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Baseball America released its Mets Top 10 Prospects List today, which 
looks as follows: 1) OF Fernando Martinez, 2) SS Wilmer Flores, 3) LHP Jon Niese, 4) RHP Brad Holt, 5) RHP Robert Parnell, 6) 3B Jefry Marte, 7) RHP Jenrry Mejia, 8) SS Reese Havens, 9) 1B-OF Nick Evans, and 10) RHP Eddie Kunz.
…the weirdest part about the list, actually, is that it is written by Adam Rubin, beat writer for the Daily News…which is not to knock rubin, whose work i enjoy, it’s just, when this list comes out, i find myself looking forward to hearing from Jim Callis, or John Manuel, Matt Meyers, J.J. Cooper, of whomever else from BA typically compiled the list…
…that said, i know rubin follows the minor-league system as well as any one, and keeps in contact with any one who’s any one involved in scouting such talent, so i have no doubt his work is solid…it’s just, if i want to read rubin, i’ll read the Daily News, you know what i mean…
…that said, i’m glad to see F-Mart still getting respect…because, at this point, i have lost count of people around the game who have expressed concern to me about his progress…
…for his sake, though, the Mets are not one of them…from what i understand, Omar Minaya and Tony Bernazard are still very excited and confident about martinez, so much so that it is factoring in to their plans for filling left-field this season…because, i truly believe they envision Fernando Martinez in left field and Daniel Murphy at first 
base when dreaming up the future…
By the way, on Mets Minor League Blog, Toby Hyde answers a question about Mets prospects Jefry Marte and Wilmer Flores, who play SS and 3B, two positions that will hopefully be filled in Citi Field at least through the next few seasons.
Hyde also discusses Mets RHP Brad Holt, saying, among other things, “The chances of seeing Holt in the Big Leagues in 2009 are very, very low, bordering on nil, despite the fact I think he’s the Mets best pitching prospect.”
Also on his blog, Hyde conducts an exclusive Q&A with Kevin Goldstein, who recently released his much-anticipated Mets Top 11 Prospects list for Baseball Prospectus, during which they discuss Josh Thole and Dillon Gee, both of whom were left off of Goldestein’s list.
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Hmmm, that’s a lot of IF’s and buts. I don’t think either of those are going to be sluggers so where will the Mets get their offense from if both Murphy and Fmart are starting in 2010?
Why are we worrying about 2010??
HEY MATT,
THANK YOU FOR RETURNING TO THE ORIGINAL FORMAT.
Unless they also envision F-mart slugging .600 that seems like a pretty light hitting lf/1b combination.
Man we are right on it again Gina.
So to me that would mean that we have to either bring in a big time hitting catcher or trade Church and bring in a big time RF. I don’t like those odds as those are not easy things to find.
I agree with you on this. I would like to see how Fmart progresses this year. He needs to play a full season without injuries. As for DMurph-I’m open but again can we see a full year before we pronounce him to be the real deal. No knock on him at all-it’s just we are too quick with little body of work to back it up.
Same holds true for Nick Evans. None of these prospects have shown the power numbers needed at these two positions. mets have been without a contributing LF on a full time basis for years.
I know it is on AA ball, but I have seen F-Mart a few times vs the Reading Phils and everytime he has raked. For the past 2 years, he has had multiple hit/homer games against them and twice jacked the ball completely out of the stadium. Hopefully this will continue in the future!
According to Rosenthal’s latest column on si . com Tigers are willing to move Sheff.
the Tigers have a righty lineup – can we maybe trade Castillo for Sheffield (he has 1 year at $14mil left). He could be our power righty bat when healthy. He’s definitely a more feared hitter at this point than tatis.
he would be our 1year stop gap – I am still hoping we can get Carlos Lee from the Stros.
Pro-tip: Most prospects/minor leaguers that are 18-23 years old don’t develop their power until 25.
To soon to worry about these things.
That’s the attitude that got us in this place to start with. We are not talking about 5 years we are talking about 2010.
