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According to a list from Baseball America, the Mets spent twice as much money on the 2008 draft compared to 2007, but still 13 teams spent more.
The Mets spent $6.4 million on 42 draft picks, including their two first round picks (1B/OF Ike Davis and SS Reese Havens) and one supplemental pick (RHP Brad Holt).
…it’s a bit surprising the Mets were in the middle of pack considering they were one of two teams (Twins) to have two first round picks, but traditionally the franchise sticks to the major league recommended slotting system…
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Which is we have so few high ceiling guys.. and the ones we do have everyone is afraid to trade… for guys like Manny.. that would have us all watching post season baseball right now…
A Tim Melville this year.. signed by the Royals in the 4th round and not us! The top HS pitcher in the draft!!!
Good thing we gave Omar that extension!
Yup. 2nd highest valued franchise in baseball (behind only the Yankees). Highest payroll in the National League. Highest attendance in the NL, 2nd only to Yankees. And yet, the Mets remain in the middle-of-the-pack with regards to slotting…
…and THAT’S why the ‘Coupons’ nick, sticks!
BTW, mark my words.
Ike Davis = BUST.
You base that on what? A few months of single a ball?
I agree it’s to early to label him anything. But most scouting reports had him grading out as a solid but unspectacular major leaguer to begin with and the one big plus about him was that he was supposed to be able to rise through the system quickly and be available by like mid/late 2010. If that ends up not happening I can, which at this point it seems really unlikely he’ll be ready anytime, soon I can understand why some would label him a bust.
Davis is probably adjusting to using a wooden bat. I believe there was a guy in the Reds system who had a miserable first year in the minors and then hit MUCH better the following year.
If he is a solid ML player, that should be good enough. not everyone turns out to be an all-star. And 2 years out of college does not label someone a “bust”. Sounds like the anti Pelfrey crowd.
eeyup.
“Highest payroll in the National League”
“And that’s why the “Coupons” nick sticks”
Contradiction?
The Wilpons aren’t cheap; they’re just incompetent and not very interested at all in winning.
I don’t know much about owners, but I would imagine them to be among the 5-9 worst in baseball. (Historically, the Rangers have had the worst owners.)
The wilpons are more interested in APPERANCE rather than SUBSTANCE
The Wilpons have had absolute controlling interest in the Mets for only six years.
People still whine and pine for Nelson Doubleday, but Doubleday was a staller, the Wilpons wanted to buy out his shares long ago, but Doubleday wanted any buyer to pay for the “hypothetical” idea of a team with its own network and a new stadium.
Which is basically akin to allowing politicians rebuild the economic crisis they helped create. Doubleday wanted to be compensated for ideas that did not exist but was never willing to go in on the investment himself.
Since he has been gone, the Mets have a network, a new stadium.
The Mets also in that time acquired the biggest free agent position player and the biggest pitching prize via a trade and sign.
Yes, they are only about “looks”.
cheapness get us everywhere, but first place.
Not surprising as Omar has signed so many “can’t miss” international prospects with our resources.
I would like to know and understand the Mets’ rationale for sticking to the slotting system. If it’s their own ‘fiscal responsibility’ well then, ok, I don’t have to like it but it’s their money. But if it’s some kind of respect/fear of the commissioner it should end immediately because that once and always car salesman has done nothing to deserve fear or respect. Fiya Selig!
You can’t believe the Wilpons are following Selig’s SUGGESTED slotting system merely out of the kindness of their hearts, can you?
They’re cheap. Always were, always will be.
its because they want the AS game in 2012 (i believe) and Selig warned that teams not following the program would not be considered for such ‘gifts’
I know this has nothing to do with this post, but did anyone else think last nights Phils-Dodgers game played out just like a Mets game? I mean, with the Dodgers seemingly having it in the bag and then in the bat of an eyelash they are losing.
P.S. when is the last time Philly didn’t hit a home run in a game?
geez that one hurt…that team has a knack for doing that…of all people stairs……..but bronxton threw that right down the middle. The dodgers are in a tough spot.
Yes, I did feel that way as well. The only difference is that if it were us, the Phils would have scored the 4 runs on walks, a pop fly single, an error, and a Heilman bomb, not just the 2 simple home runs like they did last night.
