A CALL TO ARMS – VOL. 8 – MY 12 LOWER
MINOR PROSPECT STARTERS by Tom Brennan
OK, OK…let me get right to it. If Mets’ starters were made of liquid,
we’d have pitchers and pitchers full of pitchers. (That pun was all wet, I
know).
So far, in Volumes 1 through 7, I
noted that the Mets, in my opinion have 22 starting pitchers or prospects of
varying degrees of potential.
At the risk of being redundant, and
primarily for those who missed those 7 Volumes, let me recap:
A list of 22 guys:
Seven current big league starters: Colon, Harvey, deGrom, Wheeler, Niese, Gee, and Montero. Nothing written about them, you already know it all about ‘em.
Two uber-prospects who on many other
teams could be in the starting rotation in April 2015: Thor and Matz. You know these guys too, so let
someone else fill you in on these 2 dandy pitchers.
Three dudes who have made quite the
case as to being major league ready, or nearly so: Logan Verrett, Matt
Bowman, and Tyler Pill. (Volumes
1, 2, 3 of my series).
Three pitchers (well, 4, as it was a tossup on the last 2, so you pick 1 of them), who are a step further down from those above: Erik Goeddel, Gabe Ynoa, Darin Gorski and Greg Peavey. These were covered in Volumes 4, 5 and 6.
Volume 7, I hit on 1 guy (Luis Mateo) whose
high promise has run head on into Tommy John, and 5 guys who have, to me, been
slightly, or more than slightly, disappointing: (Michael Fulmer,
Domingo Tapia, Matt Koch, Luis Cessa, and Rainy Lara). The latter 2 I was perhaps taking a
hard line on, as the disappointment is more due to their earlier strong
pitching slipping to average as they’ve moved up to A and AA. On some teams, the latter 2 might
still be in that team’s top 10.
Now for Volume 8.
Since the above totals 22 starters,
surely there can’t be any more prospects, right? WRONG! Let me add 12 more, bringing us up to
a whopping 34 guys, as I zero in more on guys from mid A Savannah southward. I could have split these up into
multiple articles, but there are so many, let’s just hit some highlights.
1. Marcos Molina – a name everyone will be talking
about soon enough…heck, he is already spoken of. The 19 year old won a Mets Sterling
award, is the Mets’ 16 ranked overall prospect on their website, and killed it
in Brooklyn in 2014, leading the league in ERA, WHIP and Ks (7-3. 1.77, 76
innings, 0.84 WHIP, 91 Ks). Seems
to be a front end rotation guy in the making, mid-rotation at worst. I’m predicting he skips Savannah and
heads to St Lucie – if there is room.
2. Rob Whelan – now tossing in the Arizona Fall
League, the 20 year old righty had a fine Savannah season (shortened by a hand
burn injury early in the season). How
fine? 9-2, 1.94, 0.99 WHIP,
and 63 K in 70 innings “fine”. Another
guy who should be starting out in St Lucie, IMO.
3. Miller Diaz – a fine, if short, season, for
Miller, who missed most of June and July. He ended up throwing 68 innings, 1.04
WHIP, 2.25 ERA and 79 Ks in 68 innings. Off
to St Lucie in 2015 for the 22 year old righty, IMO.
4. John Gant – 11-5, 2.56, 1.20 WHIP, 114 Ks in 120
innings. Another
outstanding season for a righty starter in Savannah, and another St Lucie arm
in 2015.
5. Robert Gsellman – A stellar year in Savannah – 10-6,
2.55, 92 Ks in 116 innings. On
to St Lucie for the talented Mr. Gsellman.
6. Logan Taylor – back from injury in mid-2014, Logan
has done well when healthy since drafted in 2012. Listed at 6’5” ,205, he is 6-4, 2.20,
1.06 WHIP and 109 Ks in 114 innings since turning pro.
7. Corey Oswalt – after an injury which wiped out most
of his 2013, Corey rebounded with a 6-2, 2.26 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in 67.2
innings, in which he struck out 59. The former 7th rounder in 2012 is 6’4”, 200 and just
turned 21.
8. Casey Meisner – a 3rd rounder right out of HS in 2013, Corey
finished with a bang in 2014 with 6 fine starts beginning July 29:36 innings,
38 Ksm just 6 earned runs. For
the season, the 6’7” righty, who will start 2015 as a 19 year old, ended up a
fine 5-3, 3.75 and more than a strikeout per inning for Brooklyn. Certainly Savannah-bound in 2015.
9. Martirez Arias – another 6’7” dude, but who will
start next season at 24, Arias rebounded from a poor 2013 to have a stellar
season split between Kingsport and Brooklyn: 6-0, 1.11 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 60 Ks in
57 innings. At his age, the
clock is ticking but he got an A++ in 2014, so let’s look for him to move quickly
through Savannah to St Lucie in 2015.
10. Andrew Church – Church is the first of 2
highly regarded youngsters settling in in my 10th and 11th slots. Chuurch improved over his first
season, but the 2nd rounder
from 2013, who will pitch all of 2015 as a 20 year old, has lagged others
statistically. Only 31 Ks
in 52.2 innings in Kingsport Rookie Ball, ERA of 4.61 and WHIP of 1.65. He has a lot to prove in 2015, but
showed modest progress in his last seven 2014 starts (38 innings, just 13
earned runs), so he finished up on a positive note.
