8
2012
Harvey and Familia Told They’re Going To The Minors
An article by Craig Lerner
Joel Sherman of the Post wrote that there is a “universal belief within the hierarchy” that Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia are going to end up as late-game relievers.
Additionally, the Mets have told both Familia and Matt Harvey that they are going to the minors to begin the season.
Both of them seemed to suffer from a case of the jitters during their first starts of the spring. I think both of them were feeling the pressure to perform like major leaguers. I expect we’ll see a better performance from both of them the next time they take the mound.
Check out an interview Harvey did with MiLB.com yesterday…
Original Post 3/7
MiLB.com spoke to Mets top prospect Matt Harvey about his pitch repertoire, learning baseball from his father and his journey through the organization.
MiLB.com: You pitched at two levels in your rookie year last season. What positives were you able to take from that?
Matt Harvey: Obviously, this being my first move up in pro baseball, it was a good experience of mentally preparing and staying with my approach no matter where I was. I think I got away from it a little bit right after the move [to Double-A] and I struggled a bit. I finally got to realize that baseball is baseball and that pitching is pitching. No matter which level I’m at or whether I get promoted, I still have to stick with what I can do and stick to my approach.
MiLB.com: You finished the season strong with five wins in your last six starts. How encouraged were you by how well you pitched late in the year?
Harvey: It’s always good to finish strong. I didn’t want to go up to Double-A and have my struggles at the beginning and then continue that through the season, so finishing well was definitely a huge positive for me.
MiLB.com: How would you rate each of your pitches headed into the year?
Harvey: My off-speed is right where I want it. I’ve been throwing some really good changeups, and my curveball is actually far beyond where I expected it to be. And obviously my sinker is working really well for me. It’s just a matter of getting that location a little bit more fine than I’m at right now.
I’ve still got a couple weeks, so I’m looking forward to it. I think I’m going to transfer my slider more into a cutter. Last year, when I threw my curveball and slider, they kind of mixed in with each other, so this season I started messing around with the grips and trying to tighten up the slider a little bit and maybe get a little more velocity and not as much rotation.
MiLB.com: How does the grip you use for the new cutter differ from the slider you used last year?
Harvey: I hold the cutter a little bit more like a fastball and offset my hands a little bit. Basically it’s like a four-seam fastball that I just hold on the side a tiny, tiny bit. Then I just throw it like a fastball and let the grip take over to cause some cut. The slider obviously is more of an off-speed pitch, so I held that different. I’m waiting for a couple more bullpen sessions or live BP to mix it in and hopefully it’ll just be a minor change.
Read the entire interview at MiLB.com.
About the Author: Craig Lerner
I'm a data analyst and researcher for a leading news agency who loves life and is hooked on the Mets. I love following the Amateur Draft and have a particular fondness for the Mets Minor Leagues who I follow each day. Give me a cold beer, a summer day, and a Mets game, and I'm good to go.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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nice to read about making improvements like this. effectively adding another unique usable pitch would be a nice plus.
and also why a guy should stay in the minors, even if the resutls on paper look good, if they are still working on what they need to have to excel at the next level.
so even if he can dominate with say FB and change, if the breaking pitches need work, leave him down working on that.
But once he has it where it needs to be, if the complete package (including control is there), then bring him up.
and at this pace, may not take long.
I agree. No reason to push for opening day.
I hope though that they at least give Mejia and Familia the opportunity to prove they can or cannot be successful as starters before they turn them into relievers.
absolutley Familia should be kept on the starter path. Way too much talent not to be. Work on refining the mechanics as needed and nailing down his secondary pitches, and let him start.
If down the road he (for whatever reason) isn’t doing well as a starter, then consider making the move.
I’m of 2 minds about it.
On one hand, you should see if they can indeed succeed as starters. You don’t want to throw away any option, especially in the Mets’ position. Also, sometimes, guys have to figure out for themselves what they aren’t. You can’t just tell them.
On the other hand, if the coaches and evaluators and scouts all truly believe that their bodies couldn’t handle going 6,7,8 innings at a time, then you are risking their futures by pushing them to. Also, if they fail as starters, what might that do to their mentality when they get sent to the bullpen?
Well, he hasn’t had any stamina issues yet it seems. And if a player is so mentally weak that any change or failure is going to ruin them, they have no chance of being successful in the majors!
Bottom line, an effective SP (even a back of the rotation guy) is worth way more than a relief pitcher. So I just believe in keeping a guy starting until he proves that it just isn’t going to work.
also, as to mentality, what will it do to him if the team says we don’t think you are good enough so we aren’t even going to give you a chance to prove you can be a SP? Wouldn’t that send the message that “I suck” in some way?
I remember a Billy Wagner quote saying something along the lines of all relievers are just ‘failed starters’. Said he himself was a closer b/c he didn’t have what it took to be a successful starter.
And dang….who is it down on the farm that recently said he’d rather be a reliever, but the Mets want to take one last look at him as a starter? Can’t remember his name right now. That’s more the unusual, I’d say – mainly b/c there’s usually more money in it for them as starters than relievers.
Carson maybe? But I recall seeing the same thing. And it was a guy that had gone back and forth already, and was not particularly successful as a SP (I believe he would wear out after a couple innings, and was more of a gas thrower anyway?)
But, best as I can recall, maintaining his stuff throughout a game is not an issue with Familia. If he was one of those guys that could only maintain his bif FB for say 2 innings, then it could be a different story.
so to me, it sounds more like projecting based on assumptions like “he won’t develop his breaking pitches enough”. And those are things that you have to wait and see on.
That’s exactly how I feel about it Donal.
