Heritage and I have a strange relationship. When the debut edition became the hottest product of 2001, I chose to sell while it was hot rather than chase the set. I skipped the next decade of Heritage and have bought some each of the four years since, never quite finishing any sets and always falling short of getting my money’s worth. Still, I keep coming back to be somewhat disappointed the next year…
Heritage High Number is a different story. I skipped it in 2012, bought a set at about full price in 2013 and made most of my money back on the autograph, and then never got around to buying a set in 2014. When I finally did pick one up the next year at a steep markdown, I still made back about half the price on the autograph. Not a bad track record, but there’s only so much you can get out of the 100-card factory set format. 2015 Heritage High Number though returned to a standard pack format and in the process became a strong contender for the hottest product of 2015.
With Cespedes on board, the Mets cruised to their first NL East title since 2006. But not without getting some extra relief help first. Eric O’Flaherty got the first shot, but that didn’t work out so well. Next came Addison Reed, who has earned a spot on the postseason roster. Barring an emergency postseason call-up, the 2015 list wraps up with Tim Stauffer, who was picked up to bolster the AAA staff. As usual, the “throw a bunch of relievers against the wall and see who sticks” method of bullpen construction doesn’t yield the best results, but at least the Mets had some time to experiment in games that didn’t really matter.
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| Michael Cuddyer | John Mayberry Jr. | Jerry Blevins | Alex Torres |
| 6 April 2015 | 6 April 2015 | 6 April 2015 | 9 April 2015 |
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| Sean Gilmartin* | Daniel Muno* | Kevin Plawecki* | Hansel Robles* |
| 10 April 2015 | 17 April 2015 | 21 April 2015 | 24 April 2015 |
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| Jack Leathersich* | Johnny Monell | Noah Syndergaard* | Darrell Ceciliani* |
| 29 April 2015 | 9 May 2015 | 12 May 2015 | 19 May 2015 |
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| Akeel Morris* | Logan Verrett | Steven Matz* | Michael Conforto* |
| 17 June 2015 | 18 June 2015 | 28 June 2015 | 24 July 2015 |
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| Kelly Johnson | Juan Uribe | Tyler Clippard | Yoenis Cespedes |
| 25 July 2015 | 25 July 2015 | 28 July 2015 | 1 August 2015 |
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| Eric O’Flaherty | Addison Reed | Tim Stauffer | |
| 5 August 2015 | 1 September 2015 | 13 September 2015 |
*MLB Debut
Brian Burgamy breaks a bat grounding out
Three hit batters, two broken bats, two blown leads… So much was busted for the B-Mets on Sunday that everyone was going to need a day off after this 14-inning marathon. What’s that, they had a doubleheader on Monday? No rest for the winners, I guess. The B-Mets salvaged a win after blowing a 7-run lead and making the kids wait until after 6pm to run the bases, sweeping the Fisher Cats in their final trip to New Hampshire in 2014.
Tyler Pill was coming off two losses in Manchester and the B-Mets were coming off two narrow victories in which they held comfortable leads, so I had low expectations for Sunday’s game. In a surprise twist, Pill pitched effectively, going five scoreless innings before giving up two runs in the 6th and getting pulled after recording two outs. His stuff wasn’t overpowering, topping off at about 89mph, but it was the slow stuff in the high-70s that was keeping the Fisher Cats at bay. When Pill went with mostly high-80s fastballs in the 6th, the Fisher Cats pounced on him and got on the board. T.J. Chism came in and got the B-Mets out of the inning without further damage.
Kevin Plawecki drives in a run in the 3rd inning
The B-Mets offense did enough damage of their own early in the game to make those two runs largely insignificant. Cory Vaughn followed up his double on Saturday with another double his first time up on Sunday. He would come around to score on a Wilfredo Tovar single. The next run came an inning later on a Matt Reynolds triple and a Kevin Plawecki single. Jayce Boyd singled to put runners at the corners for Cory Vaughn.
