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.
# 29 – RHSP Michael Fulmer
21-years old – 6-3, 200 – R/R – 1st Round pick in 2011
No college – Deer Creek H S (OK)
2011 – GCL – 4-G, 10.13, 2.44, 5.1-IP, 10-K
2012 – Savannah – 21-ST, 2.74, 1.20, 108.1-IP, 101-K
2013 – GCL/St. Lucie – 9-ST, 3.33, 1.13, 46-IP, 42-K
2014 – St. Lucie/B-Mets – 20-ST, 4.38, 1.54, 98.2-IP, 87-K
He came out of high school with a heralded low 90s fastball and a verbal commitment to Arkansas that very few thought he would break. Baseball America had him ranked at the 45th player in the draft. Additionally, Keith Law said he had one of the best curve balls in the draft.
Everything went great, at first, in the 2012 season, where he headed up the Savannah rotation. But then the injuries set in.
First, it was a torn meniscus, which he further injured in the spring of 2013. This was followed by a bicep tendinitis and right shoulder strain that shut him down for the remainder of the season.
He also went under the knife to remove a bone spur from his pitching elbow.
Outlook –
If it wasn’t for the fact that he seems to always be injured, Fulmer would easily be in my Top 15 list of Mets prospects. I’ve seen him pitch a number of times and he has major league talent.
The Mets need to take him out of future rotations and turn this kid into a reliever and, in 2015, limit him to around 30 innings at the AA level. He’s only going to be 22 next season and he lines up perfectly as a member of the Mets pen.
There is a tremendous amount of talent here but the Mets need to realize that Fulmer is probably best suited in 2015 (at least the early months) for the St. Lucie pen. He can rise to Binghamton from there.
I don't see him being trade bait like Fuller. His injury history probably cost him that option.
3 comments:
Hopefully after the off season, he returns to form. This guy needs another healthy season.
I bet all of his injury troubles stem from the knee. He probably favored it and screwed up his mechanics, which in turn led to arm injuries. His knee will never be the same so relief might just be his ticket to the bigs.
Maybe short spurts of pitching 1 or 2 innings jacks his heater up to 95. Put that with his plus breaking ball and there's nothing wrong with another power arm in the bullpen.
Remember, all these young starters they're developing are good cause it'll keep payroll down in the future. Now they must also do the same with their bullpen. Andrew Miller just got 36 million. That's the going rate now for a big time reliever. They must produce bullpen arms as well.
Charles -
Fulmer was much higher on my previous ranking lists before his injuries.
The talent is there... we will just have to wait and see if he can keep the pieces of what's left of his body together
Hopefully a 100% healthy 2015 and major progress for Fulmer.
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