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In his midweek report for Newsday, baseball insider, Ken Davidoff says Mets CEO Fred Wilpon is misinformed about the team’s minor league prospects after Wilpon praised them earlier this week.
Davidoff takes a look at a few of higher-level prspects, including the underwhelimg Fernando Martinez, and speaks with Baseball America’s Jim Callis, who says the Mets minor league system is ‘thin’ with little to offer.
…i understand the criticism of the current state of the Mets farm system and Omar Minaya and company deserve to be admonished for it, but let’s be serious for a moment, even before the Johan Santana trade, the Mets system wasn’t in the greatest of shape…
…and, i know some fans are clamoring for Mike Carp to be called up to replace Carlos Delgado, but very few scouts think carp can be anything more than a power bat off the bench, as he has struggled in every defensive position he has been put in the season…meaning he’s got DH written all over him…
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Good thing we went after high ceiling players in the draft.. oh wait.. we didn’t.. that’s right.
breaking down the baseball draft just a few weeks removed seems a little premature. None of us have any idea what these guys even are now, let alone what they will develop into in a few years. All we are basing these opinions on is based on what some writer (not an expert) has to say about them. Heck, even the experts are wrong more than they are right.
in omar i trust
But Sal Pascucci is the savior, right?
I’m not sure about Sal, but I hear Val Pascucci is pretty good
LOL at “underwhelming” Fernando Martinez
Ridiculous.
Wait, don’t we need a power bat off the bench? And complaining about Carp’s defense seems a little silly, it’s not like Carlos Delgado is drawing comparisons to Keith Hernandez anytime soon.
and the fact that a lot of writers on this blog continue to be all over Pascucci, thats what seems ridiculous to me…
go to baseball-reference.com and check out who sponsors pascucci’s page.
What a shock.
I think a lot of this is just trying to see themselves influence the Mets. “Wow, wouldn’t it be cool if we could influence a real live personnel move!” And, of course, it would be a good turn for Pascucci. Then again, they don’t just conjure roster spots for feel-good stories. Somebody has to go down.
In fairness, however, I really don’t get the Andy Phillips thing.
Another 30 year old rookie who if you note was released by the Washington Nationals. LOL
It’s not like the Mets would be the first team to play a defensively challenged player just to get his bat in the lineup… Howard? Dunn? I’m not saying he’ll hit like them (though it would be nice), but those 2 belong DH, not at positions. The Mets offense is looking for a spark, andy phillips isn’t going to give it to them. Carp seems to be the only bright spot in the system right now offensively, even if his defense isn’t the greatest…
I’m sure Carp is still better defensively than Delgado. The guy doesn’t even bend over for ground balls.
fillies lose again – 2 hits, nice showing.
Lo siento – spoke to soon. 3 hits. Now it’s over.
wilpon misinformed. shocking!
zero world series as sole owner of the mets with a massive spending advantage. the mets and cubs are the only big market teams without a world series since their 1986 title with doubleday as the co-owner.
angels, 1
yanks, 6
red sox, 2
dodgers, 1
white sox, 1
mets, 0
cubs, 0
Wait, haven’t the yankees only won 4 sice ‘86?
and the dodgers haven’t even won a post season game in the last 20 years, so they aren’t really doing too well either.
4. hit the wrong key.
dodgers are loaded with talent for the next few years. loaded.
Ya know, we have been hearing about this loaded dodgers talent for about four years now it seems and how they refuse to trade it blah blah blah, thus far it appears vastly over rated.
loney, martin, kemp, ethier, and young would be starting for the mets and are all young
billingsley, kershaw would be in the starting rotation
broxton and kuo would be the 7th/8th inning guys
dewitt’s not so bad either
all 26 or younger
and we beat their brains in and they have a worse record than the hapless geriatric mets…woopie
Actually, the buyout of Doubleday occurred in 2002.
Therefore, your list should read:
Angels: 1
Yanks: 0
Red Sox: 2
Marlins: 1
White Sox: 1
Cardinals: 1
wilpon didn’t want piazza. doubleday forced it so you can drop 1999 and 2000 from the mets successes
I can’t believe this guy tried to shove Pascucci down our throats yesterday and today downplays Carp because of his glove. Something smells…
I’m not trying to shove Pascucci down your throat.
No one, including myself, is saying Val is the savior, just merely questioning why Minaya continues to give others, like Robinson Cancel and Andy Phillips, a chance before Pascucci.
Perhaps my use of the phrase “shove down our throats” was bit strong, but maybe Omar is not giving Pascucci a chance because, to borrow your phrase, he’s got DH written all over him.
Cancel is a catcher — apples and oranges. Whether the team needs three catchers is a different question. As for Andy Phillips, that’s a harder case, but he has played third and even some second in his day. Val can’t play any position, and a high PCL OPS is no guarantee a player will even be able to hit in the bigs.
