Santa Lucia 2012

[Edgy MD]

The St. Lucie Mets, who started out on a blistering 17-2 pace last year, are 10-2 so far in 2012. The personnel pulling off this trick:

Starting Pitchers
45 Yohan Almonte
18 Angel Cuan
35 Gonzalez Germen
32 Chase Huchingson
39 Cory Mazzoni

Relief Pitchers
12 Hamilton Bennett
29 John Church (Edgy Adoptee)
43 Ryan Fraser
47 Jeffrey Kaplan
20 Adam Kolarek
40 Adrian Rosario
44 Taylor Whitenton

Catchers
11 Blake Forsythe
17 Francisco Pena

Infielders
4 Wilmer Flores
10 Richard Lucas
16 Daniel Muno
5 Robbie Shields
2 Wilfredo Tovar

Outfielders
28 Joe Bonfe
13 Rafael Fernandez
1 Alonzo Harris
21 Cesar Puello
48 Sean Ratliff

Disabled List
22 Jim Fuller (p)
34 Erik Goeddel (p)
3 Darrell Ceciliani (of)

Restricted List
Dock Doyle ©

Flores is playing exclusively at third base this year. Cory Vaughn is the offensive leader, whopping at a mighty .333 / .450 / .545 // .995. Francisco Pe�a has also found his extra-base stick so far, and is slugging .571. Chase Hutchingson (who?) has thrown shutout ball in both his starts, posting a zero ERA after 12.67 innings, striking out 10 and walking three, but the ERAs have been great for all the starters:

• Hutch: 0.00 ERA in 12.67 innings.
  
• Mazzoni: 1.13 ERA in 16.00 innings.
  
• Germaen: 1.65 ERA in 16.33 innings.
  
• Cuan: 2.92 ERA in 12.33 innings.
  
• Almonte: 3.60 ERA in 10.00 innings.

St. Lucie: it's Quality Start Heaven.

[TransMonk]

Cue the music from Timbuk3...

[ashie62]

The futures so bright I have to wear shades!

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm rooting for Hamilton Bennett because I'm only one Kevin Bacon unit away from him. He's my brother-in-law's neighbor in South Carolina.

[Edgy MD]

Sounds like a cabinet secretary to me.

[Edgy MD]

St. Lucie advances to 13-2, sweeping two from the Palm Beach Cardinals, having already opened up a 6.0-game lead in the Florida State League North Division. Amazin' stuff down south in the City that Always Sleeps.

In game one, they went into the ninth with a 9-4 lead, but the Beachies rallied in the ninth, startling the St. Lucie faithful, but still leaving them with a 9-7 win to savor. Danny Muno got three hits, including two doubles, and Wilmer Flores collected his first homer of the year. After Yohan Almonte got chased in the first, it was largely a team attack with a total of 13 hits.

In game two, Flores collected two more hits, Wilfredo Tovar three more, and Angel Cuan (one run in five innings) and Adrian Rosario (two shutout innings) combined to neutralize the Cardinal attack.

[MFS62]

They're now 21-4.
Later

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, Chase Hutchingson, Adrian Rosario, Adam Kolarec, who the heck are you and how are you anchoring a pitching staff with a 2.45 ERA?

[MFS62]

And they are led on offense by ...
http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120501&content_id=30145732&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Cory Vaughn is #2 this week in Baseball America's 'Hot Prospect' list.

Why He's Here: .367/.424/.900 (11-for-30), 5 HR, 1 2B, 9 RBIs, 6 R, 2 BB, 7 SO

The Scoop: Vaughn homered in three straight games from April 27-29 and went deep in five of the seven games he played last week. He has a Florida State League-leading seven bombs already this season, which is even more impressive when you realize he hit nine in a half-season for St. Lucie last year. Counter-balancing the power binge, however, Vaughn struck out seven times last week, including three times in one game. Swinging and missing will be an acceptable trade-off for home runs at the big league level, but Vaughn still has to graduate from three minor league levels to get there. He's got a chance, but keep in mind that his father Greg, a four-time all-star, already had reached Milwaukee by the time he was 23.

