Cyclones’ Conforto contributes to Mets’ spring offense

This spring training, the Mets are off to a fast offensive start in the Grapefruit League, leading all Florida teams with a total team batting average of .293, a very high percentage considering pitchers are ahead of hitters at this early stage of the pre-season.

Contributing to that offense has been one of last season’s top Cyclone players, John Conforto, who is still a number of years away from making it to the major leagues.

Although he has seen limited playing time, in just a few games with his major league club, the 22-year-old leftfielder has managed to catch the eye of New York Mets WFAN radio reporter Ed Coleman in the second week of spring training at Port St. Lucie.

“He looks like a good prospect,” Coleman remarked from the Mets’ dugout rail. Noting that Conforto wasn’t flashy and had a workman-like air about him, Coleman was impressed with the Mets’ 2014 number one draft pick’s hitting and plate discipline.

The qualities that Coleman pointed out were the same that contributed to the Cyclones’ second half improvement and their turnabout last season. With his field performance and clubhouse leadership, Conforto put the team on his back to make a run for a post-season Wild Card spot.

Although Conforto missed last season’s New York Penn League’s All Star selection date by signing with the Mets in mid-season, the Washington State native from Oregon State University still put up All Stars numbers in 42 games, batting .331, and scoring 30 runs with 54 hits, 10 doubles, three home runs and 19 RBIs.

Last season’s numbers were impressive enough to earn a place for Conforto on the Mets’ Top Ten Prospect List at number seven with a projection that he will skip the next level at Low-A Savannah and start at High-A at Port St. Lucie, right where he’s currently starting to draw notice.