213 Miles From Shea

Some quick hits to go with your Monday morning Cupcake Pebbles Cereal*:

*I was at the local grocery store yesterday and stopped in my tracks when I saw this cereal. Seriously, cupcakes for breakfast? Ridiculous! I'll probably have it some day though.

Two of the most talked about minor leaguers will be called up today for clubs that are anxiously awaiting them. The first one is a pitcher you have probably heard about more than any other pitcher ever in the minors. His starts make national coverage and his jersey was being sold last year for his club. This pitcher is of course Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg has been incredible in the minors with a groundout to flyout ratio that was better than anyone in the majors. Curt Schilling has said once he get's called up he will be the best pitcher in the majors. From what it looks like, ESPN might be having all day coverage of his call-up, which is a little ridiculous but whatever. It's a big day for Washington.

This has overshadowed a call-up that was just announced today. The Marlins will be calling up their 20 year old slugger, Mike Stanton, to the majors as he has destroyed minor league pitching. In AA this year, he has had a .311 BA and has smashed a minor league leading 21 homers (which is also more than anyone in the majors). The right fielder was drafted in 2007. Last year he knocked in 39 homers, so he was on pace to really pass that mark. The Marlins have a dangerous lineup, but if Stanton comes in and hits, and Coghlan starts hitting, this will be a really dangerous lineup.

That being said, every team but the Phillies this year has had a really big name in their system come up. The Braves had Heyward followed by the Mets with Davis and now the Nationals and the Marlins get their players up. The East really is the Beast.

During this recent blitz of profiles, (with of course the exception of Bryce Harper) there haven't been any profiles of high school players. For those of you who are new to baseball drafts, high school draftees do not generally make an immediate impact (unless they are amazing players, like Jason Heyward). A lot of players look more appealing in high school because their ceilings are higher. The players out of college are equivalent of some time in the minors, some skill development and the ceiling generally comes down.

Anyway there's a pitcher named Karsten Whitson, whom Baseball America thinks will be drafted by the Mets. I've done a good amount of searching, and I haven't been able to find high school statistics for him, but I'm sure they will pop up after the draft. Anyway the right hander throws his fastball between 91 mph and 96 mph with average movement. Reports also indicate that he could learn to throw harder. He also throws a slider and a changeup. As of right now, the slider needs work. Scouts believe it can and will probably be his out pitch once he gets older and learns how to throw it better. His changeup is already an average pitch.

What makes him very likeable is his control. If he can keep his control in the minors, (and his pitches will get stronger as he does) then his ceiling will be pretty high. Also, he pans to be more signable than other high school draftees. He's an interesting prospect. Not my first pick, but depending on how the draft goes, I would probably still take him.

The Amazin's go for the sweep today as they take on the Marlins for the final game of this series. In the first game of the series, the Marlins took the lead earlier, and then the Mets roared back. Yesterday was just domination by the Mets from the start to the end of the game. Today's game will feature Nolasco for the fish and Takahashi for the Mets.

Takahashi (4-2, 3.21 ERA) really struggled in his last outing (6 ER over 4 IP). However before that he was a force to be reckoned with as a Mets starter so hopefully he will get back to being awesome today. The Marlins have seen him 3 times this year as Takahashi has pitched 4.1 innings against them. During that time he has allowed 3 ER, 6 BB and 4 K. However the majority of that damage came in one outing where he didn't have his stuff. The Marlins have these numbers on him:

The Mets bats will get to face Nolasco (5-4, 4.57 ERA) again today. In his two first games against the Mets this year he is 1-0 pitching 12.2 innings allowing 6 runs 5 earned. In his last three outings he has pitched 16.1 innings with a 7.71 ERA. The Mets have been able to put these numbers on him throughout his career:

Lets Go Mets!

Some quick hits to go with your Sunday morning  Orange Gatorade:

The Mets and Marlins play game two today on Fox. Last night the Marlins
took a quick 3-0 lead on the Mets but the Amazin's roared back with two
quick runs, and then scored another two runs to put the Mets in the
lead for good. Today is a big day for the Mets as they get part of
their rotation back with Niese as he replaces Perez who was placed on
DL (or purgatory, whatever you prefer).

Niese will be making his first start since May 16th. On the season he
is 1-2 over 41.1 innings and has an ERA of 4.79 and in his last three
starts he has pitched 12.1 innings and had an ERA of 8.76. He has
pitched twice against the Marlins this year and has allowed 8 runs, 5
earned over 8 innings of work. The Fish have these numbers off of Niese:

The Marlins starter will be Nate Robertson (4-4, 4.30 ERA) and in his
last three starts he has pitched 17 innings and has an ERA of 4.15.
That number is the result of of one great start where he allowed no
earned runs over 6 innings and did terrible in two other starts. He has
had success against the Mets in his two starts against them with a 2-0
record over 10.2 innings with a 2.53 ERA. The Mets have these numbers
against Nate:

Lets Go Mets!

So far we have looked at a couple of right handed pitchers, so lets take a look at a hitter for a change. While the best hitter was reviewed in the second part of this series, Bryce Harper, there are some other names that are catching some attention, including Zach Cox.

Cox is primarily a third basemen but he played a bit a second (actually this is something that we'll discuss later). Anyway Cox plays for Arkansas. He was actually drafted in 2008 by the Dodgers in the 20th round (607th overall). In high school he hit .449 while hitting 33 homers. First let's take a look at his college stats:

Deck McGuire is one of the pitchers that expected to go early in the Draft as well. If his name sounds familiar to you, that's because he is featured on Mets.com as a player the Mets are probably interested in. The 6-6 right handed pitcher is currently at Georgia Tech. He had a very impressive campaign at Deep Run High School where he went 10-1 in his senior season with a 1.35 ERA while recording 129 strikeouts. Here's a look at McGuire's stats, once again thanks to Amazin Avenue who also a profile on McGuire that can be found here:

By looking at his stats, a few impressive numbers pop up. The first is his innings pitched. He has had a good amount, and fairly consistent amount of innings over the last few years. His K/BB ratios also look pretty good, especially last seasons, which is about 4 K's per BB.

The scouting reports point to his command as a reason to be picked. His ceiling isn't as high as the other draftees that will be drafted early (meaning he probably won't be a star) but these same reports say that he is a safe pick, that he will be in the majors soon and he projects to be a third starter in the rotation. This is mainly due to his fastball. It maxes at about 93 mph however it doesn't have a lot of movement on it. He also has a slider (described as a power slider) and a changeup.

What is nice about McGuire is that he is close to coming to the majors and that he seems to be fairly consistent. The problem with that is though when you thave the 7th pick, there's a part of any organization that might want to take a risk on a guy who isn't as developed by has a much higher ceiling. That being said, if this guy is going to become a third starter, well thats cool with me.

Some quick hits to go with your Saturday Morning Peanut Butter Crunch: