The Mets have a lot of pitchers in their system that seem to succeed despite being later draft picks. Collin McHugh is one such example. Drafted in the 18th round of the 2008 draft, McHugh left college for the big leagues.
When I look back at McHugh’s time with the Mets it’s hard for me to find too much to fault. He signed quickly and played in Rookie Ball back in 2008. Throughout his minor league career he has averaged a K/9 of 9.0, a K/BB of 3.22 and an ERA of 3.30.
2012 has seen McHugh repeating in AA. He’s not in AA because he’s not ready for AAA or the majors… he’s just blocked by a plethora of arms. We’ve been through it before, but the Mets cannot promote McHugh or Wheeler while Harvey, Familia, Schwinden, Hefner and others are vying for starts in AAA. Now that Chris Young has been promoted we are moving closer to the point where the Mets could.
In this season and through 10 starts, McHugh is 5-3 with a 2.17 ERA. He’s a bit off his career K/9 but nothing to get too concerned about; especially when his BB/9, H/9 and WHIP are all among the lowest of his career.
On the 28th McHugh went out and had his best outing of the year. He pitched 8.0 innings, gave up 2 runs on 5 hits and 1 walks and struck out 8. We should appreciate that Collin has gotten beyond the 6th inning in 5 of his 10 starts. He seems to be developing into a good back of the rotation work-horse.
I have projected McHugh into the future Met rotation since last season. I’d slot him in as a #4 or #5 pitcher and I think that he might actually be closer to living up to that than a number of people in AAA.
Around The Minors:
AAA:
Josh Satin Promoted – Satin is back in the majors and I really hope he stays there. He is a great match for a PH Util guy. Has a great eye and some pop.
AA:
Matt Den Dekker Needs to Stop K-ing – In the past 10 games he’s hit 3 HRs and a double. He’s also K’d 14 times. He needs to get that K-rate closer to 1 per game to be a pro.
Zack Wheeler Looking at Appartments in Buffalo – 7 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 0 BBs and 8 Ks. He’s definitely got AA hitters figured out.
A+:
Wilmer Flores Proving Fickle Scouts… Fickle – Another week with an OPS over 1.000. His HR pace is actually picking up momentum.
Wilfredo Tovar’s Eye Looks Major League – Without much power Tovar managed an OPS of .932 in the past 10 games. Perhaps the .512 OBP helped.
A:
Travis Taijeron Mashing SAL Pitching – I can’t remember the last time Travis had an OPS for the last 10 games under 1.000. He has a season SLG of .552. Get excited.
Aderlin Rodriguez Refuses to be Forgotten – OPS of 1.000? Child’s play… Try: 1.148 for the past 10 games. Aderlin mashed 4 HRs and 2 doubles in that time… he also had 4 BBs and 4 Ks which has me hoping for discipline.
Montero, Pill and DeGrom Looking Like the Next Generation of Collin McHugh – Pill was a 4th rounder, DeGrom a 9th and Montero went undrafted. Yet all of these pitchers are performing to a HIGH caliber in A-Class Savannah. Combined they have 18 BBs and 123 K’s. In case you couldn’t guess… that’s a pretty good ratio.
Schwinden won’t be blocking him any more, either. McHugh has quietly done an excellent job for the Mets and it’s nice to have options in the upper minors.
I think the Mets will wait until the AA and AAA all-star breaks pass. After that, I think both McHugh and Wheeler are moving to AAA.
The Mets are exposing pitchrs to waivers at an alarming rate. Schwinden is gone with nothing returned. Egbert was perfect in his one outing and wasn’t given another chance. I would like to see Sandy move his free agent signings and promote from within.
It is really frustrating. I don’t understand why the team seems willing to let some young talent walk to hold onto questionable free agent talent.
We lost Fernando Martinez and Nick Evans this way too.
Martinez and Evans were out of options. Evans was never given a chance and Fernando was put on the 40 at least a year before he had to be and while it is true we’ve lost some guys like Swinden, Stinson, Martinez and Evans it’s because Alderson put guys with higher upsides on the 40 man roster who aren’t yet ready to play in the Majors who would certainly have been lost in the rule 5 draft like Jesus Flores was. Guys like Carson, Puello, Flores, Lagares, Familia, Mejia, Havens plus Lutz who’s hurt himself.
That’s the whole reason you bring in or keep guys like Egbert, Shwinden, Quintinilla, Johnson, May ect so you can put them on the 40 if there’s an injury and DFA them later instead of bringing a guy up who can’t yet help and then losing a real prospect when the injured player returns like Flores or Familia. Sometimes it costs you a guy that you would like to keep but that happens to every team and those types can be nabbed again next year until our real prospects are able to provide credible depth in the high minors.
