Right-hander Jenrry Mejia will make his first start for the Double-A Binghamton Mets tonight.

It’s right to say the talented 20-year-old from Tabara Arrisba, D.R., is doing this about 70 games and two-and-half months too late.

The Mets, with manager Jerry Manuel among the leading proponents, insisted on having Mejia, the club’s No. 1 prospect, according to Baseball America, in the big-league bullpen to start the 2010 season. His cutting fastball, which has been clocked at 98 mph in spots, is quite tantalizing.

Mejia, to his credit, held his own in the majors, going 0-2, 3.25 in 30 appearances over 27.2 innings. But look closer at his strikeout/walk ratio – a poor 17-15 – and one will easily see that work on his command, which is needed the most, was let go.

In no way is this an issue that can’t be corrected and, with Mejia’s demotion to Binghamton, the youngster is back on the right path.

He’ll probably pitch four innings against a horrid New Britain (18-52) team. He really should dominate against the Rock Cats. If you are interested in the Binghamton radiocast, just point your browser to www.milb.com and click on the multimedia and audio buttons. Binghamton’s link will be in the list that appears.

Mejia joins a team which is 35-35 entering play Wednesday night. The B-Mets, under manager Tim Teufel, led by Nick Evans, have played good ball for much of the season. Their pitching, with a team ERA of 4.60, is 10^th in the 12-team Eastern League.

Mejia takes the place of Brad Holt, who was demoted to Class-A St. Lucie after going 1-5, 10.20 at Binghamton with both velocity and command problems.

If the B-Mets, 7.5 games behind first-place Trenton in the Eastern League East, want to contend for a playoff spot, their pitching will have to improve.

“We’ve had our ups and downs,’’ said Teufel.  “But we have a good bunch of guys and a good ballclub. If a few things fall into place, we could be there at the end.’’

Mejia could be a major factor in stabilizing Binghamton’s pitching rotation.  Righty Josh Stinson, who is 4-1, 2.59, has been excellent since joining the rotation.  Lefties Mike Antonini (4-5, 4.11) and Eric Niesen (2-3, 2.94) have had their moments, but have not gotten a lot of run support at times.  Righty Chris Schwinden has also pitched well.

Also recall that Mejia was 0-5, 4.47 in 10 starts with Binghamton in 2009. While his fastball Will Carry him a bit further against some Double-A hitters, he needs work on both his slider and changeup.  This is where the big-league bullpen stint set him back.

On the positive side, Mejia is quite good in pitching to contact. Although he is just 6-0, 162, he is an excellent shape and has excellent strength.

What one has to wonder, if the Mets hadn’t taken the silly road with him, is where he would be as a starter now.  Many observers feel, had Mejia started the season at Binghamton as he should have, he would be at Triple-A Buffalo on the verge of being called up.

Instead, he’s serving another internship in Binghamton. Hopefully he will progress quickly after being stretched out.

METS FARM SYSTEM REVIEW

BUFFALO (37-35; Triple-A) – With Ike Davis, Jesus Feliciano, Chris Carter, Elmer Dessens and Ruben Tejada in Queens, plus Mike Hessman and Daniel Murphy sidelined, the Bisons are faltering.

BINGHAMTON (35-35; Double-A) – The injury bug has also hit the B-Mets, with both Kurt Nieuwenhuis  (shoulder) and Reese Havens (oblique) sidelined.  Infielder Eric Campbell, batting .315 (34-for-108) with 23 RBIs in 30 games with the club, has been outstanding.

ST. LUCIE (32-25; Single-A) – Outfielder Joey August is hitting .303 (27-for-89) in 25 games.  Righty Jeurys Familia, at 0-4, 6.16, has not gotten it together.

SAVANNAH (42-28; Single-A) – The Sand Gnats qualified for the South Atlantic League playoffs by winning the first-half crown in the Sally South.  Lefty Mark Cahoon  (7-1, 1.30). with three shutouts, is a pitcher to watch.  Outfielder Juan Lagares is hitting .300 (87-for-290).

BROOKLYN (4-1; Short-Season Class-A) – The Cyclones have been impressive early, led by outfielder Darrell Ciciliani, who is batting .304 (7-for-23) and lefty Mitchell Houck (1-0, 0.00), who has thrown 6.2 scoreless innings).

KINGSPORT (1-0; Rookie) – Third baseman Aderlin Rodriguez was 3-for-4 as the K-Mets opened their Applachian season with a win.

GCL METS (2-0; Rookie) – Righty Dawrin Frias and lefty Juan Urbina each notched pitching wins as the Gulf Coast League season opened.

DSL METS 1 (14-7; Rookie) – Infielder Bjorn Hato is hitting .429 (6-for-14).

DSL METS 2 (10-11; Rookie) – Martires Arias (3-1, 0.86) has been outstanding on what has been a light-hitting team.

Jed spent 35 years in the newspaper business working as both a writer and editor, in both sports and news under tight deadline pressure. As both sports editor at the Indiana (Pa.) Gazette and a copy editor/columnist at The Times of Trenton, he made daily decisions on overall coverage and designed and produced thousands of pages and special sections. Since accepting a buyout from The Times, he has concentrated on broadening his writing and editing horizons to the medical, academic and business fields. Anyone is welcome to Google Jed to see the different places in print, on the Web and in front of the camera his professional expertise has spread to.

Jed Weisberger

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Tags: Binghamton Mets, Brad Holt, Jenrry Mejia, New York Mets