After their game in Tacoma Tuesday night, the New Orleans Zephyrs announced that Claudio Vargas will finally join the triple-A squad, and will be inserted into the starting rotation. 

            Every other affiliate was involved in transactions Tuesday.  In Binghamton, Joe Hietpas came off the DL bumping LHP Edgar Alfonzo down to St. Lucie’s bullpen.  To make room, St. Lucie sent reliever Roy Merritt down to the Brooklyn roster and placed OF Brahiam Maldonado on the DL. Savannah added a pair of 23 year old infielders, Michael Parker and Joaquin Rodriguez, while sending Julio Polanco (0-1, 6.32) and C Tony Maccani to the Brooklyn roster as well.  Odds are very long that any of the players mentioned in this paragraph will ever be contributing big leaguers. 

 

Stars of the Day:

AAA: Willie Collazo/Victor Mendez & Jesus Feliciano

AA: Manny Garcia & Salomon Manriquez

A+: Off

A: Matt Bouchard & Daniel Stegall

 

New Orleans (AAA – Pacific Coast League)

New Orleans Zephyrs (15-10, -1.5) 7, @ Tacoma Rainiers (13-11) 3

 

            Brian Stokes (3-2, 5.60) threw well, and the New Orleans offense rapped out 13 hits on Tuesday night.  Stokes shut out the Rainiers through five innings, before Tacoma figured him out for three runs in the sixth.  Stokes fanned eight.  Willie Collazo (1-0-1, 1.71) tossed three shutout frames for his first save of the year. 

            Jesus Feliciano put New Orleans out in front with a two run double in the third, later scoring on a Caleb Stewart single.  Feliciano was 2-6 with 3 RBI.  DH Victor Mendez was a perfect 3-3 with a double, two walks, and two runs scored from the bottom of the order.  The 27-year old Mendez has hit .400/.500/.525 in 40 AB.  Mike Nickeas (2-5, HR, 2 RBI) went deep for the first time this year. 

 

 

Binghamton (AA - Eastern League)

New Britain Rock Cats (11-12) 7, @ Binghamton Mets (10-15, -7.5) 1

 

            The ‘Cats scored four in the first against Jacob Ruckle (1-2, 5.20) and cruised from there. 

            Fernando Martinez, who was 1-5, hit second for the first time all year.  Sunday, he hit third for the first time after batting in the leadoff spot in his first 23 contests.  2B Manny Garcia (.230/.333/.253) was 2-4 with a walk and a strikeout.  The 22-year old Canadian is walking a lot (14) and striking out a lot (26) so with 87 at bats, over 38% of his plate appearances have ended with either a walk or a strikeout. Catcher Salomon Manriquez (age 25) was 2-3 with a double and a walk.  . 

 

 

St. Lucie (A+ - Florida State League)

St. Lucie Mets

 

Off

 

Savannah (A – South Atlantic League)

Hickory Crawdads (14-12) 13, @ Savannah Sand Gnats (8-17, -12.0) 6

 

            Angel Calero (0-4, 3.00) gave up five runs, all unearned in 3.2 innings of work while taking his fourth loss.  A Jose Jimenez error made the first run unearned, while Calero’s own throwing error in front of a three run homer in the fourth made all of the subsequent scoring unearned. 

            Savannah scored three times in the bottom of the sixth to close to within 7-6, but the Crawdads beat up on the Gnats bullpen to pull away late.  SS Matt Bouchard and CF Daniel Stegall were an identical 2-4 with an RBI and a run scored.  C Francisco Pena went deep for the second time.  Pena’s hitting .250/.296/.382 this year as compared to .210/.263/.283 a year ago.  His strikeout and walk rates are virtually unchanged, but more singles are falling in and he’s hitting for much more power with an isolated slugging percentage (SLG-AVG) of .132 in 2008 versus .073 a year ago.  It’s a step in the right direction.    New Gnat Joaquin Rodriguez was 2-4.

            Both teams committed four errors. 

 

 

Toby Hyde has written Toby’s Mets Minor League Report since 2004.  Please pass this along to friends, family, co-workers, and Mets fans of all types.  To subscribe to the email newsletter, sign up here: http://groups.google.com/group/mets-minors?hl=en.  Archives are available at http://metsminors.metsblog.com.