FSL notes: Mets' Alonso bashing since break

When St. Lucie's Peter Alonso was hit by a pitch on his left hand during his first at-bat against Bradenton on April 11, it was the second time in less than a year that the first baseman had suffered a similar injury.
"Same hand, different broken bone," Alonso said.

The first time, though, the slugger played through the injury and somehow still helped lead the University of Florida to the College World Series.
"Probably not the best thing to do, but the right thing as far as I was concerned," said Alonso, who was determined not to let his Gators teammates down.
Alonso kept on slugging despite the injury, hitting a mammoth College World Series homer, although Florida fell short of the 2016 title.
When the New York Mets' second-round pick suffered a broken bone this time, he sat out a full six weeks. Unlike in his final season with the Gators, the results were different.
The Mets' No. 10 prospect hadn't been hitting up to his standards in the five games before he was sidelined, and things got worse after his return. In mid-June, Alonso's average was just .143.
"I was on the slump train and didn't know if I'd ever get off," he said.

Suddenly, though, everything turned around. In his first 53 games after the All-Star break, Alonso has a .327/.405/.623 line with 20 doubles, 13 homers and 49 RBIs.
"If anyone had told me two months ago that I had a chance to be one off the home run lead and getting close to .300 by now, I wouldn't have believed it," said Alonso, the Florida State League's July Player of the Month. "There was no way."
But with three weeks left in the Class A Advanced FSL's season, Alonso has 15 homers and is batting .282 with a .355 on-base percentage and .523 slugging mark. Despite the time he missed, he is among the league leaders in doubles and RBIs as well as home runs.
The 22-year-old Tampa native is the proudest, though, that he has been able to get his average up after the dreadful start.
"I'm a big, strong guy, so I'm expected to hit home runs," Alonso said. "I want to show that I'm not just a power hitter. I want to be a complete hitter."
Alonso hit .321 in 30 games with Brooklyn of the Short-Season Class A New York-Penn League last season after receiving a $900,000 bonus from the Mets as the 64th overall pick in the Draft and had 32 walks and 79 strikeouts in his first 104 Minor League games.
Although he has shortened his swing and is using the whole field, Alonso eye-catching tool remains his raw power.
Alonso is credited with the three longest homers since the College World Series moved into TD Ameritrade Park, with two of them coming as a sophomore and one last year as a junior.
Although Florida didn't win its first CWS title until this June while Alonso was still trying to get going at St. Lucie, the two previous seasons were stepping stones. Playing through the fracture, Alonso had a .374/.469/.659 line his final season with the Gators and led the Southeastern Conference with 14 homers.
"I got off to a great start and adrenaline helped carried me through after I hurt my hand," he said. "This season has been totally different. I got off to a bad start and it took a while to get my confidence back. But I was able to turn things around and that makes the success now feel even better."

In brief

Home sweet home: The Tampa Yankees swept a four-game series with St. Lucie to stretch their home winning streak to 16 games. Tampa, trying to finish first in the North Division in both halves, had an eight-game overall winning streak after the sweep and was 34-15 in the second half after going 39-31 in the first. The Yankees needed to win their final seven games of the first half to edge the Clearwater Threshers by a game, but led the Dunedin Blue Jays by 6.5 games with three weeks left in the second half. Tampa was 40-19 at home overall, but that wasn't the best home mark in the Florida State League. Fort Myers, the second-half leader in the South at 32-18, was 41-19 at home for the season.
Absentee leaders: With Charlotte's Brandon Lowe and Brett Sullivan, Fort Myers' Max Murphy and Tampa' Nick Solak all now in Double-A, the Florida State League was left without an active player hitting over .300 who was qualified for the batting race. Lowe was at .311 and Sullivan at .301 when moved up to Montgomery. Murphy, promoted to Chattanooga, was at .307 and Solak, the most recent promotion, was at .301 before joining Trenton. The top average among qualified hitters still in the FSL belonged to Peter Maris of Charlotte at .296. In addition to being among the average leaders, Sullivan led the FSL in RBIs with 67 when promoted to the Southern League.
Florial quick study: Center fielder Estevan Florial, the Yankees' No. 4 prospect, made the jump from Class A Charleston to Class A Advanced Tampa with ease. The 19-year-old native of Haiti smashed a three-run homer in his ninth game and was hitting .311 after finally going hitless in his 11th game with his new team. Florial, ranked No. 88 on MLB.com's Top 100 list, had a .297/.373/.478 slash line for Charleston with 11 homers, 44 RBIs and 17 stolen bases in 91 games. Strikeouts were his only issue. Florial had 124 for Charleston and 15 with Tampa. He has a combined 40 extra-base hits and is 5-for-6 in stolen base attempts with Tampa.
Wright easing in: MLB.com No. 44 prospect Kyle Wright, taken by the Braves with the fifth overall pick in the Draft, bypassed Class A Rome and joined the Florida Fire Frogs after three brief outings in the Gulf Coast League. The right-hander from Vanderbilt, working on a limited pitch count, took a loss in his third FSL outing but had a 1.60 ERA. Wright, 21, had 11 strikeouts and three walks over 11 1/3 professional innings. The Alabama native signed for $7 million -- about $1.3 million over slot -- and is rated as the Braves' No. 4 prospect.