The newest Met, pending trade approvals, is the young flamethrower Zach Wheeler. Wheeler was drafted in 2009 out of high school as the sixth overall pick by the San Francisco Giants, and even in high school, he was throwing his fastball in the mid-90's. It is no secret when building a farm system, you can never have too many young talented pitchers, which is exactly what Wheeler is (The Baseball Cube ranks him as an A+ prospect).
As of now, the 21 year old Wheeler is mainly a two pitch pitcher with an above average fastball (now hitting 96) and a strong curve. He needs work on his changeup and his control. It was both of those two things that kept him as the 49th overall prospect in 2010 and 55th overall in 2011 by Baseball America. If you were to draw a projection for Wheeler right now, he is looking to be at least a back of the rotation pitcher with the ability to become a number 2 pitcher later on in his career. Here are his numbers the last two seasons:
2010: A Level, 58.2 IP, 3.99 ERA, 5.8 BB/9, 10.7 K/9
2011: A+ level, 88.0 IP, 3.99 ERA, 4.8 BB/9, 10.0 K/9
So far this year, he has already surpassed, by a long shot, the amount of innings he pitched last season and he has been able to drop his BB/9 down by a full walk (although his K/9 has dropped by almost a full K). This is a really good sign that he is starting to develop better control.
I'm excited for Wheeler. Between Wheeler, Niese, Mejia, Harvey, Gee and Familia, the Mets now have a strong core of prospects and young pitchers (Niese is no longer a prospect) that I am very excited to see at the next level.
