Simon Daillie - Jeurys Familia was developed in the Mets farm system as a starting pitcher
up until his promotion to Queens in September of 2012. Familia’s relatively limited pitching
repertoire, command issues, and minor league struggles as a starter all were
indications that he might be best suited for a relief role. His debut with the Mets came in St.
Louis. The first batter he faced was Lance Berkman whom he blew away with a 97
miles-per-hour four-seam fastball up in the zone. During his debut appearance, Ron Darling referred to Familia’s delivery as “strong”
and “compact.” While Familia would
sometimes struggle to find the strike zone, in five of his eight appearances
Familia did not walk a single batter.
During the twelve and a third innings of work in his first stint with
New York, Familia allowed only one extra-base hit that would have been a single
were it not for an ill-advised dive by Fred Lewis in left field.
There have been a number of Mets pitching
instructors try to harness Familia’s heater which just may not be possible or
probably. Still, you don’t get much time to figure out if you swing or not when
the ball is coming at you at 97 miles per hour. Shaun Marcum has filled the fifth
rotation spot. Jenrry Mejia is the emergency guy and Zack Wheeler is in the wings.
Familia’s chance of any rotation role have come and gone; however, he is 22
years old and under team control for many more years. Look for Familia to
become the team ROOGY in 2013.
Shaun Marcum has a 2.67 road ERA since 2011, best
among pitchers with at least 100 IP
Mets VP Media/Public
Relations Jay Horwitz now on Twitter - @Jay_HorwitzPR
OF Kirk Nieuwenhuis - "I'm excited to get back out
there. I feel 100 percent heading into Spring Training."
Comment From Mack Ade - Mike, we all know the level of
projected talent that came out of the Savannah rotation last year. Which one of
the Mets pitchers that are moving on to St. Lucie look like an eventual keeper?
Mike
Newman: - Reports on Michael Fulmer are very good and Domingo Tapia has a big league fastball now which will
carry him to New York on its own. As for the rest of the group, I'm not quite
sure. Savannah has been down the past couple of years and there hasn't been
much reason to specifically target them.
9. Wilmer Flores,
Mets: Signed out of Venezuela in 2007 for $750,000, Flores had trouble getting
out of A-ball but took a big step forward in 2012. A two-time Futures Game
participant, he earned a promotion to Double-A and hit well there, starting to
show power and plate discipline and turning potential into performance. A
shortstop for much of his career, he shifted to third in 2012, though he
dabbled a bit at second base as well. His feel for hitting should help him get
to the big leagues. Where his long-term defensive home is remains to be seen.
1 comment:
Wow! Daillie's write-up of Familia makes him sound almost Kimbrelesque. In fact, his 12.1 innings resulted in a 5.84 ERA, a 1.541 WHIP and 6.6 BB/9. And although it's true that in 5 of his 8 appearances he did not walk a batter, in the other 3 (6.2 innings) he walked 9. Inconsistency like that will make every appearance of Familia's an adventure on the mound. He's got great stuff, and I hope he pulls it together, because he has the potential to be an outstanding reliever, maybe filling the closer's job in not too long.
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