My rankings
is solely subjective and based on nothing more than what is in my head at time
I’m writing this. I’ve followed the Mets minor league players for many years
and I feel I can recognize talent at various levels of their development. What
I have failed at is how to determine when this talent seems to diminish. It’s
amazing how many first round picks never make it in this game.
I’m old
school, so you won’t seem much SABR-discussion here, I do research and, when I
find a good quote or two, I’ll add them to my analysis, but, like I said in the
beginning of this post, most of this us subjective.
Let’s get
started.
# 28 –
#23 - RHP Cory Mazzoni - age: 25 – R/R
- Round 2 – 2011 – NC State
2011 - NC
State last year - 114 Innings, 137 Ks, 29 BB, 91 Hits, 3.30 ER
2011 – 2 teams – 12-G, 1-ST, 1.38, 1.15,
13-IP, 18-K
2012 – 2
teams - 26-starts, 3.93, 1.32, 144.1-IP,
104-K
2013 –
B-Mets – 13-G, 12-starts, 4.36, 1.35. 66-IP, 74-K – (On July 13, 2013, Mazzoni
was placed on the DL with a strained hamstring)
2014 – 4
teams - 14-starts, 4.68. 1.30, 77-IP,
75-K Mazzoni began the 2014 season on the DL with injuries to his triceps.
Pro career –
4-seasons, 65-games, 53-starts, 4.11, 1.31, 300.1-IP, 271-K
Here were
some of the things said on draft day about Mazzoni -
BA - Mazzoni’s
fastball was consistently in the low 90s in the early innings, and he peaked as
high as 96 mph. His dominance wasn’t all about the heater though. He had all
four of his pitches working, with his slider giving the Eagles’ righthanded
hitters trouble all afternoon.
#121 on BA's
top 200 draft prospects
jimcallisBA Jim Callis - Mets 2nd rd: NC State RHP Cory Mazzoni.
Finished strong, very impressive at ACC tourney. Up to 97, hard breaker
Cory Mazzoni
has made strides this season, but he still lacks true upside. His fastball
lacks movement and ranges from 89 to 93. He throws a workable changeup and a
breaking ball that can be good at times. Mazzoni’s delivery is smooth and easy
and he uses a 3/4 arm slot. His command has been inconsistent – mlbdraftguide
Outlook – We’ve
talked about a lot of the low-end projected Mets prospects starters that need
to step up and none need to do this more next season than Mazzoni. The 2nd
round pick and a combination of a mid-90s fastball and excellent control and
that going to make his a sure fire keep in this team come 2016.
Now, we’ve not
even sure we can pull out a decent reliever here.
Everything
will make a lot more sense on this team in 2013 if Mazzoni begins to deliver
what God and NC State gave him the talent to do.
5 comments:
Time for Cory Mo to stay healthy and impress folks enough to reach the majors in 2015 and stay once he arrives.
I saw Cory and came away unimpressed. There's a chance he works on the splitter/changeup and becomes a useful reliever; I thought he performed all the secondary duties well -- good pickoff move, tempo, etc.
Not an expert. But there are fastballs that get your attention, that overwhelm batters, and there are FBs that don't.
I have a quibble here about your introduction, which confesses to being anti-SABR or, simply, not-SABR.
Unless you are tracking these guys closely by being at the games, really watching these guys play, how else in the world can you (or anyone) evaluate a prospect? Sure, we can go by what we read from a few "experts," but usually those folks are only seeing a very limited sample size. It seems like we have to fall back on the numbers, no matter how limited and misleading that might be.
It's why nobody talked about Lagares' defense before he blew us away in 2013; it's why a guy like deGrom can win ROY like a bolt from the blue. The numbers leave a lot to be desired in terms of understanding a player, but what else have we got in most cases?
James Preller
When did you watch him James?
I try my hardest to see as many guys as I can when they are in Binghamton since I live about 45 mins away.
When I last saw him there, the fastball impressed me a lot and I saw the splitter as a good secondary pitch. However, what I didn't see was that solid 3rd pitch that starters need to be successful.
Always figured Mazzoni was best suited as a high leverage reliever.
Christopher, I see games in Troy (ValleyCat, NYPENN) and try to get to Binghamton 1-2 a year. Saw him there, and my good friend saw him there twice.
I'm no expert. He got a lot of K's on the splitter. The FB did not strike me as swing-and-miss quality. But honestly, I don't know much and seeing one game, who knows.
As I said, I liked his demeanor, like Bowman in that respect, a guy who has been on the hill before. My hope is that he can be a useful reliever.
One # I always like to focus on is Ks for a pitcher. Cory was a K per inning guy in 2014, 2/3 of which was in the tough AAA. So I am guessing there is major league quality stuff there, with normal progression, probably in the pen.
He pitched so little, almost like Fulmer, It is hard to project his 2014. my guess is if he threw more innings, we'd have seen more progress.
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