Tom Brennan - TOP 25 METS' PROSPECTS: # 11 PJ CONLON
PJ
(Patrick Joshua) Conlon
- ahh, begum and begorrah, the lad from Belfast in Northern Ireland. 4 shamrocks for this fine fella in 2016. (Full disclosure: I am also an Irish lefty whose middle name is Patrick, so I am a little biased here).
After all, the 5'11", 190 lefty PJ had one of the most spectacular pitching years of anyone in baseball,
going 12-2, 1.65 in 142 IP in Columbia and St Lucie A ball, completely dominating
both levels, including a 10 inning complete game 4 hitter, something you rarely
see anywhere in baseball any more.
He's surrendered just 5 homers in 159 career innings, the absolute opposite of recent Mets pitching failure Logan Verrett. Few homers allowed make managers smile.
He's surrendered just 5 homers in 159 career innings, the absolute opposite of recent Mets pitching failure Logan Verrett. Few homers allowed make managers smile.
PJ's last game of 2016, 5 shutout, 1
hit innings, 7 Ks, so he was probably saying, "do we REALLY have to go
home?"
In 2015 in
Brooklyn as a reliever, 17 IP, and let's count them up - sorry, no fingers
needed - no earned runs.
In other words, 2015 and 2016 could not have gone better for this young man. Or for anyone, frankly. Complete dominance across 3 levels.
The funky lefty is, as I understand it, a mid-to-high 80's pitcher,
and so Conlon must continue his success
at AA in 2017 without high octane velocity, with Las Vegas awaiting.
His 0.94
WHIP as a pro is outstanding, and maybe, just maybe, he'll be the next Jon
Tudor - we can wish, right?
The lefty Tudor single-handedly kept the Mets out of the playoffs in 1985 by going 21-8, 1.93 with 10 shutouts after sitting at 1-7 through his first 10 starts in April and May - friggin' 20-1 in the final 4 months! Tudor fanned only 988 over 1,797 very successful major league innings, showing a non-flamethrowing lefty can succeed.
Others who read this, feel free to add your own pitcher comps.
Just maybe, if the Mets need a pen arm in 2017, PJ will be ready if called upon.
PJ, "may the road to Citifield rise up to meet ya".
The lefty Tudor single-handedly kept the Mets out of the playoffs in 1985 by going 21-8, 1.93 with 10 shutouts after sitting at 1-7 through his first 10 starts in April and May - friggin' 20-1 in the final 4 months! Tudor fanned only 988 over 1,797 very successful major league innings, showing a non-flamethrowing lefty can succeed.
Others who read this, feel free to add your own pitcher comps.
Just maybe, if the Mets need a pen arm in 2017, PJ will be ready if called upon.
PJ, "may the road to Citifield rise up to meet ya".
11 comments:
Yusmeiro Petit.
That is a funny comp.
I want to see one more season out of my fellow Irishman before I start to get ga-ga over him. Right now, he looks like Jacob deGrom v2.0.
Tom Love you articles...
Have to say though that I dont get your rankings (the order I mean...) I guess you are weighting your empahais on who's closer to MLB ready over potential... My ranking prefrence usually span who could be a potential star (Higher ceiling but due have higher bust rates) over just a avg MLB-er...Tomato / tomato...
Eddie, you are exactly right. I do lean to more experience, as a guy could have all the potential in the world, all the tools, and fall flat against higher competition. If not, for example, I would have had Giminez higher than I did.
Two floppers that come to mind that were quite athletic were Cory Vaughn and Ivan (Big Whiff) Wilson.
Yusimeiro Petit has a significantly large 55 career major league decisions - while below .500 at 23-32, PJ Conlon might not necessarily be dissatisfied where he sits now if he knew several years from now that he was 23-32 in his major league career. Since so many minors wannabes never even make the bigs.
Hopefully, he'll be better and find himself looking at 32-23, and counting, someday.
Gimenez and Nido are 2 guys I was wondering why they are not in the Top 10...
Nido, interestingly, was not in John Sickel's Top 200 minor leaguers. he needs to show more that the latest year was not a one year flash in the pan offensively.
I can see that... But his defensive upside keep his ceiling high.. I do agree he needs to show he can do that again but if he does then he is a top 3 prospect...
Thomas,
I too am a little puzzled by your criteria for ranking. If it's a prediction of some cumulative lifetime WAR, fine but then I see little optimism for anyone rated below Phil Evans (a disappointing evaluation of, say, Thompson & Kacz).
Maybe you would, after your list is published, take a look of your tally in positional groupings: SP, RP, C, corner IF, middle IF, OF and speculate on who is likely to do what/when within those groups.
Looking forward!
Everyone -
Please remember that EVERY ranking list is just the thoughts of one person. Mine is completely different than Tom, but that does not mean either of us are wrong.
I welcome any of you to post yours and I'll add them to the side column of the site.
The nice thing about this conversation is that in a few more weeks, we'all get to start adding more hard data to everyone's subjective rankings. Ahhh, spring. And thanks Tom, for doing this. It's always fun to dream on the kids.
I just know that I'm ranked in the Top 25 Mack's Mets writers :)
I puzzle myself sometimes!
My picks are very subjective, to be sure.
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