Official, Matt Harvey is making his big league debut Thursday in Phoenix.
Since the turn of the century, he will be their 5th first round pitching prospect to make his big league debut with the team (Scott Kazmir made his debut with Tampa). Aaron Heilman, Phil Humber, Mike Pelfrey and Eddie Kunz are the previous four with all but Kunz being starters.
Heilman never lived up to the hype as a top of the rotation guy. He became a back of the rotation guy before living out of the bullpen. He gave up the infamous Game 7 HR to Yadier Molina and that was the 'highlight' of his career with the team.
Humber was a Sept. call-up in 2006 and used out of the pen twice. In 2007, he was again a Sept. call-up before making his first and only start with the Mets against the Nationals. He gave up 5 runs and 6 hits in 4 innings. Five months later, he was part of the trade with Minnesota which brought Johan Santana to Flushing.
Mike Pelfrey was hyped as a big (6'7) flamethrower. He never quite lived up to the hype because he was just too inconsistent. He had some spurts where he looked great (including the beginning of this year before injury hit and cost him the rest of 2012), but not enough. He debuted late in the 2006 season. To date, he is 50-54 in the big leagues with a 4.36 ERA.
Kunz was a 42nd pick in 2007 and did not pitch well until he was at Double-A in 2008. To this day, his only time spent in the bigs was the 4 games he appeared in, late in 2008. He has been mired in the minors the rest of his career and was traded last year to the Padres.
So, history isn't on the Mets side...so LET'S GO HARVEY!