Jenrry Mejia pitching report from 8/27/09

This was the second time I saw Jenrry Mejia pitch for the Binghamton Mets in the Eastern League. This performance against the Portland Seadogs was far worse than the previous outing I saw from June, 6th. In this piece, you will read on how a kid lost confidence in his secondary pitches as the game went on.

1st inning: Mejia started out slow with his fastball hitting 91-93 before hitting 94 and 96 MPH later in the inning. Mejia threw a couple of changeups at 84 and 86 MPH and threw one nasty curveball that froze a hitter for a strikeout with 11-5 tilt at 78 MPH.

2nd inning: In this inning Mejia's fastball sat at 93-95 ranging from 91 up to 96 MPH. He also threw a couple of nice changeups in the mid 80's, getting a double play on Lars Anderson in the 2nd on a changeup. In this inning, Mejia only threw curveball at 79 MPH.

3rd inning: This was the inning where Mejia began to show signs of why a 19 year old kid was rushed too quickly. He got Yamaico Navarro to groundout, but allowed a hit to Jason Place just over the glove of Ruben Tejada. Mejia proceeded to walk Iggy Suarez and completely lose confidence in his secondary pitches. Mejia gave up a few more hits and allowed three runs in this inning. He also snapped off some poor curveballs at 75 and 77 MPH that were high with little break. He did manage to throw one solid curveball at 82 MPH, but that was his last one of the night. Mejia threw a few changeups in the inning from 83 to 87 MPH, but once there were runners on base, he completely stopped throwing the pitch. Mejia's fastball ranged from 92 up to 98 MPH, and sat in the 94 to 96 range.

4th inning: In the 4th inning, Mejia used only his fastball. Mejia lost a touch of velocity on the pitch in this inning. He sat mainly at 93 and 94 MPH and only hit above 95 MPH twice, maxing out at 96. He allowed a couple more hits and hit a batter as well. Mejia would have allowed more than one run in this inning if not for a great defensive play by Ike Davis throwing a rope to third to get Ryan Kalish out trying to advance following a base hit.

My take on Mejia from my notes was that he had a lack of trust in his curveball. His fastball was often high and out of the zone. He showed bad body language and shaky composure on the mound. My concern was that he completely stopped throwing his secondary pitches in the third inning once runners got on base. Also noted, is that Josh Thole was not the catcher for Mejia in this game compared to the first outing. I'm not sure if his finger injury was impacting him in this outing, and he struggled like this in the AFL as well. My gut thinking is that he needs at least another year in AA in 2010.

Ryan Westmoreland 2010 season preview

Ryan Westmoreland is one of the top prospects in the Redsox farm system. He was highly regarded in the 2008 draft, but scared off many teams by potentially going to college at powerhouse Vanderbilt. Boston drafted Westmoreland in the 4th round and paid him two million to sign. Westmoreland made his minor league debut in June for the Lowell Spinners of the New York Penn League. I saw Westmoreland play in one of his first games of the season. He showed excellent bat speed, plus plus running speed, and a good eye at the plate. Westmoreland got hurt late in the season but he should be well by spring time. 2010 will be Westmoreland's debut in full season ball. He needs to show a few things before vaulting into a top 20 prospect, health, power, his plate discipline that is good, and how good of a fielder he is after missing some much time from the field. Westmoreland is forecast to play for low-A Greenville next year. I honestly think he will have a strong year next year.

Fearless forecast: .290 30 2b 10 3b 18 HR 80 RBI's 77 BB's 110 K's 35 SB 4 CS.

Wade Davis August 23, 2009

I decided to go to Syracuse to catch the Durham Bulls vs. the Syracuse Chiefs. I wanted to see how good Jennings, Hellickson, and Davis were. In this entry I am going to write about Wade Davis start. He was fair in this outing. I am not sure but I think a hour rain delay may have hampered him in this outing. In this outing Davis sat at 92-93, threw his curveball in the high 70's to low 80's, and threw a hard changeup/2 seamer at 85-87.