I’m sure some pompous ex-college player who posts on this board can explain this for me, but I really don’t understand how a player with Carp’s hitting ability can’t learn how to play a position like first base. The guy knows this franchise is desperate for help at the position, just go out there and practice every single day. Work on footwork, positioning, glovework, whatever the hell it is first basemen do and be at least average at the position. I’m sorry, this crap just drives me crazy.
Who cares what other scouts think of Carp’s defense. I honestly don’t know much about him other than the fact that he’s been having a wonderful season thus far, but that’s gotta be enough to give him a taste of the big leagues.
After all, what harm can it do? Either keep the black hole that is Delgado in the line-up, or give some hungry minor leaguer (who actually deserves an opportunity) a shot.
Can he really be worse? Will he really cost the Mets a shot… hold on, I’m laughing at the thought… OK. Better.
A-hem… Will he really cost the Mets a shot at the playoffs? All by his lil ole lonesome? Mike Carp the playoff run killer?
Please.
Firing half your coaching staff: EASY
Making bold decisions like cutting a player who has been worse than unproductive, but also a detriment for 1.5 seasons (and counting), and replacing him with a young, hungry player who deserves an opportunity to show if he can make a difference at the ML level: HARD
Carp is 21
He’s certainly got time to improve his defense
Delgado is 36.
What’s his excuse?
ya know how Carp does not get better playing firstbase? playing DH and left field
Its absolutely crazy that a writer-columnists can respectfully defend or even allude to the fact that a young warm body, that can move to his right and left, that is currently hitting .355 could do any worse then that statue at first…Wake up man. Hell with the scouts, try tuning in to SNY a bit and watch Del “e” o at first try to get to anything that is not hit at his head….
Drop Delgado…
Oh yeah “in minaya I DO NOT trust.
Last week he was hitting .360. Today he his hitting .331.
He’s dropping like a stone. Give him time to prove himself. The big league spotlight, and the big league NY spotlight is not the place to do that.
You’d prefer he hit what? .460?
Ever take a look at top prospect lists of years passed and see how they pan out?
For those who mocked me for wanting to fire Omar because he has done nothing to help our farm system after promising to make it better I won’t say I told you so.
I will say its disappointing that it took Wilpon this much time to realize what is actually happening, and to the fans that were also blind sighted by Omar I feel sorry.
Omar is a joke, yes he got lucky with Johan but instead of calling up a prospect, our best hope is Tony Aramas Jr. That’ll put the fear of us into the rest of the National League.
Omar is a joke. All his good moves are blind luck, and the bad ones planned disasters.
yep
how did the Red Sox get David Ortiz? Mike Lowell was a throw in in the Beckett trade. they rotate $8-$10 million short stops more than they play sweet caroline at fenway. pedroia is there now but they have rotated 2B too. they paid a fortune for manny.
they drafted well without a doubt, but a lot of their success has come through luck as well.
you answered my sarcasm with this?
all good points
I saw Carp in Port St. Lucie before the ‘07 season. He reminded me a lot of Jeremy Burnitz (I hope that comparison just made you cringe).
he was just coming off of serious wrist surgery
I thought it was funny that the one and only time I’ve seen Carp play (on tv – a few weeks ago) he overran a very routine ground ball.
they happen to have a lot of positions filled for the coming years. they definitely have some holes to fill though as does every team, even with the strongest farm systems.
3 years from now, the outfield will most likely be fmart, beltran and church. infield of reyes, wright, castillo(unfortunately), 1B unknown and catcher is probably unknown too. set up guys and middle relievers can be found from year to year. kunz will be the closer probably. rotation will be johan, maine, pelfrey and they need to fill 2 spots assuming perez walks after this year.
criticize the minor leagues all you want. their team seems to be pretty concreet in the coming years. yeah, it would be nice to develop a pitcher or two. maybe niesse will develop, maybe not.
People here vastly underrate Delgado’s defense.
Now that you’ve all recovered from reading that sentence, allow me to explain.
He can’t bend over. But he does a very good job on picks and scoops, and tagging runners on throws that are up the line towards home.
He’s a bad fielder, but a surprisingly solid first baseman.
My guess is that Carp doesn’t have these skills, which would make him worse than Delgado, defensively.
And he’s only 21. It could be that the Mets feel his bat needs to mature. Not that I love Delgado by any stretch of the imagination, but if he can scoop balls in the dirt and Carp can’t, that’s a major advantage.
I like the Phillips move. He’s a first baseman who has those first baseman fielding skills, and regular fielding skills to boot. Right handed bat that isn’t completely useless at the plate. Only mostly useless. Kinda like Delgado.
Church is in RF tonight
Is he there having a BBQ?
