Mets Draft RHP Matt Harvey Out of North Carolina

Tonight in the first round of the MLB draft, the New York Mets took RHP Matt Harvey out of the University of North Carolina.  According to Baseball Tonight's bottomline on ESPN, Harvey was the number 1 high school prospect in 2007.

I know nothing about this kid, but other people do...

So, let's start with Matt Cerrone of Metsblog who talks about Harvey in this post.  In the post Cerrone relays information from Mets brass about Harvey.  The major bullet points are his size, durability, his 91-98 mph fastball and his representation (Boras).  Cerrone also points to an article on MLB.com where they get into specifics about his curve, slider, change up and ability to throw hard late into games.

In this article for the Newark Star-Ledger, Andy McCullough talks about the mechanical issues that caused Harvey's ERA to balloon after his Freshman year, and into his Sophomore year.  McCullough also talks about a complete game outing that Harvey had against Clemson where he struck out 15 batters and threw 157 pitches, allegedly hitting 96 with his final pitch...Wow.

I know some people wanted Josh Sale, who ended up slipping to 13 to the White Sox.  But, from what I've read/heard about Sale, it seems that there is concern about his durability and it seems likely that he'll be a reliever.  Although, I'm sure he'll be a stud because the Mets passed up on him, I would rather have a starting pitching prospect than a relief prospect.  I guess it's because I personally believe that all things being equal, starting pitching is more valuable than relief pitching.  That doesn't mean anything if Harvey turns out to be a bust, but I still think it was a better decision to go for a starter than reliver.  And, if Harvey's negative is his control and it can really be pointing to a change in mechnanics after his freshman year of college, then I am not concerned BECAUSE he was the #1 high school prospect 3 years ago.

Oh, and by the way the Nationals took Bryce Harper, who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16.  The Nats could be very good in a few years...very, very good.