Minor League Players Sue For Better Salaries | Baseball America

Baseball America has a well-written, detailed piece explaining the lawsuit filed by the minor league players suing for a living wage. Well worth the read and unlike most Baseball America articles, this one is not hidden behind a paywall.

Klapisch: Wally Backman's Mets managerial audition begins with Ike Davis | NorthJersey.com

Bob Klapisch is starting a fire where one isn't needed:

"Now Davis is Wally Backman’s problem, although it’s worth asking the question that could lead to a more intriguing dialogue: What happens if Backman and his old-school, man’s-man approach actually fixes Davis? Then what?

Such a reclamation project would be more of a reflection of Backman’s interpersonal skills than Davis’ ability to hit for a respectable average. At least we know Davis has talent – we’ve seen it in the past, albeit not consistently since the second half of last season. But Backman is the wild card here, especially because he’s been languishing in the Mets’ farm system for four summers hoping to prove to someone, anyone, that he’s long since outrun his darker demons.

That’s why Backman relishes the chance to work on Davis’ swing, confidence and career, although not necessarily in that order."

Brandon Nimmo Stands Out For Savannah | FanGraphs Baseball

Great post on Fangraphs about Brandon Nimmo, the Mets 1st round draft pick (13th overall) in 2011. I've written about and posted about Nimmo in the past. The Fangraphs post has some great video, which I re-posted below. This quote pretty much sums up the post:

"Finally in full season, Nimmo has achieved a .447/.518/.574 line through twelve games and shows no signs of slowing down. Having scouted him a couple of times against the Rome Braves, the left-handed hitter deserves mention with the very best the South Atlantic League has to offer."

The Sand Gnats are actually in Lakewood, NJ this weekend playing the Phillies Low-A Affiliate, Lakewood Blue Claws. Unfortunately I can't make it this weekend to any of the games but hopefully enough local fans will make it out and post lots of video of Nimmo, Steven Matz, Gabriel Ynoa, Rainy Lara, Phillip Evans, Kevin Plawecki, and others.

The dream of a South African baseball player.

New York Mets prospect Jenrry Mejia made his second rehab start for the Hi-A St. Lucie Mets yesterday. In looking at the box score, I noticed the name of the leadoff hitter of the opponent, Gift Ngoepe. Even with the international popularity of baseball, that is still quite an unusual name for a minor league baseball player. So I Googled him and came away with a very interesting story about this switch-hitting South African shortstop.

Hopefully Ngoepe's dream will come true someday. Unfortunately his four strikeouts in yesterday's game won't help that dream.

"The runner on third for the St. Louis Cardinals, 'Minor League Guy!'"

Spring Training is a time for prospects to get time with the Major League team but this is really embarrassing for this guy. As Amazin Avenue pointed out yesterday:

"It's bad enough that you were issued #91 in Spring Training, but your regional sports network can't even figure out your name, well, it might just be time to hang 'em up."