Catching Up With Some Top Collegiate Prospects

Alex Gordon who is regarded as one of, if not the best hitter in college baseball has yet to turn it on so far through seven games. He is hitting .308/.471/.615 with two homers and one triple and five RBIs. Nebraska was 7-0 coming into yesterday's game with Rice.

Mike Pelfrey has been dominating in his four starts this season. He is 2-1, with a 2.15 ERA, .217 BAA, and 24 K's in 24 innings.

Luke Hochevar threw a four hit shutout on February 26th against UNC Wilmington and Tennessee won the game 1-0. He has his future agent Scott Boras drooling as he has posted a 0.32 ERA in 28 innings with a .137 BAA and 34 K's while giving up only 13 hits and four walks for a whip of 0.61 WHIP.

Tyler Greene is hot through his first ten games. He is batting .375/.464/.688 with 17 runs scored, 5 doubles, two triples, two homers, 12 RBIs, 7 BBs in 48 at-bats. He is also 7 for 7 in stolen bases.

Jeff Clement finally got off the homer drought and has two homeruns. He's still struggling overall and is hitting .235/.447/.500. His OBP looks nice being more than .200 points higher than his batting average and he leads the Trojans in base on balls, homers, and RBIs.

Ryan Zimmerman has been an RBI machine, but is still having a power outage. He is hitting .370/.446/.463 with 20 RBIs, 11 runs, 5 doubles, and 5 SB in 14 games.

Stephen Head has caught fire of late and is up to .300/.386/.620 with 4 homers, 18 RBIs, and 13 runs in 12 games. He leads the Cardinals in RBIs and homers. On the mound he owns a 2-0 record with a 2.37 ERA.

John Mayberry Jr. is hitting .351/.446/.563 with 4 homers and 18 RBIs while Jed Lowrie is coming back down to plant Earth. He's down to .338/.429/.706 and has not hit a homer in a bit and is still at 7 while his RBI total is up to 24.

Mark McCormick is still extremely erratic. He's BAA is .200 and he is striking out more than person and inning, but his BB/9 is 6.85. As a result, his ERA is 5.14.

Brian Bogusevic has not been able to play the field much due to an injury, but concentrating on pitching alone seems to have a pretty large effect on him. His ERA is 0.90 in 30 innings with a sub 1.00 WHIP, a 4.43 K/BB ratio, 9.3 K/9, and a .187 BAA. Is he forcing himself into being a top lefty pitching prospect in this upcoming draft?

Daniel Carte is hitting .344/.432/.572 with 5 doubles, 3 triples, 3 homers, 15 RBIs, 14 runs, and 5 stolen bases.

Ryan Mullins has gotten knocked around in this first three starts and has posted a 3.93 ERA with a .282 BAA.

Ricky Romero has gotten off to a solid start with a 4-0 record, 1.93 ERA, .155 BAA, 12.54 K/9, 0.89 WHIP, 4.82 H/9, and 3.9 K/BB. Some solid, solid numbers for one of the top lefties in the country.

Craig Hansen has continued his nastiness, but gave up his first earned run since his 2004 College Season. He made it through the entire Cape Cod League without giving up an earned run, but had to give one up eventually. He's 0-1 with 3 saves, a 0.96 ERA, 10.06 K/9, and has a .129 BAA.

* * *

Life was good on Sunday afternoon. I was in the car and tuned into Gary Cohen and Howie Rose calling the game on WFAN. Then Matsui singled up the middle, Beltran doubled and moved Matsui to third, Piazza hit a fly to right center to score Matsui and move Beltran to third, Wright walked, and Mientkiewcz doubled in Wright and Beltran with a shot off the wall. A nice tast of things to come for the Mets.

Jose Reyes is just on fire so far.

Jose Reyes finished with two hits, two RBIs and two runs; he also notched his Grapefruit League-leading fourth stolen base. He's hitting .462 (6-for-13) in four games this spring. Williams, who was also hit by a pitch, had three hits and a pair of RBIs.

Phil Humber also got into the game and pitched two scoreless innings.

So when Humber got into the game Sunday, it was as much to congratulate him on a job well done as anything. Though Humber allowed a hit to the first batter he faced, he induced a double play on the next batter, issued a walk and then got out of the inning on a grounder. Humber retired the side in order in his second inning, collecting his first strikeout.

