Last week, I wrote a few things about each of the top three upper level Sterling Award Winners. Lets move towards completing the series (because I’m a completist, after all) with a look today at the Sterling Award winner as the team’s most valuable player for the Savannah Sand Gnats, LHP Angel Cuan.

What do we have here?  A little lefty who was very effective both as a reliever in the first half and as a starter in the second.  Cuan finished second on the Gnats in innings pitched, and for what it’s worth (next to nothing) first in wins at 10.

Statistically, the most impressive thing about Cuan is that he throws strikes, lots and lots of them.  He walked just 1.16 batters per nine innings pitched.

Cuan serves to illustrate a great point about the divergence between having a really good season and being a really good prospect.  He throws 86-88 and strikes with two breaking balls – a curve and a change.  There isn’t an average MLB pitch in there, but the ability to throw two off-speed pitches for strikes is more than enough to get SAL hitters out.

Other Good Candidates
On the pitching side, Taylor Whitenton led the SAL in ERA, and would have been a fine candidate.
Chase Huchingson was really good (1.82 ERA, 91 K, 84 IP) but threw only 84 innings, 40 fewer than Cuan.

No position players were serious candidates.
Cory Vaughn and his .405 SAL OBP only played 63 games for Savannah on his way to earning a promotion at the All-Star Break. Albert Cordero (.286/.324/.382 – 385 AB, 104 G) was the most deserving of the position players, but he too, like Vaughn only was really good for half a season as he hit .330/.373/.439 in the second half after hitting .219/.248/.297 in the first half.

Gorski had a tremendous year. A 7th round pick in 2009 out of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, he struggled with Savannah in 2010, posting a 4.58 ERA with 125 hits allowed in 114 innings pitched.  His K/BB ratio rose from 2.5 (109 K/43 BB) last year to 4.8 (140 K /29 BB) this year.  I was told that his velocity was up and his command improved over 2010.  That’s good stuff.

On last night’s SNY broadcast, Gorski explained his success this year to Chris Carlin:

On why he had success this year:
Consistency.  Staying consistent with my mechanics … that translated into a little bit of success this year.
When Things are going right for him:
I’m getting strike one.  When you can work ahead and mix in your off-speed pitches, I throw a slider and a change-up… When you can mix those in and work ahead in the count, it makes it a lot easier to get guys out.

We’re going to have video up here in the next week with a more detailed explanation of the precise mechanical adjustment he made that he thought made the big difference for him.

I was a little surprised by this pick, but the more I look at it, the more it makes sense. Harvey was dominant in the Florida State League. Honoring him with an award, gives him another opportunity to go to New York, and for fans and media to see a guy who could be a rotation cornerstone as soon as the end of next season if all goes well.

Harvey chatted with Carlin during Wednesday’s SNY Broadcast.
Re: How he got comfortable (after struggling a bit).
Just not putting too much pressure on yourself. Pitching’s pitching. I just tried to at the beginning, do too much. I learned quick that it’s baseball. Pitching is what it is at every level. You just gotta make make your adjustments and I was able to do that.
Re: Getting to Citi Field
Everyone wants to be here. It’s everyone’s dream. We’re all working hard to get here. During this offseason, I’m going to do everything I can to get ready and whenever that happens, it happens.
Repetoire:
I’m going to go out there fighting and I like to last as long as I can in the game… Winning is my goal and that’s what I’m going to try to do.

For the record, in addition to his fastball, he throws a slider, a curveball and change-up.  He told me on our Mostly Mets podcast that his curveball “has always been my out pitch,” but he thought that his slider, a newer weapon, which added velocity up towards the uppers-80 – 86-89 mph, was working even better than his curve, because he had learned to trust the grips.

Then there was this interesting exchange between in the SNY booth:
Gary Cohen: “Chris made a great point, because at each level this year, he had his struggles, both at St. Lucie and at Binghamton, but he was able to right the ship, kinda figure out the next level. He’s a guy who asks a lot of very smart questions.
Keith: Yes.

