No Mets On MLB Top 50 Prospects

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• Mr North Jersey January 26, 2011 at 10:16 am

  The Royals have 6 prospects in the top 50?
  • Donal January 26, 2011 at 10:22 am

    I’ll be honest, I expected more, the way they hoard them and with the reputation their farm system has.

    The rest of the organization is a cluster frak, but they can develope farm hands like nobody’s business.
  • Hojo's Mojo January 26, 2011 at 10:31 am

    When I read your comment I thought that maybe I had made a typo as actualy wrote this post late last night after the show and scheduled it to appear this morning. That number is correct and it looks like they have some solid potential major leaguers on the way. I believe it was last month’s issue of baseball america where they ranked Kansas City as the best minor leagues in baseball.
    • Mr North Jersey January 26, 2011 at 10:36 am

      Sorry Hojo for confusing you for that sec. No I was just surprised that they had 6 of the top 50.
  • t agee January 26, 2011 at 3:17 pm

    Royals are LOADED. Especially with pitching. If it was the top 100 prospects they’d probably have 10-12 pitchers on it.
    • Donal January 26, 2011 at 3:21 pm

      Shame they don’t know what to do with them.
    • t agee January 26, 2011 at 3:32 pm

      Well they will, their timing it so all their prospects will come of age at the same time. That’s what the trade of De Jesus and Grenike was about.

      From high A on up they have 3 LHP, 3 RHP 2 catchers, 2 first basemen, a third basemen and a SS that are among the top 20 prospects in the league in which they play. Top 20 out of about 300. Mostly all of which are going to be in AAA or AA this year.

      This is all from the work they started doing in 2008.

      With continued advancement they should have them all up here in June of 2012 – 2013 so their really not that far away from competing against the Twins for quite a few years.
• Donal January 26, 2011 at 10:23 am

  Is Mejia no longer considered a prospect, or did he really drop that far?
  • Mr North Jersey January 26, 2011 at 10:37 am

    Mejia is a prospect but just didn’t rank that high.
  • Hojo's Mojo January 26, 2011 at 10:41 am

    By allowing Mejia to spend more than 45 days on the major league roster, the Mets have let Mejia lose his rookie eligibilty. You wont see him on too many propspects lists simply because he isn’t eligible by some standards.

    His 4.62 ERA and 1.70 WHIP with the Mets also casted some doubt on Mejia who was an international free agent and did not got through the MLB Draft so there was very little background history on him other than what Mets scouts released.

    I believe he will have a solid season in AAA and make his way back to the Mets and have a productive career without looking back.
    • Mr North Jersey January 26, 2011 at 10:46 am

      So Mejia lost his rookie eligibility? Damn I didn’t realize that.
      • Davidthemetsfan January 26, 2011 at 3:36 pm

        Mayo said Mejia would have been a top 10 prospect if it weren’t for his rookie eligibility. Look down his twitter.
        • stick January 26, 2011 at 3:46 pm

          another reason you can’t take these rankings as anything more than a diversion for entertainment.
        • t agee January 26, 2011 at 3:51 pm

          Every team has a guy who would have been eligible if it weren’t for a call up. Most of them though would have been Major League ready, not 20 years old with only 1 pitch.
          • Donal January 26, 2011 at 4:09 pm

            Mejia actually has a decent repetoire of pitches. Thats why he was so highly ranked before. Jerry just only allowed him to use the cutter.
        • Mr North Jersey January 26, 2011 at 4:01 pm

          Thanks Dave for the info i appreciate you taking the time to post it.

          Thanks again.
• METS62FAN January 26, 2011 at 10:45 am

  Considering Davis,Thole,Tejada,Mwjia, Niese,Gee,Murphy,EvansDuda are ALL on the 40 with the best now listed as regulars is there any suprise the farm has yielded it’s produce as we sacrificed our first round selections to immediate MLB needs as well as selectively avoiding selecting top talents requiring slot violation.
  Should it be better? YES
  Could it have beebn better? YES
  Should this constitute any suprise? ABSOFUKINGLUTELY NOT! WHY?
  There are few blue ribbon seedlings available past the third round where we’ve ben mining our selections.
  • Mr North Jersey January 26, 2011 at 10:47 am

    Yea i think the surprise would of been if a Met had cracked the 50.
  • t agee January 26, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    This is the thing though ’62, We have continued to draft for pitching every single year despite the fact that pitchers bust 3-1 over position players. Position players hit their peak earlier than pitchers and can be traded for pitching too.

