Toby Hyde provides frank, fair and thorough analysis of Jenrry Mejia.

What to do about Mejia must be quite a debate among baseball people around the table in Port St. Lucie. Here’s what they are probably talking about?

1. Is he a starter or reliever?

Answer: We don’t know yet and at some point soon a decision will be made about his development. His size and durability are an issue. Here’s where the greatest debate occurs. There’s been no clear signal. But the fact that he’s still in camp as a reliever may signal that they Mets are leaning toward the later. If they plan for him to start, they would have sent him out already.

2. What about his size?

Answer: When compared by size, use Roger McDowell and David Cone as examples.

McDowell came to camp in 1985 after missing a year for surgery. He’s been a starter in the minors, but made the club because of an amzing sinker. He was tried as a starter in Cincinnatti and it proved to be s disaster. He have neither the stamina or pitch selection to be effective. McDowell never started anothet game in the big leagues and remains a Met legend most notably for his brilliant five innings of relief in Game 6 at Houston in the NLCS.

Cone arrived in late during spring training in 1987 from Kansas City via a trade for Rick Anderson and Ed Hearn. He started the year in the bull pen but quickly moved to the rotation after Bobby Ojeda’s elbow finally blew up. Similar in size Mejia, Cone proved to have both the stamina and pitches to start. He fell only six wins short of 200 career wins.

3. Is he too young?

Probably not. Plus, according to Hyde, he has mastered English and observers marvel at his intelligence and work ethic.

4. Opinion?

Reliever. He has only two pitches mastered. According to Hyde, his 3rd pitch, a curve, is not good enough. It may take another season in the minors to make it serviceable. The fact of the matter is that it just may never be servicable. He’s not dominated consistently enough as a starter in the minors. Ultimately, he compares more favoribly with McDowell than he does Cone.

5. Plan?

Start him pitching out of the bullpen in Binghampton as the closer. It’s a place where he’s comfortable and can have success. Bring him to the big leagues when he’ll get more work in May.

6. Outlook?

He’ll be more durable as a reliever and can ultimately set-up Francisco Rodriguez later on this season. Darryl Strawberry’s comparison this spring to Mariano Rivera is worth noting. If he becomes anything close to Rivera, everyone will be more than happy.

The Mets may be thinking about what happened with Joba Chamberlain. If Hank Steinbrenner hadn’t opened his big mouth, the mistake might not have been made to attempt to make him into a starter. Either they had to let the owner save face or Steinbrenner took a page out of how his father would have acted in pre Joe Torre-Brain Cashman days. Note Jeff Wilpon’s been quiet.

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I’ve been following Toby Hyde’s career since he joined Matt Cerrone’s network. He’s been like a baseball prospect, advancing every year based on past performances. Toby has talent to be sure, but he’s accomplished alot on work ethic. He’s starts a new season in Savannah and I hope he will continue his comprehensive posts on the Mets minor leagues. Have a great season, Toby.

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Flores is considered to be one of the crown jewells of the Mets organization. According to this scouting service, his game has lots of holes. Could it be that Flores’ reputation came from the over hyping of latin prospects that came during the Tony Bernazard regime?

Met’s minor league prospect guru, Mack Ade, rates Flores at number three. Toby Hyde lists him 2nd.

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Dave Murray takes a look at some old baseball card follies.

Toby Hyde’s got a new job and is blogging his excellent road trip.

I wonder where Steve Keane got that autographed card of Ron Gardenhire. Bot Gardy looks thin. Keane is alos posting a countdown to days until spring training begins.

Mets Fever’s Ed Ryan give his take on the Frank Catalanotto signing.

The Real Dirty Mets Blog has today in Mets infamy. Happy birthday to Bob Apodaca and Rafael Santana. No way Santana’s only 52 though.

Only the mad genius that is Metstradamus can channel the Mets via the Twilight Zone.

Anthony De Rosa of Hot Foot takes down Jerry Manuel’s interview.

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Baseball America listed Savannah Sand Gnats right-hander on its Prospect Hot Sheet:

Signed out of the Dominican in ’07, just a few months after Jenrry Mejia, Familia has emerged as ace of the low Class A Savannah staff. The 19-year-old righty lacks polish, but his low- to mid-90s fastball already rates as plus-plus, according to one scout for an AL club. The reason: Familia has exceptional life on and command of the pitch, a combination that’s rare for such a young pitcher. His changeup his is second-best offering for now, and he’ll need to refine his breaking ball to make it as a starter. On the season, Familia has gone 9-6, 2.90 in 20 starts for the Sand Gnats. Over 118 innings, he has stuck out 97, walked 40 and allowed just 94 hits (three home runs).

