Arm-Rod needs to be ready to be a full-time MLB pitcher by Opening Day 2014 because he will be out of options by then. If the FO doesn't think he'll be ready by that point as a starter or the FO doesn't think there will be room for him in the Opening Day rotation, it makes sense to move him to the bullpen now and begin his conversion.

Oh okay true, that does make sense to me now

Ahhh Gotcha never thought of it that way...

IIRC, wasnt his velo down this year? maybe even last?

He just doesn't throw that hard.

His velocity has been down since Omar called him the next Mejia.

Omar swears he threw 95-97 with plus sink prior to that...

Show me another 19-year old that drove in 81 runs in another system that is repeating the same level. And btw, I couldn't disagree with you more regarding the evaluation of a player in relation to RBI. Before all of these advanced stats came out over the last 6 or 7 years, we all used to judge players on average, xbh, OBP, and RBI's. Wilmer hit .270 (same average as Wright did at St. Lucie) as a 19-year old and in a pitcher's league to boot. I'm sorry that his WAR or whatever other advanced stat may not be up to par, but his 790+ ab's at St. Lucie and combined .285+ average (over two years at that level) say he is ready for a promotion. He can learn 3b at Bingo, and has shown much more than Jefry Marte has to this point.

The theory is to let him learn one thing at a time. For now, let him learn to play 3B while not learning to hit at a new level.

Personally I think the thought process was this....

1. They think Marte can stick at 3b
2. They wanted Flores to play 3b as well
3. Marte hit well in the AFL
4. They care more about Flores as a prospect than Marte so they bumped Marte so they could both stay at 3b. Neither player likely has enough bat to stick at 1b and neither player is good enough in the field that 50% games played at the position (if they were on the same team) made much sense.

Hefner & Olson are both much closer to being spot starters this year. Once you get past the major league starting 5 (Santana, Dickey, Niese, Pelf & Gee) - it's slim pickings.

Batista's an option and I read that the mets might try Parnell at spot starter too. After those 2 it's just Schwinden, Olson & Hefner in the 8/9/10 spots and teams often go 10 pitchers deep most years, so it makes sense to keep the most likely MLB calls in AAA.


McHugh on the other hand, despite his pretty numbers last year, slipped through on Rule 5 day so the mets are in no rush to promote him.

I know that you're talking prospects, not Runs scored/Homers type of exciting, but in terms of adding some pop to the lineup, I wouldn't sleep on Allan Dykstra.

He was good last year in AA with an .864 OPS (only Josh Satin and Juan Lagares had better and Lagares was just 170 ABs), and I wouldn't be shocked to see Dykstra bat cleanup and hit 20-25 homers, and maybe OPS 900 this year.

and Pedro Zapata stole 36 bases last year. That certainly doesn't make him a prospect, or even a starter in AA, but he might be a fun guy to watch if you go to the games.


It's not as exciting a team as Buffalo but it might not be a bad team.

If it's about that (and only about that), then I can sort of understand. However, if Wilmer had/has the arm to play short as well as a decent amount of range, then I can only assume that he's probably going to be a pretty decent 3rd-baseman. I still don't understand why he can't learn on the fly at AA. Jordany Valdespin is getting a crash course in CF this spring and is expected to play some at AAA. It is all being done on the fly with him, so why not Wilmer? At some point, I think you hurt a kid's psyche by sending him to the same level three years in a row, when he's clearly shown that he's somewhat mastered that level.

You're just not going to win that argument when he hit .269/.309/.380 there, now as a corner infielder.