“No one is tearing it up and is a can’t-miss guy” in the Mets’ farm system, said Jim Callis, the executive editor of Baseball America, who ranks the Mets near the bottom in talent acquired via the draft. “There’s a correlation between what you spend and what you get.”

Belson connects the Mets losing to the Bisons losing to the Bisons attendance, to the B-Mets losing to the B-Mets attendance, only to find that the B-Mets attendance is holding, and per capita spending is up.  B-Mets GM Scotty Brown:

“It’s not necessarily about wins and losses, but the show you put on,” Brown said. “And the more people who know about the city, the better.”

In today’s Buffalo News, Mike Harrington takes a more detailed look at the Bisons’ worst attendance year since Coca-Cola Field was built in 1988.  Three factors have contributed to the Bisons attendance drop: 1. a horrible Buffalo economy which trimmed season seat sales, and presumably corporate hospitality although Harrington doesn’t address it directly, 2. a rainy, cool summer and 3. a Bisons team that started 2-17. One big argument for the primacy of the weather explanation is that last Friday, the Bisons packed in 17,788, one of the biggest minor league crowds of the season.

Re: the rain, Bisons GM/VP Mike Buczkowski as quoted by Harrington:

“It’s not the six rainouts but it’s the six-to-eight other games we’ve had delayed,” Buczkowski said. “Or it’s the night where it’s rained north of the city all the time and isn’t raining here. So now half your audience is sitting at home thinking it’s raining.”

And as for the losing:

“The momentum we gained in the offseason was gone at 2-17. We were back to Square One.”

When I had 60+ years of attendance and win data for the Advanced-A California League, I ran a few basic regressions and found essentially no correlation between wins, first half wins, or second half wins and attendance.  I’m open to the argument that AAA fans are slightly more responsive to wins and losses, especially in a city like Buffalo with two other big league teams in Bills and Sabers.  However, I side with B-Mets GM Scotty Brown, in that the vast majority of minor league fans don’t go to games because they’re big Jose Coronado fans, but to enjoy the atmosphere.

At today’s minor league report, at his Surfing the Mets Blog, Adam Rubin checks in with reliever Eddie Kunz who has been stuck at AAA Buffalo all year.  Kunz is an awesome quote:

“Things are going well for me,” Kunz said. “I’m pitching a little bit more. I was used to last year, when I was more one inning here, one inning there. Now they’re trying to stretch me out a little bit. I’m slowly developing, getting better and better each outing. My slider is a lot better. My changeup is actually coming along very well for me. It’s turning slowly but surely more into a splitter, but as of right now I still call it my changeup.”

Kunz is 4-3 with one save and a 3.97 ERA.  In 45.1 IP, he’s struck out 28 and walked 27 and he’s coming off a July with 10 walks against 3 strikeouts in nine innings.  Righties are hitting .172/.305/.283 against Kunz, but lefties are bopping at .281/.382/.422.

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“Buffalo is one of the worst Triple-A teams I have ever seen,” the scout said. “You need a birth certificate to play – 30 years or older.

“I have to tell you what ticked me off, watching them. The team is 25 games under .500, and I know that they’re a bunch of veterans and older guys …. but they’re taking batting practice and they’re screwing around. They’re not taking ground balls, not working on things … they’re just taking swings, and they’re goofing around doing that.

“If you are losing and getting your ass handed to you, at least try to do something about it.”

Yikes.  Yeah, there’s no position player down there that the Mets care about, but that’s hardly news.

But seriously, though, at what point does people talking $hit about the Bisons lose the ability to convey new information?  After starting 2-17, the Bisons are 30-37 since May 2.  That’s not good, but at seven games under .500 its not that much worse than the MLB team or out of the range of ordinary for AAA.

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AAA: @ Buffalo Bisons 4, Scranton/WB Yankees (NYY) 1

Lance Broadway (2-5, 5.68 – pictured), the return from the White Sox for Ramon Castro, tossed a complete game seven-hitter in easily his best effort of the season. He struck out four and walked two.

CF Cory Sullivan was 2-3 with a pair of doubles, a walk, an RBI and a run scored.

AA: @ Portland Sea Dogs (BOS) 3, Binghamton Mets 1 (7 innings)

@ Portland Sea Dogs 6, Binghamton Mets 2 (7 innings)

In game one, in innings 1, 2, 4, and 5, Brad Holt (0-3, 8.40) was perfect, retiring 12-of-12 batters, fanning eight and allowing just two balls out of the infield. However, in the third, a walk, a pair of singles and a double brought three runs home for Portland. Holt fanned 10 in five innings in his best AA outing in four tries. Ike Davis (.273/.394/.509) homered for the third time in four games.

