2015 Mets Spring Training Player: Italian American Pitcher- Cory Mazzoni

 Cory Mitchell Mazzoni was born October 19th 1989 in Evans City, Pennsylvania. The six foot one right hander, attended North Carolina State & was selected in the second round of the 2011 MLB amateur draft. He has a good fast ball in the mid nineties, a good slider & a great splitter if it's working as well as it did in 2014.

Mazzoni's career began in 2011 as he pitched six games for Mets A ball Brooklyn Cyclones team. He won his first game there going 1-0 with a perfect 0.00 ERA, before moving on to the St. Lucie Mets where he went 1-1 in six games. 

He began 2012 at A ball St. Lucie, where some of his team mates included future Mets pitchers: Jacob deGRom, Rafael Montero & Jenry Mejia. There he was 5-1 with a 3.25 ERA, getting a promotion to AA Binghamton going 5-5. Over the course of the year he reached 104 strike outs but allowed 154 hits.

Mazzoni was invited to his first Mets Spring Training in 2013, he appeared in four games taking a win & a loss, posting a 3.38 ERA allowing three runs in eight innings. He returned to AA Binghamton but his 2013 his season was cut short due to arm issues, as he pitched in just 13 games going 5-3 with a 4.36 ERA.

In 2014 Mazzoni attended his second Spring Training, as he was getting healthy again he appeared in six games going 1-2 but allowed ten runs in 6.2 innings. Mazzoni's return to pitching started out with the Gulf Coast Mets in the Rookie League. He went back to St. Lucie for a game & then AA Binghamton where he was 2-0 although his ERA was a high at 4.50. 

He was then promoted to AAA Las Vegas where he went 5-1 in nine games, most wins on the club behind Logan Verrett (11 wins) Noah Syndergaard (9 wins) & Rafael Montero (6 wins). In 52 innings he struck out 49 batters & in his four year career he has 271 strike outs in 300 innings going into the 2015 season.

In 2015 he has returned for his third Mets Spring Training. He has had health issues through out his career, and it is taking him a while to crack the Mets big league staff. He still projected to have a spot in the Mets bullpen more likely than a starting role soon.