Cory Vaughn hits a sacrifice fly in the 3rd inning
This time, Vaughn flying out was productive, driving in a run as a sac fly. That would be it for Vaughn’s offense for the foreseeable future; he would finish the night 1-for-5 with a sac fly and a HBP before going 0-for-7 with a walk over his next two games. That streak of two doubles over the weekend was it for Vaughn’s hot streak and his trouble at the plate in 2014 continues.
Darrell Ceciliani begins a home run swing
Darrell Ceciliani followed Vaughn’s sac fly with the game’s only home run. The Mets scored two more runs over the next three innings, putting them up 7-0 before Pill started having trouble. Trouble was also getting started with Wilfredo Tovar.
Wilfredo Tovar fouls one off himself and doubles over in pain
We’ve seen a lot of Mets taking a beating over the course of this series. Kevin Plawecki took two pitches and a foul ball on Friday, then Matt Clark left Saturday’s game after being hit by a pitch. Sunday was Tovar’s day, which started when he fouled one off himself in the top of the 7th. Tovar has been getting a bit frustrated at the plate lately and this certainly didn’t help. But this was just the beginning.
T.J. Chism runs into trouble in the 7th inning
The rest of the team felt the pain in the bottom half when T.J. Chism started things off with three consecutive hits to left field. With the pressure on, Chism walked the next batter to bring up Ryan Schimpf, who was so feared on Saturday that he was given an intentional walk. That wasn’t an option with the bases loaded, so he had to settle for a hit by pitch. After allowing the first five batters of the inning to reach base without recording an out, that was it for Chism. He would go on the disabled list the next day, so something was clearly wrong.
Jon Velasquez was handed the unenviable task of getting three outs with three runners already on base. Those runners wouldn’t be a problem for long. Velasquez gave up a double that cleared the bases to the first batter he saw but settled in and got through the inning, wrapping things up on a 95mph fastball with runners on second and third.
The B-Mets would get their lead back in the top of the 8th, but it was short-lived. Jack Leathersich gave the run back in the bottom half but kept the game tied until the end of the 9th.
Chase Bradford and Adam Kolarek would each pitch two scoreless innings to give the B-Mets another four chances to score a run.
Oh, for the love of god, enough with the bunting!
Which they tried to do by bunting. For three straight innings, the Mets bunted when they got a runner on base (twice that was by HBP). In the 10th and the 11th, we got the scene above: out at second, just barely safe at first. We’re in extra innings and the Mets are giving away outs. Things went differently in the 12th, for better and worse.
Wilfredo Tovar leaves the game in the 12th inning after being hit by a pitch
Wilfredo Tovar started things off by getting hit by a pitch that had him on the ground in pain. He would leave the game after being helped off the field but would be back in the lineup on Monday. With Dustin Lawley running for Tovar, Kyle Johnson got a sacrifice bunt down successfully and moved Lawley to second. Lawley took third on a ground out, but he would be stranded 90 feet from home. The Fisher Cats answered back in the bottom half with speedy pinch hitter Kenny Wilson walking, stealing second, and stealing third with one out. Wilson wouldn’t make it any closer to scoring than Lawley had. Both teams would then strand runners on second in the 13th as this game looked like it would never end.
Matt Reynolds singles to drive in Kyle Johnson for the winning run
Kyle Johnson wouldn’t be bunting when he came up with the bases empty in the top of the 14th. Instead, he hit a double. A single from Brian Burgamy moved him to third and another single from Matt Reynolds brought him home for the first run in six innings. That would be it, leaving it up to a depleted bullpen with only Saturday’s relievers left unused.
John Church would get a one-run Binghamton lead in the bottom of the 14th, leaving only Cody Satterwhite in the bullpen. Church got things started with a pair of strikeouts and then got an easy ground ball to end the game and finally let the kids, if there were any left in the stadium, run the bases.
