Al Yellon wonders what people see in Sergio Mitre, undoubtedly colored by his witnessing Mitre's poor performance on the mound today.

It's true that Mitre has an ERA+ of 65 in 60.3 career big league innnings, but it's also true that he only turned 24 in February. And this is what I see: a guy who has had success at every level of the minor leagues that he has been at. In 2001, Mitre had a 3.07 ERA in 91 innings for short-season-A Boise, with a 3.9 K/BB ratio. In 2002, 2.83 and 3.6 in 168 innings for low-A Lansing. In 2003, 3.34 and 3.1 in 145 innings for Double-A West Tennessee. Last year, 2.98 and 2.4 in 102 innings for Triple-A Iowa.

His ERA numbers have been good and amazingly consistent. The one concern is the reduction in the K/BB ratio each year. But his K rate is actually increasing, up to 8.3 per 9 last season for Iowa.

Mitre probably isn't ever going to be a star, and putting him at Iowa for another season isn't going to hurt anything, but it's also true that Mitre has a good chance to be a good major league pitcher in the near future.

For what it's worth, Baseball Prospectus's PECOTA system sees Mitre putting up a 4.30 ERA this year in 118 innings.