11. Blake Taylor – in our “let’s get a lefty on
the list” department, Blake (acquired as the PTBNL in the Ike Davis deal, was a
2nd rounder in 2013
like Church. Taylor
struggled with his control, and walked 39 vs. just 43 Ks in 62 innings, with a
3.48 ERA. He turns 20 next
August, so we hopefully see a blossoming in 2015.
12. Chris Flexen – a 14th rounder in 2012 who had a great year
in Kingsport in 2013, and skipped Savannah to start 2014. So far, so good. But he struggled, and then as he was 6th straight good start, he made his last
start June 28 before succumbing to Tommy John surgery and had bone chips
removed in July. The
6’3”, 215 righty will likely be on the shelf most of 2015, but I added him
mostly due to the promise he showed in 2013 and his positive adjustment in June
pre-injury. He did have one
superb start in Savannah, on June 2, 7 innings, 3 hits, 10 Ks. Get well quickly.
I avoided going down to the Gulf Coast
League for any candidates, but even after the 12 above, there were other fine
performances in Kingsport by a few other starters, such as Persio Reyes and
Jimmy Duff, but I drew the line at those 12 for now. Man, you gotta stop somewhere.
After all that, a guy could use some
rolaids, so maybe I’ll write about the relievers soon.
Have a great day.
12 comments:
Love reading about these guys. Looking forward to following them in 2015. Thx for the post
Nice series........I tell you what, St Lucie will have a nasty pitching staff to start 2015!
And if they move as they should, will be knocking on the Mets' door in 2018, or so.
I think we are in for a nice run of success....hopefully starting this year.
Thanks Sandy (and Omar)
Thanks. An exciting group collectively. Stay tuned for the minor league reliever episodes to follow in the days to come.
Mouthwatering stuff. Tom, you say several times that some guys would be higher up on the lists of other teams. Yet I've also read that most teams are full of quality pitching. Is there a possibility that we are overrating the Mets pitching, in an era of pitching dominance? I mean, clearly the Mets are stuffed, but how special is it if no one can be bothered to take a Gee, Niese or Colon?
Alex in UK
A very good point Alex and one I have alluded to recently when I mentioned expansion to either 32 teams or a 27-man squad.
We get real tunnel vision because we seem to know so much about our team and so little about other ones. They too win a lot of games.
I agree with your point on Gee, Niese, and Colon but for a varied amount of reasons including injury history and salary costs.
I agree with Mack, Alex. Pitching is in real abundance. I will say,though, that the Mets minor league 7 teams were roughly 100 games over .500 combined, most of that attributable to their above average minor league squads. So their minor pitchers have to collectively be top quartile. Thanks for your comments.
Thomas -
I went off the subject tomorrow morning and wrote about Ferguson.
My apologies to anyone if they thought that was uncalled for.
Tom - I have greatly enjoyed this series - I also love your writing style and humor!
Question - Why no Mazzoni? Honestly of all the non-Thor/Matz pitchers, he strikes me as the guy who will have the best career in the ML as a reliever. He doesn't throw as hard as Parnell - but I see that as a comp - I have read he sits around 94 as a starter, which should get him to 96 as a reliever.
Thoughts?
Not directly related to this, but one thing that has surprised me this off season is everyone's dumping on Niese.
He had a 102 ERA+ (just above average) and threw 187.2 innings
He was 2nd on the staff in IP and ERA. He is only 27 - just hitting his full athletic prime of 28-32 range
Yes, hit spent some time on the DL, but he still made 30 starts - yes he missed time in 2013, but he threw 190 inning in 2012.
He didn't give up more than 3 ER in a start until JULY - and that was hit first start off the DL when he was rusty.
By absolutely no means should Niese and Gee be looked at as equal - I like Gee, been a fan of his since he set the Buffalo record for strike outs. However, Gee has never had an ERA+ above 100 - he has always been below average - his career best FIP is 3.71 and his best k/9 is 8.0 - both of those came in his abbreviated 2012.
Niese has had 3 seasons where his FIP was below 3.71.
Oh, and Niese is six months (and one pitching year) younger than Gee
And, purely from the eye - Gee's best stuff is not nearly as good as Niese's best. When Niese is on, he is unhittable.
Gee, although we like him, is a below average ML pitcher - a good 5th starter, nothing more.
Niese is a slightly above average ML starter who is a 3/4 starter.
If Niese didn't have arm issues two years ago, his trade market would be pretty high right now
Morning Fella's
Lew I completely agree with you on Niese and Gee. I think there is interest, but Sandy is looking for more? He isn't giving either pitcher or Colon away for nothing.
Morning Mack I was just going to comment on your Morning report? Looks like you took it down?
It never offended me. Just saying
Steve
Thanks much, Lew.
I knew folks would ask about Mazzoni. Not forgotten: i stashed him in my next episode as one of the bullpen bulls...and that is no bull.
In terms of Niese, like him more than Gee but dont want him to slow down Matz, who looks like a soon-coming stud.
Thanks much, Lew.
I knew folks would ask about Mazzoni. Not forgotten: i stashed him in my next episode as one of the bullpen bulls...and that is no bull.
In terms of Niese, like him more than Gee but dont want him to slow down Matz, who looks like a soon-coming stud.
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