Q&A Weekends: - Power Arms

Steve Smith asked:- Mack, what prospect do you think we really breakout next year and put himself in the top 10 prospects, or in the big leagues? I'm talking a Lucas Duda type breakout. Also, it seems like the Mets barely have any power arms. It seems like everyone I read about is of the "Antonini/Cohoon" mold. Do you think the Mets should focus on power arms in next years draft? I know we have Harvey, but besides him we don't have much SP power arms.

As usual, thank you for a good question.

First, regarding the prospects... I expect Jenrry Mejia and Ruben Tejada to make the 25-man come April, so they no longer will be prospects.

Past that, Lucas Duda and Nick Evans might make the squad as utility plays, but not more.

Past that, only Reese Havens stood any chance of cracking Queens and now he may be out for the season.

Guys that have an excellent chance of making some noise and moving up the prospect rankings:

1. OF Darrell Cecilliani - I expect him to start at St. Lucie, end the season in Binghamton, and be a top 5 prospect by the end of the season

2. CL Ryan Fraser - already the top closer prospect in the system, the Mets will move him along and he'll finish the season also in Binghamton.

3.  Both 3B Zach Lutz and 2B Josh Satin will make some noise at AAA, but I expect both of them to be gone via a trade by the new management

Now... power pitches...  you are right. There aren't that many in the Mets system and they do seem to draft a lot of guys that top off  in the low 90's, but so does every other team.

The "power pitches" in the system right now and all struggling... Robert Carson, Jeurys Familia, and Brad Holt are supposed to be making positive headlines, and aren't.  There's about 10 guys that project out no higher than an SP5.

Harvey should move fast. Conservatively, he'll start St. Lucie this spring and could make Queens for the 2012 season.

The next great one will be Juan Urbina, but it's far too early to brag on him. He's around 7 years old and throwing 92 now.

There's a good chance you won't see a power pitcher come out of this system, past Harvey, until around 2014. Or later.