AAA: Buffalo Bisons 7, Charlotte Knights (CHI – AL) 6 

This one was delayed by 29 minutes by rain in Charlotte. When he took the hill, Matt Harvey produced this: 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 1 HR.  Through four, he had allowed one run on three hits and a walk with four whiffs, but the fifth and sixth were tougher. His last two innings: 4 H, 3 R, 3 R, 1 BB, 2 K, HR.

He threw strikes with 69% of his pitches (63 strikes, 91 pitches). It was his second-highest strike rate in any start this year after only his 73% strike performance on April 25 when he threw seven shutout innings. In his three starts in May, Harvey’s strike percentage (61.3) is actually a touch lower than his April performance (62.8) in five starts. This is reflected in his walk rate which has ticked up from 9.5% in April to 10.4% in May. To put this in context, National League pitchers have walked batters in 8.4% of their plate appearances in 2012 and for the last few seasons have averaged 62% strikes.

Put simply: there is no statistical evidence that his command has improved over the course of the 2012 season. He was not ready to help the Mets on Opening Day 2012, and he is still not ready to help the 2012 Mets. The Mets can and should be patient with Harvey and keep him at AAA until his command does improve to a level where he can step into an MLB rotation.

The Bisons scored five times in the eighth inning helped by doubles from RF Vinny Rottino, 1B Josh Satin and CF Dustin Martin.

The rally made a winner of Elvin Ramirez who threw two scoreless innings with a hit and a strikeout. Ramirez has not allowed a run or a walk in his 4.2 AAA innings while fanning four. If the Mets are looking to add an arm in the bullpen, Ramirez might be first in line.

A+: @ Bradenton Marauders (PIT) 9, St. Lucie Mets 1 

St. Lucie had a tough assignment in this one, taking on 2011′s #1 overall pick, Gerritt Cole of the Pirates. He was throwing hard, 94-97, but according to ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel was not using his off-speed offerings very much at all. Cole’s final line: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR.

2B Danny Muno was 2-for-4 and took Cole deep in the 3rd inning. The 23-year old is hitting .284/.344/.468 in 35 with five homers.

Neither Chase Huchingson, nor Kyle Allen, nor Taylor Whitenton were all that effective.

Huchingson’s line: 3 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 3 K, 1 WP. He’s walked at least four batters in each of his last four starts. So that’s 17 walks in his last 17.2 IP. That’s … not good at all. I suspect that teams are starting to learn what he’s about and have stopped chasing the stuff out of the zone that he used to get outs in the SAL in 2011.

A: Savannah Sand Gnats 8, @ Hickory Crawdads 4 

The story here is not the Gnats’ offense, which was responsible for three homeruns, but a second solid start in a row from RHP Michael Fulmer, last year’s supplemental first round pick: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K. The seven whiffs in a game are a new career-high. In 27.2 IP this year, he’s fanned 27 and walked just 7 for a K/BB of 3.9 and a 3.25 ERA. The 19-year old has not walked more than two batters in any single start this year.

Fulmer is doing very well. In fact, in terms of results, he’s ahead of current Mets’ prospect Zack Wheeler at a similar state. In his first six starts in the SAL as a 19-year year old immediately preceding his 20th birthday, Zack Wheeler worked 20.2 innings, with a 6.53 ERA, 16 BB and 26 K for a 1.6 K/BB ratio. Wheeler walked three batters or more in four of his first six SAL outings.

Now, about those homers.

CF Travis Taijeron (.314/.431/.602 – 33 G) was 2-for-5 with a homer, his eighth, and 3 RBI. The 23-year old is second in the SAL in HR and third in slugging.

C Albert Cordero was 1-for-4 with a homer, his second. After a wasted April (.152/.231/.217 – 13 games) he’s hitting with more authority in May (.235/.286/.647 – 6 games). He’s in a job-share with Cam Maron, and has not DHed once. I’d sure like to see him get a few games at DH just to get hims some more AB/help him get his bat going.

LF Charley Thurber went deep. It the 22-year old’s second extra-base hit of the year in 23 games for a line of .195/.286/.253.

AA: @ New Hampshire Fisher Cats 9, Binghamton Mets 0

The ‘Cats roughed up Darin Gorski on Sunday: 4 IP, 10 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 WP. He pitched to four batters in the fifth inning, but could not retire any of them.

After the game, he tweeted:

After a slow start to the year, RF Juan Lagares is starting to get going. The 23-year old was 2-for-4 with a double, his sixth, to push his season line to .277/.344/.370 on the heels of a six-game hitting streak.

