Jenrry and a little bit of Luck
On Monday, Mets’ top prospect Jenrry Mejia (spelled correctly) took the hill for the Bisons, fresh up from Double-A. Today, the Metropolitans announced Mejia will make his first major league start this Saturday versus the Cubs.
Mejia looked very strong for the Herd, throwing eight innings of one run baseball. He allowed five hits while walking one and striking out nine. He took a perfect game into the fifth inning before hitting a batter, and didn’t allow a hit until he was taken deep with one out in the sixth.
Mejia was dominant the first trip through the order. He struck out seven of the first nine hitters he faced, and the other two grounded softly right back at him. He threw 103 pitches, 66 for strikes, and got hitters to hit into 10 groundouts.
He appeared to top out at 95 mph (although I wasn’t looking every pitch), and routinely followed heaters with nice curveballs that had hitters uneasy all night. Curves came in at 81-82 mph.
Mejia kept his velocity up throughout the game, but did get hit more as the game went on. Whether it was due to fatigue and missing his spots or hitters figuring him out the second and third time through, we’ll never know.
He struck out in his first plate appearance and singled to right in his second, although replays showed the right fielder (playing extra shallow) had actually thrown him out from short right. He picked up a no decision as the Bisons lost in 10.
Bison fans have been fortunate this season, getting to see several good arms in action who have made an impact in the bigs. Stephen Strasburg, Aroldis Chapman and R.A. Dickey top the list.
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College football starts today (UB is hosting Rhode Island; if you can’t make it, join the conversation), and there is one player I want to make note of before the season starts.
There’s not much Trent can do to warrant the Bills not picking a QB in next year’s draft. The guy I have my eye on is Stanford’s Andrew Luck. I know Bills fans haven’t exactly been thrilled with the production we’re getting from our other PAC-10 picks (and especially our other Stanford QB), but Luck is different.
Edwards never had the talk surrounding him that Luck does right now, and he definitely never had his name tossed around in Heisman consideration. Luck has the Cardinals poised for a PAC-10 title, where Trent never even brought the team to a winning record (and won just one game his senior season). He has the tools to play in the pros, and, let’s be honest, the Bills will probably be in position to draft whomever they want come April.
It’s cliché, but maybe he’s exactly what this city needs– a little bit of Luck.
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On Monday when I saw Mejia pitch, I got asked to participate in a promotion for the Bisons, throwing foam baseballs into a hole on a board 15 yards away. It was the New York Lottery Take 5 game, if that helps. It was awesome. I made five balls for five lottery tickets, off of which I won $1. I had a blast.
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Tags: Andrew Luck, Buffalo Bisons, draft, Jenrry Mejia, NCAA, New York Mets, Stanford, Trent Edwards
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