In game two, the Sea Dogs beat up Jacob Ruckle in his first start of the year for Binghamton for six runs in 1.2 innings. CF Manny Garcia (.278/.324/.375) was 2-4.

A+: @ St. Lucie Mets 9, Palm Beach Cardinals (STL) 8

Scott Moviel’s second FSL start of the year did not go well, but the offense picked him up Wednesday night. Moviel gave up six runs, five earned on eight hits in 3.1 innings.

Angel Pagan DHed and was 0-2 while walking twice.

The Mets scored twice in the bottom of the eighth to take an 8-7 lead, but after the bullpen gave up the advantage in the top of the ninth, 2B Hector Pellot won it with a single in the bottom half. CF Seth Williams was 3-5.

A: @ Lexington Legend (HOU) 7, Savannah Sand Gnats 3

3B Jefry Marte was 2-4 from the leadoff spot, but committed his 32^nd error, this one with an errant throw. 24-year old 2B Josh Satin (.298/.395/.411) was 2-4 with a homer, his fourth.

Kyle Allen (5-5, 4.54) gave up two homers and five runs overall in five innings for his fifth loss of the year.

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AAA: Scranton/WB Yankees (NYY) 5, @ Buffalo Bisons 1

So, it’s more painful to lose a game you should have won (Bisons), than lose a game where you barely had a chance (Mets), right?  And it’s really bad if you’re asking these questions on July 8, for a team that had dreams of a World Series, right?  We digress.

Heading to the ninth with a 1-0 lead after six shutout innings from Ken Takahashi, Jon Switzer gave up the homerun that tied the game at 1-1.  Eddie Kunz relieved Switzer to begin the 10^th, and worked a 1-2-3 inning.  And then the 11^th went: groundout from Yankees CF prospect Austin Jackson, walk, walk, mound visit, HBP, Adam Bostick relieves Kunz, lineout, grandslam.

AA: B-Mets @ Portland Sea Dogs – rained out

They’ll try for two on Wednesday.  Brad Holt will throw in game one, scheduled for 5 PM.

A+: Jupiter Hammerheads (FLA) 8, @ St. Lucie Mets 3

Rehabbing Angel Pagan was 2-3 with an RBI double in his second game with St. Lucie.  Pagan played seven innings defensively.  20-year old Aussie 1B Stefan Welch, who didn’t hit much in Savannah (.239/.271/.359) was 2-4 with a double in his second game with St. Lucie.

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AAA: @ Rochester Red Wings (MIN) 7, Buffalo Bisons 3

Two more scoreless innings from Eddie Kunz (2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K – pictured) were the best news here as Brandon Knight (4-9, 5.36) gave up six runs on 12 hits in 4 innings.

AA: Erie Seawolves (DET) 12, @ Binghamton Mets 4

Josh Petersen (.300/.380/.413 – age 26) was 3-for-4 with a double, his ninth of the year to push his average to an even .300.  Ike Davis was 1-4 with a double, his third straight game with an extra-base hit.

Eric Bown (6 R, 6 IP), Stephen Clyne (4 R, 1 IP), and Edgar Alfonzo (2 R, 2 IP) were all ineffective.

A+: @ St. Lucie Mets 6, Jupiter Hammerheads (FLA) 4

In his first rehab assignment, CF Angel Pagan was 1-for-3 with an infield single, scored from first on a CF Kirk Nieuwenhuis double, and played five innings defensively.

RHP Scott Shaw walked five and gave up five hits while yielding four runs in five innings.

A: @ Greenvill Drive (BOS) 5, Savannah Sand Gnats 3

Wilmer Flores (.285/.325/.361 – pictured) was 2-3.  In 180 PA since a ten-day rest in May, Flores is hitting .311/.346/.413 with nine doubles, a triple, two homers, six walks and just 17 strikeouts.  And he’s 17 years old. When Flores’ rest began on May 9, he was hitting .250/.295/.288.  Flores committed his tenth error of the year, while 3B Jefry Marte had two uh-ohs, pushing his season total to 31.

LHP Robert Carson (6-6, 2.22) gave up four runs, one earned in 5.2 IP.  He walked two and fanned three.

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AAA – International League

Charlotte Knights 12, Buffalo Bisons 7 (10 innings)

Tobi Stoner’s home debut went brilliantly for the Bisons on Monday night.  Nearly everything after the 24-year old righthander left the game did not.

Stoner’s night began with a bit of trouble: he walked the leadoff hitter, former Met farmhand Miguel Negron and gave up an infield hit to speedy Norris Hopper, before inducing a pair of flyballs to centerfielder Cory Sullivan and a grounder to third to end the first inning.

Stoner retired seven batters in a row from the first innint through one out in the third.  Bisons Manager Ken Oberkfell said of Stoner’s performance, he “threw strikes and did a nice job.”