    For a team that hasn’t produced even a good RFer in 25 years and a good LFer in 40 years, one two way SS in fifty years, one and a half 3B in fifty years and at the absolute most 4 second basemen (Hunt, Backman, Vina, Alfonzo) in fifty years it is a f****n crime that we continue to pick pitchers who bust almost every single time.

    Pelfrey was a highly regarded pick we got #9 in the first round in front of Hamels and Cain. Neise was a good 2nd round pick and Gee a fantastic #21 pick regardless of how he turns out but the sheer number of 1st 2nd and 3rd round bust we have had is staggering and the players we could have selected even more staggering.

    How would you feel if we had McCann at catcher to pair with Thole, Pedroia at 2B and the Marlins Mike Stanton in RF, with Kyle Drabek breaking into the rotation this year and the #1 prospect in all of the minor leagues, Mike Trout a RH hitting Lenny Dykstra type in AA coming up for CF?

    We could have. We gave up our 2nd round pick for David Weathers in 2002 and lost the chance to draft Jon Lester or Brian McCann. David Weathers?

    We drafted a 2nd round bust (Matthew Durkin at #3) while the Red Sox got Pedroia at #65 (late 2nd round) in 2003.

    We gave up (voluntarily for Alou) our #1 pick in 2007 and the Marlins picked Mike Stanton early 2nd round.

    The Phillies selected Kyle Drabek with OUR #1 pick in 2006 which helped them get Halliday. We then sold Wagner and the #19 and #39 picks in the 2010 draft to Boston for a DH.

    UFC-Rod cost us the chance to draft Mike Trout the number 1 rated prospect in the minor leagues taken by the Angels 1st round #25.

    It is a fallacy that you have to be picking in the top 10 in order to draft a future All-Star or MVP candidate. What you have to do is collect as many picks as possible and avoid selecting all pitchers whose bust rates are off the charts especially when you have SO many weak spots in your starting eight. Get your eight under control with 24 highly rated prospects and let ‘em fight it out to get up here. Keep the best and some depth and trade or go FA for a couple of big time aces AFTER they have avoided busting and injury AND learned how to pitch up here.

    It’s nice to see we have the 9 guys we drafted on the 40 you mentioned above but can you really compare Thole, Tejada, Gee, Murphy, Evans and Duda to McCann, Pedroia, Stanton, Drabek, and Mike Trout?
    • METS62FAN January 27, 2011 at 9:18 am

      T, u’ve so much misinformation among your specuations that I only have time to bother with the most eggregous of them all. IMO this is the most ludicrous statement:
      “one two way SS in fifty years, one and a half 3B in fifty years and at the absolute most 4 second basemen (Hunt, Backman, Vina, Alfonzo) in fifty years it is a f****n crime that we continue to pick pitchers who bust almost every single time.”
      I’m guessing we need to define “2 way SS” more clearly since, if u & I agreed that it meant one that was botrh defensively & offensively adaept, I’m certain Reyes,Foli,& Elster would fulfill the criteria for 2way SS. No?
      As well as Garrett+Wright+Alfonzo = much more than 1.5 3RD basemen

      As regards pitcher selections Vs. Positional ones I would guess the home venue has a considerable amount of influence regarding the methodology being used. We’ve had the #1 position(when entire board is open & available) 5 times(1966,1968,1980,1984,1994) with which we chose 4 positions & 1 pitcher to this breakdown:
      1966-Steve Chilcott(C) Anteloppe Valley HS
      1968-Tim Foli(SS) Notre Dame HS(Sherman Oaks,CA
      1980-Darryl Strawbeerry(OF)Crenshaw HS
      1984-Shawn Abner(OF) Mechanicsburg,PA HS
      1994-Paul Wilson(RHP) FSU

