Chat: with Mayo, Hyde & Meyers on Mets & Draft
In an e-mail, Toby Hyde from Mets Minor League Blog had the following to say, regarding my earlier post about the Mets and drafting over slot:
“I think the system is more fair than most people give it credit for. The draft, and the current amateur signing structure rewards teams who plan ahead and allocate resources to the process. The Mets don’t allocate as many resources as other teams, including the Phillies, Red Sox, Rays or Yankees, just to name the last four World Series participants. The Mets then can’t complain that it’s unfair… Just to be fair here, the Mets did pay their first pick, Steven Matz an above slot bonus, and went over slot with 13th rounder LHP Zach Dotson and 16th rounder OF Chase Greene.”
Additionally, I had the following exchange with MiLB.com’s minor-league guru Jonathan Mayo, also in response to my earlier post:
Mayo: I think your second point about lower-market teams is a good one. The Pirates are perfect example for the past two drafts.
In 2008, they spent $10 million on the draft, $6 million on Pedro Alvarez, but were still aggressive above-slot later. In 2009, they went “on the cheap” in the first round with Tony Sanchez, then signed several high-ceiling high school arms for above-slot later in the draft.
Cerrone: I guess I just never realized how significant this is, until I listened to a few agents talk about its importance in building a farm system.
Mayo: The thing that’s been so strange about the Mets is how they’ve been willing to be so aggressive and tilt the market on the free-agent front, but so risk-averse on the draft front.
Teams like the Mets should be super aggressive and take chances with high upside guys in the draft because they can afford to do it.
To follow Mayo on Twitter, click here, and to read his minor-league blog for MLB.com, Big, Bald and Beautiful, during which he is going a lot of writing about the Arizona Fall League, click here.
Lastly, Matt Meyers, who used to cover the Mets farm system for Baseball America, and now is a contributing editor at ESPN The Magazine, said this to me in an e-mail:
“I mean, some top players do ‘slip to them,’ but they don’t bother picking them because they have no intention of signing them. For example, the Mets could’ve had Tim Melville last year in any of the first three rounds, but they didn’t bother taking him because he wanted seven figures. And it ended up being the Royals who took him in the fourth round, I believe, and signing him for over $1 million… You’ll notice the Royals and Pirates have been two of the biggest spenders in the last couple of years, giving seven-figure bonuses to kids in rounds three through 10. Instead, the Mets will stick to slot in those rounds and spend $2 million on Alex Cora. It’s a joke, and shows a complete lack of understanding of value on the part of the Mets.”
To follow Meyers on Twitter, click here.
