In 2019 the Binghamton Rumble Ponies season was the tale of two halves as they started the season with a first half record of 35-29 but ended it with a 32-44 in the second half to finish 67-73 .479, finding themselves in fourth place in the Eastern League standings.

Offensively it was a struggle to convert what was a league best on-base percentage of .323 into runs as they finished in the bottom tier with 3.75 runs per game. The high on-base percentage was the result of finishing second in walks and the second lowest strikeout total in the league, however with only 87 home runs and a .362 slugging percentage the power was not what the team would have liked to see.

When taking about individual performances ,the player everyone is most interested in was the teams number one prospect going into the season, Andres Gimenez. After a stellar season in 2018 that saw him hit .282 across two levels, reaching AA as a nineteen year old, many expected the shortstop to further show his potential in his second season in the Parlor City.

Things did not go as well as many had hoped as he finished the season with a .250/.309/.387 line, nine home runs, and 37 RBIs performance while striking out four times as much as he walked.

It wouldn’t be fair to Gimenez to look at these stats without mentioning that he was adjusting to a new swing approach made by coaches/organization in what one would guess was an attempt to help him get more lift on the ball. He also took a pitch to the hand in June that resulted in him missing a little less than two weeks but it had an obvious effect on his performance especially for the remainder of the month. Gimenez did lead the team in a few offensive categories including games played despite the injury.

While Gimenez’s offense took a drop in 2019, the opposite can be said for another infielder Luis Carpio. In 2018, Carpio struggled while playing in St. Lucie and started his 2019 season there as well. After tearing it up in about a 100 at-bats he was called up to Binghamton and finished the season hitting .263/.347/.362 with three home runs and 22 runs batted in. His walk to strikeout rate of 1/1.5 was an encouraging sign for a player still three years younger than the league average.

The defensive prowess of Ali Sanchez has been known to those who follow Mets prospects for a few years now but after a more than respectable .278 AVG in almost 300 at-bats for the Rumble Ponies prior to be called up to Syracuse, he did further some evaluator’s belief that given more time to develop he can be a major league caliber backstop if not at least a very serviceable backup.

The first base position provided most of the limited power produced this season as Patrick Mazeika and Jason Krizan hit 28 of the teams 87 home runs. Mazeika, an 8th round pick by the Mets in 2015, spent the season sharing his time between first and behind the plate playing over 50 games at each position.

His 16 home runs and 69 runs batted in both led the team and finished near the top of the league leaders board. As for Krizan, 30, he signed with the Mets after eight years in the Tigers system and also showed his utility in the field playing four different positions (1B, 2B, LF, and RF) and even getting two innings in on the mound. The veteran led the team in SLG and OPS.

Where the offense had its share of struggles in certain areas the pitching in Binghamton faired much better finishing in the top half of the league in most categories. With a team ERA of 3.59 and 1171 strikeouts compared to 416 walks, the team’s staff provided many winnable games that the offense was unable to capitalize on.

While the team as a whole performed above league average, top ten pitching prospect David Peterson finished a little behind his teammates with a 3-6 record and an ERA over four. His 3.33 strikeout to walk ratio was above league average,

You will not find the name Harol Gonzalez on most top 30 prospect lists but after the season the right-handed pitcher put together in 2019 between Binghamton and Syracuse he may have changed that. In 97.1 IP in AA he put up a 3.14 ERA 16 GS 1.089 WHIP. He kept it up after the promotion so his name should start showing up on those lists before next season and if he is able to work on limiting the long ball, which has been an issue for him, his future is looking brighter than most would have thought.

The pitcher with arguably the most impressive stat line on the season was relief pitcher Adonis Uceta, who appeared in 36 games with a 1.44 ERA, 56.1 IP, 7 SV, 55 K, 17 BB line. The 25-year-old had by far his best season in the minors and considering he only made the switch from starting to relieving in 2017, the Mets have to be impressed by the year he had.

Other relief pitchers who had above average to excellent seasons yet took very different paths to get there were Blake Taylor and Steve Villines. Taylor ,who was once a second round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates out of high school in 2013 and acquired by the Mets in the Ike Davis trade, spent the beginning of his career as a starting pitcher but in 2019 made the change to the bullpen. After starting the season in St. Lucie he was sent to Binghamton were he put together a 1.85 ERA 27.1 IP 29 K 12 BB season before being sent to Syracuse.

Villines was drafted by the Mets in the 10th round of the 2017 draft after a stellar career at Kansas that included becoming the schools all time leader in saves. In 45 innings, he recorded a 1.20 ERA, seven saves, 42 strikeouts, and 14 walks in his stint in AA and received a call up to Syracuse before the season ended. Considering how many question marks exist with the bullpen at the major league level both of these guys have to be names to remember going forward. Taylor is a minor league free agent this offseason.

While 2019 was not the year that the Binghamton Rumble Ponies top prospects performed as well as the organization would have liked, the emergence of a few guys not as well known is an encouraging sign for the system.

MMN Top Prospects

2 Andres Gimenez
6 David Peterson
8 Thomas Szapucki
13 Kevin Smith
15 Ali Sanchez
21 Ryley Gilliam
27 Luis Carpio
28 Sam Haggerty
29 Tylor Megill

Coaching staff

Manager – Kevin Boles
Hitting Coach – Tony Jaramillo
Pitching Coach – Jonathan Hurst
Bench Coach – Ender Chavez

Batting Leaders

G: Andres Gimenez 117
PA: Andres Gimenez 479
AB: Andres Gimenez 432
R: Andres Gimenez 54
H: Andres Gimenez 108
2B: Patrick Mazeika 25 ( League tied 9th)
3B: Andres Gimenez and Sam Haggerty ( Tied 4th)
HR: Patrick Mazeika 16 ( 3rd)
RBI : Patrick Mazeika 69 ( Tied 2nd)
TB: Patrick Mazeika 176
SB: Andres Gimenez 28 ( Tied 5th)
BA: Ali Sanchez .278
OBP: Sam Haggerty .370 ( Tied 4th)
SLG: Jason Krizan .443
OPS: Jason Krizan .778

Pitching Leaders

W: Mickey Jannis and Anthony Kay 7 ( Tied 7th)
ERA: Adonis Uceta 1.44 ( 2nd)
G: Adonis Uceta 36 ( Tied 10th)
GS: Davis Peterson 24 ( Tied 3rd)
SV: Adonis Uceta and Steve Villines 7 ( Tied 7th)
HLD: Joe Zanghi 5
K: David Peterson 122 (4th)
WHIP: Zach Lee .908 ( 2nd)

Previous Reviews

DSL Mets

GCL Mets
Kingsport Mets
St. Lucie Mets
Columbia Fireflies
Syracuse Mets