This year has been a very telling year for the Mets Organization as a whole. Even though they are still losing more then they are winning, they are developing pieces on the major league team and in the minors for the future. One person who has stepped up and has started to squarely put himself back on the prospect map is Akeel Morris. Akeel was drafted out of high school in the 10th round of the 2010 MLB draft. Blessed with an electric arm, Akeel was quickly put into a number of the Mets top prospect lists.
He started off his career on solid footing in 2010. He played in the GCL throwing 25 innings w
ith an ERA of 2.15. In 2011, he pitched in Kingsport, where he went 3-2 with an era in 3.86 over 51.0 innings. There were red flags that started to come up that year and they were directly related to his control. The amount of free passes that he gave up was just too high, and it would come back to bite him if it became a trend. Unfortunately, in 2012. the bottom fell out for Akeel and he had a very disappointing season. That year, Akeel repeated Kingsport and everything fell apart. His average against was up to .253 and he gave up 22 walks in 38.1 innings. The 2012 season completely knocked Akeel off the prospect map.
Enter the new Akeel Morris for the 2013 season, still only 20 years young. The Mets refused to give up on a talent like Akeel and sent him to be apart of the Brooklyn Cyclones bullpen. I have seen Akeel a number of times in Brooklyn and this plan seems to be working. Akeel usually piggybacks the starter on the days that he gets thrown in. That means when the starter is lifted, Akeel will pitch multiple innings and close out the game. This has helped Akeel remain focused and improve the location of his pitches. His walks have went down to 2.5 walks a game and opposing hitters are batting only a .159 clip against him — the best in his career.
On Sunday I was able to see Akeel and he was dominant. He pitched three scoreless and struck out five. I saw a pitcher with a live arm, a solid breaking ball and solid control. This enabled him to get a number of swing and misses on his pitches and caused weak contact from the opposition all night. With the season he is having, Akeel will firmly put himself back into prospect consideration.
One of the big questions, however, is whether he will get a chance to crack the Savannah rotation. I certainly think he will. What do you think?
Hey Patrick- Nice summary- Thanks! Good to get some first-hand reporting on Akeel… I had noticed that he has great numbers this year.
(Note- Please forgive me, but I can’t help it– I teach english… 😉 You can’t say “have went”; the correct grammar is “have gone”. )
Whoops. That mistake is on me, I should have caught it in editing.
He needs a couple more pitcher in his repertoire. That’s the problem now with him coupled with prior wildness. Hopefully he can harness a couple more pitches. Doing this I feel was to see if it was worth it to work with him on harnessing a cple more pitches so he can get thru the order 3 times. He has showed he has absolute swing and miss stuff so an effort will be made.
My prediction is next year he skyrockets thru the system. Like DeGrom did this year. When you have had a player for 4 years that 5th you really have to find out what u want him to be. After next season he will have to be on the 40 man. Let’s say he’s not he’d probably get taken with the 1st pick of the rule 5 draft.
This FO is putting players who haven’t progressed like you would have hoped all the chances in the world in there 5th year to show something. That is a big reason we are going to make better personel decissions when it comes to that. Matz is a perfect example along with Morris. However, I was hoping they would let Matz to get to AA. Well hopefully he still moves up another level before seasons end.
The Mets even though I get mocked for saying it have a tremendous amount of talent. That’s why some guys can’t be promoted now people call for Montero, Leathersich guys like this to be called up they would have to be added to the 40 man and could end up making us loose a guy like Matz. The FO has shown they are responsible when it comes to asset management which is good at times like this. They won’t be trading Bell & Lindstrom for a box of rocks.
Another route they can take with Morris if after next season is not ready to go thru a line up 3 times is what St Louis does a lot and that’s start a starter off in the pen until they refine there skills. Hopefully he will if not he can be another solid bullpen arms.
Derek I agree 100percent with your comment. I think he has the makings of a solid breaking ball. However the thing that I have noticed and the FO emphasizes is you need to have command of your Fastball. By seeing him the last few times, you can tell he has mastered that, and that my friend us half the battle.