SSA: @ Tri-City ValleyVats 7, Brooklyn Cyclones 4

SS Danny Muno just keeps hitting: 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  The Mets eight-round pick out of Fresno State, the 22-year old Muno is sitting at .332/.434/.492, tops in the NYP in on-base percentage and third in slugging.

R – APP
Danville Braves 7, @ Kingsport Mets 5

LHP Juan Urbina, coming off one of his best outings of 2011 cruised through three innings, allowing just a single over the minimum before it fell apart on him in a six-run fourth inning. His final line: 4 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 2 HR.

R- GCL
@ GCL Mets 4, GCL Cardinals 2

SS Philip Evans, the Mets 15th round pick, who received the third-highest signing bonus in the Mets draft class, made his professional debut going 1-for-3 with a walk, a strikeout and two runs scored from the #3 spot in the batting order.
Hitting in front of Evans, CF Brandon Nimmo was 0-4 with three strikeouts. As people pointed out to me on both twitter and email, he’s now whiffed in seven of his last eight at bats. My response: chill. He’s played four games as a professional at age 18 without having played high school baseball.

Bob Gsellman, the Mets’ 13th rounder out of Santa Monica, made his first professional start, tossing three innings of one-run ball with no walks, two hits and a strikeout.

SS-A: Tri-City Valley Cats 6, @ Brooklyn Cyclones 2- (GAME NOT COMPLETE)

Game was suspended in the fourth inning due to rain.  The game will be resumed on Monday with the Cyclones trailing 6-2.

SS-R: Burlington Royals 6, @ Kingsport Mets 2

Rafael Montero: 3 IP, 5 hits, 2 er, 4 bb, 2k.

Dustin Lawley: 2-4, HR(8), RBI.  Hitting .304/.341/.527, with 8 HR, 38 RBI on the season.

SS-A: Tri-City Valley Cats 3, @ Brooklyn Cyclones 0

The Cyclones offense was non-existent as they were limited to just one hit in the loss to Tri-City.  The Cyclones were held hitless through six innings.  T.J. Rivera ended the no-hit bid with a single in the bottom of the seventh.

Jeff Walters (5 1/3 IP, 5 hits, 2 er, 4 bb, 2k) took the loss for the Cyclones.

Nick Carr made a relief appearance: 1 IP, hit, o runs, 2 bb.

SS-R: @ Kingsport Mets 17, Burlington Royals 14

The two teams combined for 31 runs, 31 hits, 9 walks, and 10 errors.  What is more remarkable is the game only lasted 3 hours and 23 minutes.

With the win, Kingsport is now tied for the Wild Card with a 33-25 record.

The box score is something to behold:

SSA: @ Brooklyn Cyclones 5, Jamestown Jammers (FLA) 2 

1B Cole Frenzel (.250/.346/.328), this year’s seventh round  pick out of Arizona was 3-4 with a double and an RBI.  After a slow start to his professional career and a .215/.315/.291 line in 20 games in July, Frenzel is rolling along at .324/.409/.405 in August.  He’s not hitting for much power yet, but at least he’s hitting for average.

Rain held Eduardo Aldama’s night to 2.2 so the bullpen had to pick up the slack.  Tyler Pill,  this year’s fourth-round pick out of Cal State Fullerton, tossed a scoreless inning with two strikeouts.

The Cyclones are now tied for the wild card lead (of course) and are three games out of first.

R- APP: @ Johnson City 1, Kingsport Mets 0

Yes. Domingo Tapia: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 2 WP.
Tapia’s three starts in August: 0.50 ERA (1 ER/18 IP), 12 H, 7 BB, 9 K.

R – GCL: @ GCL Cardinals 2, GCL Mets 1
Craig Missigman, this year’s 37th rounder out of HS in North Carolina: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
SS Chin-lung Hu had a couple of hits.

NYP: @ Brooklyn Cyclones 5, Jamestown Jammers 2

SS Danny Muno (.341/.448/.494) was 1-3 with a double and a walk.  In 44 games, the 22-year old has extra-base hits in 9.8% of his plate appearances with exactly the same number of walks and strikeouts 32, a rate of 15.7%.  He’s also rocking a .412 BABIP.  Some of these things are sustainable, one is not.

3B Richard Lucas (.313/.404/.487) was 2-4.  Mike wrote about the 22-year old Lucas yesterday and his desire to prove people wrong.

Meanwhile, out of the bullpen, Jack Leathersich struck out four and walked one in 1.2 innings pitched.  In 8.2 innings pitched in Brooklyn, the Mets’ 2011 fifth-rounder faced 34 batters and fanned 20.  That’s crazy good.

Also, I loved, the Cyclones Brooklyn Nite Jerseys with the image of the bridge, which you can see below.