Wanny:
Pitchers/catchers is in 2 months. LF is a big question for our team. I think the issue is valid.
The above conversation is in reference to pitchers and catchers in 2010.
trs:
A lot can happen before this needs to be worked out. Murphy can prove to be a suitable hitter for LF or 1B or can become a failure. Delgado may earn a return. Martinez can fulfill his promise or fall flat. There’s just too many questions right now to be annointing any of these kids the future of anything. Plus, you know the Mets will always be active in free agency.
I think they’ll worry about the 2010 LFer in the winter of 2009 They’re not hard to come by. This offseason there are plenty. There will be next season too. If Martinez isn’t ready, there will be more Pat Burrells, Adam Dunns and Bobby Abreus next winter.
Not the point Wanny. You need to have a plan, and if our plan includes relying on Fmart and Murphy in 2010 then we are in trouble.
i agree with Wanny. It is WAY too early to think about 2010. You dont even know if either one of these guys is going to pan out or fall flat on their face. and you dont have a clue as to who will be available via trade in those positions
Mr. fours is right on this one.
1b – flores (i hear hes gunne end up at 1st base)
2b – murph
ss – reyes
3b – wright
lf – fmart
cf – beltran
rf – church
johan
pelf
niese
parnell
krod
i mean flores at 2nd and murph at 1st
and holt in the back of the pen with krod
Murph is not going to play 1B or 2B, and Flores is not going to play 2B…he will be too big to play SS or 2B…most likely gonna be Corner OF or 1B.
I meant Murph is not gonna play 2B…maybe 1B
Flores is a pretty big kid. 6′3″ 180lbs – he’s still young and will get bigger. Probably too big to be truning double plays around the bag from the 2B position.
Size didnt seem to bother Ryne Sandberg or Jeff Kent.
Hello 4th place!
I love these projections but that’s all they are. Can we see them in real life-floresfmartand murph have a total of 6-8 weeks major league experience. Have we seen these players on a AAA level yet besides Murphy who btw has the 6-8 weeks of experience-and I’m being kind.
Love to see these guys progress but hold off the ticket to the majors just yet-that’s a long road and there have been a huge amount of prospects who never made it to the promised land.
I thought Havens was playing 2nd base? Is him being listed at SS wrong or correct? If it is true, why would you place a high draft pick in a position you are two deep at as it is?
Because you play prospects at premium positions first and move them later.
1. How do you know we’re so deep at SS? Havens is a few years away. Flores is 17 and may not reach his promise. Jose Reyes’ legs can both fall off by the time Havens is ready.
2. You maximize his value as a SS as opposed to a 2B. Teams will always trade for prospects at premium positions.
Exactly, they will learn better defensive traits playing the premium posistions, plus by the time they are anywhere near the ML, our needs at the time could be completely different so you adjust them at a later date.
Havens was an ss in college and moving to 2nd or catcher has been discussed but he was injured most of last season so they didn’t get a chance to experiment.
Also like Wanny said these guys, Flores and Marte are eons away anything could happen.
Wilmer Flores will be here by 2010. He is the chosen one. He is the best prospect we’ve had come throught the system since David Wright. He will the #1 prospect by May, because he will be playing better than FMart. No knock on Flores, but with FMarts injury history, he will slip. i like Flores so much that I would move FMart in a deal for a #2 pitcher in a heartbeat. Have him, because the future is a season away.
He is the chosen one, I agree :) , but 2010 is very ambitious. At best, sept 2010 cup of coffee. late 2011 is realistic.
You may be right, but there are players who force you to take notice.
Can we stop this Daniel Murphy at 1B nonsense? In a good year, he will hit 10HR and is not going to 1B for his glove.
and what happened to Ike Davis?
“and what happened to Ike Davis?”
That’s what the Mets want to know!
read the Hyde – Goldstien interview on the minor league blog. They go into detail on Ike Davis. I think its in part 1 or 2.
