Minors: BA’s Mets Top 10 Prospects
Continuing their rundown of every Major League farm system, Baseball America released its rankings and scouting reports of the Mets’ top 10 prospects.
John Manuel, writing for BA, ranked them in this order:
1. Fernando Martinez, OF
2. Deolis Guerra, RHP
3. Carlos Gomez, OF
4. Kevin Mulvey, RHP
5. Eddie Kunz, RHP
6. Brant Rustich, RHP
7. Philip Humber, RHP
8. Jon Niese, LHP
9. Nathan Vineyard, LHP
10. Robert Parnell, RHP
Regarding the farm system as a whole, Manuel writes:
Scouts from other organizations say the Mets have little immediate help on the way in the farm system. The jury is still out on how much Pelfrey and Humber will contribute, and there’s not much in the way of upper-level position players behind outfielders Lastings Milledge and Carlos Gomez.
The lack of talent reflects New York’s decision not to wield its large-market resources to acquire talent the last two years, particularly in the draft. The Mets have surrendered their first-round choice as free-agent compensation in each of the past two drafts, and haven’t tried to compensate by exceeding MLB’s bonus guidelines with other picks. Minaya said that could change in the near future.
Manuel will be chatting on BaseballAmerica.com to discuss the rankings at 1 pm.
…a thin list indeed, it doesn’t include Mike Pelfrey or Lastings Milledge, as they have exceeded rookie innings pitched and at bat limits, respectively… even so, after Martinez and Guerra, there is little high-end talent here to speak of… interestingly enough, no Mike Carp, who struggled with injuries this year…
…Manuel does mention the Mets’ large caribbean signing class this summer, which will perhaps soon inject some high ceiling talent into the system, but a change in draft strategy is seemingly crucial…
…i’ll be back later in the day with my own writeups of some of the top 10, as well as a bit of a recap of Manuel’s chat, which starts in a little less than an hour…