"That was unbelievable," Humber said about his debut, before learning it would also be his swan song. "That's something I'll never forget right there. My first time on a Major League mound, I couldn't feel anything. That's why all my pitches were up [in the first inning]. I was trying to get them down, but I couldn't feel anything.

"I was actually kind of mad at myself because everything was thigh high and eventually they were going to get wood on it. I was a little better in the second inning."

I'm not sure how things could of gotten much better. Well, actually I can think of two ways life could have gotten better.

(1)

"Mike, guys who like the Mets are sexy. I need you now"

(2)

To Mike,
You've just won a lifetime pass for free White Castle.

From,
Mr. White Castle III

The young guys got into the split-squad loss to the Braves. Concepcion went 1 for 2, Diaz went 2 for 5, Mike Jacobs went 1 for 1, and Jesus Flores went 1 for 2. Phillips is continuing to make a strong case for the reserve role behind Piazza by smacking a homer and going 2 for 3.

Should Clemens go into the Hall of Fame with a Yankee cap like he wants? Or should he go into the HoF with a Red Sox hate like he should? Does baseball owe it to one of the greatest pitchers of all time to honor his request? I say no.

Norm has quietly returned to the blogging universe. The Shea Hot Corner is heating up for the regular season after a long, long, long, long hiatus.

Phil Mushnick has an interesting prospective on the entire "Los Mets" situation.

But imagine if a white free-agent baseball star claimed that a white GM tried to sign him on racial grounds, that the GM told him "We white guys should stick together" or suggested that his team will be a haven for white stars.

That would be Page 1 — top-of-the-telecast stuff. Bud Selig would express his official dismay while announcing "a complete and thorough investigation." Too late. That GM would already be through, kaput.

Ugh. This can only spell large problems from the new Mets Network in 2006 in Cablevision country. Unfortunately, I'm in Cablevision country. Can't Dolan just sell out to Comcast already?

Some players got reassigned to minor league camp while Todd Van Poppel's attempt at pitching in the majors is over and out.

In addition to Humber, four other pitchers won't be on the major league side of Met camp anymore. Yusmeiro Petit, Grant Roberts and Jose Rosado were sent down, while Todd Van Poppel retired. The 33-year-old reliever was an extreme longshot to make the team.

Anyone want to by a Todd VanPopple Donruss Rated Rookie Card

I completely missed this over the weekend, but GM pointed it out in the comments section:

Reyes had five walks in 220 at-bats and an on-base percentage of .271, but hitting coach Rick Down sees progress in his discipline. "In his first game he got to 3-and-1 and swung at ball four," Down said. "But the thing to me is that he got to 3-and-1. He'll learn. He's got more plate discipline than Alfonso Soriano, and he's a pretty darned good hitter."

Rob Neyer examines Matsui and what can be expected out of him in a new article.

A year ago, Matsui was the shortstop and super-prospect Jose Reyes (who wasn't so super after all) was supposed to shift from shortstop to second base. But Reyes got hurt (hamstring) and couldn't hit, so now he's going to back to shortstop. Not to editorialize or anything, but I've got a hard time taking the Mets seriously considering their middle infield is composed of two players who: 1) are trading positions, and 2) were crashing disappointments in 2004.

Then again, they -- and the Mets -- have nowhere to go but up.

Tell us what you REALLY think. First off, I completely understand everyone's apprehension about Reyes' inability to actually stay on the field. However, unless you've watched him daily, you cannot judge him. You look at his #'s in 2004, and they look horrible. You look at his #'s in 2003 and 2004 together, and you may say his 2003 season was a fluky. The kid can play baseball. He may not stick at leadoff unless he starts getting on base more, but he is a top tier talent.

As for Matsui playing second base, he looked horrible at shortstop, but a lot of the issue was arm strength. As for his bat, Hideki Matsui was less than spectacular coming into the league his first year and he was on a tremendous offensive team that provided him snug protection. That was a luxury that Kazuo did not have. Now he has Beltran behind him. You think he'll put up some solid offensive numbers this year? I think that's a smart bet and I think it is also a smart bet Kazuo will get the job done at second base in the field.