Beginning in spring, I have thought the Mets should be looking big picture with Mejia and not over-emphasizing April victories in exchange for stunting his growth. To gain perspective, good organizations look at their teams from 10,000 feet and not up close. The Mets are always so darned worried about today that they put tomorrow in jeopardy.
But even if the Mets want to look at their problems only in the here and now, I would ask what is their current problem?
No team should make decisions based on one week of play, but if given a choice I would rather make a decision based on one week of actual data/results than guess in spring training that my bullpen is going to be bad and put my best starting prospect into that role on a hunch. And one week into the season, what do you trust less, John Maine/Oliver Perez or the set-up crew?
If you’ve been following along at home, Sherman has been just about the only newspaper columnist frequently — and rightfully — taking the Mets to task for rushing Jenrry Mejia to the Majors and into a bullpen role, potentially stunting the top prospect’s development in the name of some marginal upgrade to a very shaky-looking 2010 team.
In the linked piece, today’s 3UP column, Sherman hammers home every argument for why the Mets would do better in the end by sending Mejia to the Minors to be stretched out as a starter than by continuing to risk his longterm growth by using him as a reliever.
It’s spot-on, and definitely worth reading.
Tedquarters 
Sherman’s handling of the Mejia situation makes up for every knee-jerk, typical-NY-media position he’s taken in the past.
He is a shining light in a sea of idiocy.
Only somewhat related, but I loved this tweet from Will Davidian today:
The mainstream media is just now realizing Jerry Manuel is a bad manager. People without access have been saying that for over a year.
“He is a shining light in a sea of idiocy.” A mixed metaphor, but I like it. For Joel Sherman to a beacon of light, it really speaks volumes for the idiocy of the NY sports media.
What fun is a correctly used metaphor?
“They privately insist Mejia’s bullpen foray is short-term and that he is a starter.” That quote was from his Sunday column, and man was that nice to read.
But Mejia was pretty damn impressive this weekend. Throws 96-97 effortlessly, and with great natural movement. He may not be getting a lot of swings and misses as Sherman points out, but soft grounders are just as good and equally indicative of his talent.
And Igarashi looks good as well.
I wrote a post at Amazin’ Avenue about Sherman’s comments about Mejia in his 3UP column: http://www.amazinavenue.com/2010/4/12/1416927/mejia-and-low-leverage-situations
The Mets’ rationale for putting Mejia on the 25-man roster was to “win now,” yet the team has used him in pretty low-leverage situations. I get why the Mets are trying to ease him into the majors, but it just goes to show their whole rationale for putting Mejia on the roster is thin.
I think they did it for the exictment. Fans were pretty down on the Mets for not doing much this offseasn and not having any exciting new players (Bay-who) so the FO decided to bring up a shiny new prospect to watch.
And its worked in creating buzz.
Good write up, but its a little too early to be making any conclusions on Jerry’s use of Mejia. It’s been only one week, and even Jerry is not foolish enough to put the kid in the game in a big spot in his first week.
I’m curious as to why the press has ignored the complete absence of any “Jennry Rules.” Jerry has already violated Joba Rule No. 1 by pitching him two games in a row.
Just as a point of reference, Manuel used Parnell in higher leverage situations last season. He pitched in the 6th inning with the Mets having a one-run lead in his first game, and pitched in a tied game in the 7th inning in his third game.
Parnell had more minor league experience at the time of his rookie season, but he was still a rookie reliever.