1st inning: Davis struggled with his command greatly and threw 26 pitches in the inning. He sat at 92-93 and hit 94 a handful of times. He threw 3 curveballs in the inning and none of them looked like a plus pitch. He only thew a couple of high 80's changeups.
2nd inning: Davis lost a touch of velocity this inning and sat at 91-92 hitting 93 twice including getting a strikeout on a high 93 MPH fastball, but his curveball was from plus to an average pitch and he threw four of them in the inning ranging from 78-83 MPH. He threw two changeups 84 and 87 MPH.
3rd inning: This was a very quick inning for Davis as the chiefs were aggressive going after his fastball which was down to 90-91. He threw four pitches the whole inning all fastballs.
4th inning: Davis velocity was up and down this inning as he threw a fastball anywhere from 88 to 94 MPH, the 88 MPH fastball could have been his cutter or two seamer. Davis only threw one curveball in the inning and it was an above average pitch at 81 MPH. He threw one changeup according to me and that was at 83 MPH.
5th inning: Davis lost his top end velocity in this inning and ranged from 88-92 MPH mostly in the 88-89 range, while throwing two curveballs 78 and 79 MPH, and one change up at 85 MPH.
6th inning: Davis upped his velocity in this inning hitting 93 and 94 MPH at times and hit 95 MPH. He also mixed in some curveballs but threw an absolute hanger at 81 MPH that got crushed for a HR. He also threw some fastballs in the 88-89 range, and didn't throw a single changeup this inning.

From what I based on this start was that Davis doesn't have one plus pitch currently, but possibly has two above average pitches right now in his fastball and curveball. Davis didn't show much of a third pitch in this outing which made me think he has a ceiling of a 3rd starter, but could be a good guy to have in the bullpen if he incorporates more velocity on his fastball and refines his curveball a bit more.

Portland Seadogs vs. Binghamton Mets April 17, 2009 Report

This was my first trip of the year down to Binghamton to watch some AA ball. The prospects that I was most interested in seeing were Lars Anderson, Josh Reddick, and Angenis Diaz as these guys were in the Redsox Top 20 prospect lists. At the time, there were no standouts playing for the Mets as Ruban Tejada and Josh Thole had days off. Pitching for the Mets was Dylan Owen a short right hander with average at best stuff. This day, he didn't show anything other than throwing batting practice to the SeaDogs. Owen only lasted three innings allowing 6 runs, 7 hits, 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts. He did manage to hit 93 on the gun which surprised me, but he was 89-91 most of the game. The one guy who surprised me though was Mark Wagner who struggled greatly in AA in 2008. In the first inning he ripped a shot to left center that was a no doubt homerun. Later on he added a double, but struckout on a breaking pitch from a reliever in for Owen. Wagner could be a nice backup catcher somewhere in the majors. Reddick played solid in this game as he was working the count nicely and nearly hit a homerun out to right center. He laced a triple down the right field line and showed solid speed. Reddick might steal 7-10 bags a year in the majors. However, I noticed he is a pull hitter and will have to learn to hit the ball the other way better. His defense in centerfield was okay, but not great. He got a ball hit over his head for a double, but his arm is a cannon as no one would test his arm to advance a base. Lars Anderson may have had a terrible 2009 season, but he hit a ball harder than anyone I have seen this year. Now granted the pitch he hit for the homerun was an 87 MPH Batting Practice Fastball but he hit it well over 400 feet dead center. Anderson felt like he got a monkey off his back after he hit the homerun. Anderson was almost to patient at the plate and ended striking out chasing a pitch out of the zone and showed frustration in the dugout. He slammed his bat and other items in anger. He also got in an argument with a fan before the game for not signing baseball items and was cocky about it. Anderson played a solid 1st base and scooped a throw out of the dirt, but he is not going to be anything else but a 1st baseman. He has below average speed and not much range in the field. Argenis Diaz, looks like a future utility player and will likely not hit for power or average. He is very good in the field and has very good range to get to balls that most fielders don't get to. Overall I thought that this was a good game to watch, but here were the first of Anderson's frustrations on a rough season for him.