APP: Kingsport Mets 6, @ Johnson City Cardinals 0

Probably the best thing to happen in the system Wednesday night: Juan Urbina put together his best professional start. He shutout Johnson City on five hits and two walks with three strikeouts. In 17 innings in Augusta, he’s fanned 12 and walked four and run a 2.12 ERA. Whether you want to look at ERA, K/BB ratio, opponents’ batting average, Urbina has improved in every month of the 2011 season.

DH Cam Maron was 2-3.  The 20-year old, the Mets 39th rounder in 2009, is hitting .309/.417/.383 in 46 games for Kingsport.

GCL: GCL Marlins 15, GCL Mets 6

Bunch of interesting notes here actually:
Chin-Lung Hu continues to rehab. In eight games in the GCL, he’s hit .138 (4-for-29) with seven walks and six strikeouts and zero extra-base hits. He also committed his second throwing error.
Zach Dotson made his second appearance since returning from a 50-game suspension and recorded one out: 0.1 iP, 2 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 0 K. Dotson, who received the second-largest bonus in the Mets 2009 draft class, despite being selected in the 13th round, has thrown 1 inning this year and 17.1 in the GCL since signing.
Robert Gsellman, this year’s 13th rounder, tossed two scoreless innings.
CF Joe Tuschak, this year’s sixth rounder, was 2-3 with two walks to push his batting average back over .200 and up to .205/.333/.229.

NL All-Stars 7, AL All-Stars 3

The Brooklyn Cyclones were well represented in the 2011 New York-Penn League All-Star Game.  The game was played in Lowell, Massachusetts, home of the Lowell Spinners, the Boston Red Sox NYPL affiliate.

Danny Muno (1-2, 2B, 2RBI) hit a two-run double in the top of the ninth, to give the NL side a 6-3 lead. Richard Lucas (0-2,k) and Charley Thurber (0-4, run) also appeared in the game representing the Cyclones.

On the mound, T.J. Chism and Todd Weldon combined to strike out the side in the ninth to seal the win for the NL All-Stars.

Travis Taijeron and Tyson Seng were named to the All-Star team, but did not play in the game.

MiLB.com did a piece on the Cyclones third-baseman Richard Lucas.  Lucas, 22, is hitting .309/.402/.487, with 4 home runs, 29 RBI, 26 bb, 46 k for the Cyclones this season.  Last season Lucas played for St. Lucie and hit .212/.285/.339 with 11 home runs, 52 RBI, 34 bb, 149 k.

Lucas talks about his struggles last year:

Last year I got up there and started out pretty good the first couple weeks, then I just tried to do too much every time up at the plate.  Just every pitch, trying to hit a home run. Usually got out of my rhythm, got out of my old approach.

And is determination to prove his critics wrong:

You can’t help but look on the Internet sometimes and obviously it’s all out there, people saying, ‘You’re not going to make it’ … this and that, but I’ve been told that a lot before.  Even before I got drafted, they told me I wasn’t going to get drafted, they told me I wasn’t going to get a scholarship. That’s just more motivation to go out there and play hard.

 

SS-A: Friday: Brooklyn Cyclones 10, @ Mahoning Valley Scrappers 6

     Saturday: Brooklyn Cyclones 2, @ Mahoning Valley Scrappers 1

 Sunday: PPD

The Cyclones (32-24) win a pair over the weekend, and now find themselves in a three-way tie for the Wild Card lead in the NYPL.  The Cyclones have now won seven out of their last nine games.

SS-R: Friday: Kingsport Mets 6, @ Princeton Rays 5

Saturday: Kingsport Mets 5, @ Princeton Rays 3

Sunday: Kingsport Mets 7, @ Princeton Rays 2

The Kingsport Mets are hot right now.  Over the weekend, they swept the Princeton Rays and now have enjoyed a 10-3 month of August.

Akeel Morris on Friday: 1/3 IP, 1 hit, 5 runs, 2 er, 4 bb, k.

Over the last 10 games:

Greg Pron: .400/.442/.575, 4 doubles, HR, 8 RBI

Dustin Lawley: .378/.404/.600, 5 doubles, 3B, HR, 5 RBI

Both Pron (42nd round) and Lawley (pictured) (19th round) were drafted this year out of the University of West Florida.

SS-R: Saturday: @ GCL Mets 4, GCL Cardinals 2

     Sunday: GCL Nationals 12, @ GCL Mets 10- Game 1

                GCL Mets 7, @ GCL Cardinals 1- Game 2

Zach Dotson, the Mets 13th round pick in 2009, made his first appearance of the 2011 season on Saturday.  Dotson faced seven hitters, retiring two of them while issuing three walks, two hits, a wild pitch, and two runs.

It’s good to see Dotson finally returning to the mound after serving a 50-game suspension by Major League Baseball for testing positive for a banned substance.  Toby profiled Dotson here in his Top 41, and last year Dotson received high praise from then Mets Minor League pitching coordinator Rick Waits.

Michael Fulmer‘s second pro start was cut short due to rain on Sunday.  He gave up a hit then recorded an out before the rains came down and ended Fulmer’s day.