Meet the Minors Mets! Matt Reynolds, Las Vegas 51’s Shortstop

I'm a New York Mets fan, but I'm a Mets Minor Leagues fanatic. It's a weird sort of addiction, and it started years ago when the Mets drafted David Wright, Brian Cole and Jason Tyner years ago. I just got really into the progression and development of Mets prospects.

Plus, there's always hope in the minors. There's not always hope in Flushing.

So, why not start a blog saying hello to some of the players coming through the Mets system?

We'll start with a pleasant surprise for this year, Matt Reynolds. The shortstop was drafted in 2012 in the second round, and was a pretty good indication of the type of player Sandy Alderson likes. Heady, steady and a consistent approach at the plate that emphasizes "hunting for strikes".

He had 2 kinda "eh" years at the plate, but was promoted to Binghamton this year regardless. He proceeded to hit .355 in his time there, but with very little power. In terms of fielding, he has a slightly less range than current SS Ruben Tejada, but a better glove. He definitely has the chops to stick at shortstop in the minors.

He was promoted to the Triple A  Las Vegas 51's 21 games ago. He's since hit .355 with 8 doubles (3 more than he had in 58 games in Binghamton). I think that's more an indication of the hitting atmosphere in the Pacific Coast League than his ability to hit for extra bases.

There's this thing in baseball called BABIP, or Batting Average on Balls In Play, and it measures how many of a batters ball's go for hits. (*sigh* Sabermetrics.) I don't really understand it, but apparently a normal number is supposed to be around .300. It's an indication of luck as a hitter and Matt's BABIP is pretty high at .464 which means that we'll probably see a regression in batting average and hitting toward a lower number as the season continues.

That being said, it's been nice to see a shortstop prospect progress in the system, and I'd bet that if Daniel Murphy is dealt at the trading deadline we'll see Matt in the majors at second to see if he can continue his excellent season at the plate in the bigs.