Steven Matz’s record setting debut had Met fans abuzz last weekend. Pre-game press stories hyping the event called Matz’s Citi Field ascendency ‘the final call up of the crop of Met ‘uber-pitching prospects,’ the last piece of Sandy Alderson’s Met pitching puzzle.
Certainly, the highly touted cadre of young Met pitching prospects made being a Binghamton Met baseball fan tantalizing over the last four years. Beginning with Matt Harvey, B-Mets fans were spoiled watching one young fireballing prospect after another take the ball to the NYSEG Stadium pitching mound. Harvey, Wheeler, Montero, deGrom, Syndergaard, and Matz presented a tasty menu of raw pitching talent to sate the taste buds of every B-Met fan.
But, does the summoning of Matz to Citi Field, mean the end of the ‘uber pitching prospects’ in the Met farm system? Maybe not.
There is no accompanying hype, but a young right-handed starting pitcher in Binghamton’s rotation is building an impressive resume in 2015. Enter Michael Fulmer into the future Met pitching mix.
Fulmer, an Oklahoma City kid, has started 11 times for the B-Mets this season throwing 63 innings with a sparkling 2.29 ERA after tossing another sparkler on Saturday.
In Binghamton’s 5-2 win over Portland, Fulmer struck out eight over six innings and allowed just one earned run. That’s now five consecutive starts allowing just one run or less over his last five starts.
Fulmer struck out a season high 9 batters in his previous start, and 17 over his last 13 innings of work while yielding an earned run in that span.
I’ve watched Fuller start three games in Binghamton so far and have come away impressed. The kid can throw some big time heat. In his last outing at NYSEG Stadium, a day game, a combination of my aging eyes and a hot upstate New York haze made reading the scoreboard radar numbers tricky. I couldn’t tell if Fulmer’s fastest pitch was reading 96 or 98 mph.
I asked for help from my buddy, but he, too, had the same problem finally concluding that either way it didn’t matter much because the kid could bring it. Good point. Fulmer’s fastball reached those lofty readings at least a half dozen times that day.
A put-away slider adds to Fulmer’s effectiveness on the mound. Fulmer’s slider is a tough pitch to hit. He also blends in a decent curve ball. If he can polish his change-up, the supplemental first round pick in the 2011 draft has to join the conversation as one of the young Met pitching prospects adding future depth and protection for the Met starting rotation.
Only two years ago, many of the experts had Filmed ranked ahead of Jacob deGrom if you can believe that.
I worried that Fulmer tried to force the action of the game rather than to allow the game to come to him, the first few times I saw him pitch. That seemed to be the case if the defense faltered behind him or, in one instance, if his own defensive miscue resulted in some unearned runs. However, Fulmer appears to have added some pitching moxie, some calm and poise in his last two starts.
The way I see it, part of the long range Met vision is building sustained success on the baseball diamond by layering promising young pitching talent and always having young arms in reserve should injury or free agency delete the starting rotation assembled at Citi Field. If that’s the case, Michael Fulmer would certainly be part of the long range plan.
