On a wet Sunday, in Fort Lauderdale, the Mets gave a number of regulars the day off, opening the way for a host of minor leaguers to see action against the Orioles.
3B Shawn Bowman: 1-3 (pictured)
2B Jon Malo: 0-4
SS Matt Bouchard: 1-3, SO
Casey Fossum: 2.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, HR
Tim McNab: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 K
Roy Merritt: 0.1 IP
The Binghamton Mets improved to 4-1-1 this spring after defeating the
RHP Ryan Coultas took the start and allowed two earned runs and two hits over four innings before giving way to RHP Jose Sanchez. The twenty-four-year-old struck out seven and yielded just a run over his five frames.
At the plate, SS Ruben Tejada and C Josh Thole each went 1-for-3. Thole’s lone hit was an RBI double in the 4th inning that plated the B-Mets first run.
The team has a camp day tomorrow before resuming their exhibition schedule in St. Lucie on Tuesday against the Jacksonville Suns, the Double-A affiliate of the Florida Marlins.
Dillon Gee lasted 3.1 innings
Saturday against the Marlins, yielding two runs on four hits, in his first outing longer than 2 innings. The Marlins runs scored on homers by Dan Uggla in the second inning and Jorge Cantu in the fourth. Gee fanned four and walked two. Both walks came in the fourth inning following the second homer, as Gee ran up against his pitch count.
Both homers came on elevated inside fastballs on 2-0 counts. Cantu’s was wind aided. Uggla’s was a shot.
Gee then started Cody Ross out with a changeup, and later in the AB puched out Ross on another change that tumbled away from the batter. Gee consistently induced swings and misses from the Marlins with his change. He fanned Hanley Ramirez with a changeup that faded down to end the third inning.
Matt Cerrone of Metsblog quotes Jerry Manuel, who sounded impressed by Gee:
“I like him a lot… He’s very interesting to me… I really like when a young pitcher has a feel for a change up. I’d say he has enough command of those pitches that I feel comfortable he can handle the next level.”
During Saturday’s SNY broadcast, Kevin Burkhardt asked Mets catching insructor Sandy Alomar Jr. about the Mets young catchers.
Alomar responded in part:
I’m very happy with all of them. … Josh Thole is going to be a pretty good catcher. He does everything fundamentally correct.
As MetsBlog.com’s Matthew Cerrone detailed this morning, RHP Dillon Gee will be starting this afternoon for the Mets when they take on the Florida Marlins at 1 p.m.
While with the Mets earlier this spring Gee allowed two earned runs and seven hits in six innings while striking out four and walking one.
After being promoted to AA at the end of last season, he allowed just four runs in 27 innings before following that up with winning Pitcher of the Year honors in the Puerto Rican Winter League.
Matt eluded to it in his post, but Jerry Manuel specifically requested to see more of Dillon before they closed camp… The twenty-two year old isn’t going to overpower you, but has excellent control and hits the corners very well… A lot of people seem to overlook him purely because he doesn’t throw in the mid-90s, but he’s pitched extremely well on every level he’s been on… The Mets clearly lack depth in terms of individuals who can step in and make spot starts this season (Jon Niese, Nelson Figueroa, then who?) so Gee could be looked upon to step up and help the team before season’s end…
The Binghamton Mets hammered out ninteen hits on Friday afternoon en 
route to a 10-9 victory over the Jacksonville Suns in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
There is quite possibly no player in the Met organization hotter at the plate right now than 3B Shawn Bowman. He collected two more hits including a seventh inning grand slam. Over his last five games, Bowman has pounded out ten hits and 11 RBI.
SS Ruben Tejada also had a big day, going 3-for-5 with a double and two singles.
The Bisons tied the New Orleans Zephyrs this afternoon 4-4 in Port St. Lucie,
Florida. LHP Jonathon Niese took the start for Buffalo, working 4.1 innings and allowing four runs.
The Bisons have four exhibition games remaining before kicking off their season on Thursday, April 9th against the Pawtucket Red Sox (3:05 p.m.).
Met fans are most certainly going to keep a very close on eye on Niese in Triple-A from here on out, considering everyone is just a tad skeptical on how long Livan Hernandez will last…