      Those are the few times we’ve been in the #1 spot with the entire draft available to us; but perhaps yuo’re thinking of the 2 #2 spots we had in 1965(Les Rohr-LHP) & 1979(Tim Leary-RHP) in 1965 the A’s selected Rick Monday #1; in 1979 the Mariners opted for outfielder Al Chambers before we made our selection.
      T, I’ll certainly concede that Steve Phillips’ draft tenure was predominantly focused on what he considered baseball’s most valuable “coin of the realm” PITCHING,PITCHING,PITCHING as he was often quoted for his beliefs that pitching couuld be used to acquire whatever immediate need should occur and thus he hoarded all makes & models basicly prompting the Mets to hire Rick Peterson to evaluate those assets throughout the franchise charging him to separate the weeds from the seeds as Jeff’s personal Special Assistant in charge of pitching(dubbed by press as “THE PITCHING CZAR” which needed to be converted officially to “Pitching Coach” to allow him unfetted access to in-game pitching @ the MLB level. It was this over-abundance of mediocre grade pitching that prompted Peterson’s being granted complete & full autonomy over the entire franchise’s pitching program a virtual unofficial “PITCHING GM” which led to the franchise wide application of Perterson’s methods as he also had unfetted power in employment decisions on every pitching coach throughout the organization & as reports surfaced that certain individual pitchers balked at altering their established style to accomodate the “METHOD” Rick summaraly “ordered” their ‘banishment’ typically through Jeff’s ordering the recalcitrant pitcher traded or released. Thus we lost Peterson heretics Kazmir,Bell & Lindstrum and since Peterson’s demise there has not been another topnotch pitching prospect mysteriously dealt in desperation.
      T, historically speaking the NYM franchise has played it’s home games in a pitching friendly venue and has most certainly made it’s mark based upon the sterength of it’s pitching SEAVER,KOOSMAN,GENTRY,MATLACK,SWAN,McGRAW,GOODEN,FERNANDEZ,DARLING,TERRELL,PELFREY,NIESE,GEE,(Gen.K?). To one degree or another provided what anyone has had a right to expect now that’s not to say or imply that each and every one was a significant accomplished contributor; but as u so conveniently choose to ignore is the absolute crapshoot the amateur draft actually is as only 89% of ALL #1 SLOT DRAFT PICKS (the socalled BEST amateur that particular draft). While I’m certainly not what I consider well versed in American League baseball rosters a cursory perusal of EVERT first selected amateur since 1965 certainly reveals many more names I never heard of than those that became household names.
      Can the NYM do a much better job of drafting? Certainly! Does that automatically provide us with better teams? Not in my opinion. Some familiar names that were once highly touted premere amateurs(as very first selected); Ron Bloomberg(NYY.’67), Mike Ivie(SD.’70),Bill Almon(SD.’74), Bob Horner(ATL.”78),Mike Moore(SEA.’81), Kris Benson(PIT.’96)
      As, I hope this illustrates effectively Vegas & AC have games with better odds.
      • t agee January 27, 2011 at 9:53 am

        ’62, Misinformation? Tim Foli 251/283/309, Elster 228/300/377 ? Two way? OK. Garrett was a rule 5, I consider Alfonzo a 2B since that is where his greatest success occurred. The half I was referring to was Hubie Brooks.

        ’62, the draft is much more than the 1st pick of the first round.

        We are continuing to select pitchers with almost every high draft pick we have and they continue to bust at staggering levels. Check out the 2007 draft 1-7 and then tell me why we haven’t developed a RFer in 25 years or a LFer in 40 years.

        We could have Mike Stanton in RF for the next 6 years bare minimum if we hadn’t GIVEN our #1 pick away for a 40 year old LFer. Failing that we could STILL have selected him instead of Kunz who is yet another in a long line of 1st, 2nd and 3rd round pitching busts.

        Basically because we haven’t developed our own LFer we had to spend a #1 pick on Alou which cost us a RFer.

        We could right now have the #1 prospect in all of the minors but we gave away the pick for UFC-Rod.

        We could have drafted Brian McCann or Jon Lester in the 2nd round but we preferred to use our pick on David Weathers as a free agent.

        We could have drafted Dustin Pedroia in the 2nd round but preferred another pitching bust Matthew Durkin.

