Matt Peterson

Matt Peterson hails from Alexandria, Louisiana, on I-49 smack dab in the middle of the state, the birthplace of other notable ballplayers such as Warren Morris and Terry Mathews. It seems that no one spilled much ink on him as a high school player. At 6'5" and 210 pounds, he's a 22-year-old righty who's been pitching well for the Binghampton Mets of the Eastern League. The book on him says 90-92 mph fastball with a big-league curve and a changeup that needs to get better. He's said to have "savvy" and "poise" for a kid his age. Rotowire (if you subscribe to one baseball news service, I recommend Rotowire) puts it this way:

He has a solid 90-92 mph fastball that he throws to both sides of the plate on a downward plane, but his out pitch is a 12-to-6 curveball that will be a plus pitch with a little more consistency. His changeup also has shown flashes of becoming a solid offering and he did a better job with his focus and concentration on the mound in 2003.

In 2000, the Mets took him in the second round of the draft. He was 18 at the time so I assume he came straight out of high school.

In 2003, he spent most of the season with Class A St. Lucie. In his first start, he strained his rotator cuff and then missed about a month of the season. He finished well, with a 9-2 record and a 1.71 ERA. He had 73 strikeouts and 24 walks in 84 innings which suggests he's something of a power guy. Even better: he only allowed 65 hits in those 84 innings (that's a WHIP of 1.06, roto players). He made six starts in AA last year and wasn't so impressive but OK. The Mets returned him to St. Lucie for their playoffs and he obliterated the competition in two starts, going 2-0 with a 0.64 ERA. He got the Seiko watch they give out for winning the honor of Mets Organizational Pitcher of the Year.

The Mets brought him to camp this March. Praising him, Art Howe said he has a nice frame and that "the ball comes out of his hand real nice." Howe lined him up against the Dodgers early in the month. He pitched two innings, gave up six hits, allowed four earned runs, walked nobody and struck out two. That was it for his time in Spring Training. Then he went to AA Binghamton. Down there he started 19 games, threw 104 innings, allowed 97 hits, 45 walks, 90 strikeouts, and 11 home runs. He had a 6-4 record with a 3.27 ERA (but, I noticed, a lot of unearned runs too). Binghamton has been one of the best teams in the Northern division and has an overall record that is not quite as good as Altoona's.

Peterson is just now coming off the disabled list for a strained left oblique muscle. Other than the strained cuff in early 2003 and this strained oblique, I find no other record of injury. That doesn't mean he hasn't been hurt; it only means I can't find any other news about him missing time for being hurt.

This year, the Mets have been considering him closer to major-league ready than Scott Kazmir, the more highly-regarded prospect they sent to Tampa Bay, but they regarded him as still some time away. Some people doubted if he was dominating AA as much as his Single A performance led them to expect. But the season's not over, so we'll see what he can do for the Curve.

Peterson appears to rank right around there with Ian Snell, at least from a performance standpoint. In 20 starts, Snell has thrown 117 innings, allowed 120 hits, 34 walks, 103 strikeouts, and 13 home runs. I don't know how these AA starters come out with good ERAs allowing so many HRS. Snell's record for the curve has been 7-6 with a 3.38 ERA.

Looking in at the Curve, I see Zach Duke continuing to come on strong. In two starts, he's 1-0 with 12 strikeouts, 7 hits, and 2 walks in 11 innings.

Young pitchers are so unpredictably injury-prone, it's hard to get too excited about them before set foot on a big-league mound. The rarity of the exceptions – e.g., Mark Prior – prove that rule. So the best thing an organization can do is stockpile them. The more young starters you have, the better chance you'll have of developing your own Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, and so forth. Peterson looks like a solid pickup for a team that plans to specialize in homegrown starting pitching.