Stoner worked off a fastball that sat at 88 mph, a curveball that was usually in the lower 70s, a slider that was 81 ish, a changeup and an occaisional splitter.  He hit 90 with his fastball, but every one of his harder fastballs missed low.  He explained that that came not from overthrowing, but from rushing his delivery home.  “I can feel it,” he said after the game, “it’s just something I’ve learned to feel coming up in the system.  You feel your bad habits.”  Stoner dealt six shutout innings, giving up four hits and three walks without striking out a batter.  In fact, Bisons pitching did not strike out a single batter all night.

The Knights helped Stoner and the Bisons with their reckless play on the base paths.  In the third, Stoner picked Miguel Negron off of second when the Bisons put on a smooth daylight play.  In the fifth inning, Keith Ginter tried to tag up and score on a popup that was barely 20 feet beyond the infield dirt in shallow right.  Secondbase man Luis Rivera nailed him at the plate.  In the sixth inning, with one out, and Norris Hopper at first, Josh Kroeger doubled down the right field line right into a flock of seagulls.  It took Emil Brown a long time to get the ball back in, but for some reason, (perhaps because the white of the ball went MIA among the gulls white feathere, Hopper held at third.  Kroeger rounded second and was nearly all the way to third.  Hopper was eventually caught in a rundown, and tagged out at the plate.

The Bisons scored in the second, fourth and seventh innings to build a 5-0 advantage.  Then, in the top of the eighth, the bullpen began to meltdown.  After a 1-2-3 seventh, Kyle Snyder gave up a bomb of a homerun to rightfield to Knights catcher Cole Armstrong to lead off the eighth.  Snyder left with a runner at first and two outs for Kyle Switzer to clean up.  Switzer allowed Snyder’s runner and one of his own to score to make the score 5-3.

Buffalo answered back in their half of the eighth, adding two runs on RBI doubles from DH Jesus Feliciano and RF Emil Brown to boost their advantage to 7-3 headed to the ninth.

Eddie Kunz entered, but could not protect the four-run lead.  Keith Ginter began the Knights frame by dumping a soft single to center.  After a groundout moved Ginter along, a roller to third was too soft for Javier Castillo to handle, putting two runners aboard.  A double, groundout, single, walk brought Charlotte within a run and stationed the tying run at third.  Wilson Betemit ground a Kunz slider softly up the middle, narrowly beyond the reach of Valdez to bring in the tying run.

The Bisons had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth after loading the bases with one out.  However, Chip Ambres was called out on a check swing on a pitch when he was moving away from the plate and Emil Brown swung through a slider to leave the tying run at third.  These two at bats, and the later part of the ninth, were interupted by chirping between the Bisons duguout and the home plate ump, who the Bisons felt was favoring Charlotte and missing balk calls that would send the winning run home from third.  Manager Ken Oberkfell got into it with the ump before hitting coach Bill Maase was ejected.  Maase put on a pretty good show, flipping his cap backward to go jaw-to-jaw with the man in blue.

So off the game went to the tenth tied at 7-7, when Tim McNab couldn’t get anyone out.  McNab loaded the bases with a a single, a walk and a hit by pitch when it started pouring.  Kudos to the Bisons staff, who brilliantly and efficiently unfurled the tarp to protect the infield.  It was easily one of the performances of the night.  The rain abated, and after a 16 minute delay, McNab allowed five runs to score to make the score 12-7.  Oberkfell really couldn’t explain his bullpen’s failing, beginning his postgame comments, by saying simply, “I’m speechless.”

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MLB

Ugh.  “Most ball games are lost, not won.” Casey Stengel

AAA

Lance Broadway (1-5, 6.80) gave up seven runs on eight hits in five innings in the Bisons 7-3 loss to Charlotte.  It’s not too early to wonder exactly what the Mets were thinking at the time of that trade.  Adam Bostick tossed two more scoreless innings for the Herd to keep his AAA ERA at zero this year, although he’s given up one unearned run in 11.1 innings.

AA

The B-Mets scored three times in the seventh inning to beat Akron 6-4.  Aeros pitchers walked 13 B-Mets.  See above for Casey Stengel’s thoughts on the matter.  CF Jon Malo was 2-2 with three walks and two RBI

Michael Antonini gave up one hit and a walk in three scoreless innings of relief to snag his fifth win.  Edgar Ramirez (0-1, 6.87) started.  I’m missing the logic as to starting Ramirez to have Antonini come out of the ‘pen.

A+

In St. Lucie’s 5-4 win in game one, only Jake Eigsti’s error catching a ball at first base kept Jeff Kaplan from the complete game win.  All four runs Kaplan allowed were unearned.  RF Carlos Guzman was 3-4 with two runs scored.  SS Reese Havens was 1-3 with a double and 0-2 with a walk and a double in the nightcap and is down to .225/.338/.414.  He is 5-for-21 since returning from his strained quad.