I’m getting tired of all this talk about Familia especially being put in the pen. The guys got the frame and poise to pitch 7-8 innings for you he just needs a couple more pitches which would only make him more effective in the pen if that’s where he winds up anyway.
If Familia were to just be a FB/slider guy that would be a poor job of development by the Mets here 6 years after he’s been in the organization.
One of the biggest reasons teams win divisions is the number of starting pitchers that throw 200 innings. There is no reason other than a lack of development for Familia not being one of them for us.
Agree with you and Stick on this concerning Familia.
Regarding Mejia….was it Warthen who first expressed doubts about him sticking as a starter?
I also remember Strawberry being impressed with his stuff, comparing him to Mariano Rivera. Not sure if he meant ‘lights out closer’ but just that same nasty pitch.
With all this talk of throwing Familia and Mejia into the pen and combined with all the FA focus on the pen this year and last it would appear that this FO thinks just a bit too much about the Bullpen and not enough about everything else!
Familia should remain a starter, if he needs more Pitches TEACH THEM thats what all those coaches down in the Minors get paid to do…DEVELOP TALENT!
They don’t get paid to just watch them and say Oh well thats all he is!
MAKE HIM SOMETHING MORE!!!!!!
Same thing with Mejia!
Wait till they get to the MLB, FAIL as starters before you try and salvage them as relievers!
And this crap about lasting 6-8 innings well I got news for you, no one in our rotation save RA Dickey does!
Enforce better conditioning!
Get them on a treadmill and make them build their stamina!
If you have to teach them to use more leg drive so they do not get the arm fatigue trying to throw 95+ with just their arm!
I really wish this management would stop SURRENDERING to the situations they are confronted with and start DEALING with them by developing the players to remove the issues they are so easily given to accepting with a hearty OH WELL!
Metsie to you agree with them telling the kids they’re going to the minors so soon?
I don’t. Let the kids compete for God’s sake. Didn’t they do this premature crap last year?
I agree that most likely those 2 will go to the minors when the rest of the team comes north NEXT MONTH but can they let the kids compete for awhile before making these decisions so soon?
No they should get at least one more start against the MLBers because that first start was about nerve deadening not actually working your way through an MLB lineup!
I know full well WHY they are and don’t really agree with it…
It’s not about their development it’s about their value as a trade chip!
They are going to send them back down to face lesser talent because if they show some adversity or hardship against MLB talent they will be worth less in trade and lose their PROSPECT status!
Sending them down to me is all about getting them away from all the scouts who are at ST looking to make book on the pitchers our competition might face when they play us!
They should all get another start now that the MLB nerves have been dealt with.
And after that start if they need the starts for the regular players they can send them down to play with the other MiLers.
At least then they will have some MLB experience to guide what they are going to work on ndown there!
Totally agree Metsie,
Develop those guys into starters and then as a last resort put them in the pen.
Just to point out though it wasn’t so much this new FO that went bullpen crazy. Yeah they picked up a few FA’s and made a trade and a rule 5 selection but that was more because of a lack of arms in the pen they inherited.
It was the prior FO that spent 2 first round draft choices on FA closers and spent a supplemental pick, two second round picks and 3 third rounders on college relief pitchers, traded away 7 guys for an injured relief pitcher and took Mejia out of the rotation and put him into the pen while instructing him to throw just one pitch, his cutter.
Despite the heavy investment in college relief pitchers we still had to go out and find adequate arms for the pen because they all busted, except for the guy we traded away. The combination of all those 1st, supplemental and 2nd round picks given away, not taken back or wasted on college relievers has an awful lot to do with the fact that we have 4 first basemen in our starting 8.
I also agree there is no point in developing closers in the minors until they have at least been given the shot to start. I am also for giving Beato a chance to start.
As for focus on the BP this off-season, I am willing to bet that one of those 2 signed is traded by the deadline baring injury. I think he signed both knowing that it would allow him to trade the other.
yes your talking draft and I’m talking about how much we have spent in the last two years on Bullpen FAs.
You realize this is the second year in a row we have totally rebuilt our Bullpen and if you ask me, making your previous draft picks into Pen arms is just as bad if not worse than drafting a guy to be a pen arm!
If your drafting or developing for the SITUATION your not going to succeed…
UNLESS you know that situation is going to be key in every game!
You should draft and develop for the everyday not the happenstance!
Cause the happenstance might never happen and if you have all these situational guys your sorley lacking the regulars you need everyday!
Well drafting college relievers pretty much precludes the ability to develop a starting pitcher since they haven’t been able to work on development while pitching so often in college.
Far better idea to draft starting pitchers who could slide down into the pen if they fail to command a 3rd or 4th pitch depending on how good/great their primary offering is.
When a college reliever busts it’s like a 2nd basemen, there’s no place left to go.
I’m really tired of this over reliance on the slider too since they never develop into swing and miss stuff and increase the chances of injury. What ever happened to the CB, cutter and split finger? Why is the change so difficult for our prospects to master?
the splitter can also lead to injury problems. I agree with that guy who said that the change is the most difficult pitch to hit. It is also the least strenuous to throw. Don’t agree with telling a hopeful that his future is in the pen. How can they know tht at this point? Why cut the legs out from under a hopeful? I do not mind them telling them that they are going down. a lot of times guys have good springs get their hopes up—and being sent down is a setback. It should not be a setback at this point. Guys get sent down, get depressed, and somethimes they go in the dumper for a while. That retards their progress. Let them know that they are going down this spring, and why. Let them relax and work on developing themselves. They still have to iron out some things.
Also, I know it is just the first spring game—–but Pelfrey stinks!!! Even the umps give him no respect. Zambrano the Idiot was getting strikes three inches off the plate while Pelf was getting squeezed. watching him is not just boring—-it is painful.