Name You Should Know: Brad Holt

If you are a Mets fan or you were paying attention to the Mark DeRosa sweepstakes, you already know the name Brad Holt. Today, John Heyman, renowned baseball writer for SI.com, tweeted (http://twitter.com/SI_JonHeyman) that the Indians wanted Brad Holt or Bobby Parnell PLUS for Mark DeRosa. Subsequently, DeRosa was dealt to the Cards for Chris Perez, a reliever with a lot of upside. So then, who is Brad Holt?

Holt was drafted in the 1st Round (33rd overall) out of UNC-Wilmington by the Mets in last year's MLB Draft. This season, he has pitched his way through the Florida State League (A-Advanced) and onto the roster of Birmingham Mets of the Eastern League (AA). Though roughed up in his second start with Birmingham (after missing 2 weeks with an ankle season), Holt still has a combined 3.96 ERA in 50 innings pitched. I know...not exactly the dominating ERA most would like to see from a prospect of this caliber. What makes him impressive is that he has only given up 39 hits in those 50 IP along with striking out 57 batters against 18 BB, over a 3 to 1 SO to BB ratio. No doubt that Holt has shown the stuff that led Baseball America to rate him as the Mets 4th best prospect heading into this season.

At 6'4" and close to 200 lbs., the 22-year-old can throw the ball hard. According to RealGM Baseball's Prospect Report (http://tinyurl.com/realgm-bradholt), Holt hits the mid 90's on the radar gun with good command. If he's going to make it as a starter, Brad needs to work on secondary pitches to go with his fastball. His improved curve is one of the reasons Holt earned such an early promotion to Double-A.

Surely, if Brad Holt can master a second and third pitch, he could himself a spot in the Mets rotation heading into 2011. Another scenario, perhaps more likely, is that Holt's fastball and a refined curveball gets earns him a spot in the Mets bullpen by the end of 2010.

Check out some footage of Holt in action.