If two of the three pan out to be great major leaguers, the Mets have playoffs in their future. I know that may be oversimplifying the complex job of building a major league franchise, but in my mind, if you can wheel out three dominant pitchers in your rotation, and salvage near-.500 baseball with the 4 & 5 guys, you're going to win 90+ games and make the playoffs. If those front three are good enough, you can win championships even with a mediocre lineup, especially if chemistry is good. See the '69 Mets. Or the Giants of the past few years. The Braves decade+ run in the NL East. Or the DBacks with Schilling and the Unit.
The good news: Montero is stepping up. They keep bumping him up in the farms, and instead of an adjustment period, he seems to pick his game up each time he gets promoted. Now in AA to start the year, he's putting up gaudy #s in Binghamton. MetsBlog has it covered here. Spoiler alert: the comparison is to a young Pedro Martinez. And btw, when I say dominating, try this K/BB ratio on for size-- 27:1.
The lukewarm news: Snydergaard and Wheeler are both considered big-time prospects, but are both struggling to adjust, with both starting the year in the highest level they've yet competed (Wheeler in AAA and Snydergaard in high-A). Snydergaard is probably two years away if all goes perfectly, so Wheeler is of more immediate interest to me. Kiernan of the NYP summarized his opening here:
Wheeler has made four starts at Triple-A Las Vegas this year and, granted he is coming off a strained oblique during spring training and a blister on his middle finger that hampered him his first two starts, but the numbers are not pretty. Over 18 1/3 innings Wheeler has surrendered 12 walks and 20 hits, which gives him a 1.745 WHIP, an 0-1 record and a 4.91 ERA.He's got to show the organization he's ready to kick it up a notch.
Edit: SI's Rising Apple blog says don't worry about Wheeler. The kid will be fine.
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