Tyler Kepner penned an excellent piece in today's NY Times featuring Trenton Thunder reliever, Mark Melancon, who is widely speculated to be the eventual successor to Mariano Rivera once the greatest closer of all-time decides to hang up his cleats for the last time.
Barring any setbacks, Melancon is almost assured of getting called up to the majors at some point this season to help the struggling Yankee bullpen - probably sooner rather than later - as a result of his very fast progression through the ranks in High-A Tampa and Double-A Trenton while recovering from TJ surgery.
By design, Melancon has logged quite a few innings already (43.0 IP) in order to build his arm strength and I would imagine the organization has a cap on his innings for the 2008 season just as they do for all of their prized youngsters. I think it's just a matter of weeks before he gets the call to the majors.
Personally, I can't wait to see what this kid can do against major league hitters.
His overall 2008 stats can be viewed here.