The Mets seem to have a plethora of lower level pitchers that have been putting up some eye popping numbers and catching the attention of minor league fans across Mets Nation, one such pitcher is P.J. Conlon of the St. Lucie Mets. In a little over a full season since being drafted (13th round in the 2015 MLB draft out of The University of San Diego) Conlon has managed to advance through three separate levels of the minor league system and now sits in high A-ball.

The 22-year old left-hander has produced fantastic results at each level, producing a cumulative ERA of 1.69 with a WHIP of 0.96 while going 11-3. On his resume in 2016 are 11 starts with allowing one earned run or less and a 10 inning no earned run compete game (a game in which he threw 7 no-hit innings and his final pitch count was a meager 97). So this prompted me to head down to St. Lucie and take a look at the young Belfast product (Conlon was born in Ireland and is looking to become the first Irish born MLB player in over 70 years, Joe Cleary of the Washington Senators 1945)

The first thing that struck me about Conlon was his unorthodox delivery. I can only compare it to that of Tim Lincecum, while he doesn’t wrap the ball around his back, he does parallel his body to the ground and throws across his body in a very deceptive motion that hide the ball very well. My late conclusion being that this is the route of his success to this point in his career.

Conlon throws five different pitches, a two and four-seam fastball that on the day were sitting in the 86-87 mph range and he throws a change up, curve, and slider that mostly sit in the mid 70’s. All he’s missing is a eephus pitch and he could be a clone of El Duque himself (Orlando Hernandez).

Conlon started off the game striking out the 1st two batters on seven pitches, throwing nothing but his fastballs. He walked the third batter after a 10 pitch at bat, but promptly picked him off first with a fantastic move to first that had the runner taking off.

Heading into the second, Conlon gave up a soft opposite field single that was more a mistake than the result of solid contact, as the hitter was fooled on a curve. Conlon struckout the next batter and the two ensuing batters lined out to left field.

The third inning is where things got dicey for Conlon. Perhaps attempting to work on specific pitches rather than focusing on results, Conlon abandoned his fast ball and threw 14 straight breaking balls to start the inning. When he did revert to his fastball he had lost some velocity, sitting 84 mph. This resulted in four of the first five batters lining singles to the outfield, all on solid contact. Fortunately for Conlon, the base to base approach kept the damage at a minimum, as he was able to pitch out of the bases load jam with only allowing one run to score.

Conlon pitched two more scoreless and uneventful innings, and was pulled after the 5th inning, due to a pitch count closing in on 100 for the day. Not a very economical performance in that department.

What I took away from Conlon’s performance was that he is certainly a finesse pitcher who relies on a deceptive delivery and an assortment of off-speed pitches to fool batters. He does not have any pitches that I would rate as a “plus” pitch, but with that quirky delivery and being a lefty, it’s hard for young batters without advanced scouting to pick up on Conlon’s ball.

He also pitches at a pace that would make Steven Matz proud and Steve Trachsel jealous, as he was set and waiting for the batter to get in his stance each and every time (I don’t believe I have ever seen a pitcher work faster).
With his lack of “stuff” it’s hard to see how he would be able to continue this dominance at higher levels or vs MLB hitting and advanced scouting. There aren’t to many pitchers in baseball that sit mid 80’s and are successful. With that said, I could see him as a valuable situational lefty out of the pen, a change of pace and different delivery to throw lefty batters off kilter. His splits vs lefties are fantastic, as he has held them to a sub .200 average and a WHIP of 0.65 over his brief career.

Game Notes:

The Mets were two hit on the day and looked awful at the plate vs a mid 80’s side arm lefty that the Tampa Yankee had on the mound. The Mets two lone hits came from new arrival David Thompson. The first being the result of an “excuse me swing” that resulted in a 65 ft squib that was perfectly placed in between the pitchers mound and 1st for a hit, the second being a line drive up the box. Thompson looks the part physically of a MLB third baseman.

All photos courtesy of Ed Delany