11/16/12

Q and A - McHugh vs. Gee


Jan Groot
wrote to me:

Good morning Mack,

Have been reading a piece on Colin McHugh. You wrote to me yesterday that you expect him in the pen on opening day. Toby Hyde had an article on McHugh.


Any thoughts on this article? If true why put him in the pen? You could argue that perhaps Dillon Gee can be traded as kind of proven starter. Wouldn't that get more then a prospect?

Mack:

I don't remember what I wrote, but I don't expect Gee to be in the pen come opening day 2013.  The rotation is right now set with Santana-Dickey-Niese-Harvey-Gee and I only see a change if someone is traded.

Now, I do believe that Gee might lose his job come the all-start break, especially if Dickey isn't traded. Zack Wheeler is projected to join the rotation and someone has to go.

I have no thoughts on whether McHugh is a better pitcher than Gee. I will say that Gee has done very little to warrant losing his job to anyone other than Wheeler. His stats rank with the best SP5s in the game.

We're less than 12 months away from some kind of pitching logjam that has to result in some trades.

2 comments:

Charles said...

Gee is a great pitcher who is getting better and better. He hasn't reached his peak yet, I believe, and by the all star break the mets may be able to get somebody's top prospect for him. They just have to let it play out.

McHugh is a guessing game at this point and honestly, when Gee first came up, he never got hit as hard or consistently as McHugh has. Gee is going to be a number 3 one day, is McHugh? That's years away at this point and by then, Montero and Fulmer will be ahead of him.

Mack Ade said...

Yeah, I never read the Hyde article and I have no idea why he would say something like that.

I try and avoid (the 'new Mack') making comparisons of Mets, especially pitchers that are already successful.

I don't have the stats but I think the average ERA for an SP5 is over 4.50. Gee is doing just fine.

Now, McHugh has pitched well, but not on a major league level and he really looked a little lost out there last year. He needs a trade because Wheeler is next up, followed possibly by Pelfrey, Gorski, and then Montero in late 2015.