A
CALL TO ARMS – VOL. 9 - WHAT ABOUT OUR MINOR LEAGUE BULL PEN DUDES? By Tom
Brennan
Hey
folks, in Volumes 1 through 8 of my CALL TO ARMS series, I noted that the Mets,
in my opinion have 34 starting pitchers or prospects of varying degrees of
potential. Give or take a few.
Let me recap my list of 34 starters before I proceed to
discuss my top 10 relievers:
THE MAGNIFICENT 7:
Seven current big league starters: Colon, Harvey,
deGrom, Wheeler, Niese, Gee, and Montero.
TWO NIPPING AT THE HEELS:
Two
uber-prospects who on many other teams could be in the starting rotation in
April 2015: Thor
and Matz.
THREE LURKING IN THE
SHADOWS:
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 MORE
LURKING IN THE SHADOWS:
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.
SIX WHO ARE DISAPPOINTING
OR HURT:
Volume
7 includes 1 guy (Luis Mateo)
whose high promise ran 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).
In Volume 8, I covered 12 more guys from mid A Savannah southward. Marcos Molina, Rob Whelan, Miller Diaz, John Gant, Robert Gsellman, Logan Taylor, Corey Oswalt, Casey Meisner, Martirez Arias, Andrew Church, Blake Taylor and Chris Flexen.
Simply put: we have more
starters than a Peps Boys warehouse!
Now surely some
of those will falter, and some of those will end up (like Jeurys and Jennry) as
pen arms. But while 34 starters sounds crazy, if you projected this
organization’s 7 minor league teams’ records over 162 games, the 7 teams
AVERAGED 92-70. And it was mostly because of the bumper crop of starter
arms.
Which ones might be useful in 2015 and beyond?
Let me, in this Volume 9, cover my 5 reliever favorites above rookie ball – Cory Mazzoni; Jack Leathersich; Miguel Sokolovich; Akeel Morris; and, in a 5th place tie, Cody Satterwhite and Jeff Walters.
In my next volume, Volume
10, I’ll take a crack at my top 5 Guppy Relievers from the rookie ball teams of
Brooklyn, Kingsport and the GCL.
Volume 9 – Top 5 Relievers:
#1 Cory Mazzoni: some of you who read my
Volumes 1 through 8 of starters may have asked, where is Cory Mazzoni?
Well, he has mostly started, but I see his future as a reliever more than a
starter. Maybe that is unfair, since he has been exclusively a starter
since 2012. A power righty arm, 2nd round 2011 righty Mazzoni
has dealt with injuries, limiting him to 52 starts and 287 innings over the
past 3 years, with most (36) of those in AA or above. So his #’s have to
be viewed through the lens of a guy who was rushed along and who also has been
slowed by several injuries. His most meaningful stretch was his 12 Vegas
starts in late 2014 (5-1, 4.67, 1.27, 49 Ks in 52 innings). His last 6
starts there were impressive, with 41 Ks and just 2 walks in 38 innings. A 4.67
ERA is more like a mid-3’s ERA in a normal environment, so I could easily see
Cory as a member of the Mets’ pen in 2015 if there is room. And a starter in a
pinch.
#3 Miguel Sokolovich – a hard throwing 28 year
old righty with 16 major league innings to his credit, he had a 3.64 ERA in 51
Vegas games, and struck out 68 in 59 innings. But he also allowed 68 hits
and walked 19, but Vegas offensive #’s are inflated. He also has been
very impressive in winter ball so far. He missed 2013, but in the AAA
International League in 2012, he had a 1.90 ERA in 52 innings. I’d say he
is an arm to call up in a pinch. With this Mets franchise loaded with
pitching, one wonders if the “in a pinch” days are over, though. Apparently, the Mets felt similarly, as Sokolovich is now a free agent. My guess is another team will nab him (and sure enough, the Cardinals did after I wrote this).
#4 Akeel Morris – hard throwing righty
who just turned 23, who was the MILB fans’ choice as minor league reliever of
the year in the entire minors. Allowed 3 hits per 9, 3 of his 4 earned
runs came on a single pitch, and 14 K’s per 9 in Savannah. Nearly perfect
in save opportunities in 2014, Morris could well be a stalwart in the Mets’ pen
starting in late 2015 or 2016.
#5 (tie) Cody Satterwhite
and Jeff Walters – a tie for 5th to 2 former Tommy John arms. Satterwhite was a high
level guy in the Tigers organization (2nd round 2008) who missed a
lot of time with injuries. Mets scooped him up and he was very solid with
Binghamton in 2014 at the age of 27, with a 2.33 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, and 63 Ks in 58
innings, with 15 of 18 saves. A few bad late season games pushed his ERA
above 2.00, but he was then excellent in the playoffs (5 innings, 3 hits, a
walk and 9 Ks). He could turn some heads in 2015.
Jeff Walters had a terrific save year
(38) in Binghamton in 2013, which is why I left him on this list. But he
sputtered in Vegas in early 2014, most likely due to arm discomfort that
eventually required TJ surgery after 21 innings. Now 27, he’ll have
to show he is fully recovered in mid-2015 to get back onto the Mets’ very crowded
pitching radar screen.
NEXT UP: Volume 10 – my
top 5 rookie ball relievers
3 comments:
morris just turned 22 not 23
I might shoehorn Hansel Robles into your top 5. He really seems to have taken to that RP role.
And there must be a reason he was protected over Verrett.
Jeff, you are abosultely right on Akeel's age.
Hobie, Hansel has definitely soared as a reliever since switching into that role in the latter part of 2014. He may follow in Familia's shoes and hit the scene in 2015 in Queens at some point. Leaving him off the list was my oversight.
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