Cesar Puello Hit With Suspension

The Binghamton Mets will be without one of their top players for the remainder of the season.  Outfielder Cesar Puello has received a 50 - game suspension from Major League Baseball for testing positive for using performance-enhancing drugs.  The announcement came at 3 PM this afternoon. Puello and eleven other players who received 50 - game suspensions did not appeal those rulings.  Their suspensions were part of the announcement involving Alex Rodriguez and the investigation into the Biogenesis anti-again clinic.  Rodriguez received a suspension for the remaining part of this season and all of next season but is expected to appeal.

Puello has been outstanding this season and has been a key in the Binghamton Mets first-place campaign.  Puello is hitting .328, second in the Eastern League.  He also is third in runs batted in with 73 and seventh in home runs with 16.

Puello was signed by the New York Mets as a non-drafted free agent on July 2, 2007.  He had a tremendous month of June when he was named the Eastern League Player of the Month when he hit at a .441 clip with eight home runs and 24 runs batted in.

A former Binghamton Met also received a 50 - game suspension.  Outfielder Jordany Valdespin who played in 135 games in Binghamton over the 2010 and 2011 seasons, started the season in New York and has been playing with the Mets' Triple-A club in Las Vegas.

The B-Mets are idle tonight and host the Altoona Curve tomorrow in a doubleheader beginning at 5:35 PM (airtime at 5:20 PM on News Radio 1290 WNBF).  Binghamton is 70-43 and has an 11 1/2 game lead over Trenton in the Eastern Division of the Eastern League.