[Guest attgig]

Cory Vaughn is #2 this week in Baseball America's 'Hot Prospect' list. Why He's Here: .367/.424/.900 (11-for-30), 5 HR, 1 2B, 9 RBIs, 6 R, 2 BB, 7 SO The Scoop: Vaughn homered in three straight games from April 27-29 and went deep in five of the seven games he played last week. He has a Florida State League-leading seven bombs already this season, which is even more impressive when you realize he hit nine in a half-season for St. Lucie last year. Counter-balancing the power binge, however, Vaughn struck out seven times last week, including three times in one game. Swinging and missing will be an acceptable trade-off for home runs at the big league level, but Vaughn still has to graduate from three minor league levels to get there. He's got a chance, but keep in mind that his father Greg, a four-time all-star, already had reached Milwaukee by the time he was 23.

loving it. makes me feel good, when you can simply write off a bad 2011 on injury.

[Edgy MD]

It just gets sillier and sillier down there in Florida as the Mets sweep Bradenton while Blake Forsythe drives in all six runs for the team.

Florida State League South

Club	W	L	PCT	GB	NGB
St. Lucie Mets (NYM)	32	8	.800	-	-
Palm Beach Cardinals (STL)	20	20	.500	12.0	12.0
Charlotte Stone Crabs (TB)	19	20	.487	12.5	13.0
Bradenton Marauders (PIT)	18	22	.450	14.0	18.5
Jupiter Hammerheads (MIA)	17	23	.425	15.0	21.5
Fort Myers Miracle (MIN)	15	25	.375	17.0	31.5

[Edgy MD]

St. Lucie clinches the first half championship by a rollicking 16.5 games.



(Apparently there was a chick on the team.)

[HahnSolo]

Deb Iwanow- Athletic Trainer � Begins her second season as the Athletic Trainer with St. Lucie (A) of the Florida State League and her sixth in the Mets organization... Served in the same role with Brooklyn (A) of the New York- Penn League in 2009 and 2010 and from 2006- 2008 with Kingsport (R) of the Appalachian League. � Was the assistant athletic trainer at Binghamton University for the women's soccer and baseball teams in 2005 and 2006. � From 2004-2005, she was the assistant athletic trainer at St. Bonaventure University for men's soccer, men's and women's swimming and baseball.

I think that's Benny DiStefano to her right.

[Edgy MD]

[nymr83]

I would have sworn those were pictures of a man.

Other than Halle Berry, I can't think of a woman who successfully pulls off the super-short hair look.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

avi

Edited June 13, 2012 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

Oh, baby, you're missing out on some loveliness.

I'm going to guess you're not breaking Ms. Iwanow's heart. Anyhow, I posted those cards not to expose Deb to derision, but rather to observe that, "Cool! She has cars!"

[Benjamin Grimm]

"Cars?" Or "ears?"

[Edgy MD]

Car(d)s.

[TransMonk]

She has cars?

[Edgy MD]

Thirdbaseman Aderlin Rodriguez to St. Lucie from Savannah, and firstbaseman Cole Frenzel from Brooklyn to Savannah.

Aderlin slashing at .274 / .336 / .497 / .833. Took 220 games for him to escape Savannah.

[MFS62]

I hope our A-Rod is the first one to make it to the Hall of Fame.

Later

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Cole Frenzel had to vacate Brooklyn because Jayce Boyd cannot. be. contained.

[Edgy MD]

Well, Colio was smacking at .342 /.410 / .493 // .903 in 19 games, so there's that.

Plus, at 22, Old King Cole was getting a little long in the tooth for tooling around the boardwalk looking for a good egg cream.

[Edgy MD]

Danny Muno, currently schedueld to be the 1,000th Met, is activated today from the guilty urine list.

[Frayed Knot]

#3 on this week's 'Hot Sheet' over at BA:

RAFAEL MONTERO, RHP
Team: high Class A St. Lucie (Florida State) -- Age: 21
Why He's Here: 1-0, 3.00, 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 14 SO

The Scoop: Montero made his pro debut last May after signing out of the Dominican Republic as an inexperienced and older prospect during the offseason. Since then, he's raced through four levels by pounding the strike zone with a 92-94 mph fastball and has impressed with his advanced feel for the pitch. On Tuesday night against Clearwater, Montero struck out 14 of the 23 batters he faced. Standing at just 6-feet, 170 pounds, he also flashes a quality slider at times and is still refining his changeup. In his last three starts, the righthander has struck out 28 while not issuing a walk in 18 innings. He's held Florida State League righthanders to a .139 average.