Mark Cohoon, the Mets Pitcher of the Year in 2010, going 12-5 with a 2.57 ERA combined at Savannah and Binghamton, has shown he’s not just a one-hit wonder despite lacking an overpowering heater that has kept him from soaring up the prospect lists.
The 23-year-old lefthander fanned a career-high 11 batters and allowed just two runs – both unearned – on five hits over seven innings in a 5-2 win over Portland on Wednesday night.
The 12th-round pick in 2008 retired the first eight batters before a double, single and two errors allowed the Sea Dogs to get on the board in the third.
Cohoon escaped a runners on the corner, two-out jam in the fifth to improve to 1-0 with a 0.47 ERA in three starts this season. He’s yielded 16 hits and three walks with 20 strikeouts in 19 frames.
Cohoon struck out six straight batters between the first and third frames – four called strikeouts.
“I had good control tonight,” Cohoon told Milb.com. “I was able to command my fastball in to hitters and keep them honest at the plate. I was able to throw everything else on the other side of the plate. I would say last outing I didn’t have my curveball; this outing, I did and it helped me a lot. No. 1 was command, I was able to command my pitches.”
The Texas native tied a South Atlantic League record last June by pitching three straight shutouts.
“It was probably the biggest thrill I’ve had in my career,” Cohoon said. “We have a lot of good pitchers in this organization and one guy I thought would receive the award was Dillon Gee. Just to be the one chosen was one of the cooler things that has happened to me.”
Cohoon, whose previous high was 10 strikeouts for Class A Savannah last June 4, has a fastball that registers in just the high 80s, thus was listed as an honorable mention by Mets360, the No. 22 Mets prospect by Baseball America and nowhere to be found among ESPNs Keith Law’s top-10 organizational rankings.
But his 21-7, 2.42 ERA combined in his first three years, a 1.87 ERA over his last six starts last season at Binghamton and a fantastic start to the 2011 campaign at the Class AA level, will have talent evaluators doing a double take.
A 23-year-old in Double A? Normally I wouldn’t be excited about this, but I’ll take any affordable talent we can get at this point. I guess he’s a crafty lefty, so maybe he’ll break in later and last longer too.