Isnt Mike Carp in AA….who knows if he would even his .200 in AAA let alone the majors…get a clue, ive seen many games at NYSEG stadium in the Bing…it made Craig Brazell a minor league hero…and Jusin Huber….and those guys became nothing…
As for Val the savior, this actually was started by Ted Berg for SNY.tv and Ive neve understood why a guy who is 30 and has sucked at the mlb level is loved by so many on this site either…the guy is a typical AAAA player…at least Andy Phillips is a bad MLB player who can play multiple positions
Thing is, everyone seems to be saying that there’s more competition at AA and that moving Carp to AAA wouldn’t actually be a promotion, which if true is really a problem since our guys at AA don’t appear to be capable of making the jump straight to the majors. Something’s gotta give, though. At least we know that Anderson Hernandez, Michel Abreu, and the like will always have a home. I think I’d rather watch fishing than a Zephyrs game…
In the age of Google, please do not make things up to sound important.
Brazell NEVER looked like a minor league hero and while he was 23 in his second season at AA struggled to have an OPS slightly above .800 and k’d 5 times as much as he walked.
m’kay
As for Huber he put up decent numbers in AA but the fact is players can’t be compared in your heroic vacuum.
Brazell didn’t start dominating the EL until the second half of his age 22 season. Carp’s a full year younger than that right now, and he’s doing better than Brazell ever did. Believe it or not, that year makes a huge difference when you’re trying to separate the prospects from the career minor leaguers. My guess is that Mike Jacobs is the better comp, hopefully with more of an ability to hit LHP.
If there’s any knock on Carp, it’s that he’s a EL repeater (that’s what might make Evans the more exciting prospect, esp. since he’s begun to hit RHP). Contrary to what people have said, he needs to be promoted to AAA soon so the Mets have a better idea of what they have. That leap from AA to the bigs is pretty huge, and Carp has a history of starting out slow on a new level.
As for Pascucci, I think people are looking for the next Jack Cust. The similarities are definitely there; Cust homered, struck out and walked a ton in his monster PCL year in 2006, and that’s what Pascucci is doing now (and the three true outcomes are the ones most likely to translate to the big league level).
Does anyone remember when Brazell was in Binghamton? The Mets sucked and everyday in multiple papers all you read was how they needed a shot in the arm like Brazell with all of his “power”…I’m sorry that you can go look up stats at baseball reference but its amazingthe short term memory of some fans….
Think back to 2003 and remember what the state of this team was and the buzz around Brazell and how Mo Vaughn was old and not good anymore…if this does not sound familiar to you, you became a Mets fan after 04 or took a couple years off when they sucked.
The Mets farm system is not nearly as barren as everyone seems to be making it out to be. The issue, I think, is that we’re hurting for minor league bats, particularly ones ready to contribute at the Major League level soon. Carp, Evans, and Murphy are the names most commonly mentioned, but it really doesn’t seem like they’re ready yet (that was pretty obvious with Evans, at least, plus Murphy’s hurt, and Carp is mired in a lousy slump, though his average still sits around .340). And it hurts that even if they were ready, none of them is particularly adept (read: not a butcher) in the field. So I think there’s your lack of depth. As far as arms are concerned, though, we’ve got two or three decent prospects (guys who have shown some promise) at each level (up until AAA, of course, which near as I can tell is a temporary rest home for careers that just won’t die). Sure there aren’t any “sure things” but I’d rather play the numbers game than rely on a few big name prospects like, forgive me, Generation K (oops).
I agree with you. I’d rather play the numbers game than rely on a handful of outstanding talented players like Seaver, Koosman, Gentry, Ryan and later Matlack.
All wildly hyped prospects as they were progressing through the minors, right?
“Big name” does not equal “outstanding talented”. My point is, I’d rather have a handful of non-hyped prospects who have performed well in the minors (like we do) than a select few can’t miss prospects (like Bill Pulsipher and Alex Escobar).
Just got back from Coney Island to see the Cyclones. Church looked great, went 3-3, was hustling to the bags. But I think he’s playing another game in Brooklyn tomorrow. Looks like he wont be in the Subway Series until Saturday. But it was good to see him hustling….
Our sandwich pick Brad Holt had a pretty good line for you, too. I’ll take 5 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 6 K any day of the week, especially in his second pro appearance. Plus, you got to see Ike Davis’ first pro hit, a double in the second, and a Brooklyn win. Not a bad evening, I’d say.
Agreed. Davis looked real sharp and very comfortable at first. But honestly, the Ironbirds didnt look so sharp.
Well, you get that sometimes at that level, especially early in the season. And after all, you can’t control who you play, just how you play.
how is wilpon misinformed about the depth of the farm system when we knew all along that its terribly thin?
It’s not terribly thin, it’s just pear-shaped with no bust. We’ve got decent depth in the middle and bottom, just little in the way of immediate help. But that happens when you devote your entire AAA roster to thirtysomethings…
If Carp is projected to be a DH maybe trade him to AL team for something we can use this year?