Another 0-for-4 for 2B Reese Havens dropped him to .063 (2-for-32) in his last nine games and .167/.271/.286 overall in just 12 games so far.

CF Matt den Dekker (.291/.359/.500) was 1-4 to extend his hitting streak to eight straight games and stole a base. He’s now 5-for-11 stealing bases this year.

A+: St. Lucie Mets 11, @ Brevard County Manatees (MIL) 2

St. Lucie turned a good pitching matchup of 2011 draftees Taylor Jungmann and Cory Mazzoni into a blowout late with nine runs in the final two innings against the Manatees’ bullpen. The bottom of the order did much of the damage.

Once again, SS Wilfredo Tovar was 2-for-4 with a walk to push his line to .290/.356/.411 in 31 games. The tiny 20-year old has walked nine times and struck out just 10 times, making him the fifth-toughest player to strikeout in the Florida State League and gone 5-for-5 stealing bases.

The Milwaukee Brewers selected Jungmann with the 12th overall selection, in 2011, one spot in front of the Mets who plucked OF Brandon Nimmo. And on this night, the second-round pick Mazzoni and Jungmann put up nearly identical lines.

Mazzoni: 5.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 1 WP
Jungmann: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K,  2 HBP

After going 0-for-5, Cory Vaughn’s hitless streak has reached five, as he’s now 0-for-20 in those five. His skid has pulled his overall line down to .241/.328/.500 in 30 games.

A: @ Hickory Crawdads (TEX) 3, Savannah Sand Gnats 1

Tyler Pill: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K. The 10 whiffs are a new season and career high. His ERA rose to 1.89. In 33.1 IP, he’s yielded 35 hits, while running a K/BB ratio of 5.3 (37 K/7 BB). With Logan Verrett working his way back from a right shoulder issue, Pill could well be the first Savannah starter promoted to advanced-A St. Lucie.

After two games out of the lineup, 3B Aderlin Rodriguez returned in an 0-for-3 effort. The 20-year old is hitting .187/.259/.333 in 31 games. In fact, the bottom four hitters in the Gnats lineup all were hitting under .200 at the conclusion of the game.

At the top of the order, 2B TJ Rivera (.362/.457/.543 – 33 G) continues to rake. The 23-year old was 2-for-3 with a homer, his fifth. However, he has also wrested the team’s error lead away from Rodriguez by a count of eight to seven.

Domingo Tapia took a no-hitter into the sixth inning last night. His performance in 2012 has been eye opening.

He uses his 6’4″ frame and long arms to generate a special fastball. His heater has regularly been 95-98 mph, has touched 99, with plus sink. It alone can overpower South Atlantic League hitters.

A few weeks ago, I sat down with the 20-year old, for an interview, translated by Gnats’ manager Luis Rojas. Due to the nature of translation, where Rojas was paraphrasing answers, presenting it as straight quotes did not seem not quite right.

The Hardest Part of his first three starts
-The pressure of this first start. The next two or three he felt more comfortable.

His Baseball History
Tapia began playing baseball at 12 years old and played every position, but pitcher was always his favorite. At 16, he started developing and throwing harder (mas duro) and realized it could be serious. (Note: my Spanish is quite limited, but there are certain types of conversations related either to baseball or skiing, I can more or less follow, or at least pick out relevant phrases.)

Before he signed with the Mets, he had already thrown for a lot of teams, and the Mets saw him, they signed him immediately. He liked the Mets because at that time, Pedro Martinez was a Met. (Rules Note: he is listed in the media guide as signing on 12/16/09, on his 18th birthday. Internationals free agents are eligible to first sign as 16 year old from July 2nd through August 3st and as early as their birthday if they turn 16 between July 2 and August 31. Once a player turns 17, he can sign at any time.)

His Family
The is the second-oldest of eight children, six boys and two girls. The youngest is a girl who is currently five years old. When he was watching his brothers and sisters, their favorite activity was playing Nintendo.  His father works at a cable company and his mother is a stay-at-home mom.

His pitch that needs the most work
Slider (He answered this one in English, with one word. It was his only answer in English.)

His Change-up
He had two different changeup grips: a two-seam grip and a four-seam grip. He likes the two-seam grip. (Note: because he lives off his two-seam fastball, the Mets have encouraged him to focus on the two-seam change-up grip, which he has done.)

I suspect when I sat down with Tapia and Rojas, it was the first time he had done an interview with any member of the media.