        Pitchers bust frequently and are at their best from 27-34. Position players bust less often and are best at 24-32. They also play better D and run the basses better at that age. We have it backward. Draft hitters, get us a RFer, LFer, C, SS, 2B and we can use our cash and leftover prospects for pitchers that A.) Haven’t busted. B.) Are not injured and C.) Know how to pitch.

        I stand by my statements.
        • METS62FAN January 27, 2011 at 1:03 pm

          T, I’m very much aware that the draft is much more than #1s in the first; I specifically chose that as my criteria since it’s the purest indicator of a philosophy u claimed permeated the organization’s draft concousness. That Primary position is absolutely the ONLY pure source since the entire inventory of the full draft is available to be chosen, there is no need to settle because the craven choice is already off the board. For example the choice of Rohr in 1965 would seem to support your arguement; but the unkown is whether or not Rick Monday had been the intended pick; but they settlede on Rohr since the A’s snatched Moday. Thus, in 4 out of 5 yeasrs when they had the option of choosing any position available they bypassed a pitcher for a positioner totally disproving your theory as relevant.
          • t agee January 27, 2011 at 7:48 pm

            ’62, I never made any statement about the first pick in the first round other than to agree with you that it’s unobtainable, hopefully. The examples that I give in my longwinded rants are from 1st round #16 and 2nd and 3rd round picks. My point was, and is, that there is great talent available in the mid to late 1st round, supplemenatry round and 2nd and 3rd rounds, why do other teams get it and we don’t?

            I’m also not sure what 1965 has to do with anything. Are you kidding around?

            Let’s discuss the draft over the last 10 years, Rohr, whoever that is would be long retired by now unless he was the MGM lion and even then….

            Going back to the last 10 years of our draft we have only once picked a position player 1 and 2 (2008 Davis and Havens) One other time we picked a position player 1st (Milledge) Other times we have picked 3 4 5 or even 6 pitchers and ALL have busted.

            And by the way ’62, Foli .592 career OPS and Elster lifetime .228 BA TWO way players? Your kidding around with me again huh ’62?
            • METS62FAN January 28, 2011 at 9:44 am

              t, you stated your belief that the Mets had a flawed “pitching over positional” bent to their drafting policy.
              my point was to specificaly preclude the assumation portion of your assertion by focusing on the purest picks that could not have been altered due to non-availability of first choices that would skew the choices one way or the other. as very first selection the Mets hasd a pure choice to select either a pitcher or a positional by picking positional 90% of the time when they also had every potential pitching choice before them, in my opinion slams the lid on your speculative assumption.
              • t agee January 28, 2011 at 10:25 am

                ’62, Your only discussing the few times that we have had the 1st pick in the draft because for some reason your trying to avoid my point.

                I never bring up the first 9 picks or so because we shouldn’t be concerning ourselves there. Not to say we haven’t drafted in the first 9 recently but it really has nothing to do with anything I’m talking about.

                Either does 1965.

                I’m talking about 1990 – 2010.

                Tell me why in your opinion we have not developed a RFer since Darryl, a LFer since Cleon, one two way SS in our entire history, two 3rd basemen, two centerfielders, one (or 2) first basemen.

                What do you think the reason is ’62? Bad draft position, bad drafting, bad developing, slotting restrictions, poor drafting philosophy?

                I’ve stated quite clearly that we should be drafting our position players to finally address these constant holes in the line up once and for all, and with MANY prospects at each position and then trading or going free agent for big time aces who A.) Have made it up here without busting B.) Who are not injured and C.) who already know how to pitch.

                Without going back to 1965 or some other artificial barrier like only focusing on the few times we had the first pick or claiming Elster and Foli were good two way SS’s please tell me what do you think the right way for us to procede with the draft is.
• Harry C January 26, 2011 at 2:48 pm

  Gee, there is t agee bitching about the Mets farm. What a unique post. Gee, agee and all the lovers of the new do nothing regime, how come the Phillies, who most of you said have a barren barren farm have two guys on the list?. Can’t be possible. This guy can’t know as much as you all can he???? in a year all 50 will be Mets,,,, has to be since the gms will show the world their 50th rounder is better than anybody’s else’s first rounder…. lol
  • Donal January 26, 2011 at 2:56 pm

    What does this have to do with Alderson? The new FO hasn’t even had a chance to draft anyone for the Mets.