And two of those walks would have been intentional to load the bases and try and set up a double play with no one out……
how are the rays spending more than we are in this draft process but we signed more people……something is wrong here.
Maybe their owners feels that the prospects their GM drafts actually pan out?
your probably right..again i dont know much about this system but i guess we need better scouts….but hasnt that been the case for years?
Uh they had the 1st pick in the draft and hence a giant draft bonus.. hence.. OVER SLOT…
I won’t pretend to know everything there is to know about the slotting system, but it just seems to me most all other teams do it, it works out for them, and they don’t incur any penalties.
So….when in Rome……
agreed..i am by far no where near an expert at this draft/overslot business but it just seems that we have more money than the rays but the rays spend more and have better talent..wheras we spend less and have avg talent….something is wrong here.
They also had the #1 overall pick……who got almost all of that money.
the wilpons love to save money.
Philadelphia fans are the worst. I’m in Philly and listening to these “die hard” fans say how they were falling asleep in the seventh inning of the game and some of them didn’t even see the end of the game. Sad.
It only happens every 13 years.. what’s to stay awake for???
Saving money on the draft is stupid. It just leads to wasting money on free agents and having less cost-controlled players.
Wilpon is not averse to spending money. He is, for some reason, afraid of the commissioner. He is the principle reason for the Mets’ underachievement in recent years.
When are any of these guys projected to be ready for the majors? Also, when is F-Mart projected to be ready?
The Mets say F-Mart would have been up and playing last season befroe Evans and Murphy but injuries keep setting him back.
I cannot understand that the Mets didn’t select Tim Melville (4th round pick of the Royals in 2008) in the 3rd round. He is a 1st round talent but fall that deep because of high demands. The Mets have the money so I cannot understand why they save it instead of taking a top prospect.
Melville dropped FAR throughout the season. I saw him pitch a couple of times and had heard reports that he was nothing like he was last year.
Sorry, can someone please explain what happens when you spend less on draft picks? It’s not like these guys can go pick themselves another team, can they?
actually if you draft someone and try to low ball them say and they dont sign with you then they hold out and re-enter next years draft and you cannot draft them. so while they cant just chose where they go they can in essence tell you to go eff yourself and play elsewhere a year later. so you only draft who you can sign and when you have alot of money that SHOULD mean you draft who smaller clubs CANT sign.
while true, this does not paint the whole picture. many small teams can try to sign top talent. if a team fails to sign their first round pick, they get a compensation first round pick of greater value the following year. so all is not lost. i believe this only applies to 1st round though
I would be careful about baseball draft prospects. How many of these kids really pan out. For every Evan Longoria, there are probably 20 other kids that were labeled “can’t miss.”
Some of these kids have contract demands that are just not worth the risk.
I think the Mets believe that they can attract free agents who want to play in the world’s biggest market. Why not throw more money at established major league players than pay some prospect a $5M signing bonus who, chances are, won’t pan out?
It’s a tough balancing act.
In the long run, free agents are always more expensive than draft picks. The going rate for a decent free agent is $10M for 4 years. Look at what Carlos Silva, who is terrible, got.
That’s $40M vs.$4M.
I’m sorry, but in order to survive in this league, you need cost-controlled, young players.
Because so far the teams that spend on these young guys are winning, and we’re not. Look at the teams in the championship series, the only one without like a top 5/10 farm system is the Phillies, and they happen to be playing in a division with 3 teams with systems ranked in the bottom ten of the league. And I believe the braves aren’t much higher than that.
Just look at this years free agent cla-ss, there’s clearly not enough talent, nor do we have enough money to spend, to fill all the holes we currently have. And with teams focusing on locking up young players early to long term contracts why would we expect it to get any better in the future?
not to mention that burrell, utley, howard, hammels, myers, ruiz, and of course j-roll are all from the phils system.
so, the mets have Reyes/Wright/Heilmann (yeah, I know!) Pelfrey, Smith, and now Murphey.
The Mets rank below Oakland on this spending chart. Unbelievable!
You do have to be careful especially when drafting high school players. The top ones can ask for a ridicules amount of money and then can a) not sign and re enter draft next year or b) be drafted not get the money they want and go play in college.