Chris Tillman Pitching Report from May 12th

I went to this game looking forward to watching Chris Tillman, Matt Wieters, and at the time the hot hitting of Nolan Riemold. Tillman stole the show this night. He started out the game pitching in the 92-93 MPH range with a good hook, but he got stronger as the game went on. Tillman at times in this outing was sitting 93-94 and hit 95 MPH numerous times in his outing. His curve ball was a plus pitch, bordering on plus plus at times as it was falling off the table. The pitch would drop straight to the ground a few feet away from the catchers glove. Tillman didn't throw his change up a lot in this outing, he didn't need to. When he did throw it, it was an average pitch but didn't have great control of the pitch. The weather conditions were very cold for even Syracuse in mid May. Tillman got a lot of his strikeouts on high fastballs and batters chasing his curve ball out of the zone. His numbers from this outing were 6 IP 5 H 0 R 2 BB's and 10 K's.

On a separate note, Matt Wieters looked very uncomfortable at the plate this night as he went 0-5 with two GDP. Nolan Riemold however, was on going 3-5 with two doubles and a monster home run that would have been out of any park. He did show some weakness for the breaking pitch as he struck out twice on breaking pitches. There was a very sparse crowd for an AAA ball game. There was a bunch of drunken college kids mocking Wieters for most of the night. Wieters wasn't even catching this night and was the DH.

Jenrry Mejia pitching report from 6/6/2009

Jennry Mejia 1st AA Start 7 IP 5 H 0 R 3 BB 5 K's against the Defenders.

Top pitching speed: 96 MPH

1st inning: Fastball sat at 92-94 MPH
2nd inning: Fastball sat at 94 MPH
3rd inning: Fastball sat at 94 and hit 96 MPH
4th inning: Fastball sat at 92-94 MPH
5th inning: Fastball sat at 92-94
6th inning: Fastball sat at 92-94
7th inning: Fastball sat at 91-94 fastball varied from 90 to 95.

Changeup: Sat anywhere from 86-88 MPH
Curveball: Sat in the upper 70's, threw two very good ones and about 10 total.

This was his best start of this season for him. Fastball sat in the low to mid 90's with nasty movement breaking in to right handed hitters and also had his best command of his curveball. His curveball got a couple of K's in this game and had an 11-5 break on the pitch. His changeup, was not used as a strikeout pitch in this game, though he did get one swing and miss on it for a K. This pitch moved down and in on right handed hitters and they beat it into the ground.

Top 20 Northeast Prospects from 2009

Okay my criteria for the Northeast is Erie, PA east and anywhere north of the Pennsylvania boarder. Anyways, here is my top 20 prospects from the northeast in 2009. Remember the homes of these players teams has to be in the Northeast.

1) Pedro Alvarez 3b (played in AA Altoona, PA)
2) Jesus Montero C/DH (played in AA Trenton, NJ)
3) Madison Bumgarner LHP(played for AA Connecticut)
4) Domonic Brown OF(played for AA Reading, PA)
5) Jenrry Mejia RHP(played for AA Binghamton, NY)
6) Ryan Westmoreland OF(played for SS-A Lowell, MA)
7) Kyle Drabek RHP (played for AA Reading, PA)
8) Josh Reddick OF(Played for AA Portland, ME)
9) Aroyds Vizcaino RHP(played for SS-Stanton Island)
10) Michael Taylor OF(played for AA Reading, PA)
11) Fernando Martinez OF(played for AA Buffalo,NY)
12) Alexander Colome RHP(played for SS-A Hudson Valley, NY)
13) Austin Jackson OF(played for AAA Scranton/WB, PA)
14) Ike Davis 1b(played for AA Binghamton, NY)
15) Wilson Ramos C(played for AA New Britain, MA)
16) Sebastian Valle C(played for SS-A Williamsport, PA)
17) Brad Lincoln RHP(played for AA Altoona, PA)
18) Junichi Tazawa RHP(played for AA Portland, ME)
19) Kyle Lobstein LHP(played for SS-Hudson Valley, NY)
20) Jose Tabata OF(played for AA Altoona, PA)

Honorable Mentions Zach McAllister RHP, Trenton, Alex Avila C, Erie, Scott Sizemore 2b, Erie, Ruban Tejada SS, Binghamton, and Josh Thole C, Binghamton.