I really don’t think most people realize what a juggling act the roster situation is especially the one Alderson inherited with so many possible prospects but none even close to being considered a sure thing and most of them only in A+ or injured. Only time will tell with any of them but better to lose Egbert, Schwinden, Stinson or Satin than Carson, Mejia, Havens or Flores.
Great points. I may not be as attached to Carson…
I can understand about Carson 23 years old no history of success above rookie league other than his 15 IP in AA this year but LHP under team control who throws 94 would be scooped up in a second if exposed to the rule 5 or taken off the 40 man roster and who can really say what he could turn into?
A guy like Egbert, Stinson or Schwinden just doesn’t carry the potential that Carson has. Pure scouting projection has to rule the decision making process right now or we could be set back for years to come when we had the right guy all along and just didn’t know it.
If a trade were to be contemplated having a mid 90’s LHP like Carson would be a very interesting component but we are only a year or two away from a bullpen of Edgin, Elvin Ramirez, Armando Rodriguez, Adrian Rosario, Carson, Parnell and Beato/Mejia with all but Parnell having at least 2 option years remaining and 6 years of team control.
That’s a very good situation to be in especially with Kolarek, Cuan, Kaplan, Bennett, Whittendon and Leathersich coming up behind them WITH the 40 man roster structured in a more well conceived fashion.
Short term gains, “upgrades” and bungled roster moves have cost us many useful players through the years including Oquendo, Everett, Burnitz, Bay, Mora, Jesus Flores, Izzy, Heath Bell, Marcus Scutero, Nelson Cruz, Jason Vargas, Joe Smith and Darrin O’Day and many of these players not only provided their new team with much better overall play, they also left behind a high draft choice or two which goes a long way toward being able to sustain success. Even those who are just stop gaps prevent the need for a Vince Coleman, David Weathers, Roger Cedeno, Luis Castillo, Oliver Perez, Moises Alou or Jason Bay type move or the Izzy/Bell/Putz disaster and that is invaluable for the health of the Franchise.
Whatever short term pain we have to go through to give our young guys as much time to develop as possible will be nothing compared to what we have been through since the early 90’s.
I agree that it’s not easy to balance the 40-man roster but Alderson & Co. really dropped the ball in how they handled Fernando Martinez this year and they deserve criticism for how they handled it.
They had Martinez on their roster for the Rule 5 Draft and then removed him afterwards. If he wasn’t in their plans, they should have removed him earlier. At the very least they would have kept Rhiner Cruz that way, the first pick in the Rule 5 Draft and a guy who has done a solid job in Houston this year.
It’s also possible that no one would have taken Martinez in the Rule 5 and they could have kept him for another year.
Totally… the Idea of Fernando sticking on your MLB squad a full season would have been iffy anyway. It was a bad move by management. Not an unforgivable one, but a mistake.
I was in favor of putting Martinez on the 25 man roster in a sink or swim situation but I suppose the decision was Baxter over Fernando and I can’t complain about that one bit. A decision had to be made because his 3 option years were over and the whole thing was set in motion by putting Fern on the 40 two years before he had to. In addition he was always hurt, played poor defensively, strikes out like crazy, can’t run the bases and represented a good chance for a DH with Houston next year which we have no need for.
The entire roster situation is so messed up with guys who could help not needing to be on the 40 yet and guys who can’t yet help having to be or losing them for nothing that it was inevitable that we would lose someone. I’m just glad that Milwaukee selected Stinson instead of Armando Rodriguez when both were exposed to waivers in April.
That was a mistake and one Alderson took a major gamble on and knew as much as he had protected Armando the year before in A+ and gambled that his poor 2011 would allow him to sneak him through.
The havoc that injured minor leaguers like Havens, Lutz, Beato and Mejia cause on the 40 man roster combined with slow developing guys like Flores, Lagares, Puello, Familia, Carson and Valdespin cannot be underestimated. Someone’s going to get snagged by another team.
This coming off season there are about a dozen new guys who you would like to protect including Gorski, Tovar, Cuan, McHugh, Cecilianni, Centeno, Pena, Marte, Adrian Rosario, Armando Rodriguez, Campbell, Cahoon and more. Thankfully we’re finally getting to the point where some of them can be AA or AAA depth as well as prospects which is really the whole key to the 40 man roster but we still won’t be able to protect everyone we’d like to and because of the big platoon splits and poor defensive ability of some guys on the Major League squad that necessitates a complimentary part which eats another roster spot for a part time gig it just makes it all the tougher.
Satin, Lutz, Havens, Lagares, Puello, Bay, Torres, Hefner, Rottino, Hairston, Byrdek, Battista, Quintanilla, Cedeno, Turner are all at risk even if they fill a short term need perfectly or retain belief in their potential.
Too many one dimensional guys in the Majors and too many prospects either hurt or too undeveloped don’t allow the pieces to fit to support both a present and a future. One has to take presidence over the other and this time it has to be the future because doing it the other way around is how we wound up all screwed up in the first place.