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.