May 03 2013 08:10 AM
You may not know who is first place in the South Atlantic League, but you might guess if I give you a hint.
It rhymes with "banana"!
Yessireebobandcarolandtedandalice, the Savannah Sand Gnats moved into sole possession of the Sally League Southern Division last night (and their record tops any team's in the Northern Division also) with a 5-3 victory over the Kannapolis Intimidators (named for Dale Earnhardt), elevating them to a lofty 17-9. Gabriel Ynoa walks away with the win, continuing his gruesome excellence from last year in Brooklyn.
Ynoa (3-2, with a 3.49 ERA in 28.1 innings, walking 6 and striking out 27) is joined by members of the back half of Brooklyn's devastating 2012 rotation. While the best starters jumped to St. Lucie, he and Rainy Lara (3-1, 1.88 in 24 innings, with three walks and 24 strikeouts) and Luis Cessa (2-1, 2.70, 23.1, 2/22) are continuing their act with similarly crippling results in Savannah. What's more, they're joined by Matthew Bowman, who has been moved from relief in 2012 into a starting role, with Harvelous results (4-0, 2.64, 30.2, 4/26) and a finally healthy Steven Matz (1-0, 1.96, 18.1, 6/21).
While Bret Mitchell has three saves, six different guys have collected at least one, which is how it should be! Forget the campaign for Wally Backman. Make Savannah's Luis Rojas the new Mets manager, and tell him to bring pitching coach Frank Viola along with him.
The offense is led by... well, who needs offense? But the following three players are under investigation, having shown traces of awesome in their urine samples on a nightly basis.
| Player | POS | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | TB | BB | SO | SB | CS | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | E |
| Kevin Plawecki | C | 25 | 96 | 15 | 39 | 16 | 0 | 4 | 22 | 67 | 7 | 13 | 0 | 0 | .406 | .464 | .698 | 1.162 | 0 |
| Jayce Boyd | 1B | 26 | 100 | 19 | 38 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 25 | 54 | 16 | 11 | 0 | 2 | .380 | .466 | .540 | 1.006 | 2 |
| Brandon Nimmo | CF | 23 | 90 | 22 | 29 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 39 | 12 | 24 | 2 | 1 | .322 | .421 | .433 | .854 | 0 |
I don't know about youse, but I don't remember Plawecki cracking the top ten on any list o' top Met prospects. Helluva good month, kid.
Ynoa, Lara, Cessa, Bowman, Matz, Plawecki, Boyd, Nimmo.
