Earlier today, Baseball America released their Midseason Prospect Update for their list of Top 50 Prospects for the 2013 season. Two Mets were included in the list: RHP Noah Syndergaard and C Travis d'Arnaud. Both players found themselves on Baseball America's Top 100 Prospects List for the 2013 season: d'Arnaud was 23rd on the list, while Syndergaard was 54th.
23, Noah Syndergaard (RHP, Mets)
Improved breaking ball has made his mid-90s fastball an even deadlier weapon.
25, Travis d'Arnaud (C, Mets)
When healthy, he’s top catching prospect in minors, but healthy months are few and far between.
Syndergaard began the 2013 season with the St. Lucie Mets of the Florida State League (High-A). There, he went 3-3 in 12 starts with a 3.11 ERA and 2.60 FIP. Over a span of 63.2 innings, he struck out nine batters per nine innings (64 strikeouts), and walked 2.3 batters per nine innings (16 walks). In late June, he was promoted to the Binghamton Mets of the Eastern League (Double-A). In three starts, he is currently 2-0 there with a 1.50 ERA and 2.76 FIP. Over those 18 innings thus far, he has struck out 11.5 batters per nine innings (23 strikeouts), and has walked two per nine innings (four walks).
Much of Syndergaard's improvements this season seem to stem from the continued development of his slider, a pitch that the Texan right-hander was taught last season with the Blue Jays. Not only did the new pitch give him another weapon in his pitching arsenal, but it also improved his curveball. According to Syndergaard himself, his curveball
"was just a show-me pitch. And then they taught me a slider and it sped my arm up, I really don't know how it did that, but it actually sped my curveball up as well. I got my curveball up to around 79-80 miles an hour, it was actually a plus pitch for me."
There is much less to say about d'Arnaud, because he has spent most of the 2013 injured. Assigned to the Las Vegas 51s of the Pacific Coast League (Triple-A), the catcher played in only 12 games before succumbing to an injury. On April 17, in the 6th inning of a game against the Sacramento River Cats, d'Arnaud took a foul ball off of the tip of his foot. X-rays revealed that the young catcher had a non-displaced fracture of the first metatarsal on his left foot. In mid-June, d'Arnaud had the protective boot he was wearing removed, and began light workouts. In the limited playing time he received before being injured, the 24-year-old catcher hit .250/.429/.472.
Perhaps glaring to some, both Wilmer Flores and Cesar Puello failed to make the list. Flores, currently 21 years old, is hitting .317/.356/.515 with the Las Vegas 51s. Puello, 22, is hitting .323/.384/.575 and has 19 stolen bases with the Binghamton Mets.
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