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In an article for ESPN.com, Bob Klapisch describes how the Mets have a good chance to restock their depleted farm system with young talent during Thursday’s MLB draft.
The Mets hold the 18th, 22nd, and 33rd selections.
On deciding whether to pursue pitchers or position players, Omar Minaya said:
“We’re going after the best available players. That’s going to come first.”
…the Mets have done pretty well with their first round selections in recent years, but have had a tougher time letting those players grow within their system…i just hope that their philosophy is now geared more towards nurturing home-grown talent rather than buying older players…
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Once Again I’m the Rickey Henderson of this Post… LoL…
not funny…just immature attempts to write “first” for every post. Go away.
I say we get this kid a helmet before he hurts himself.
I’ve never understood the appeal of writing “first.”
Mood stabilizers are in order for this guy.
I think it shows that you need a little more of a life. No offense Matt, I love reading what you write and I check it often especially during the games. But the fact that downkim79 has managed to write the first comment on EVERY post for. . . who cares shows that he must literally have the thing up on his screen and hit refresh every 10 seconds. Don’t you have something better to do.
FWIW, these guys that post “first” really don’t care that you’re insulting them. They know they’re being assholes and pointing it out doesn’t instill and sort of guilt or force some epiphany.
Write to Matt and tell him to ban people that say “first”. Otherwise, ignore it.
I say we send him to Gitmo
Don’t be an enabler, ignore donwkim. As far as the real meaning of the thread, the Mets truly need help in the monor leagues. We must have one of the poorest farm systems. We couldn’t have traded away everybody worthwhile down there could we?
The ONLY acceptable first post for any Mets Blog entry should be:
Let’s Go Mets!
wow, that time it was hilarious.
anyway, best player available has to be the strategy, since who knows what our needs will be by the time this draft class is ready to contribute.
I only partially agree with that.
I think when drafting high-level college players you can look at what you need. For example- wouldn’t it be great to have a catcher ready to come up in 2-3 years? That would be more useful than having a 3rd baseman ready to come up in that time.
With highschoolers I think your right- best available. If it were me I’d prefer a good highschool pitcher and some good college hitters (including a catcher!)
Not if the catcher you are getting (hypothetically) is the best of a weak field. Don’t waste a first round pick on somebody whose upside isn’t great just because you may need that position soon.
That’s how you end up with middle relievers.
If you need a catcher, then you trade that great 3rd baseman you drafted and who is blocked by Wright for a catcher.
Best talent. Best talent. Best talent!!!!!!!!!
If you need a catcher, then you trade that great 3rd baseman you drafted and who is blocked by Wright for a catcher.
-I just think thats easier said then done…
Of course your also gonna pick top talent but I think with players closer to being ready you can do a little matching. If the second base class or outfield class is stronger than catcher go with that instead.
However I thought I read somewhere that the catching class is deep this year.
And you end up with middle relievers when you don’t have high draft picks.
no you end up with middle relievers when that’s all you pick. It’s not like every decent prospect ever has only come from the first round. But when you only select college players who were middle relievers and don’t have the stuff to be closers thats what you’re going to end up with.
Do college players who were middle relievers and didn’t have the stuff to be closers actually get drafted?
metinDC23:
Of course it is easier said than done, but trades can be made. i would rather have the flexibility of a strong farm than a mediocre player who was best at that position, be it a need or not, at draft time.
Like I said, my examples are hypothetical because I don’t know if the draft is deep in catchers or not.
I agree that if it’s close talent-wise, you go for the need, but you don’t pass over the next Mike Schmidt because you have David Wright and then select Alex Trevino. If your choice is between the next Schmidt and the Next Pudge, then those are close enough to go with need.
Like I said, again, hypothetical. But needs change rapidly on the Major League level, so I think you are always wiser to go for talent.
Considering the scouting reports on all the middle relievers we selected said they didn’t have enough pitches to be closers… yes.
Tide: I was only talking about the first round picks- I wanna say that for the most part players are gonna be close talent-wise. When your talking about the top guys its hard to judge whose gonna be the best major leaguer. Of course I’d never advocate taking an average player over a really great one based on needs.
Really, Kunz was the only reliever we took other than Clyne (high picks I mean). Vineyard, Moviel, Rustich and Niesen will all be starting pitchers in our system, unless they prove they can’t handle it.
Joe Smith? He was a reliever!
