And in my world, things have just gotten a lot brighter.
We all know the saying that “there are only three things needed for a successful baseball team… pitching, pitching, and more pitching…:. That being said, on paper, the Mets just may have enough to take them through this decade.
First, a word of caution. No one is etched in stone when it comes to prospects. A few make it. Most don’t. Remember two words… Generation K.
That being said, the Mets now have what most top 100 prospect lists say are four starting pitchers on their list. That’s not four Mets. That’s four Mets SPs.
They are: Matt Harvey, Jenrry Mejia, Jeurys Famila, and Zack Wheeler.
Some Mets pundits have Mejia projected as a closer; however, I’m going to keep him in the rotation in this study of how the Mets minor league rotations might look next spring. Remember, this is just my opinion.
As all of us know, Mejia will not come off the DL until after the 2012 season starts (Familia comes off August 2nd) but my guess is, when he does, he’ll go back to AA-ball to get his stuff together.
We all know that the one level a pitcher must learn to master is AA. Most never do, Some, like Harvey, need to stay there to develop his secondary pitchers.
Most of the baseball experts feel that Wheeler has a sub-par changeup. Starters aren’t successful in the majors unless they have at least three plus pitches. Heat may be enough for an 8th inning guy, or closer, but it’s the mixing of three or more quality pitchers that makes or breaks a starter.
Greg Maddox and Tom Glavine proved this every outing. Dillon Gee is proving this right now.
I’m going to take the conservative approach here. I’m going to assume that Familia will be the only pitcher ready to move on to AAA on opening day. Harvey, Wheeler, and Mejia should all be able to progress there later on in the season, but this is how the opening day rotations would stack up today, if tomorrow was April 1, 2012:
Buffalo: Jeurys Familia, Robert Carson, Collin McHugh, Brandon Moore, Mark Cohoon
Binghamton: Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, Jenrry Mejia, Greg Peavey, Darin Gorski
I have Chris Schwinden moving on to the Queens and Dylan Owen, Tobi Stoner, Miquel Batista, and Pat Misch have been removed.
These are ten impressive names. The four aforementioned starters could all be in the 2013 opening day rotation, while the other six could be sitting in the pen out in the CitiField outfield. In Carson and Mejia, you have two potential closers.
Folks, I’ve been doing this for quite awhile and I haven’t seen this much quality starting pitcher talent in the Mets organization that the years they had Jason Isringhausen, Bill Pulsipher, Paul Wilson, and Juan Acevedo… err… there was probably a better way to end this piece.
14 comments:
Good post! I agree all around. In one day we "all of a sudden" have a solid pitching staff in the minors; once Nimmo signs, we also have a handful of what can be considered top outfield talent; we already have a wealth of talent in the middle infield, with some at third (but we all know most of those players need to be in the OF as well), leaving ONE GLARING HOLE - CATCHER!!!!
Mack, great post. I certainly agree with you that pitching is priority and now we have some young pitching to look forward to. If you look back just 1 year, it wasn't very promising. If I had to nit pick, which I guess I do, I would just switch Mejia and Familia with AA & AAA since Mejia was in the Buffalo rotation when he went down and I would probably say Schwinden spends another year in Buffalo, but all in all, none of that really matters right now because we actually have a Top 10 minor league system as of now (IMO) and I'm excited to see if Sandy can steal another potential top 20 prospect from the Brewers. (top 20 in our organization I mean of course) Peralta, Thornburg, Gennett?
I hope that Sandy shuts it down now and let's the rest of the Queens team go for a playoff spot, no matter how unrealistic I think it is at this point in the season.
You can't trade anyone else or no one will sign off playing for this team.
Don't worry David...
the Mets promoted Mike Nickeas this morning.
The promotion of Nickeas gotta mean a Paulino deal is closer than has been reported, no?
Closer...
Mejia will come off of TJS and, though I agree he is a AAA pitcher at this point, I still think they will start his return with 5-10 starts at AA.
Good problem though.
The promotion of Nickeas gotta mean that a Paulino deal is closer than has been reported, no?
Hobie:
Looks that way...
Why have three catchers?
I will say this. Looking over the current Buffalo roster, the only other options would be Tejada... or Nick Evans
Mack, I'm one of those guys who thinks Mejia will ultimately be a dominant closer. No need to put him in that role for the next few seasons. (Think the Mariano timeline).
Decades ago, sitting behind home plate in Pittsfield, I had the same thoughts about a young starter Izzy something. Can't help it, same feeling--but I'm no scout.
Conspiracy theory here: Nickeas is up, Posey & McCann are out. What'll you guys give me for Paulino?
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