of aggressiveness on the defensive end. While there is no denying Rosario’s cannon for an arm, he played back on a number of balls rather than charging them and then relied on his arm strength to make up the difference. This led to several close plays at first that should have been much easier outs. On one particular play Amed sat back, realized the runner was a little faster than anticipated and sailed his throw to first, only to be saved an error by a leaping Michael Katz and then followed with a sweeping tag to the runners back. This is a trend that will have to be worked on going forward.

On the mound for the Mets, Josh Prevost, had little command of his secondary pitches, while not having a proverbial “put away” pitch, going 3 and 2 on several batters but failing to put them away. At one point in the 3rd inning, the home plate umpire missed a call on what appeared to be a 3rd strike, to which Prevost flailed his arms and looked on in wonder, and preceded to stomp around the mound before re-engaging the batter.

A few bright spots on the day were the continued production at the plate for left fielder Kevin Taylor. His compact short stroke continues to produce results as he was 2 for 2 at the plate, just missing a home run with a shot off the center field fence that resulted in a double, adding an RBI and a walk later in the game as well. Taylor is now batting a robust .373 in his breakout season. Luis Guillorme continued to live up to his strong defensive reputation, and impressed with MLB quality range at 2nd base ranging wide to snare several hard hit ground balls that originally looked destined to find their way into the outfield. Box Score

NOTES:
The Marlins affiliate has an impressive bullpen arm in Drew Steckenrider who was sitting 95+ on the radar gun and seemed to catch the eye of several scouts at the game who were clamoring about his velocity and command. He has yet to give up a run in 10 innings of work so far this year and is averaging 16 K’s per 9 innings with a paltry .065 batting average against.