jennry mejia

What It Will Take To Acquire Justin Upton – And Why the Mets Should Do It

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If there’s one player in baseball capable of solving the myriad problems facing the Mets in 2012, it’s Justin Upton. He plays the outfield. He’s right-handed. He’s not Jason Bay. He’s signed to a fairly team friendly deal through 2015. He’s a childhood friend of David Wright. He’s not Jason Bay. And, when he’s on top of his game, he’s an MVP-caliber player.

Of course, most of these attributes also intrigue most other teams. So if the Mets have any intention of acquiring Upton this off-season, they better be willing to give up a boatload of talent.

So after playing armchair GM during several lecture classes, here’s what I think would constitute a reasonably fair deal for both sides:

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Is Jenrry Mejia a Good or Bad Example of Mets Minor League System?

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Hard-throwing Jenrry Mejia symbolizes what is possible from the minor league system organized, maintained, and overseen by Omar Minaya. But is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Mejia was signed by the Mets out of the Dominican Republic at the tender age of 17 — an age when most youngsters in the USA are high school juniors or just beginning their senior year. I think it’s far to say that a 17-year-old can be taught many things about the game of baseball, and that a young man of that age is perfectly capable of changing his habits, approach, and mechanics. I make this statement not by guesswork but from experience — both by adjusting my own as well as by helping others change their own. In fact, from my first-hand experience, it is possible to completely overhaul an athlete’s style, mechanics, and thought process as late as age 21; it’s not easy, but it’s possible. The older an athlete gets, the more ingrained certain habits become, and thus the more difficult it is to “break” those habits and re-learn correct ones. That’s why, generally speaking, you want to begin teaching an athlete at a young age — the younger, the better.

In the case of 17-year-old Jenrry Mejia, the Mets had a golden opportunity to develop a raw, exciting talent — to mold him as they see fit, into what they believe is the ideal pitcher.

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Final Cuts: Analysis

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My apologies for not posting this earlier, but like most of the news out of Port St. Lucie this spring, it took me a long time to understand and extract the logic.

Let’s just run through specific personnel.

Nelson Figueroa (cut) – He’s not a Cy Young candidate. He’s barely an MLB-quality 5th starter. However, he had a spectacular spring, he had a great winter campaign, he had an outstanding

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