5-27-11 – Matt Harvey, Jeurys Famila, Stefan Welsh, Allan Dykstra, Blake Forsythe

Okay, Friday night was Harvey’s 10th start in A+ and the league has seen enough. He put up seven more shutout innings while striking out ten and it’s time for him to join his pitching bud, Jeurys Familia, in Binghamton. These two guys, plus a fully healed Jenrry Mejia, represent the future of the Mets beginning in 2013. Some still have their doubts, while others think they could see Queens next year. I really believe at this point that both these guys are for real, but neither should be rushed in 2012. Let them finish 2011 in Binghamton. Bring them to camp with the big boys in 2012, and start them off in Buffalo on opening day. Mejia should be pitching there by June and the Binghamton staff will feature Greg Peavey, Matt Barnes, and Josh Osich.


Familia didn’t have as great a night as Harvey (3-ER in 5.0-IP, 7-K), but the strikeouts are still there, and his AA ERA is still 2.25. That comes to 10 starts in A+/AA, 60.1-IP, 12-ER, and 57-K while only 17-BB. I have no problem with these numbers.

Did you ever notice that when one positional player steps up, others playing the same position on another franchise team begin to produce more? Case in point is Allan Dykstra (B-Mets) and Stefan Welsh (St. Lucie).


Dykstra has raised the bar the past month, hitting a career high .500-SLG going into Friday’s game. At the same time, Welsh went into Friday night’s game hitting .314//429/.486/.914 in the past 10 games, and had three more hits last night, including his 6th home run of the season.


We all tend to forget that the Mets committed sign up money last year to draft one of the top catchers available in the draft. Here’s what I said the day after the Mets drafted Blake Forsythe:

“Round 3 – 89th pick overall – C – Blake Forsythe – University of Tennessee – it’s no surprised that the Mets took a catcher here. Forsythe began the year projected as a first rounder, but had a miserable first half of the season. He did finish the season with 15-HRs (11th in SEC), but hit only .280 and struck out far too many times. Did have a hell of a season in 2009, coming in 2nd in the SEC in OBP and 9th in slugging. That being said, both Micah Gibbs and Cameron Rupp were still on the board when the Mets had this pick and I would have been much happier with either one of them being picked. Projection: Look, the Mets need talented catchers in the system. You had Josh Thole going into this draft and, probably ranked second on the board right now is Kai Gronauer. Beyond that, is a lot of disappointment. Grade: C”


Forsythe went into Friday night’s game hitting only .233, but that includes going .290/.390/.419/.810 in the past ten games. (Oh yeah… Gibbs is batting .275 for A-Peoria and Rupp is hitting only .217 for A-Lakewood)

Let's not forget that Blake put up first round numbers in his sophomore year. We'll keep an eye on his progress this season.