Dillon Gee: Phenom Or Just More Mets Hype?

Some of you may have caught Monday night’s telecast of the Buffalo Bisons game on SNY.

I wish they would broadcast minor league games more often, even if meant not broadcasting it live because of similar start times with the Mets.

I’d rather watch a pre-recorded Bisons, B-Mets or Cyclones game over Beer Money and Daily News Live re-runs anytime.

For those lucky enough to tune in and watch the Bisons destroy the Pawtucket Red Sox 12-4, it was also the first time many of us got to see the much heralded pitching prospect Dillon Gee take the mound. He was about as exciting and electric as a Manny Acosta fastball. In fact, the 24-year old righthander barely topped the 90 mph threshold twice and didn’t really look up to speed as a Major Leaguer based on what I could see. Pun intended.

Gee gave up three home runs in the game and so far this season he has allowed an astounding 22 homers in 152 innings pitched. Yikes!

Even though this is his second year pitching at Triple-A, his ERA is now nearing 5.00 and stands at 4.87 for the season.

The one area that Gee has improved in this season is in his 8.9 strikeout rate which is more than a strikeout better than the 7.8 rate he posted in 2009.

If I had to take a guess, I would say that his improved control and his propensity to throw more strikes might be the reason for his inflated homerun rate. Because his fastball isn’t as explosive or electric as let’s say Jenrry Mejia, when they do make contact a good hitter can easily park it over the wall… and they have.

Ironically, on August 19th, Dillon Gee broke the Buffalo Bisons modern era single-season mark for strikeouts when he notched his 138th strikeout of the season.

However, despite the high strikeout totals, I don’t really see anything to indicate that Gee is close to being major league ready.

Some of those 2011 rotation projections penciling Gee in as a number 4 or 5 starter, may want to go back to the drawing board and rethink their conclusions.

I read this morning on MetsBlog, that Citi Field is buzzing with news that Dillon Gee will be among the September call-ups. Can somebody please tell me why?

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