A+: St. Lucie Mets 4, @ Brevard County Manatees  (MIL) 3 

Rehab-a-palooza.
SS Ronny Cedeno: 0-for-4, played all nine innings.
RHP Chris Young: 5 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K

I find the amount of attention and hope surrounding Young sort of comical. Look, I hope for the Mets’ and Chris Young’s sake that at age 33, he comes back, pitches well and stays healthy. However, the odds are decidedly against that. He made four starts in each of 2010 and 2011. In 2009, he ran a 5.21 ERA over 14 starts while calling Petco home with a 1.25 K/BB ratio (50 K/40 BB). He has not had an ERA+ better than 100 since 2008. I get that the question is not whether he’s good or even league average, but really: is he a better option than Miguel Batista/Jeremy Hefner/Chris Schwinden.

LHP Adam Kolarek gave up his first two runs of the season in his 18th inning of work. He still owns a 28/3 K/BB ratio in 18.1 innings. Kolarek was the subject of Adam Rubin’s profile at ESPNNY this week.

CF Cesar Puello was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles, numbers nine and 10. The 21-year old is now up to .297/.343/.436 (good) with a 25/3 K/BB ratio (bad).

RF Cory Vaughn (.252/.336/.523) returned after missing two games with a bruised butt from sliding and was 0-for-4.

A: Savannah Sand Gnats 7, @ Hickory Crawdads (TEX) 2 
Domingo Tapia: 5.2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 WP, 1 HBP. All three walks he issued came in the sixth inning, when he admitted after the game that he was “gassed” as he approached 90 pitches.

Gnats’ manager Luis Rojas blamed the team’s rally in the top of the sixth “Before the sixth inning, we thought that he would actually go out in the seventh. He was only at 63 pitches. But we scored three runs in the top of the sixth and he was sat down for a good 30 minutes. When he came out, he didn’t have the same feel.”

Tapia has a K/BB of 4.1 (29 K/7 BB) in 32 innings. And again, is sitting 95-98 mph with his sinker. Tapia is easily the player in my pre-season Top 41, who has increased the stock the most so far in 2012.

CF Travis Taijeron was 2-for-4 with a double to run his season line to .321/.444/.606 in 31 games as a 23-year old.

The Gnats’ five doubles and five errors were both season-highs.

I did not think much of it when 3B Aderlin Rodriguez left Monday’s game in the ninth inning after popping out in the bottom of the eighth. However, he sat in the Gnats’ finale against Lakewood on Tuesday, and did not play Thursday. I am reasonably certain he took batting practice with the team on Tuesday. Hmm.

AAA: @ Gwinnett Braves 5, Buffalo Bisons 3 (10 innings)

The Bisons’ bullpen could not complete another strong effort from Jeremy Hefner. His line Thursday: 7.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K. Hefner left Josh Edgin a runner at first with two outs in the eighth inning. Edgin then allowed a single, and a two-run double that put the Braves ahead 3-1.

The six strikeouts was a new season-high, and Hefner’s last four starts in AAA have all been at least seven innings long. His total line in those four starts: 29.1 IP, 16 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 2 HR, 3 BB, 17 K, 1.23 ERA, .151 opponents’ average. Add three scoreless innings in the big leagues, and his total ERA between AAA and the big leagues since April 18th drops to 1.11. Will the Mets need him again before Matt Harvey or Jenrry Mejia or Chris Young is ready? His recent success in AAA is becoming difficult to ignore.

With two hits and a run allowed Thursday, Josh Edgin has now given up seven runs, all earned, on 13 hits and six walks, in AAA in 7.2 innings. Again, there’s a reason players do not jump from a-ball to the big leagues.

Fernando Cabrera gave up the game-winning home run in the bottom of the 10th to Stefan Gartrell.

After going 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles, 30-year old SS Omar Quintanilla is up to .306/.382/.561

AA: Binghamton Mets 9, @ New Hampshire Fisher Cats 2

Zack Wheeler returned to the B-Mets rotation after missing just one start with a problem with his right middle finger. He was good: 5 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 WP, 1 BK. He threw 67% of his pitches for strikes (63 strikes/94 pitches). Wheeler has not allowed more than two runs in any of his six starts this year. He’s sixth in the Eastern League with a 2.05 ERA, third with 37 strikeouts, and has the best K/9 (10.86) in the League. The red flag in his performance thus far have been the walks – 15 in 30.2. Six of those walks came in a single start on April 24. When his walk rate drops, which indicates that he is locating better, then and only then, will he be ready for AAA. Any scenario where he sees the big leagues in 2012 is far-fetched, but 2013 is very much in play.

The B-Mets took the lead at 3-2 on Juan Lagares‘ bases-loaded single into centerfield. After going 3-for-5 and hitting safely in four straight games, the 23-year old Lagares is up to .273/.344/.364.