AA: Binghamton Mets (42-26) @ Richmond Flying Squirrels (34-33) Listen
Wednesday 5:05 ET – RHP Erik Goeddel (6-2, 4.27) vs. LHP Carlos Teller (1-2, 2.20)
Wed. Game Two – LHP Darin Gorski (0-0, 2.25) vs. RHP Taylor Rogers (4-3, 5.90)
In two June starts Erik Goeddel has allowed just 2 runs on 10 hits over 13 IP, while striking out 12 and walking 3. He picked up two wins against Trenton, helping the B-Mets pull 9 games clear of their division foe.
Carlos Teller has struck out 24 and walked 24 over 6 starts for Richmond.
Darin Gorski returned from the DL with Binghamton seven days ago, allowing 1 run on 4 hits and 1 BB, striking out 5 over 4 IP. He had allowed 26 base runners in 13.1 IP in an ineffective 4 outings for Las Vegas to begin the year.
Taylor Rogers allowed 6 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks, striking out 5 over 4.2 IP in his last start. He has struck out 28 and walked 21 in 39.2 IP this year.
A+: Charlotte StoneCrabs (29-37) @ St. Lucie Mets (36-30) Listen
Wednesday 6:30 ET – TBA vs. RHP Rainy Lara (0-2, 1.86)
Rainy Lara can commiserate with the big league Mets starters having allowed just 4 ER in 3 FSL starts to go 0-2. He’s struck out 14 and walked 2, and only allowed 16 hits over 19.1 IP, but couldn’t stop 5 unearned runs from scoring while he was on the mound.
A-Sh: Brooklyn Cyclones (0-1) @ Staten Island Yankees (1-0) Listen
Wednesday 7:00 ET – Miller Diaz (NR) vs. RHP Andrew Benak (NR)
Miller Diaz spent most of last year with Kingsport making 11 appearances (5 starts) and striking out 45 while walking 18 over 43 IP and holding batters to a .220 average. The 6’1″ Venezuelan will turn 21 on Saturday.
Andrew Benak pitched for SI last year striking out 35 and walking 24 over 61 IP in 16 appearances (12 starts)
AAA: Las Vegas 51s (36-34) @ Tuscon Padres (38-34) Listen
Wednesday 10:05 ET – RHP Matt Fox (1-2, 5.63) vs. RHP Sean O’Sullivan (6-3, 3.70)
Matt Fox allowed 2 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4 over 6 IP in his last start. I was the third time in six starts that he has allowed 2 runs, while winning none of those games in the offense suppressing PCL…
Sean O’Sullivan allowed 3 runs on 12 hits and 1 BB, striking out 8 over 8 IP in his last start. The former 3rd round pick of the Angels made 14 starts for the 51s last year while in the Blue Jays organization posting a 2.72 ERA.
A: Savannah Sand Gnats (0-0) off for SAL All Star Break
The Gnats start off the second half with four in Lexington beginning tomorrow at 7 PM, and then three more in Augusta before returning home on the 27th.
LHP Jim Fuller had been promoted from Single-A St. Lucie to Double-A Binghamton.
Fuller had a 0.84 ERA over 32 innings with St. Lucie. He posted a WHIP of 0.969 with 31 strikeouts and 16 walks.
RHP prospect Luis Mateo had Tommy John surgery, according to Matt Eddy of Baseball America.
His agent notes that Mateo had surgery last Tuesday and will have the stitches removed on Thursday.
The 23-year-old Mateo appeared in three games for Single-A St. Lucie this season, pitching just 8 2/3 innings. He allowed 10 hits, walked three and struck out 11.
Robert Brender
Las Vegas 51s 2, @ Tucson Padres (SD) 5
RHP Jacob deGrom (pictured) got his first start for the 51s after being promoted from Binghamton Monday and left with the lead after tossing 5 2/3 
innings of one run ball. However, as has been the case all season, the bullpen coughed up the one advantage right away and subsequently surrendered three more runs in a 5-2 defeat in Tucson.
deGrom was by no means unhittable but he found a way to pitch around seven singles and a double, while only giving up a single run in the 2nd inning. His final line: 5.2IP, 8H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 3K. Not bad for a guy who’s numbers in AA were less than impressive (2-5, 4.80 ERA in 10GS). deGrom, who turns 25-years-old tomorrow (Wednesday), is taking one of the many vacant spots in the AAA rotation after Zack Wheeler and Carlos Torres were called up to the big club and Collin McHugh was DFA’d and later traded.
