Some action from Saturday night:

Durham smacked Buffalo 10-2.  After the Bulls touched Brandon Knight for four runs in 4.2 innings, and Connor Robertson for six in 0.2, Eddie Kunz worked the final 2.2 frames in scoreless fashion.

New Britain beat Binghamton 6-5.  Lucas Duda doubled and homered, his second of the year.  Dylan Owen (0-5, 6.97) gave up six runs on ten hits – two homers – in five innings.

St. Lucie scored three times over the final two innings to beat Clearwater 4-3.  C Francisco Pena, who was 2-4, doubled to begin the Mets two-run ninth inning rally.  Angel Calero worked around eight hits, two homers, two walks and two wild pitches to allow three runs in seven innings.

In the SAL, the Gnats and Tourists split a doubleheader.  Savannah outslugged Asheville 11-8 in game one behind a three-hit game from 2B Jordany Valdespin who doubled twice, and and a five-RBI game from 1B Josh Satin who doubled and homered.  SS Wilmer Flores’s double in four trips was his fourth of the season.  Flores (.257/.303/.303) was 2-3 with a walk in game two. Flores has hit safely in in seven of his last eight games.

In game two, Eric Beaulac allowed five run in 5.1 innings to fall to 2-3, 3.66 ERA in the Gnats 5-2 loss.

Friday night, the Mets announced that they traded C Ramon Castro to the Chicago White Sox for former first round pick, RHP Lance Broadway.

Broadway was 0-2 with Charlotte with a 5.63 ERA.  In 16 innings he’d struck out 15 and walked just four.  With the White Sox, in eight appearances out of the bullpen, Broadway gave up 19 hits and ten runs in 16 innings.

Heading into 2008, Baseball Prospectus’s Kevin Goldstein had Broadway ranked as the #9 prospect in the White Sox system.  Goldstein praised his good curveball, but took note of Broadway’s below average fastball and subpar command.

3B Jefry Marte (.203/.246/.310) hit two home runs in the Gnats 3-2 loss to the Asheville Tourists.  The homers were his second and third of the year.

Binghamton beat New Britain 6-0 behind eight shutout innings from Ryan Coultas (4-2, 2.55) who struck out four and walked two.  He gave up just two two hits.  C Josh Thole had three hits while DJ Wabick doubled twice.  CF Manny Garcia drove home three runs from the leadoff spot.

Buffalo beat the Durham Bulls 9-3.  Fernando Nieve (3-0, 3.44) held the Bulls to three runs on six hits through 6.1 IP to earn his third AAA win of the year.  Mike Lamb and Rene Rivera each homered on a night when the offense rapped out 13 hits.

St. Lucie was rained out Friday night.

Friday, the Buffalo Bisons placed RHP Dillon Gee and Carlos Muniz on the DL with right shoulder strains.  That’s an imprecise diagnosis, but it will have to do for now.

Alex Cora will also join the Bisons on an MLB rehab assignment starting tonight.  So, Mets fans, the Ramon Martinez experiment might be over soon.

The Mets also acquired OF Emil Brown from the San Diego Padres.  The 34 year old is a career .258/.323/.398 hitter in 2244 MLB AB over parts of nine seasons spent with the Pirates, Padres, Royals and A’s.   Brown was hitting .260/.345/.432 with the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League where he had made 21 starts in right, 7 in LF and one in CF.

The one thing that really stands out about Brown’s 2009 is that he’s smoked lefties to a .391/.500/.696 line in 23 AB.  This trend has been consistent: Brown has been a force against southpaws.  Last year with Oakland, he hit .295/.337/.474 against lefties, while hitting just a meager .211/.272/.329 against righties. In essence, Brown would be a very good option against lefties at either outfield corner.

Adam Rubin profiles Tobi Stoner in his weekly minor league report at his Surfing the Mets blog.  Stoner was diagnosed with a labrum tear during Spring Training, but tells Rubin his stuff is coming along now that he’s back with Binghamton:

“My velocity is getting back up there,” Stoner said. “I was maybe throwing 83-87 mph (against New Hampshire) instead of my normal for my career of 88-92 mph. But I was throwing a lot of two-seams, which are obviously slower. … My changeup, it took me about two games to find it, but I finally found it my last outing. So there’s really not much I’m working on. It’s more maintaining and just trying to be more consistent with all of my pitches.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/mets/2009/05/farm-report-stoner-re-arms-at.html#ixzz0GpH01eli&B

AA – Eastern League

Connecticut Defenders 8, @ Binghamton Mets 7

The Defenders scored six times in the seventh and eighth innings to turn a 4-2 B-Mets lead into an 8-5 Connecticut advantage.  The B-Mets scored twice in their half of the eighth inning, but could not find the tying run. 

Ruben Tejada’s two-run fifth inning homer, his first of the year, gave the B-Mets their 4-2 advantage.  The 19-year old is hitting .276/.371/.366 through  145 AB.  His May was downright impressive: .317/.389/.427.  Sure, that line is batting average driven, but with just nine strikeouts in 25 games, he’s putting the ball in play enough to make it work. 

Josh Thole was 2-2 with two dobules and a walk.  He now has 16 doubles in 39 games as part of a .356/.424/.483 line. 

Pick your prospect, Thole or Tejada.  Coming into this year, I had Thole, who’s three years Tejada’s senior ranked a few spots ahead of Tejada.  Both play premium positions, both have made lots of contact this year and shown very fine plate discipline.   Scouts have been impressed by Thole’s improved work behind the dish.  Tejada already boasts smooth hands at short although his range, when I saw him last year was not special.  Given his more advanced age, do Thole’s seven additional extra base hits justify keeping him ahead of Tejada? This is the kind of stuff I ponder. 

Tobi Stoner started, and gave up three runs on five hits in 6.1 IP.  He walked four and struck out one.  Eric Brown gave up four runs in the seventh and eighth innints.

A – South Atlantic League

Savannah Sand Gnats 6, @ Asheville Tourists 0

Robert Carson started, but only lasted three innings thanks to pitch count issues.  In those three innings, Carson gave up three walks and four hits, but skated out of trouble thanks to four strikeouts and four groundball outs.  He did not record a single out in the air. 

After a Michael Powers inning, Chris Schwinden (3-2, 4.13) went the final five in commanding fashion.  He fanned six and did not walk a batter. 

RF Raul Reyes led the Gnats with three hits and a jack, while 1B Josh Satin, LF Sean Ratliff and CF Rafael Fernandez all had two knocks.  The kids – SS Wilmer Flores and 3B Jefry Marte- each had one hit an an RBI.