The Mets began the year with their Top eight players in the farm system all being position players and while we’ve seen positive signs from most of these names it feels like the future of Mets starting pitching might not be as bright and rosy as we’d like it to be.
Part of this is due to the constant health struggles of players like Matt Allan but, it’s also a case of failure by comparison. When you look at the extreme successes of Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio, Mark Vientos and Alex Ramirez it may be harder to see the smaller victories for the starting pitchers in the Mets system.
Blade Tidwell – The current #1 starting pitching prospect in the organization has not gotten off to a flawless start to the season. In the early going Tidwell has given up far too many walks and runs for a pitcher who the Mets are hoping to become a front-line starter. That being said the hits are trending down and the strikeouts are trending up which should allow his overall numbers to begin to look better. The big thing to look for is to have those walks start to go down.
Dominic Hamel – One of the brightest stories for the Mets starters and Binghamton Rumble Ponies has been Hamel. So far this season he has five games and very solid power numbers to go with his sub 3.00 ERA. Like Tidwell the complaint comes down to control but the difference is in the results. Hamel is walking too many batters but so far has not let these free passes hurt him too badly on the scoreboard.
Mike Vasil – One pitcher not having control problems is Vasil. His WHIP is comfortably under 1.00 and his pitching peripherals are pretty great. He’s pitching deeper into games than other starters and he’s still striking batters out at a healthy clip. The one issue is that the hits he has given up have been costly. Vasil’s ERA is North of 3.00 while only giving up 13 hits in 22.0 innings pitched. Part of this would be his 3 home runs surrendered in April.
Tyler Stuart – At 23 years of age the 6’9” Stuart is too old to stay in Brooklyn but he’s also likely proven that he’s ready for the next step in his minor league story. This season he’s started 5 games and pitched with overall numbers in line with a front line starter. He was pulled after two innings in Brooklyn yesterday but no injury report was released and there was nothing evident in that game to suggest an issue as he closed out the second with three strikeouts.
With all this, perhaps the state of Mets Prospect pitching is not as bleak as you might assume. Hopefully the Mets will continue to see these positive trends among their next crop of pitching talent.
Side Note:
Jordan Geber’s Good Luck Charm
I have been out to a pair of games for Brooklyn this season and in both games Geber wound up playing a large part. On April 22nd he was given his first start of the season and pitched 6.0 strong and efficient frames. Yesterday he came into the game in the third and pitched out a nearly flawless final seven innings to earn the win and player of the game honors. Perhaps Geber needs to get me to come out each and every time he pitches.
I attended a Rumble Ponies game a couple of weeks ago – saw Vasil pitch. After a rocky first few innings, he settled down and got some strikeouts but overall I wouldn’t say he showed anything which would turn heads.
I’ve been very happy with what Vasil has done so far this year. He was not particularly good after his mid-year promotion to Hi-A last year and I was surprised the Mets pushed him to Double-A. There he’s seen both his BB and K numbers improve from last season. The HR are a potential issue – 3 HR in 22 IP is not good. I’m optimistic he can keep improving.
My hope is that Vasil is a pitcher similar to Colin McHugh. That he doesn’t do anything to blow you away but pitches competently and effectively to be a solid major league starter.
Dave, I always enjoy your articles. At some point could you give us some insight into each of the Latin pitchers that are in the top 50?
I can do a recap of international signees over the past few seasons and where they are now.
Nice read. It’s easy to see we have a very old win now starting staff so restocking upper levels with some strong arms should be a priority. It used to be that all we really developed were pitchers but the crop of players trying to push slumping vets off the team by playing big at Syracuse is encouraging. Good teams draft well and work hard to develop talent.
Thanks for writing this article. Not having top tier pitching prospects near or in AA is not good. What do we do when Scherzer and Verlander end their stay? I scratch my head when we drafted Parada, when we had Alvarez in the fold. Maybe we could deal him for a good equal pitching prospect.
I could not fault the Mets in selecting Kevin Parada but, as good as Jett Williams is, I felt that Dylan Lesko was an appropriate talent for draft position and available at 14th overall. In the 3rd round the selection of Nick Morabito infuriated me as I had wanted Carson Palmquist or some other pitcher or the selection of Brandon Sproat when Jonathan Cannon was on the board. I do think Tyler Stuart was a solid pick at 179th overall.