Relievers Justin Hampson and Greg Burke were the culprits out of the Vegas pen Tuesday, combining to give up four runs in 1 1/3 innings. Hampson was the first to appear after deGrom was lifted and immediately gave up the lead on back-to-back doubles. He was allowed to face one more hitter and issued a walk before Burke trotted in. Despite being so successful in New York before being demoted in a numbers game, Burke has really struggled in AAA. He got out of the 6th with no further harm done but gave up three runs in the 7th and ultimately took the loss.
Ike Davis has done very little since being demoted to Vegas June 10. He was 1 for 3, with an RBI single Tuesday but is batting only .207 in 29 AAA at-bats without a homerun. On a positive note, the IT folks with MILB finally replaced Davis’s profile picture with a recent big league shot and got rid of the 2009 AFL photo they were using.
Juan Centeno picked up two hits and an RBI in four trips to the plate, increasing his BA to .312. He has a hit in five consecutive starts and has reached base in six straight games.
Notes: OF Andrew Brown was pulled from the game after one AB and is on his way to Atlanta to join the Mets Wednesday….Mike Baxter collected another single and has a hit in all eight AAA games he’s appeared….Good luck Collin McHugh as he joins the Rockies organization. Great guy.
A+: @ St. Lucie Mets 7, Charlotte Stone Crabs (TB) 6
24-year-old Dustin Lawley doubled home24-year-old T.J. Rivera with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.
In his second game back from the DL, 25-year-old Matt den Dekker was 1-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.
22-year-old SS Matt Reynolds picked up his third-straight multi-hit game, with three extra-base hits: a double, a triple and a homer. The 2012 second-round pick has hit a disappointing .251/.332/.387 in 63 games in St. Lucie.
Alex Panteliodis meh: 5 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
A: All-Star Game
In what was likely their final South Atlantic League acts 1B Jayce Boyd was 1-for-3 with a strikeout in the South’s 2-1 loss to the North while C Kevin Plawecki was 0-for-2.
CF Brandon Nimmo was 0-for-1.
Relievers Bret Mitchell and Beck Wheeler combined on a scoreless inning.
I have nothing at all to say about this or any other all-star game other than I hope everyone had fun.
Rain 3, baseball 1…
A-Sh: Staten Island Yankees (1-0) @ Brooklyn Cyclones (0-1) Listen
Tuesday 7:00 ET – RHP Andrew Benak (0-0, 0.00) vs. Miller Diaz (0-0, 0.00)
Postponed to later in the year, these two teams will play tomorrow back in Staten Island.
AA: Binghamton Mets (42-26) @ Richmond Flying Squirrels (34-33) Listen
Tuesday 6:35 ET – RHP Erik Goeddel (6-2, 4.27) vs. LHP Carlos Teller (1-2, 2.20)
Postponed to tomorrow at 5:05 as part of a double header
A+: Charlotte StoneCrabs (29-36) @ St. Lucie Mets (35-30) Listen
Tuesday 6:30 ET – TBA vs. LHP Alex Panteliodis (2-2, 3.03)
Alex Panteliodis has struck out 5 and walked 6 over his last 3 starts. He has struck out 22 and walked 10 on the year, and that includes one 6 K/0 BB performance.
AAA: Las Vegas 51s (36-33) @ Tuscon Padres [SD] (37-34) Listen
Tuesday 10:05 ET – RHP Jacob deGrom (NR) vs. RHP Burch Smith (2-1, 2.25)
The 51s are virtually tied with Tucson 3 games back of Sacramento, but head into this four game set without their three best starters unavailable. With Collin McHugh stuck in waiver limbo, Zack Wheeler starting for the Mets, and Carlos Torres up with the big club Jake deGrom gets the chance with the 51s. Jake deGrom had put together his best stretch in AA over his last three starts, striking out 16 and walking 6 while allowing 18 hits over 18.1 IP. This is an interesting choice with Goeddel, Gorski and even Cohoon (who filled in for deGrom on Sunday) being available with longer track records in the upper minors.
Burch Smith is off to a fast start in the PCL after a dominant start to the year in the AA Texas league where he pitched to a 1.15 ERA and struck out 37 and walked just 6 over 31.1 IP.
