The way Mejia pitches to me just simply is not the makeup of a major league starting pitcher. He isn’t made to be throwing 100+ pitches every 5th day. This is why I think when Mejia returns from Tommy John in ~1 year it’s time to start grooming him as the long term closer for the New York Mets. Before you get mad that I am converting the team’s #1 prospect to a closer, remember that your own Francisco Rodriguez was once the #1 prospect in the Angels system and he’s done quite well for himself.

– Joe DeMayo, St. Lucie to Flushing.

Gotta disagree with Joe here. First things first: No human is really made to be throwing 100+ pitches every fifth day. Yeah, Mejia’s currently limited arsenal does seem to lend itself to shorter stints, what with the great fastball and less-great secondary stuff, but I’d say it’s too soon to commit him to a bullpen role.

Is there evidence yet that starting is worse on the arm? (That’s not a rhetorical question; I’m straight-up asking.) Starters throw more innings, obviously, but relievers are often asked — as Mejia was last year — to throw on three or four straight nights, and can never develop a starter’s routine.

Thing is, starting pitchers are much, much more valuable than relievers, even closers, in part because starting pitching is a lot more difficult. That’s why, as Joe points out, so many of the great relievers are former (and in most cases failed) starters. It’s a hell of a lot easier to fool batters for one inning than for seven.

Part of the fallout from the Omar Minaya administration’s rushing and hyping of prospects is that we hear about young Mets for so long that they seem close to washed up when they haven’t even reached the age at which they should be expected to contribute to the Major League club.

Jenrry Mejia is six months younger than Matt Harvey. Mejia has a whole career ahead of him, and whenever he returns from the elbow injury he should be given further opportunities to prove his worth as a starting pitcher. Only when he demonstrates for sure that he cannot handle it should he be moved into a relief role.

As you may have seen on MetsBlog, Matt Cerrone and I will be co-hosting a live streaming web show from the Citi Field McFadden’s tomorrow afternoon at 5 p.m., previewing the Mets’ series with the Giants and talking about stuff. It should take about a half hour, depending on how long we go with our guests. And it’ll be live, cutting out that pesky delay between when I think my real-time thoughts and when you can access them on this blog.

Jenrry Mejia was examined at the Hospital for Special Surgery today and diagnosed with a complete MCL tear in his pitching elbow. Doctors recommended surgery, but Mejia will seek a second opinion. That doctor will probably also recommend surgery.

If you’re playing at home that’s Tommy John surgery, which likely means a year on the shelf for the Mets’ top prospect. And it means Mejia should probably no longer be referred to as “the Mets’ top prospect.”

Poor kid.

The good news, I suppose, is that the injury is not to Mejia’s shoulder. Pitchers way more often successfully return from elbow issues. Still, it sucks.

One bat is called Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver and the other is Hrunting. Dickey, an avid reader, said that Orcrist came from “The Hobbit.” Hrunting — the H is silent, Dickey said — came from the epic poem “Beowulf”; it is the sword Beowulf uses to slay Grendel’s mother.

– Tyler Kepner, N.Y. Times.

Well that’s kind of awesome, and predictably R.A. Dickeyish. I think if I were a Major Leaguer, though, I’d give my bat a really common everyday name like “Steve” or something. Credit for this idea goes to my wife, who recently suggested “Richard,” in a discussion of good potential dog names (we’re not getting a dog or anything we were just talking about dog names).

Come to think of it, I keep two bats in the trunk of my car for Brooklyn baseball and they are still pathetically anonymous. What am I doing? OK, here we go: The 32″ maple bat is Larry and the 33″ ash bat is Ron. I have a 1.181 OPS in two games since switching to Ron, incidentally.