What kind of season will Dillon Gee have? Read a season preview and provide your own projection.
Dillon Gee is an easy guy to root for. He wasn't a high draft pick or a heralded prospect, and he's battled through multiple season-ending maladies to establish himself as an average-ish starting pitcher. Plus, he's a homegrown Met. So while he's probably not the best starting pitcher on the Mets' staff, even with Matt Harvey on the shelf, it was nice to see him become the 23rd Mets starting pitcher to get the nod on Opening Day.
Gee enjoyed a career-best season in 2013. It was overall about league average -- 199 innings pitched, 3.62 ERA -- but he posted a 2.71 ERA over his final 142 innings pitched. His performance improved alongside his velocity, which took some time to rebound following shoulder surgery in 2012 to fix a blood-clotting issue. His velocity was once again slightly down in his first two starts of this season. He's allowed seven runs in 14 innings (small sample size alert) but his strikeout-to-walk rate was still respectable. The disaster of April/May 2013 has not been repeated, not yet at least. Perhaps he will improve as the season goes on, as he did in 2013.
Gee might not be in many Mets fans' dream future rotation, but the team is going to need his innings-eating ability, at least for this season. Post your Gee projection in the comments in the same format as below. I'll compare our projections to actual results at season's end.
IP: 176
ERA: 3.78
K: 140
BB: 44
HR: 21