Toby Hyde rated Familia as the 27th ranked Mets prospect at the beginning of the season. Says Hyde:

Familia ranks here on the basis of a nice pitcher’s frame and a fastball that boasts average to plus MLB velocity already. Familia, despite inconsistent velocity, consistently threw strikes. In his first start of the year, Familia was throwing 93, 94 mph while that was down to 89-92 in his second appearance. The previous fall, scouts reported that he was consistently in the mid-90s. Familia’s off-speed stuff, a slider at 78 mph and a change at 84 are both about as far away from MLB caliber as one might expect from a 19-year old.

It will be interesting to see if the Mets promote Familia to AA. The firing of Tony Bernazard may have left a decision making vacuum. One theory is to let young players have a season of success that they can build upon. This is a extremely defensible position. If Familia has the goods, he’ll make the AA staff in spring training next year.

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I had thought and asked Toby Hyde, who produces the excellent Mets Minor League Blog I asked whether or not it would be fair to say the Mets had little power through its organization. Here are Toby’s comments to my inquiry:

AAA: 1B/LF Nick Evans: near MLB average pop, but doesn’t do anything else all that well
AA: 1B Ike Davis – The Mets drafted him 18th overall because they liked his power and he’s leading the organization in HR after a homerless professional debut in 2008. Almost all of his power is pullside. One of the Mets best prospects.
Lucas Duda – a big guy with plus raw power, he can get into one in BP, but hadn’t shown much ability to drive a ball in games until he hit four bombs in July. Has he turned a corner? Neither Duda nor Davis has learned to hit lefties yet.
A+: 1B Stefan Welch still has a projectable frame. 3B Zach Lutz and SS Reese Havens have fringy average MLB power
A: Sean Ratliff has MLB pop right now, but other enormous holes in his swing. SS Wilmer Flores hasn’t shown much power this year, but the Mets hope that as he grows into his body, he’ll start driving the ball, so his power is projection at this point.
When in the minors, I remember going to certain other camps – like the Reds – and noticed they always had big players. Here is why Toby’s use of the term , “projectable frame” is somewhat telling in terms of talent assessments. Perhaps the Mets need to look at drafted more players with these “projectable frames”.

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I was very impressed with Mayo yesterday while watching his commentary on the MLB Network.

The Mets have one RHP Jennry Mejia. I believe that Mejia is injured now having not pitched since June 23. Toby Hyde reports that its a problem with a finger on the pitching hand.

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Do so at Toby Hyde’s blog. Toby has listed the Binghampton AA roster and his useful rating of Mets’ prospects.

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Omar Minaya and the Mets realized that the cost was just too high to bring ML proven talent at the deadline. I believe they were right. And they’ve been signaling that the future they refused to part with will need to be part of the reason they suceed this season. Dan Murphy’s promotion to AAA New Orleans and quick move to New York is further evidence of the path the Mets have chosen.

Adam Rubin points out today that some in the organization feel that it is Murphy and not the still very young Fernandon Martinez who is the top hitting prospect in the organization. When he Mets were prompted to place Marlon Anderson on the DL, the club hastened its plan for Murphy. The left-handed hitting Murphy’s best position seems to be 3rd, but he has played LF, 2B and 1B in his career. More on Murphy from Toby Hyde.

Murphy is a player without a clear position – unless it 3B. He was moved to 2B in AA for some games, but its still too soon to run him out there now. He can hit, and its why he’s here. Roy Oswalt, a righthander, starts tonight. Maybe Jerry Manuel will get him his first ABs tonight and play him in LF. Tough first night though. The club needs more extra base hits from the OF than it’s getting now. Murphy might be able to do this.

So we come to Jon Neise. A date is open August 11 and John Maine will not make his next start. Neise seems certain to get a start at some point. If he does well, it will be more than a few. The Mets need for his audition to go well with the likely departures this off season of Pedro Martinez and Oliver Perez.

Eddie Kunz was 42nd player taken last June form Oregon State University. He’s been on a fast track to New York as had Joe Smith. He’s used to a big stage having pitched in the College World Series. The Mets need a fresh arm for the pen and Kuntz will see some time on the ML roster probably before the month is over. It cannot be expected that he can shut down a inning at the big league level just yet.

So there it is. The players they would not deal will be seen this season. If any one of the three can supply the kind of lightening in a bottle the Mets had hoped to get at the deadline, the decision not to deal makes even bigger sense that it does on paper.

* If John Maine said all the soreness is gone in the back of his shoulder that tells me he’ll be ok.

*I wish the Mets would either use Nick Evans more or send him down. Maybe here they can get an OF off the waiver wire.

* If Maine is ok and Neise can cut its when he gets here why not try Pedro in a setup role?

* I’ll say this again. It makes sense to get Jerry Manuel under contract through at least next season.

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See Toby Hyde’s Mets Minor League Blog

Few of the experts are mentioning the Mets doing anything. With the emergence of Jon Niese as ML ready, it looks like the Mets might look to him this season if he is needed. Without question next season,but he will not be dealt.

I find the talk of Scott Schoeneweis’ inclusion in trade talks curious as I thought the club was looking for bullpen help.

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