METS MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: WEEK FIVE

Matt Rudick

Week: 5 G, 17 AB, .412/.474/.588, 7 H, 0 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 2 BB, 3 K, 1/2 SB (Double-A)

2024 Season: 21 G, 73 AB, .274/.377/.452, 20 H, 4 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 12 BB, 21 K, 1/2 SB, .347 BABIP (Double-A)

After having his season end early due to a undisclosed, possibly shoulder-related injury, things looked a bit concerning when Matt Rudick started out the season so cold. He went 2-7 with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts in a pair of games against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in Binghamton’s inaugural 2024 weekend series, but then went 1-12 with 3 walks and 5 strikeouts in 4 games against the Erie SeaWolves and 2-15 with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts in 5 games against the Reading Fightin Phils.

His bat began heating up in Binghamton’s second series against New Hampshire at the end of April and has stayed hot since. In 10 games since April 24, the beginning of that Fisher Cats series, Rudick is hitting .385/.455/.667 with two of his four total doubles, all three of his home runs, and has 5 walks to 7 strikeouts.

The small outfielder does not have the highest MLB upside to begin with, but he is showing that major league playing time is getting increasingly within the realm of possibility.

Blade Tidwell

Week: 1 G (1 GS), 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K (Single-A)

2024 Season: 5 G (3 GS), 29.1 IP, 15 H, 7 R, 4 ER (1.23 ERA), 10 BB, 36 K, .238 BABIP (Double-A)

Tidwell had his best start of his professional career last week against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, notching a GameScore of 79. It was the second time ever he completed eight innings- the last time coming on August 9, 2023 when he tossed eight innings against the Somerset Patriots- and the third time this season that he had nine or more strikeouts.

On the whole, as compared to last season, the most notable difference between his results last season as compared to this season are his groundball and line drive rates. His groundball rate is roughly 10% higher while his line drive rate is roughly 10% lower. Fewer balls are being struck squarely and more balls are being hit on the ground, resulting in more outs, and as of the time of this being published, no home runs.

Over the winter, Tidwell added a cutter to his repertoire. Given that cutters are, in rough terms, fastball-slider hybrids, the pitch has given the right-hander an additional weapon outside of his fastball and slider, both of which he used at around the same rates last season. Now, rather that using his sweeping slider and expose batters to what it looks like in non-strikeout situations, he can use the cutter and keep the slider in his pocket for the strikeout situation.

Joander Suarez

Week: 1 G (0 GS), 6.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K (Double-A)

2024 Season: 5 G (4 GS), 27.2 IP, 16 H, 8 R, 8 ER (2.60 ERA), 8 BB, 24 K, .194 BABIP (Double-A)

With identical Game Scores, Joander Suarez is our second pitcher Player of the Week!

Good morning. I’d like to provide the Amazin’ Avenue fans with an update on our efforts to protect the integrity of our very important Player of the Week election. If you count the legal votes, Joander easily wins. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. If you count the votes that came in late after Steve’s bedtime — we’re looking at them very strongly. But a lot of votes came in late after Steve’s bedtime.

Joander has already decisively won the Eastern League, including massive victories in New Hampshire, Erie, Hartford, Reading, to name just a few. He won these and many other victories despite historic pitching interference from big media, big signing bonus, and big Blade.

As everybody saw, he won by historic numbers. And the scouts got it knowingly wrong. They got it knowingly wrong. Joander had ERAs that were so ridiculous, and everybody knew that at the time. There was no regression that they predicted. They thought there was going to be a regression wave; that was false. That was done for suppression reasons. But instead, there was a big blue & orange wave.

And it’s been properly acknowledged by the Lukas, Ken & Thomas. They were, I think, very impressed, but that was after the fact. That doesn’t do Joander any good.

Steve Cohen spent almost $100 million on pitchers now in Texas and Detroit alone — two pitchers — and hundreds of millions of dollars overall. At the national level, Binghamton’s opponents’ major donors were Fisher Cats and SeaWolves and Yard Goat special interests. Joander’s major supporters were Steve, and Lukas, and Ken, and Thomas, everyday citizens. Yet for the first time ever, we lost zero games in the Eastern League. I was talking to Chris McShane today. He said he couldn’t believe it: zero games. Very unusual thing. Zero. And actually won many new fans with, I think, many more on the way.

As everyone now recognizes, sports media reporting was scouting interference, in the truest sense of that word, by powerful special interests. These really phony reports — I have to call them phony reports, fake reports — were designed to keep Joander supporters at home, create the illusion of momentum for Mr. Blade, and diminish the Rumble Pony ability to win games. They were what’s called “scouting reports.” Everyone knows that now. And it’s never been used to the extent that it’s been used on this last election.

Players of the Week 2024

Week One (March 29-April 7): Ben Gamel/Joey Lucchesi

Week Two (April 8-April 14): Jesus Baez/Christian Scott

Week Three (April 16-April 21): Mark Vientos/Blade Tidwell

Week Four (April 23-28): Matt Rudick/Jonah Tong

2024-05-07T15:06:13Z dg43tfdfdgfd