Farm report: Gavin Cecchini rebounds with B-Mets
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Adam Rubin, ESPN Staff Writer
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New York Mets fans eyeing 19-year-old Amed Rosario as the organization's future shortstop may have prematurely written off 2012 first-round pick Gavin Cecchini.
Cecchini, selected 12th overall in 2012 out of high school in Lake Charles, Louisiana, produced his fifth straight multi-hit game Tuesday with Double-A Binghamton. He is 13-for-20 during that stretch, lifting his season average to .331. He has four homers, 22 RBIs and a .387 on-base percentage in 42 games.
The output comes on the heels of Cecchini hitting a modest .247 with eight homers and 56 RBIs last season, primarily between Class A Savannah and St. Lucie.
The difference?
Gavin Cecchini, pictured during spring training, produced his fifth straight multi-hit game Tuesday with Double-A Binghamton. Adam Rubin/ESPN.com
"Because more balls are falling here than last year is the biggest difference, honestly," Cecchini said. "If you ask anybody in the front office how many balls I hit hard last year versus the outs I made, it was like it didn't add up. I was making a lot of hard outs. Balls just didn't really fall and go my way. The balls are falling more."
Three of general manager Sandy Alderson's four first-round picks currently are with Binghamton, with Michael Conforto having been promoted this past week and Brandon Nimmo currently on the B-Mets' disabled list with a sprained ACL in his left knee. Dominic Smith, the '13 first-round pick, is on a 15-game hitting streak with St. Lucie and knocking on the door for a promotion to the B-Mets, too.
Asked about any pressure as a first-round pick who has risen with a deliberate pace through the system, Cecchini said: "For me, there's really no pressure, because regardless that I'm a first-round pick or not, it's still the game of baseball. It's still the game that I've played all my life. I'm still going to go out there and do Gavin Cecchini and be me. Regardless of whether I was the first overall pick or the last pick, I'm not going to change my game. I'm still going to do what I do best and stay with my game and work hard like I always do."
Cecchini said his current goal at the plate is to "keep on just shrinking that [strike] zone and keying in on a pitch that I want to hit." In the field, he is working on "trying to get good jumps off the bat -- reading the ball off the bat and bat angles -- and making all the plays."
Cecchini has 11 errors this season, but he noted a spate came in late April, right after he returned from the disabled list for a groin injury.
"After I had tweaked my groin and I went out for a week, those next few games were in Portland," Cecchini said. "I made like four errors in two games. Not to make any excuses, but when you're out for a week -- I actually think I was out for a little more than a week -- it takes a little time, a few more days, to get back into the speed of the game. So my timing was a little bit off defensively with reading the ball off the bat and footwork and stuff. I made a few errors.
"Other than that, it's just staying with what I always do. Sometimes you can lose a little bit of focus out there. It's always about staying in the game and taking it one pitch at a time. And it all starts during BP. Sometimes, with 142 games, me playing every day, it's really easy to take BP for granted and go out there and just go through the motions. But that's when your day starts. You can always get better taking live fungoes or live balls off the bat during BP, reading balls off the bat. I'm always trying to get better and be the best player I can be."
. He's getting better and better. I am a big fan of him. I went to Brooklyn Cyclones games a lot in the summer of 2013. Cecchini played for the Cyclones that time. I told my buddies that I really hope we don't trade him. I think he will be our best average hitter in the future. I was out of the town last summer. I wanted to watch Michael Conforto and Amed Rosario play in person. 