From therealsince86 all the way to Wanny Backstra i wanna wish everybody a great and prosperous hollidays!!!!
i will be traveling to DR this weekend so guys take care and always remember that no matter what we say or die, we all bleed BLUE and ORANGE, so take care and:
LET’S GO METS~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hear that… have a good one.
Whew now I can finally take over. LOL.
Be safe.
Alex, you’re gonna miss the post announcing Tex got signed by the Mets. Hope you have the internet over there.
wheres Ike Davis? Wasnt he having trouble with his power not translating into the minors. this is why i hope we sign lowe and lose ollie so we can get back that 1st round pick. Honestly we are a big market team flores murphy and fmart will never all be on the team at the same time some combination of them will eventually be traded for someone established.
The Goldstein interview really had a good portion on Davis…In short, its way too early to judge anything on Davis from his minor league stats. Goldstein was saying that most likely, that’s the first time in his whole baseball life, Davis had struggled. Which makes a lot of sense, you rake in High school and usually in college. IOW, Davis had 6 years of great amateur info and that cant be disregarded after a few months in pro-ball.
Mex 162 game average was 13 HR. Murphy is as good a hitter.
slow down, big fella.
I found it the ultimate act of selflessness that Mex didn’t compare Murphy’s approach to his
Agree with Wanny, it’s way early on that front. Plus Mex was one of the best fielding 1B ever.
If he fills out a little more he could develop more power (20 hrs maybe?). He looks alot like Don Mattingly at the plate doesn’t he?
Murphy’s 23, there’s not much chance he’ll fill out more. He’s basically a finished prospect offensively the areas where he could be expected to make significant improvements would probably be defense.
Watched Ike hit in Brooklyn. He always managed to get at least one hit in almost every game, just no power. Could have been from the bat he was using. Thing looked like a toothpick in his hands. I figured it was from his size till I saw the bat boy pick it up and take it to the dugout. Thing looked small even in his hands. Ike has to get some strength in those arms so he can swing a real bat. As for Havens, Gina is correct. He had an injury to his throwing arm so never saw the field, he only DH’d.
Test
YAY! back to the old format!!! well close enough to the old format, still a bit confusing for me.
Yes, it may be too soon to get overly excited about Big Murph, but the reason that the Mets see him as a viable player in years to come, in my opinion, is obvious. I often hear people say that he works counts great “for a young kid”. While that is most definetly true, a more accurate statement would be that he works counts great for anyone. Also, he has show a great ability to drive the ball the other way. Right now, those are mostly balls that shoot the gaps, but remember he is still yound and developing. In many ways, he reminds me of D. wright when he first came up. “Baseball people” (and I use that term very loosley when reffering to most of the people on this site), are able to take those kinds of attributes and project them in the future. The same reason I am optimistic about someone like Murph is the same reason why I don’t see much in a guy like Evans. yes, he improved markedly towards the end of the year, but the fact remains that he has a slow bat, and many times looked completely overmatched by MLB pitching.
Any news on where 2 relatively unknowns in our system, Frank Grimes and Bob Tewilleger may end up, position wise?
I dont know much about them other than one is Homer’s enemy and the other is Sideshow Bob.
How u doing Grimy old buddy?
Capping Daniel Murphy at 10 HR as a career high is idiotic. Absolutely no reason to do that. The guy has done nothing but shatter expectations thus far, and he has an extremely mature approach at the plate, without being a pas_sive Dave Magadan [why do I always find the words with the banned sequence?]. And given how much rosters turn over, worrying about where the power is going to come from at two positions in 2010 is a little off. If these guys hit 40 doubles a pience but don’t hit 20 HR, the offense will be juuuuuuuuust fine, believe me — better than “fine.” Besides, maybe you take lumps in 2010 for the sake of 2011 or 12.
Couldn’t agree with you more.
Good for Rubin getting some extra work. I always enjoy his minor league updates on his blog.
I dont know much about them other than one is Homer’s enemy and the other is Sideshow Bob.
