With Jenrry Mejia out for the season, and Brad Holt struggling, who is the top pitching prospect for the Mets?
21 year old right handed pitcher, Jeurys Familia is the best pitching prospect for the Mets.
He has a mid 90 fastball, that can touch as high as 98mph and a filthy slider/curveball that is more like a slurve, running away from right-handed batters. His changeup wasn't so great in 09, but Jeurys as really improved his change, to now have 3 solid pitches starting with his amazing fastball.
Marc Valdes, the pitching coach for the Binghamton Mets stated, “No question, he’s got an electric fastball"
This season, he has already made the jump from Single A to Double A, now pitching with the Binghamton Mets. He has yet to get a win (0-2) but his earned run average is only 3.35 in 8 games started for Binghamton.
He averages 10.1 strikeouts per 9 innings, and recently, in his last 2 games started, he has fanned 21 batters. (Both against Trenton).
Familia has great command with his pitches as well.
Manager Wally Backman had stated this about Familia, "He's about as good as I've seen since Doc Gooden"
Marc Valdes also said this, “What’s standing out here, he’s almost got the total package going for him."
Doc Gooden had the total package as well.
While Dwight "Doc" Gooden pitched way better then Familia in the minors especially in 1983 in single A (year before his major league debut) going 19-4 with a 2.50 earned run average, we havn't seen a whole season of Familia yet.
Gooden was a strikeout king in the minors, striking out 14.1 batters through 9 innings, again in Single A (Carolina League). While Familia was in single A this year, he went 6 games started with an earned run average of only 1.49. Now as i said above, he is in double A now, something Gooden never had a chance to play in his early days, coming up in the majors at the age of 19.
Dwight also pitched in the mid 90's and was able to throw a max of 98mph, like Familia. Gooden also had a nasty curveball, something many scouts say is very good out of Familia's hand as well.
Jeurys Familia has the chance to be something special, as he improves every day, and nods heads with his performance.
Watch Familia's nasty Curve/Slurve:
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