A Look at Two Mets Minor Leaguers Drafted in 2010

When the Mets drafted Norm Forsythe last year, I had doubts about whether he was worth being a third-round selection. With the Cyclones last season, he hit only .238 in 101 at bats; however, his slugging percentage was only .396. Despite that performance, the Mets promoted him to Savannah. This season with the Gnats, he's batting .213 in 108 at bats with a .361 slugging percentage. He's yet to show that he could be the Mets catcher of the future. In contrast, J. B. Brown, the second baseman who was drafted in the 14th round of the same draft, hit .308 in his first season (with the Cyclones) and, this season, is hitting .313 with St. Lucie, though his OBP has slipped from .800 to .688. For some reason, his 2011 minor league season didn't begin until May 15. Injury?

J. B. Brown Continues to Impress

The Cyclones J. B. Brown continues to impress. In Saturday's Cyclones game, Brown got two hits, a double and a homer, upping his average to .284. In his last 10 games, the second baseman hit .441; his OPS was 1.136. And while he only walked twice during that period, he also only struck out three times. He'd be hitting much higher were it not for his slow start in June. Then, in 10 games he hit only .114.

The left-handed batter has hit both righties and lefties well. He's batting .281 against righties and .300 against lefties. Surprisingly, he's hitting lefties better.

The Mets drafted the 220-pounder in the 14th round in June's amateur draft.

Quick Hits

☛ In one of the Mets' weekend games, why did Jerry Manuel have Rod Barajas try to steal second? Of course, Barajas, who's s-l-o-w, was thrown out. Luckily, Barajas "race" toward second caught the Braves pitcher by surprise. The pitcher balked, so Barajas, who had been thrown out, was allowed to stay on second base. But again, what was Manuel thinking? (Wally, the Mets need you.)

☛ The Cyclones won. Second-baseman J. B. Brown keeps inching his average upward after a terrible start. A single in yesterday's game in four at bats boosted his to average to .238. In nine of his last 10 games he's gotten at least one hit and, in three games, he's gotten two hits. During that span, he's hit .387.

☛ Ryan Fraser pitcher the final 2.2 innings in yesterday's Cyclone game. No runs, no hits, four strikeouts. In his last seven appearances — all in relief — his ERA is 0.93. Opponents are hitting .152 against him. This is the same pitcher who, pitching this past college season for the University of Memphis Tigers, had a 3-5 record with a 7.04 ERA. Some Mets coach is earning his pay.

☛ In two games over the weekend, the Kingsport Mets surrendered 24 runs. Naturally, they lost both games. One of the few bright spots was the play of second-baseman/shortstop Justin Schafer, drafted this year in the 34th round. He's hitting .379. Sunday, he went 3 for 5. His OPS is .958.

☛ Ike Davis is a player. He hustles, he's game smart, and he has a lot of potential. If I were Minaya, I wouldn't trade Davis for anyone.

Cyclones Win; Vaughn Drives in Two

☛ After starting the season 1 for 13, in the Cyclones fourth game Vaughn's bat awoke. He tripled and homered. He also scored from third on a sacrifice bunt. (Go Wally!) Unfortunately, J. B. Brown's bat's still asleep. He went 0 for 3 yesterday and was dropped in the order to the sixth spot.

☛ Another 2010 draftee, Ryan Fraser had a successful debut. He pitched an inning of hitless relief, striking out two. In his 2010 season pitching for the Memphis Tigers, Fraser was 3-5 record with a 7.04 ERA. Maybe the Mets have figured out what he was doing wrong.

☛ How reliable is this? Prior to the 2010 season, The College Baseball Blog rated Mets draftee Norman Forsythe the 17th best college player and Matt Harvey #36. Their 2009 preseason ratings of the top 50 college players had Matt den Decker rated #12; in 2010, den Decker didn't even make their list.

☛ If you haven't seen the catch den Decker made in this year's College World Series, here it is. It's one a la Willie Mays.

MLB New York Mets Mr. Potato Head

Two Draftees Off to Slow Start

☛ In Brooklyn, neither J. B. Brown nor Cory Vaughn, two of the Mets 2010 draft choices, has gotten off to a good start. After three games, Brown is 1 for 10; Vaughn is 1 for 13. Each has three strikeouts. The plus is that it's early in the season. But the reality is that playing baseball in the New York-Penn League is quite different from playing at the college level.

It's unfortunate that the Cyclones don't provide game logs on their website, but that could be because the NY-Penn League doesn't. A game log would allow fans who weren't at a game to see how a hitter did each at bat in a game.

☛ The Mets finally decided to return Jenrry Mejia to the minors, something they should have done earlier. (Why did they wait so long?) He'll be starting for Binghamton. They'll need a replacement for him. Given the lack of Major League-ready pitchers in their farm system, it will be interesting to see whom they'll bring up. They might return John Maine to the roster; however, stuff-wise, he doesn't appear ready.

Here are Manuel's and Minaya's comments on Mejia being sent down:

"We felt that his development and progression kind of leveled off," Manuel said. "It was a tremendous experience for him and he gave us everything he had. But to get him to the next level, he needs to pitch on a regular basis."

Omar Minaya agreed. "We just felt that it was the right time to get him down there and continue his development," he said. "He's done very well here. We see him long-term as a starter." 

☛ In LA, Brian Stokes, whom the Mets traded for Gary Matthews Jr., isn't pitching well. In 16 innings his ERA is 7.31. Maybe the Angels would sell him back to the Mets. In his two seasons with the Mets his ERA was 3.51 and 3.97. That trade was another mistake by Minaya.

Topps MLB Baseball Cards 2010 New York Mets 17 Card Team Set Includes Exclusive Card!

Close-Up of J. B. Brown

The Mets seem to be stockpiling second basemen. Not a bad idea for a team that has Juan Castillo as its starter.

The latest addition to the mix is J. B. Brown, who played for the last three seasons at the University of the Pacific and will now be playing for the Brooklyn Cyclones. The Mets drafted him in the 14th round. (He was the 13th Big West Conference player drafted.)

On paper, Brown doesn't appear to be fleet of foot. During his last two seasons with the Pacific Tigers, he didn't stretch one of his 27 doubles into a triple though he did manage to steal 12 bases in 18 attempts.

Brown is large for a second baseman: he's 215 pounds. Unfortunately, his size hasn't converted into long-ball power. Over the past two seasons, he hit only 13 homers in 106 games.

He can get on base. The past two seasons his OPS's were .971 and .909.

Average-wise, he's been consistent, hitting .378 and .376. The latter figure ranked him third in the Big West Conference among hitters with at least 200 at bats. Nationally, however, his average didn't even qualify him for the NCAA's top 100 list of Division 1 batters. But there's no denying he can get on base, though he doesn't walk a lot. In 2009, he walked 15 times; in 2010, only eight — Brown doesn't appear destined to be a lead-off batter.

He does make contact. In both 2009 and 2010, he struck out only 31 times in each season, striking out about once in every seven at bats.

His Mets career could begin today with the Cyclones opener. It will be interesting to watch his performance.

John Sickels has written an interesting review of the Mets 2010 draft.

Cyclones win opener: View the boxscore.

Minor League Baseball Cap - Brooklyn Cyclones Road Cap by New Era (6 7/8)