A tight baseball race is unfolding in the Double-A Eastern League with just three games separating the top four teams in the Eastern Division. As the month of April drew to a close, the 2013 regular season defending champion Binghamton Mets, found themselves at 12-10, but after just four games into May, they are 14-12, tied for third place and three games behind first place Trenton Thunder and two and half behind the second place Portland Sea Dogs.
The Sea Dogs have proven problematic for Binghamton in the early going winning five of the eight contests in which both teams have played against each other. The B-Mets have also come up on the short end of six games with the Akron Rubber Ducks winning just two, but have feasted on Erie and New Hampshire beating the Sea Wolves four of five times and the Fischer Cats five of seven.
Asked to alternate between shortstop and second base with Matt Reynolds has had no ill effects on Wilfredo Tovar. The slick fielding B-Mets infielder has had a torrid season so far, leading the B-Mets in batting at .347. Tovar, who is a clutch contact hitter, has only struck out three times in 75 at bats and has the second best RBI total on the team with 14. That’s impressive offensive production for a guy who bats at the bottom of the B-Met batting order.
For his part, Reynolds has been equally productive as part of the shared infield tandem. After a slow start in week number one, Reynolds has been on fire raising his batting average to .322 and with 12 base-on-balls, he is the second best on the team with a .398 on-base-percentage.
Matt Clark is building a case as a bonafide Eastern League slugger. The big B-Met first baseman has been nothing short of sensational at the plate and is in the top ten of the Eastern League in seven different offensive categories: batting average (.346), OBP (.439), slugging percentage (.630), OPS (1.068), HR’s (6), base-on-balls (14), and total bases (51).
Catching continues to be a strong point for the B-Mets both offensively and defensively. Kevin Plawecki is getting the lion’s share of time behind the plate and has a solid hitting line .284/.324/.373, but has yet to show much power. For his part, Xorge Carrillo continues to impress every time he gets a start, batting .345 with a .394 OBP in 29 at bats.
Center fielder Darrell Ceciliani had a solid opening month of May batting .297 with a team leading five stolen bases.
The B-Mets are looking for some forward progress from first baseman Jayce Boyd and outfielders Cory Vaughn and Dustin Lawley as the season unfolds. Boyd and the outfield combo are off to slow starts in Binghamton with Boyd hitting just .182, Lawley .192, and Vaughn .177 thus far. Noted for his home run power, Lawley hit only one four bagger in the month of April.
Solid starting pitching has been the B-Met trump card to date. Darin Gorski stands tall as Binghamton’s ace going 2-1 with a solid 3.04 ERA and has fanned 28 batters in almost 27 innings of work. Hansel Robles leads the B-Met starters in ERA at 2.21 and is 1-0 with 21 strikeouts in 20 innings, but has walked 11 batters.
Pitching to contact, Rainy Lara is 2-1 with a solid 3.67 ERA. Greg Peavey finished April at 0-1 with a 1.13 WHIP, but opened up May with a solid start that earned him his first victory on the season. Only Tyler Pill has struggled in the B-Met starting rotation. Pill has yet to pick up his first Double-A win against 4 losses.
The B-Met bullpen, a consistent factor in last season’s record breaking season, is still taking shape. Chase Bradford is finding his groove as the B-Met closer. He was (1-1) with five saves in April and after appreaing in a game on May 3 and not allowing a run, he now has a 2.92 ERA. Cody Satterwhite has yet to allow a run and has an impressive 0.96 WHIP in 16 innings of relief for Binghamton. John Church has fanned 16 batters against only giving up three walks in just under 13 innings of work from the pen so far.
Jack Leathersich continues to be a strikeout machine fanning 20 batters in just 11 innings on the hill for Binghamton, but command issues continue to plaque Leathersich who has walked nine batters over that time.
Looking forward to what the B-Mets can do in the month of May. Hopefully the big bats will come to live and help the team surge to the top of the Eastern League.
