 The NY Post is reporting In the last week, it became more important that Mike Pelfrey matures into a top-flight starter for the Mets, and Phil Hughes does the same for the Yankees. In the last week, it became more problematic that Jenrry Mejia is in the bullpen — and maybe Joba Chamberlain, too.
That is because in the last week Josh Beckett signed a long-term extension with the Red Sox and Yovani Gallardo did the same with the Brewers. That continued a trend of diluting the starting pitching free-agent market in upcoming years. It was not long ago, for example, that Beckett, Roy Halladay and Tim Hudson were going to be part of the free-agent class after this season.
Now just Cliff Lee is the lone elite starter projected into free agency, and he begins this season on the disabled list dealing with foot and oblique issues. The next best is Javier Vazquez, followed by even more dubious pieces such as Jorge De La Rosa, Ted Lilly, Kevin Millwood, Brandon Webb and Jake Westbrook.
It does not get better in subsequent years. There is a dearth of available prime-age aces as teams have more proactively bought out free-agent years with extensions for their elite starters. In the past two offseasons, Kansas City’s Zack Greinke and San Francisco’s Matt Cain have signed through 2012, Florida’s Josh Johnson and the White Sox’s Gavin Floyd through 2013, and Seattle’s Felix Hernandez, Boston’s Jon Lester and Detroit’s Justin Verlander through 2014.
So the spigot is just about off for high-end, 30-and-under starters coming out in free agency in the next few years. Of course there will be trades. It is not hard to imagine, for example, that the Royals recognize they cannot keep Greinke through another extension and deal him for a boatload of prospects.
Still, the market for premium pitching is going to be shallow and, thus, through simple supply and demand, very expensive in giving up prospects, dollars or both. Thus, teams not developing organizational pitching depth will face major problems. So how are the New York teams stacked up? Let’s take a look:
TO read more..
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/mets/yankees_mets_farm_systems_QT5V6DldBNpSvMO4hnD05H
|
|