What questions did he ask Gary and Keith to impress them?

Harvey’s struggles in St. Lucie weren’t serious.  He didn’t allow an earned run in his first four starts over 22 innings.  In fairness, he allowed 14 runs over his next three starts over his next 14.1 innings at which point his ERA was a hefty 2.97 with 42 strikeouts against 12 walks in 36.1 IP.

Other Good Candidates
2011 St. Lucie Stats
Juan Lagares hit .338/.380/.494 in 82 games in St. Lucie.  He was the biggest snub in this year’s group of awards.
Darin Gorski earned the Organization’s Pitcher of the Year Award.

Familia had a great season. I had him ranked as the Mets’ #3 pitching prospect entering the year, and #10 overall. He’ll move up from #10, surely.  He owns a big fastball and a nasty slider.  He should start 2012 in AAA.

Other Good Candidates:
2011 B-Mets Stats
Josh Satin earned the Organizational Player of the Year.
Jordany Valdespin: .297/.341/.483, 24 2B, 15 HR, 33-for-47 SB.  The 23-year old probably had the second-best year of any player not to win an award.  I wonder how much his past discipline issues contributed to the organization bypassing him for hardware here.
Collin McHugh threw more innings (93.1 to Familia’s 87.2) with a lower ERA (2.89 to Familia’s 3.49).  McHugh’s progress was one of the more pleasant surprises of the season, but I think this is a case where he and Familia were close enough that Familia’s bigger fastball and better prospect status won out.

For the first time since April 7, or five months and twelve days, there were no games played by at least one Mets minor league affiliate on Wednesday, September 13. So, with no games, it’s now officially awards season.
Of course, the minor league season isn’t over: the Gnats have at least two and maybe three games left.

The Mets announced their Sterling Organization Player of the Year Awards for each affiliate Wednesday.

• RHP Chris Schwinden, Triple-A Buffalo
• RHP Jeurys Familia, Double-A Binghamton
• RHP Matt Harvey, Single-A St. Lucie
• LHP Angel Cuan, Rookie League Savannah
• IF Danny Muno, Single-A Brooklyn
• C Camden Maron, Rookie League Kingsport
• RHP Rafael Montero, Gulf Coast League
• OF Maiki De La Cruz, Dominican Summer League I
• RHP Persio Reyes, Dominican Summer League II

AA

Player

Josh Satin

.318/.423/.470, 4 2B, 1 HR, 12 BB, 21 K – 66 AB, 18 G

Satin had a great month.  The 26-year old makes contact and draws walks.  He also played in five more games than Fisher.

Honorable Mention

Michael Fisher

.375/.412/.563 6 2B, 1 HR, 3 BB, 7 K – 48 AB, 13 G

An organizational soldier signed as a minor league free agent in 2010, Fisher was assigned to Savannah where his hitting start helped the Gnats clinch the 2010 first half title.  He had a nice second half for advanced-A St. Lucie in 2010 and was a beast in April 2011 for Binghamton.  The 26-year old switch hitter can play any one of the four infield positions, although he hasn’t played SS yet for Binghamton in 2011, instead seeing four games at first, five at second and two at third.

Pitcher

Mark Cohoon

1-1, 1.44 ERA, 4 GS, 25 IP, 22 H, 7 R, 4 ER, 1 HR, 5 BB, 24 K, .237 Opp avg.

Just wow.

Cohoon throws strikes with a fastball in the upper eighties that he can cut or sink, a changeup with good deception and a curveball. He’s a thinking pitcher who crafts a plan and has the command to execute it, most nights.

HM

Brad Holt

0-1, 3.10, 4 GS, 20.1 IP, 15 H, 9 R, 7 ER, 9 BB, 14 K, .192 Opp avg

A very nice April recovery for Holt after a 2010 when everything went wrong.  Scouts report that he’s back to working in the low 90s and his cutter has made dramatic improvements.