While I agree the Mets have more money then most teams and should pay a little more if needed and in no way should follow the slot system. I also don’t think they should give some of these kid’s ridicules amounts of money.
MLB draft besides a few is a crap shot.
Did any of you idiots even bother to look at the list? The post is quite misleading if you look at the actual list in that many of the teams atop that list that “outspent” the Mets are poor teams like the Royals, Rays, Pirates, Orioles, Giants, A’s etc, that don;t spend any money on thier big league teams, and who generaly have th top picks in the draft which cost them a hefty hefty premium.
While many teams on the list behind the Mets are better big market teams like the Cubs, Cards, Yanks, Braves, Dodgers, Tigers and Angels, who all tend to spend alot of $$$ on thier big league clubs and tend to have draft picks lower in the first round or not have first rounders at all.
The Red Sox are number 2, the Rangers are 7th, both of them play in big markets. And neither had as many early picks as us. The Cubs signed like 10 less players than us which means they spent a lot more per player. The Dodgers signed like 14 less than us. the Braves aren’t really a big market team but they didn’t have a first round pick which obviously means no big first round bonus. The Angels didn’t have a pick until the second round which obviously takes out a huge amount of money they would have spent. .
None of those teams you mentioned had 2 first round picks + a supplemental pick like we did. Plus look at the Yankees & Tigers totals from last year compared to ours
and the redsox have a perennial powerhouse b/c they have the best of both worlds: money on prospects, money on the big league club.
and yet they make money, fred wilpon probably thinks thats impossible.
As an aside, not to take away from your main points (which are very good, btw)… it’s worth noting that the Yankees didn’t sign Gerrit Cole, their first rounder. That probably would have cost them an additional $3-4 million, which would have been more in line with their 2007 figure and put them much higher on this list.
I know there are other factors like teams not signing guys, but thats also a point, whats the point in taking these high priced HS players when many dont even sign. They have all the leverage in negotiating since they have a 2nd option (College).
And of course there are exceptions to the norm, like the Redsox, but in general the top spending teams are the smaller markets due to picking higher and spendingless on ML talent while the bottom of the list if full of big Market teams. Could the Mets have spent more, sure, all teams could have, but this outrage over the “Mets are middle of the pack” stuff is just stupid b/c it hardly tells the whole story.
This list doesn’t take into account 1) Latin American spending. The Mets are very aggressive in terms of Volume. You won’t see Wilmer Flores, Jenry Mejia, Cesar Puello, Jeurys Familia, and their signing bonuses accounted for in this list, but they’re important toolsy players in the lower parts of our system. Why spend millions on high ceiling players from the US when you can get them at a fraction of the cost from LA? People still complain that the Mets don’t go after the priciest talent – the yankees spent much more on Kevin Deleon than the mets spent on Wilmer Flores.
2) The mets draft strategy is to a) take the best player they want in the first round, and b) then look for value after that. Heard of a guy named Dan Murphy? 13th round. Didn’t cost 4 million dollars. Would you rather have a 4 million dollar player? You don’t need to spend to find talent. Also, keep an eye on the name Alonzo Harris.
That being said, I’m not a fan of the Mets drafting and development strategy not because of money, but because I’m not sure the results justify it. How do the Marlins keep developing solid pitchers year after year after year? They draft as many tall flamethrowers as they can and see what sticks, apparenrly.
maybe in years past, but i am very displeased with our non-signing from this yr.
Baseball America posted their wrapup of NL East teams’ international signings (subscription required). They listed each of these Braves players who signed for more than six figures: LHP Carlos Perez, Dominican Republic, 16; OF Fredy Gamboa, Columbia, 16; RHP Ernesto Silva, Panama, 16; OF Hector Garcia, Columbia, OF, 16; RHP Wei Cheng Huang, Taiwan, 18; SS Fernando De Los Santos, Dominican Republic, 18; RHP Eduardo Castillo, Dominican Republic, 17; RHP Amabale Nin, Dominican Republic, 18; C Meng Hsiu Tsai, Taiwan, 18.
The Braves spent $2,230,000 overall to rank eighth in the majors in international spending. Our NL East foes didn’t spend even half that much combined, with only four signings and under $1M between the Mets and Phillies, and no signings from the Marlins and Nationals.
This is ALL Fred and Jeff. They are the ones following Selig’s slotting system.
