Author: Drew Costello
Unfortunately for Mets fans, there was no playoff baseball in 2009. While fans of teams who are still alive in the playoffs think about this year, All other fans only have the future to look forward to. The Mets have an abundance of players in the Arizona Fall League and there have been some exciting perfomances from their young stars in the making. Here are the stats to date for Met players in the Arizona Fall League.
Ike Davis 1B: 5 Hits, 9 ABs, 2 doubles, 1 Homer, 8 RBIS
Davis is making quite the impression in the AFL. He has been the best hitter on Surprise and is showing real power potential. Davis could certainly change Omar Minaya's mind on whether or not he needs to sign a first basemen of the future. It is more than likely that Minaya will look for a one year stop gap until Davis has a bit more seasoning in the minors. The question then becomes does this spell the end for Daniel Murphy? Murphy never showed the type of power that Davis has in the minors and may have already reached his ceiling. Murphy could become a valuable trade piece to improve the outfield or the starting rotation.
Ruben Tejada SS: 4 hits, 10 ABs, 1 double, 2 RBIs
Tejada has also looked impressive early on. He is considered the Mets best infield prospect right now and is showing he can swing the bat against higher competition. Tejada just turned 20 years old and still has plenty of time to grow into his potential. The obvious question is will it be with the Mets. Jose Reyes may block Tejada from the big league club, but that is a few years down the line. Tejada could always move over to second or there has been talk about trading Reyes, which could clear the way for Tejada.
Lucas Duda OF: 2 hits, 5 ABs, 2 RBIs
Duda isn't one of the better known Mets prospects. He was a seventh round pick out USC in the 2007 draft and had a solid season in Binghamton. He has a nice bat posting a .281 average this season with 9 Home Runs, but is lacking a natural position. He struggled playing 1B and was moved to the outfield where he is right now. Hopefully the Mets keep him in the minors for as long as he needs because The Mets don't need any more experiments with young players and new positions at the big league level.
Reese Havens SS: 0 Hits 3 ABs
Havens has not yet had many opportunities as he has only appeared in one game. Havens was the Mets other high draft pick in 2008 and has struggled with injuries thus far. It may not be fair to judge Havens until he has a full season without injury.
Jenrry Mejia P: 1 ip, 1 hit, 3 runs, 3 BBs
Mejia is generally known as one of the Mets two best pitching prospects. He struggled in his first start in the fall league, but was hitting 97-98 MPH with his fast ball. The problem with Mejia in his first outing was that he struggled with control. 3 BBs in an inning is Oliver Perez-esq. Mejia has all the tools to be a dominant major league pitcher and needs time to work on his craft in the minors.
Scott Moviel P: 1 win, 2 IP, 0 runs, 3 BBs
Moviel's issue so far in the AFL has been the walks. On top of the 3 walks in 2 innings pitched, Moviel also hit a batter. After last season, the Mets need to stress to their young pitchers that walks are unacceptable.
Other Mets in Action: Eric Niesen, Josh Stinson
Overall, the Mets should be very happy with the way their players have performed. Ike Davis is a rising star and Ruben Tejada has shown he can swing the bat. The pitchers have all for the most part shown that they can at the very least hold their own. Stay tuned for another update in about a week regarding the progress of these future Mets.
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What "does this spell the end for Daniel Murphy? Murphy never showed the type of power that Davis has in the minors" but he improved every month after he settled in at 1st.
And in the last month he was good enough that if he did that all season long with both his BA, and the long ball that he would have a good average and over 25 homers for a season.
And who's to say that since he got bettter each month that he can not even improve on that even more so next year.
So there is no way that you could now say "and may have already reached his ceiling". He may first be starting out to become a top line ML hitter.
And with Ike coming along then there may be two or even more of them coming along. Can Ike play another possition? Hmm wouln't it be nice if we had even more home grown kids getting good enough.
Posted by: fredsaid | October 16, 2009 at 11:32 AM