Tide-
I was speaking strictly the 2007 draft.
If there was ever a time for the Mets to break the slotting system (which every other big market team has done by this point) it’s now. The farm system is bare, please Mets, no more 7th inning relievers or projected back of the rotation guys, if Selig doesn’t want teams using their financial advantages to take advantage of the draft, then he should put his foot down and make it a rule. Also Mets (because I know you read my posts) if you draft a great talent, just leave him alone, stop trying to reinvent the wheel with these guys.
“But the Mets say they’re better off at the lower level than most talent evaluators think, and they are about to flood their system with prospects groomed through their new academy in the Dominican Republic.”
I feel like I’ve been hearing this forever.
yeah, put that under the believe it when i see it file.
jose reyes was one of those guys
one, we need more than one.. and the point is they keep saying we have all this talent in the lower levels, and all these players about to flood our farm system, but it has yet to happen.
Well, Reyes didn’t come from the Met academy, that wa only finished last year.
The benefits of that academy will take a little time to generate, because we’re talking about running guys through there at a very young age.
Which is why it doesn’t make sense that they seem to be relying so heavily on it and the international signings.
Not only are these guys going to take longer to contribute, you’re basically asking your scouts to project how good they’ll be in 4-6 years. And considering most of those kids, as far as I know, are in their early/mid teens, you don’t even know what kind of changes they’ll go through physically.
Yeah but on the plus side you get kids coming into your minor league system who have been professionally trained from very young ages.
I imagine the Mets acadamy has a few more resources to train players than little league does.
“who have been professionally trained from very young ages.”
I know it’s completely unrelated to your point but I keep imaging these Stepford wife like players. Who have perfect mechanics but are really really creepy.
But either way I agree it has it’s pluses and minuses. I just don’t think it’s smart for the front office to rely on it as heavily as they seem to being doing for the future of our franchise.
The Academy in the dominican is relatively new. It couldn’t be more than 4 years old but that academy is going to churn out a ton of talent. Remember Jose Reyes and Pedro Martinez workout and visit the Academy every offseason so the best domimican born players know where to go to be discovered.
There will be certain controversy if the Mets start churning out all star players. It’s best if they go very slow.
Kinda like the Tom Emanski videos?
LOL.
Except that the kids play baseball year round and are under tremendous pressure to succeed for their families sake. These kids start very young about 12 if I remember correctly. So the first class should be about 15-16 years old. I couldn’t imagine what one of those kids would feel if they didn’t get a MLB contract.
So basically they’re still 5-6 years away?
ay dios mio.
Cool–it’s like the Mets’ version of Hogwarts…
There will be certain controversy if the Mets start churning out all star players. It’s best if they go very slow.
Huh? Why would churning out all-stars create any controversy at all?
The controversy comes from Omar having had 3 years to work the international market and there are currently no great prospects at even the mid-levels of the farm system to show for it.
By this time I think you would expect at least 1-2 good prospects at the high A level.
Drafting real young kids may give an organization more time to mold them, but these kids are also further away from being major league ready and hence much harder to project and a lot riskier.. The Mets shouldn’t neglect the amateur draft in lieu of international talent because of these risks.
What’s troubling is how bad the St. Lucie team is right now. This might indicate a failure in both drafting and mining the international talent. Double trouble.
Correction — Meant to say except for F-Mart.
Also Reyes and Wright came in under Steve Phillips’ watch.
Ruben Tejada and Ezequiel Carrera are both good prospects at Hi-A from our IFA classes. They’re both struggling, granted, but they’re still solid prospects with terrific tools.
They were both just signed this year though right? I know Tejada is, and as far as I can tell they’re only in Hi-A because we’re rushing them like we seem to do with all our prospects.
They were both signed in 2006.
How do you define “good” prospects. Neither has done much in the minor leagues. Has either been anointed a top prospect by BA?
They’ve been mentioned as some of the Mets better prospects by Sickels and BA. Neither are elite prospects, by any stretch, but they have been recognized as solid prospects. Jose Reyes, coming from a similar background, wasn’t considered an elite prospect until he had spent a few seasons in the system.
I’ll add that I know our farm system is one of the weaker ones in the game, so simple recognition isn’t saying a great deal.
The Mets need to start becoming the Arizona Diamondbacks is some respects. The Mets need to start drafting guys that can make an impact in a couple of years or maybe even pull a Joe Smith