I still want Christian Friedrich over Davis.
There’s a couple of guys I would have liked over Davis.
But yeah I just looked up Friedrich’s numbers. 13.54 k/9 and a 4.3 k/bb. He gave up a lot of homers for the amount of innings he pitched but still wow.
Anyone know if the Mets have a good catching prospect coming up? I think it’s time they start investing in one.
i think they should convert reese havens, as they had discussed.
Though I wouldn’t mind the Mets spending more on draft picks, it’s not a big deal to me. Given the resources the Mets can play with, they’re actually better off going for the sure thing in an expensive FA than gambling on a draft pick at above slot money to pan more more than an “average” ML player. An average ML player would not cut it for a team like the Mets. The Mets need stars to play here and it’s a pretty big gamble that a draft pick would pan out to be one. There’s really no incentive for them to spend above slot money on a kid that probably won’t turn out to be a star. It’s one thing to spend money on a FA who at least have some track record in the majors to make a projection that not too far off. It’s another to spend money on a kid that’s never played professional ball. It’s almore like choosing to spend $120 on Goldman Sachs stock (even in this recession) and not spending $10 on a win for life lottery ticket.
There is a lot of truth to this. There may be the occasion here and there where spending some extra money in the draft is worthwhile, and I hope the Mets do pursue that when they have the opportunity. However, it’s important to make smart picks and actually sign guys then just to throw a lot of money around. Often times as not, the ‘expected value’ of a guy is way off. You could give a draft pick a million dollars that’s supposed to be the next Randy Johnson who becomes a bust (What was that 3B the Yankees had? Drew Henson or something?) while the guy you gave pennies to to be a backup 1B who barely had a position could become a hall of fame outfielder.
It’s all about scouting.
I think when the opportunity (and the right prospect) was there, the Mets have pulled the trigger. If my memory serves, they PAID Milledge, Kazmir, and Pelfrey. Of course, Milledge would be the reason you don’t overpay for a prospect that dropped in the draft.
And another proven track is their activity in Latin America. They’ve got good scouts down there and IDed several players in recent history who they believe to have much better upside than the players available to them in the draft: Reyes, FMart, Flores, Pena, etc. And none of them cost as much as a draft pick even though the have competition for these players. I think they’re doing this prudently and given the fact that they were able to evaluate these kids in Latin America much better than some kid in high school or college baseball (where many do not play against the best competition), they may be justified.
I don’t understand why what they spent is a big deal as they signed their top draft picks. Most of the top spenders had high first round picks, requiring them to spend the extra money.
because people are obsessed with the phrase slotting system, and think if they use it enough they will sound smart, regardless of whether they interpret it correctly
Depends…..do they base their selection on what $$$ the player is likely to demand?
depends on nothing, the Mets were projected to take Davis and Havens by almost everyone in the know, there third pick might have been hedging but at the moment it is hard to argue the results for Brad Holt.
in 2007 and 2006 they had no picks of consequence, the stupid slot argument with the Mets is all built around a high school pitcher who had tommy john surgery at age 17 and wanted to be paid as if he was not damaged goods taken deep in the draft.
The MLB draft is a crapshoot unlike every other professional draft. Baseball players just develop differently than other athletes.
Albert Pujols, probably the best right hand hitter today and probably of the last 40 years, was a 13th round pick. And he was an impact player in the majors after only 1 minor league season.
I don’t need to tell everyone here about the countless other late round draft picks (10th round or later) that could be or already are in the HOF – Piazza, Smoltz, Hoffman, Oswalt, Peavy, Jeff Kent, Ryne Sandberg, Russell Martin, Jim Thome, even Jose Canseco (who was a good player roids or not at one time), Orel Hershiser, Mark Grace, Brett Butler, Don Mattingly, and Andre Dawson.
You did leave out one Mr. Keith Hernandez a 42ND ROUND PICK THE BADDEST DEFENSIVE1ST BASEMAN TO EVER PLAY THE GAME, did i mention he was pretty good with the bat too.
Hey Nichols…see if you can find your MISTAKE since you didn’t proof read before you posted…..
But hey, you never do……lol
Nichols, Cerrone and the rest of the MetsBlog blogging crew are terrible at proofreading their posts. Why expect anything more?