Meet The Mets
by Mike Ashmore
October 5, 2006 - Hunterdon County Democrat

Sure, coming to Trenton Thunder games is great if you want a glimpse at the best prospects the Yankees have to offer.

But even if you don't like the Yankees, the 2006 Trenton Thunder season had a lot to offer, especially for fans of that other New York team.

The Binghamton Mets came into Trenton for 13 games this year, and five members of the Mets 40-man roster played in front of the Waterfront Park faithful.

Pitchers Phil Humber, Mike Pelfrey, Henry Owens, Matt Lindstrom, and catcher Mike DiFelice all wore the B-Mets colors before all but Lindstrom got called up to the big leagues. Only DiFelice had previous experience with the at the major league level, most recently getting into a handful of games for the Mets last season.

Both Pelfrey and Owens made their Major League debuts with the Mets in July, while Humber was rewarded for his hard work in coming back from Tommy John Surgery with two big league appearances in September.

He was also rewarded by the Mets with a $3.7 million signing bonus as the third overall draft pick in 2004.

"I put most of it into investments, and then I picked out a car that I wanted and I bought that," Humber said.

The Mets investment in Humber is starting to pay dividends, as he made two scoreless one inning appearances against the Nationals and Braves before New York sent him home so they could prepare for the playoffs.

But minor league baseball aficionados could have gotten a preview of Humber in Trenton, when the 23-year-old made just his third Double-A appearance on August 10th. He was the hard luck loser, allowing just three earned runs over seven innings of work, striking out batters at a pace of one per inning.

"I'm still trying to get better command of my pitches, and make the right pitch in the right situation," said Humber after the start.

Mike Pelfrey is another pitcher who helped the Mets get to the playoffs, serving as the team's fifth starter in July.

The Wichita State alum made four starts for the Mets, and an 8-4 loss to the Astros was all that prevented him from becoming the first Mets rookie pitcher to win his first three starts. He was the only the third in team history to win his first two and the first in 37 years.

But he honed his craft in the Eastern League before his call-up, including a May 28th start in Trenton where he struck out five in six innings of work, a start in which he ultimately got a no-decision.

Pelfrey was picked ninth overall by the Mets in 2005, and he said he was like "a little kid in a candy shop" during his first big league experience in Spring Training.

"I got to play with guys and play against guys that I grew up watching," he said. "It was almost unreal at first."

Unreal would be a great way to describe Henry Owens rise to stardom. Ranked the 30th best prospect in the Mets organization by Baseball America entering the season, the college catcher turned hard-throwing reliever received a surprising call up by New York just days after Pelfrey, and it wouldn't be long before they'd be pitching together again.

In just his second big league appearance, Owens pitched in relief of Pelfrey during the Mets July 8th game against the Marlins.

"This year, we'd been pitching in the same games (in the Eastern League)," Owens said. "We talked about it throughout the year, that maybe we could do this at the big league level, so it was fun to get a chance to do that."

Owens, who was sent back down to Binghamton after appearing in three Major League games, pitched in Trenton twice this season, allowing just two hits in two innings of scoreless work.

As for Matt Lindstrom, he still has an interesting story to tell even if he never joins his now former teammates at Shea Stadium. The Idaho native lost two years of fine-tuning his baseball skills to a Mormon mission in Sweden, but knows he gained far more than he lost.

"It was something that I believed in and I thought it would be good for my life," he said. "When I was 19, I made the decision to go on a mission, and they chose for me to go to Sweden."

Lindstrom, who stayed in the same city where his great-grandfather immigrated from during his mission, has hit 100 MPH on the radar gun and is a big part of the Mets future plans.

He made four appearances in Trenton in 2006, including his victorious Double-A debut on May 26th.

Of all the B-Mets players who played a role in the New York Mets reaching the postseason, none had a longer stay than Mike DiFelice.

The 37-year-old veteran backstop appeared in five games at Waterfront Park, going just 4-for-18 (.222). It served as a preview of sorts for his two-month stay as the Mets backup catcher, where he hit just .080 in 15 games.

"There was a need for me to be here," said DiFelice of being in Double-A in July. "This is a beautiful game at any level, and wherever it is, you've got to get out there and put your effort in and try to be successful."

Something the Mets were quite successful at was cultivating their minor leaguers into impact players at the big league level. And there's only one way to find out whether they'll be able to do it again in 2007.

For the future of New York baseball, you need a ticket to Trenton Thunder baseball at Waterfront Park.

Next week, in Mike's final Thunder article of the season, he talks to prospects from the Eastern League's other teams about their chances in the big leagues.

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