We’ll now move on to the second part of our Mets minor league season preview, in which we’ll take a look at the organization’s Double-A affiliate, the Binghamton Mets. While there are very few, if any, headline prospects with the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate, the New Orleans Zephyrs, the Binghamton Mets have a whole bunch of them – eight, to be exact. And that doesn’t count the two players who dropped out of the organization’s Baseball America Top 30 prospects list after last season.
At the top of the list, though, and one of the top prospects in all of baseball, is centerfielder Fernando Martinez. The top prospect in the Mets organization, Martinez ranked anywhere from 14th to 32nd among the different top 50 prospects in all of baseball on different lists by Baseball America writers.
Last season, Martinez struggled through a right hand injury at Binghamton (.271, 4 HR, 21 RBI in 60 games) before being shut down by the team. However, it’s not like Martinez is running out of time – last year, at 18 years old, he opened the season in Binghamton as the youngest prospect in all of Double-A by nearly two years.
With the combination of being healthy again, having a year of experience under his belt in Double-A and a great run in spring training (.340 batting average in 47 at-bats), Martinez looks poised to have a great season, and could be up with the Mets by September 1, if not even sooner if needed.
One of the more interesting battles to watch in Binghamton this year will be the battle between Mike Carp (No. 19 in BA’s rankings) and Nick Evans (No. 20) for the title of top first base prospect in the Mets’ system.
Carp, a left-hander, struggled in 2007. He broke a finger during spring training, and then didn’t have much success (.251, 11 HR, 48 RBI) in his first year in Binghamton. His problems were compounded by a miserable season against southpaws, having only two walks and two extra-base hits in 110 at-bats against them. At 21, he does have time to fix things, but he may have less time than most people normally in his situation because of Evans.
A right-handed bat, Evans is judged to have the most power of any Mets home-grown prospect in the organization, and he proved it with a good year last year at Single-A Port St. Lucie (.286, 15 HR, 54 RBI in 378 at-bats). The combination of Carp’s struggles a year ago, along with Evans’ strong year with Port St. Lucie, should lead to an interesting battle between the two players this year (both of whom will be 22 by July 1, and who both were drafted by the Mets in 2004).
The winner of this year’s competition will likely have a decent chance at winning the first baseman’s job next season once Carlos Delgado’s contract ends, making it a battle all Met fans should watch closely.
We’ll now move across the infield to third base, where the Mets 15th-ranked prospect, Danny Murphy, will be joining Evans in the jump from Port St. Lucie this year. Murphy, a lefty, had a nice year at the plate in 2007, hitting .285 with 11 HR and 78 RBI. With David Wright likely not going anywhere in the near future, the question surrounding Murphy is where he will be play with the big club.
The final position player to make the list is Emmanuel Garcia (No. 24), a middle infield who likely will be the team’s starting shortstop. While Garcia has no power (zero home runs in 488 at-bats a year ago) he does have good speed, as he proved with 34 stolen bases. The 22-year-old will look to build on a decent season in 2007 this year.
Outside of Martinez, however, the players most likely to be helping the parent club in the near future (and, in some cases, possibly the very near future) are starters Jon Niese and Robert Parnell, as wel as reliever Eddie Kunz.
Niese, a left-hander, is the No. 8 prospect, as well as a high school teammate of Dodger stud prospect Chad Billingsley. You can read more about him in Sunday’s Beating the Bushes piece, but he has a good, 90-92 MPH fastball, and also has a decent changeup and curveball. After having a solid 2007 (11-7, 4.29 ERA) including a 4-1, 2.18 ERA over his final eight starts, Niese had a strong showing in spring training, and could become an option later on in 2008 for the Mets if they suffer more injuries to their pitching staff.
Parnell, the No. 10 prospect in the system, is a righty that went 5-5 witha 4.77 ERA with Binghamton a year ago. He has a mid-90s fastball, along with a hard sinker and slider, and is working on a changeup. He will look to improve upon last year’s performance this year, and at 23, still has some time to shine.
Of all the players in Binghamton, however, the most likely to have an impact on the 2008 Mets is Kunz. The 6-foot-4, 250 pound righty is the likely candidate to replace Billy Wagner, a couple of years down the road, as the Mets’ closer. Kunz has a mid-90s fastball, and also throws a hard slider and changeup. He hasn’t allowed a home run since his freshman year of college, and after pitching as a set-up man, and then a closer, on Oregon State’s back-to-back National Championship teams in 2006 and ’07, he is quite familiar with the big stage.
If Kunz gets off to a good start in Binghamton, a quick move up through the rotation is quite possible – especially if injuries and ineffectiveness strikes the Mets bullpen.
There are more than enough players for fans of the Mets to keep an eye on with this club. It should be an interesting season to watch in Binghamton.