The 42nd out…
Final Score: Bingamton 9, New Hampshire 8
That’s it for the B-Mets at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in 2014. See you next year…
It was Law Enforcement Appreciation Day at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium on a hot and sunny June afternoon. The day started off with a Pesky Pole bobblehead giveaway, police dog demonstrations, a pipeband, and police motorcycles circling the field. When the police left the field, the theft began. Cesar Puello stole second base in the first inning and the B-Mets stole the game on a five-run 5th inning to take the series with a 7-2 win. Their reward was a 7-hour bus ride back to Binghamton with a 2-game lead in their division.
The first three innings followed a pretty standard script for both teams. Somebody strikes out, somebody gets on base, and the runner usually advances to second somehow. Back and forth we went until the bottom of the 4th, when the Fisher Cats started things off with their first extra base hit of the game, a double by Clint Robinson. A bunt moved Robinson to third and a fly ball that Darrell Ceciliani couldn’t get to drove him in to give the Fisher Cats the lead. Jacob deGrom shut down the Fisher Cats offense from there with an infield fly and a strikeout. His 92mph fastball didn’t miss many bats, but deGrom still managed 6 strikeouts, mostly with what appeared to be a trick pitch that set the ball on an invisible 4-inch tee on the plate. Or maybe that’s just a camera trick.
Darrell Ceciliani turning an intentional walk into a run
The B-Mets answered back in the 5th with the type of offensive explosion typically reserved for Deck McGuire starts. Alonzo Harris, in his second game back from a finger injury, finally got his bunting dialed in and set down his second hard bunt of the day, dropping it right down the first base line, drawing the first baseman in to field it, and getting to the bag before anyone could cover first. Harris advanced to second on a single and was forced out at third when Wilfredo Tovar’s bunt attempt didn’t quite go as planned. Daniel Muno singled and Cesar Puello doubled to give the B-Mets the lead and put runners on second and third with two outs for Cory Vaughn, who had struck out twice already and would finish the day with 4 Ks. Vaughn was intentionally walked to load the bases for Darrell Ceciliani. Ceciliani took advantage of the extra baserunner with a fly ball that got past a diving Brian Van Kirk for a triple, putting the B-Mets up 5-1.
Neither team did much of anything over the next inning. Cesar Puello caught another fly ball, deGrom got two more strikeouts, and Harris abandoned the nothing-but-bunts plan and struck out. DeGrom’s luck finally ran out in the bottom of the 6th when Clint Robinson sent one over the 400ft wall in center for a solo home run. When the next batter resulted in deGrom’s third walk of the game, Adam Kolarek was called in to take over. Kolarek retired all five batters he faced, Jack Leathersich pitched another perfect 8th inning (only one strikeout this time though), and Jeff Walters came in to finish the game. More on that later.
Ceciliani drove Puello in with a triple, then Puello did it himself with a home run
Cesar Puello added a solo home run in the 7th to leave him a triple shy of the cycle. He wouldn’t get it, though teammates Ceciliani and Richard Lucas would both triple in the game, Ceciliani earlier in the 5th inning and Lucas in the 8th. Lucas would go on to score on a wild pitch that bounced out in front of the catcher, putting the B-Mets up 7-2. Puello would pop out with the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the 9th and the B-Mets would strand all three runners, leaving it up to Walters to wrap things up.
Cesar Puello, with the glove, in right field
Actually, the game was in Cesar Puello’s hands in the bottom of the 9th, quite literally. Puello was all over this game like any number of offensive stereotypes of people who are all over things. Already 3 for 5 with a double, home run, stolen base, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored, you would think that he would be satisfied. You obviously don’t know Puello. He made the first out by beating out Muno and Lucas to a fly ball next to the Fisher Cats bullpen and then just missed getting to a line drive in time to make the third out. That put runners on first and second for Walters, but Puello bailed him out by grabbing a routine fly ball to end the game. Puello caught five outs to go with his exploits at the plate and on the basepaths, ranging from the foul line to center and making everyone else get out of his way. It was a solid game all around following an 0-4, 3K night on Friday and a night off on Saturday. It looks like there just might be some decent outfield prospects in the Mets system after all, though Puello still has a ways to go before he’s ready for the majors.
