Proected 2009 Mets Minors - SP

A Look At 2009 Rosters – Part I – Starters

Most Mets fans are sitting in front of their television screens at this time of the year, watching the trailer at the bottom of the screen on the ESPN News broadcast, waiting for an announcement that the Mets just signed somebody that throws 100+.

Me? Well, I try to figure out who gets assigned to each minor league club and who gets sent home.

The Mets have seven stateside minor league teams (Buffalo, B-Mets, Lucy, Gnats, Clones, K-Port, GCL), plus 2 more in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

As of today, there are 200 players already on the “Big Board”, projected to go to one of the seven teams located in the states. Frankly, since this is well before the draft, and each team carries 25 players , that’s an awful lot to have already under contract.

Certain positions, especially relief pitching, are completely overloaded, but our first look will be at the projected rotations throughout the organization. Remember, this is just speculation at this point, but I’d say we’re guaranteed to be around 85% correct per each position.

First, a couple of assumptions:

1. Jonathan Niese will be the Mets SP5 in Queens

2. Bobby Parnell will be in the parent Mets’ bullpen

If either, or both, of these assumptions are wrong, they would both project out as a AAA-Buffalo starter and, thus, this whole story should be immediately crumpled up and thrown into the fireplace; however, assume we will.

AAA-Buffalo: In no particular order, the rotation should be 5 of these 6:

Nelson Figueroa
Jose Sanchez
Sal Aguilar
Brandon Knight
Tobi Stoner or Eric Brown


I wouldn’t go to bed with this lineup yet.

Both Stoner and Brown are being currently worked out as relievers, with Brown being projected as a possible Mets long-man in 2010.

I expect the Mets to sign someone long-in-tooth to round out this rotation, and both Tobi and Eric will move to the pen.

AA-Binghamton: This is an exciting group of young, talented pitchers:

Dillon Gee
Mike Antonini
Dylan Owen
Jake Ruckle
Eric Niesen

Ruckle is coming off of season-ending surgery and, I assume, he’s still slotted as a starter.

Potentially, there might be 5 future major league pitchers here. Really exciting.

A+-St. Lucie: Not as deep as the B-Mets squad, but close, and individually, maybe more talented:

Bradley Holt
Scott Moviel
Brant Rustich
Angel Calero
Elvin Ramirez

Holt is the kid to keep your eye on. He’s currently projected as a possible SP5 as early as 2010. Both Moviel and Rustich are big time draft picks with loads of talent.

A-Savannah Here’s our first overage. Currently, there are six starting pitchers slotted to go to the Coastal Empire this spring:

Mark Cahoon
Eric Beaulac
Michael Olmstead
Phillips Orta
Jenrry Mejia
Scott Shaw

A couple of these guys are ready for Lucy, but there just is nowhere to send them. Orta might be the odd man out here. He’s stumbled once before and, I can’t see keeping any of the other five out of a rotation. They simply all project out as prospects.

A-short – Brooklyn I’ve got this rotation filled up already and the draft is still months away:
Raul Batis
Guillaume Leduc
Collin McHugh
Oscar Melendez
Jeurys Familia

Only Familia projects out as a prospect, so there could easily be some additions (and thus, subtractions) once draft time comes around.

Rookie – Kingsport Right now (pre-draft) a good guess would be:
Eduardo Aldama
Michael Herbert
Lachlan Hodge
Jhonathan Torrez
Gonzalez Germen

Both German and Torrez pitched great last year for their respective Latin Mets team.
Rookie-GCL Same as K-Port, just guess work right now. Six names to consider:

Gavin Dloughy
Omar Perez
Brian Venezuela
Orlando Tovar
Angel Cuan
Luis Duarte

Duarte is already stateside and playing in winter ball. Both Cuan and Tovar earned a promotion from the DSL Mets team.

Folks, there’s a lot of talent here. I project Holt making it as high as an SP2, while both Moviel and Rustich should hit the SP3 level some day. In addition, Gee will comfortably have a long career as either an SP4 or SP5.

Others, like Stoner, Brown, and Ruckle, should be converted to relievers and project out as successful major league pitchers. That’s seven future major leaguers out of one season of minor leaguers.

Trust me, that’s a bunch.