The Mets were held to three hits in a 3-0 game two loss.

A

SS Wilmer Flores and 3B Jefry Marte each had two hits in the Gnats 9-2 loss to Charleston.  Flores is hitting .314/.341/.430 in June with seven extra-base hits, the most in any month this year.  Marte is hitting .300 (12-for-40)  in his last ten games and is hitting .277/.304/.362 in the month as June comes to a close.

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Brad Holt pitched to six batters in his return from a sprained ankle.  His night: single (by rehabbing Asdrubal Cabrera), walk, flyout, walk, 2 RBI single, 3 run HR, showers.  The good news from the B-Mets 8-3 loss to the Aeros: 1B Ike Davis continues to hit.  He was 2-4 with two doubles and is now 7-for-16 (.438) with five walks (.571 OBP) and three doubles (.625) in his first five AA games.  No, I don’t think he’s the cure for the Mets offensive woes.

AAA

Brandon Knight gave up four runs in 5.1 IP in the Bisons 4-1 loss to Charlotte. The Bisons had four hits.

A

Savannah’s ninth inning rally fell short as the Gnats dropped a 4-3 decision to Charleston.  Kyle Allen (5-3, 4.26) gave up four runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings. Eric Beaulac (3-4, 2.72) was dominant out of the bullpen, giving up just a hit and a walk while striking out six in four shutout innings.  As a starter in 32.1 IP, Beaulac has walked 4.1/9 while in 24 innings out of the bullpen that drops to 2.25/9.  Out of the ‘pen, he’s striking out 11.6 batters per nine, while as a starter that drops slightly to 9.6.  Beaulac and Allen have been operating in tandem, “piggybacking” all season.  In April they alternated starts.  Beaulac started in May and now Allen has started in June.  I like piggybacking pitchers when an organization has enough depth to justify it because it gets everyone plenty of innings.  However, Beaulac is 22, St. Lucie needs some pitchers, and I’d sure like to see how he does in the FSL for the season’s final two months.

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CC Sabathia >> Mike Pelfrey. Who knew?

It’s really simple with the current Mets lineup, the team just can’t give away outs as they did in the second inning.

AAA

Nelson Figueroa (3-4, 2.61) just kept rolling, giving up just one run over six innings in the Bisons 7-5 win over Gwinnett.   Arturo Lopez couldn’t finish the ninth, endowed with a five-run lead, but Eddie Kunz bailed him out by recording the final two outs for his first AAA save of the year.

AA

Ike Davis was 1-2 with an RBI and two walks in Binghamton’s 3-1 loss in Akron.  Thus far, he’s 5-for-12 with five walks and three strikeouts in four games in AA.

A+

St. Lucie @ Tampa was postponed by rain.

A

Robert Carson (5-5, 2.39) won his second straight start on the strength of seven shutout innings.  Carson gave up five hits and three walks while fanning three.  Wilmer Flores was 3-4 with a double, and now has an extra-base hit in three of his last four games.  In June, Flores is hitting .304/.337/.430 with nine strikeouts in 21 games.   I know you haven’t forgotten, but Flores won’t turn 18 until August.

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AAA – International League

Buffalo Bisons 5, @ Gwinnett Braves 1

The story of the night Thursday, after the Mets win in the afternoon was the continued domination of AAA by Jon Niese.  Really.  Niese shut out Gwinnett through six innings, but left the game after giving up a single and a double to begin the seventh inning.  A sacrifice fly off reliever Tim McNab snapped Niese’s scoreless innings streak at 24.1.  Niese’s final line: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K.  He threw 65% of his pitches (68/105) for strikes.

Since giving up six runs on June 1st, Niese has been awesome.  In his last four starts, the 22-year-old southpaw has a 1.03 ERA (3 ER/26.1 IP) and opponents are hitting just .213 against him.  Niese has fanned 25 and walked seven to produce the following ratios: K/9: 8.5, BB/9: 2.4, and K/BB: 3.6.  Also, he hasn’t allowed a homerun.

Unfortunately for Niese, he missed his window for a shot at the big league club when he was struggling early.  Now, with Fernando Nieve a revelation in the Mets rotation, and John Maine and Oliver Perez both throwing for Brooklyn this weekend, the Mets seem well set in the starting pitching department at the moment.  However, funny things happen over a long summer, and the bet here is that if Niese keeps pitching at anything close to the level he’s set recently, he will see the big leagues again before Labor Day.

Eddie Kunz also pitched a scoreless inning.  Kunz in June has a 0.93 ERA and has given up five hits in the month while fanning nine and walking just two.  It has been his best month in AAA.

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