The New York Mets farm system played two games in the back fields at First Data field today against the St. Louis Cardinals.

I was able to catch bits and pieces of both games and would like to share them with you –

Double-A Game

Kevin Kaczmarski lead off and played center field for what looked like a good majority of guys that will open up for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. Kaczmarski, 25, had two hits on the the day including an RBI triple.

Youngster Jose Miguel Medina got the start in right field for the Double-A squad despite playing in only Rookie League Kingsport last year. The lanky 20-year old had a good day at the plate with a single, line drive out and fly ball to right field with nobody out to move a runner from second to third.

Luis Guillorme played shortstop and made a nice leaping catch on a line drive. He also had a double to the left center field gap and overall has started to show some more pop this spring.

Jiovanni Mier, 26-year old infielder that spent 2016 in Triple-A for the Blue Jays, started the game at third base for the Mets. He hit just .219/.287/.317 last year. He was rated by the Baseball American as the number two prospect in the Houston Astros system back in 2009.

Reed Gamache hit an RBI single off former major leaguer Daniel Bard, whom was sporting a new sidearm delivery.

Other players in the game included Tomas Nido catching, Kevin Taylor at first, L.J. Mazzilli at second base, Danny Hoy in left field and Franklin Correa played an inning at second and shortstop.

On the pitching side, Marcos Molina got the start for the Double-A squad and here is a video of his delivery. Molina threw five solid innings, he had multiple strikeouts on his slider which looked good. As you can see in the video, his mechanics have certainly improved but could still involved his bottom half more.

Lefty Ben Griset threw a scoreless inning showing off good command and a sharp curveball.

Right-hander and offseason free agent signee Joshua Torres threw an impressive 1-2-3 inning. He struck out two and showed off a very good changeup.

The final pitcher was lefty Alberto Baldonado that threw a 1-2-3 inning. The velocity and the movement on the curveball was good, as was the command which was an issue last season.

Triple-A Game

The starting infielder for the probable Las Vegas 51s team was Dominic Smith at first base, Gavin Cecchini at second, Amed Rosario at shortstop and Phillip Evans manning the hot corner.

Phillip Evans had the big hit of the day with a three-run blast to right field and also singled.

Matt Reynolds made the start in left field and made two nice plays going into the gap to make running catches.

18-year old Andres Gimenez replaced Rosario at shortstop late in the game, but didn’t get any balls hit to him.

Adam Wilk got the start on the mound, he was solid for five innings. He was pounding the strike zone and kept the ball on the ground for the most part.

Luis Mateo and Kyle Regnault threw scoreless innings for the Mets. Submariner Ben Rowen allowed an unearned run and had a hard time putting hitters away.

Notes

Outfielder Champ Stuart only pinch ran in the game and when he did so, he was wearing a brace on his right hand.

Third baseman David Thompson will begin the 2017 season with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies.

Rene Rivera bounced back-and-forth between both games to get as many at-bats as possible.

Innings don’t always end with three outs, they also end if the pitcher has hit his max limit of pitches.

Molina laid down two perfect sacrifice bunts in two chances.

All photos by Ed Delany.