The B-Mets made their second trip of the season to New Hampshire, this time in sole posession of first place in their division. Their dominance would be short-lived as they would find themselves in a three-way tie for first after falling 8-7 to the Fisher Cats.
Darrell Ceciliani puts runners in scoring position in Binghamton’s 5-run 2nd inning
When last we saw Deck McGuire, he gave up five runs in 1/3 of an inning and got an early hook at the start of an 11-4 B-Mets rout. This time around, McGuire waited until the second inning to give up five runs. In an inning when anything hit in play would go down as a hit, McGuire’s only way out was an inning-ending strikeout.
Vaughn and Ceciliani preparing to begin today’s scoring
I put down my camera to get out a tweet about the first run and several more came through before I could get through 140 characters. McGuire looked lost, the Fisher Cats looked inept, and the Mets looked unstoppable.
One of my few pictures of Logan Verrett without a runner on first in the background
Things started turning around in the next inning. The entire Mets infield got caught napping on a leadoff base hit up the middle, but no damage was done. The scene repeated itself in the 4th with not one but two infielders trying, and failing, to corral a hard-hit ground ball, with shortstop Wilfredo Tovar in the middle of both plays. He made no effort to go after a ball that rolled to his left in the 3rd and in the 4th he got in front of a ball to his right that got past a diving Josh Rodriguez, but was unable to hold on to it. To his credit, Tovar started a slick double play in the 3rd, but the bobble in the 4th was costly. That runner would score and one more run would come through with two outs.
The Mets’ lead would be cut to 5-4 in the 5th after a double and a home run with two outs. Trying to get some breathing room, the Mets went for a bunt to lead off the 6th. That was the only Mets batter to leave the batter’s box in the inning. With Verrett getting hit hard, you would have to think that the bullpen would be coming into play soon. You would be wrong.
Verrett came out to start the 6th and put the first two batters on base. Verrett then fielded a soft bunt and didn’t even attempt to make a throw, seeming to realize that, with his luck tonight, any throw he made would probably end up in the outfield and three runs would score. Instead, he took his chances with former Mets farmhand Adam Loewen, who decided to give the ball the rest of the night off in the Sam Adams Bar and Grill on the other side of the left field wall. With that, the Fisher Cats took an 8-5 lead and Logan Verrett made his exit. One pitch from Ryan Fraser turned into one out and the Fisher Cats went down easy from that point on.
The Mets struck back in the top of the 7th with back-to-back line drives to shallow center to lead off the inning. Right into the glove of a charging Kevin Pillar. Both times. Fraser gave up one hit in the bottom half but got through the inning without incident and turned things over to Jack Leathersich.
This is what a Jack Leathersich strikeout looks like
Leathersich struck out the side in the 8th, much to the amazement of anyone who had never heard of Jack Leathersich. To anyone else, it was business as usual.
Productive outs, but not productive enough
Down to their last three outs, it was time for the B-Mets to work their late-inning magic and salvage this game. Darrell Ceciliani started the inning off with a base hit and scored on Blake Forsythe’s double. Forsythe advanced to third on a groundout by Richard Lucas and scored on a Wilfredo Tovar groundout. That left the Mets down by one run with two outs and Daniel Muno at the plate. One groundout later and it was time to see some fireworks before our feature presentation, Escape From Manchester (runtime 40 minutes, rated !*@$#& for people in minivans almost crashing into you as you try to get a few inches closer to the exit). Mets lose 8-7.
This is what a Cesar Puello strikeout looks like
Notes: Cesar Puello went 0-4 with three strikeouts. The first four batters in the B-Mets lineup went 1 for 14 with six strikeouts and two walks. The bottom four in the order went 6 for 16 with two strikeouts and six RBIs.
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