Can You Mejia Me Now?

Just one question for all of us to consider as we grapple with the Jenrry Mejia hype (note: I learned yesterday that each of the last three words have "h" sounds in them) machine.

Why exactly do we want to make this kid the next Joba Chamberlain?

I know the town went nuts for Joba a couple years ago when he was a flame-throwing, fist-pumping, 8th-inning savior for the Yanks, but look at him now.

Now there's a never-ending circus of people who are either shouting that he'll never be as good as a starter as he was a reliever, or that he'll never reach his full potential if he remains a reliever, and besides, you'd be nuts not to want that kind of stuff working 7 innings a night.

Of these three points, only the last has legs. The other ones are only going to screw with Joba's mind; maybe he's tough enough mentally to drown out the voices/doubts, but maybe he's not. Even if he succeeds in either role, there are always going to be questions about whether the Yanks are getting top value out of him.

The question I have is, why put Mejia through that kind of ringer? Why institutionalize that question of whether he would maximize his value to the team if he were an arm out of the bullpen, rather than a starter?

It's one thing if it's September and, somehow, the team is in a pennant race and you want to give the kid a few looks out of the bullpen because you think he can come in and shut the other team down in a big spot. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention.

But in April there's no necessity for having Mejia up with the big club, it would be, at best, a short-term luxury that could have disastrous consequences for his development down the road.

To my mind, this is where the Yankees went wrong with Joba -- it was fine for them to use him out of the pen in a pennant race in 2007, but they messed up when they decided to break camp in 2008 with him as a reliever, only to turn around a month or two later and make him a starter.

Let's try to avoid that situation with young Jenrry, shall we? If we let Mejia get another year under his belt in Double-A it sounds like there's at least a chance he's pitching at Citi Field regularly come 2011.

Why push it? Who among us thinks the 2010 season is going to prove worth mortgaging any element of our future on?

I realize that (one bullpen session in) he's knocking on the door, and after a full day of media attention, all of us hear the kid knocking. All of us see his tall, lanky frame and his 20 years of age and conjure up dreams of a reincarnated Dwight Gooden.

You know what? I'll bet you Doc would have been a hell of an 8th inning guy too. But imagine if the organization had never given him a full chance to realize his potential as a starter.

I'm getting ahead of myself. Mejia is almost certainly not another Doc.

All I'm saying is, give him a chance to prove it to us.

- A.F.O.M.G.