Today's Matchup: Milwaukee (Marcum) vs. New York (Mejia)

It's hard to write very much about former top-prospect Jenrry Mejia (0-0, 4.50). He will be making his first major league start in over two years today, with just one relief appearance on Sept. 7 since then. He pitched two innings and gave up a solo home run against the Braves. He has one major league season to his name. He threw in 33 games (three starts) during the 2010 season. He finished off the season with a 4.62 ERA, though he had a 2.81 ERA before blowing up in his final six appearances. His peripheral stats weren't great. He had a mere 5.08 K/9 and a 4.62 BB/9.

Mejia had been the 44th best prospect in all of the MLB according to Baseball-America prior to the 2010 season. He was ranked a B+ prospect and the best in the Mets system by John Sickels that same year. In six minor league seasons, Mejia has a 2.89 ERA overall. His strikeout numbers are alright while his walk rates have been just a bit high for a top pitching prospect. 2012 had been the worst minor league season of Mejia's career thus far. He has a 3.54 ERA in 26 Triple-A games (10 starts). He also had just a 4.8 K/9 and a 2.9 BB/9.

Mejia is a hard thrower, with his go-to pitch being a 95 MPH four seamer. He'll also mix in a 95 MPH two seamer, an 86 MPH changeup, and an 80 MPH curveball. He has not faced a Brewers hitter at least ten times.

Shaun Marcum (5-4, 3.71) has had a rough go of it since being reinstated from the DL. In four starts, he has allowed four runs in three of them. The fourth start saw him allow three runs. His first start back, none of the four runs he gave up were earned, making his ERA since coming back "just" 5.03, which, I guess, is better than the 7.03 ERA he would have had Carlos Gomez not been charged with an error on the first hitter of the fifth inning where Marcum blew up. It's possible that Marcum may not be fully recovered from the elbow injury that kept him out for over two months. Hopefully he'll look better this time around.

Marcum has not yet faced a current Mets hitter at least ten times.

The lineups were not out at the time this post was written. If you've seen it, feel free to post it in the comments section.

In the bullpen:

Manny Parra pitched 0.1 innings (21 pitches) yesterday.
Livan Hernandez pitched 1.2 innings (18 pitches) yesterday.
Josh Stinson pitched one inning (25 pitches) yesterday.
Tyler Thornburg pitched one inning (18 pitches) yesterday.
Kameron Loe pitched one inning (23 pitches) Wednesday.
Jose Veras pitched one inning (10 pitches) Wednesday.
Jim Henderson, Brandon Kintzler and Francisco Rodriguez all pitched on Tuesday.
John Axford last pitched on Monday.