I could def see Murphy as our 1st baseman next year. Does anybody see him similar to a Youkilis type of 1st baseman, and the red sox have won with him. Good OBP guy, lots of doubles and good average. Plus he’s athletic enough to be a good first baseman.
Plus we get a lot of offense out of 3rd base, SS, and CF, so if we don’t have a 1st baseman or LF who hits 30 Hrs, that’s not too big of a deal.
I really believe in Murphy’s potential for some reason. It’s like “udontmesswiththejohan” said, he does give me that same vibe that Wright gave me when he first came up. I really wish the team would entertain the possibility of him manning second base more than they seem to be. He has had a good chunk of time in the off season to work on his fielding. You have the open position there and seem reluctant to let him work at it like Wright has had to work on his. Regardless of Castillo (whom no one wants anyways) he should be placed there to give the team a chance to fill the remaining OF spot with an experienced right handed sluggler for the middle of that line-up. Trade F-Mart now for that bat before he is exposed. I believe Wilmer is the one we should be holding on to anyways. I guess I’m just ranting but I strongly believe that Murph is the answer at second and that F-Mart is just the next Escobar or Ochoa (all hype no actual results).
What do we think about a trade with the Tigers?
Maybe
Castillo and a couple of low prospects for Shefield and Polanco. That would give the Tigers 12 million in salary relief. Maybe even expand it to include one of the other OF instead of Shefield and a pitcher like Willis or Robertson.
TRS: good post – i posted the same EXACT thing above 20 min before ya :-)
I know I just expanded on the deal.
if Willis didn’t stink and Sheffield wasn’t an old and injured defensive liability, I’d be all for giving Castillo away.
if Willis didn’t stick and Sheffield was in his prime, you would be giving away Wright or Reyes and then some…
at least Willis or Sheffield have an upside, Castillo is just terrible.
1. There’s no way Sheffield was ever good enough to trade players like Wright and Reyes for him. At his best, Sheffield was David Wright, only playing a corner outfield spot instead of 3B.
2. Trading one headache for two does not seem like a very good idea. Willis has been atrocious for several years now. Castillo is young enough to bounce back and be serviceable. Sheffield couldn’t even play the field last year.
Whatever happened with Carlos Muniz? Did he get traded? I’m not saying he’s great, just wanted to know what happened to him?
I believe he’s still on the team.
Eh, I’m kind of iffy on it, it would depend on how much salary we’d be taking on. Not to mention Sheffield hasn’t played consistently in the outfield in a long long time. Maybe if we could get Thames instead of Sheffield.
I thought they nontendered Thames, I guess they decided not to.
Anyway, it’s true that Shefield has not played much OF lately. I was just thinking that was a way to upgrade 2B without really costing us that much.
Thames would be a great 4th outfielder and backup first baseman for the Mets. He’ll hit for power at two positions that require some protection. As someone said earlier re: Rivera (was it TRS?), it’s never bad to have three wild card as opposed to two.
Of course, Castillo is not going to get it done. But two midlevel prospects should get the job done.
We can thank Tom Glavine for Mets having Brad Holt. He was a compensation pick for Glavine leaving.
I can’t believe people are questioning Martinez’s development. Here’s some stats for you:
In 2002, a 19 year old Jose Reyes put up a .287/.326/.425/.751 line in 275 AA at-bats (and a .269/.331/.356/.687 line in 160 AAA at-bats). The next year he put up a .307/.334/.434/.768 in 274 MLB at-bats.
In 2003, as a 20 year old, David Wright put up a .270/.368/.459/.827 in 466 A+ at-bats. The next year he put up a .293/.332/.525/.857 in 263 MLB at-bats
last year, a 19 year old F-Mart put up a .287/.340/.432/.772 line in 352 AA at-bats
Now, the argument can certainly be made that Martinez had a more impressive season than either Reyes or Wright’s last full years in the minors (when you factor in that he was a year younger and in a higher league than Wright). I’m not saying that it’s proof that he can give the Mets rookie of the year type numbers next year, as both Reyes and Wright did, but we shouldn’t be so quick to count him out either.