A: Savannah Sand Gnats (first half division winner) off for SAL All Star Break
The SAL all star game is tonight, with Kevin Plawecki, Jayce Boyd, Brandon Nimmo, Bret Mitchell and Beck Wheeler on hand to represent the Gnats. Its a bit strange that no Gnats starting pitchers will be involved after the half season they have had, but Gabriel Ynoa just pitched on Sunday, and others like Matt Bowman and Rainy Lara were promoted to St. Lucie too early to merit consideration.
Toby Hyde, Mets Minor League Blog:
The Zack Wheeler era begins tonight in Atlanta.
Is this the start of new era? Yes and no, but more no, than yes. David Wright’s consistent excellence aside, Matt Harvey’s brilliance has been the storyline over the season’s first half that makes Mets’ fans hope that there can be a playoff berth at the end of this 2013 mess. As of 7 pm tonight, it will become the Wright/Harvey/Wheeler era. Soon, Travis d’Arnaud, a fourth potential All-Star will join the mix. This is simply the next step.
Wheeler has an electric arm. He is 94-96 with a fastball with big time explosion out of his hand. Given his adrenaline for his debut, I almost expect multiple 98 mph offerings. His slider can be a wipeout pitch down in the zone. His curveball can be vicious. However, at times he has trouble throwing his breaking stuff for strikes and keeping it in the zone. At best, the changeup is ordinary. In 2013, it will not be a major piece of his arsenal. His fastball command is nothing special. In the minors, he often survived and thrived, on the velocity without needing to locate the pitch precisely. In the big leagues, he will get away with fewer mistakes. However, his natural ability will carry him through.
Piece-by-piece the Mets are shedding the useless and adding. A major piece joins the team tonight. Wheeler is here.
Jacob deGrom is heading to the Triple-A Las Vegas rotation, according to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York.
He will help to fill the void from Zack Wheeler and Carlos Torres joining the major league team and Collin McHugh designated for assignment.
In 10 starts for Double-A Binghamton, deGrom has a 4.80 ERA and 1.483 WHIP. He’s walked 20 and struck out 44 in 60 innings of work.
Presented basically without comment:
Keith Law at ESPN:
A scout I spoke to who saw him recently said that Wheeler’s curveball, once a plus pitch in my view, was just average for him as Wheeler was throwing both a curveball and a slider and seemed to be caught between the two of them.
…
He still has plenty to recommend him, as he works with plus velocity and fills up the strike zone, with just 12 walks in his past eight starts, but I’d like to see him settle on just one breaking ball so he can miss bats in the majors the way he has done in the minors so far.
The thing is that Wheeler’s two breaking balls both have their uses. I do not buy that he should focus only on one.
Mark Anderson and Bret Sayre at Baseball Prospectus are much more positive about Wheeler’s breaking pitches:
His bread and butter is a mid-90s fastball that can reach 97-98 without losing the natural life that makes it a true plus-plus offering. His fastball jumps out of his hand and can explode in on right-handed hitters. Wheeler has struggled with maintaining his angle and working low in the zone in the past but he made significant strides in that regard this year.
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His curveball is the feature secondary pitch sitting in the low- to mid-70s with tight rotation and hard break. After years of scouts projecting his curveball out to plus-plus levels, Wheeler finally put it together this year with consistent 70-grade hammers that buckled the knees of PCL hitters. His slider is a harder offering, sitting in the upper-80s and featuring multiple looks. He can vary the sharpness and tilt of the pitch without sacrificing velocity, giving him an unpredictable weapon that marries well with the rest of his power arsenal.
At Fangraphs, Marc Hulet saw Wheeler in Fresno on June 1. Wheeler’s line that day: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K.
He flashed his mid-90s velocity and two breaking balls but his changeup was seldom used, which disappointed me given that it was identified as something he needed to work on in 2013. The first curveball he threw during the game was quite possibly his best and he struggled to command both his curve and fastball throughout the contest. He telegraphed the curveball early in the game and slowed his arm down but it was less noticeable as the game progressed. His slider was average but I’d like to see a tighter break to it.
Wheeler’s fastball showed good velocity but his command of the pitch was average-at-best.
…
I expect him to be susceptible to the home runs at the big league level because of his lack of consistent fastball command in the upper half of the strike zone.
Emphasis added.