    And just because the Phillies have 2 good players on the list doesn’t mean their whole farm system is good. They may have just lucked out. You’ll see this hurt them soon.
  • JerryG15 January 27, 2011 at 9:30 am

    A post like this just proves what little you know about the game as a whole. You are a waste of time and bandwidth.
• t agee January 26, 2011 at 3:10 pm

  Harry maybe you think a year of David Weathers was better than 6-10 years of Jon Lester or Brian McCann.

  Maybe you prefer to have 1st and 2nd round busts instead of Pedroia at 2B or Stanton in RF.

  Maybe you prefer to have had 1 1/2 good seasons and 2 1/2 injury marred ones from Billy Wagner (at 44 million) instead of 6-10 years of Kyle Drabek.

  Maybe you would prefer to have one year of Chris Carter as opposed to 6-10 years of Kolbin Vitek AND Anthony Ranaudo.

  Maybe you would rather have 3(4?) years of UFC-Rod (at 54 million) than the #1 ranked prospect in all of Major League baseball.

  Maybe that line of thought is why you prefer Omar’s method rather than a new approach that hasn’t been tried here during the Wilpon error.

  Don’t worry Harry, if Alderson gets sacked we’ll be acquiring these players as soon as they turn 35.
  • METS62FAN January 27, 2011 at 11:02 am

    T, when will u awake to the simple fact that despite your claims of barren wastelands @ Citi, it’s the Flagship in Flushing that is the breasdwinner of the entire Franchise & unlike you a vast majority of potential butts for those seats will never go to or think much about a minor league game or player. I’ve lived most of my adulthood outside of the mertro area in what are the hinterlands populated by minor league team venues throughot Southern California, Southern Georgia & now Southern North Carolina. I have certainly run across fans who specialize in ignoring the Major League affiliate while bleeding for their Knights, Mudhens, Bulls, Chiefs Zephyrs & Ironpigs. In 30 years they number just 2 people 1 man, 1 woman.
    Ftrom the Wilpon’s perspective the Farm is pure overhead & obviously their business model is based upon overhead reduction, we know they aren’t baseball people so don’t get your panties twisted. We also know they aren’t correct; however without proving them wrong by winning ‘your way’ it’s nearly impossible to convince them what they’ve seen from the Bronx is a mirage!
    T, even amongst the believers your zealousness about draftpicks,farm teams is at an Extreme Level. If u truly want to be taken seriously u must stop assuming everything remains at a constant in a player’s history if he’d been selected by NY instead of elsewhere & that every firstrounder is a flower waiting to blossom & that weeds are easily culled/avoided.
    What’s strikingly obvious to me is the dubious duplicity of your commentaries as on one thread you maul the Mets for their 25 yrs of WS abstenance while on the very next thread you’re likely to lust after Royals prospects without ever considering their WS futilities. You certainly can’t have it both ways & u certainly need to accept that the Wilpons are easily the poorest big market owners with an estimated value of a mere $500M
    source:http://blog.prorumors.com/?s=how+nl+east+owners+made+their+money

    it’s arguable how long they can stand deliberate mediocrity(awaiting farm produce) while neighboring alongside deliberate excessiveness in purchasing the Best of EVERTHING MLB related.
• sarge January 26, 2011 at 4:05 pm

  I guess finishing last for many years does have its rewards for some teams, you get to have your prospects listed int the top 50 list, wow!
  How many players did those teams draft over the many years of mediocrity to be proud of having so many on the list while your major league team continues to stink and finish out of the playoffs, year after year.
  • Mr North Jersey January 26, 2011 at 4:15 pm

    For me personally that was what was surprising. How does a team that is so bad for so long have 6 prospects in the top 50?

    Have they always had so many highly regarded prospects or is this the 1st time?

    If this is not the 1st time then what in the world is happening with those prior prospects? Did they just not live up to the hype? Are they being traded away? Are they being lost to injuries?
    • Mr North Jersey January 26, 2011 at 4:17 pm

      I would think the team has been so bad for so long one of the causes was that they cant become good via the farm unlike the Rays who have been able to have success via their farm system.
      • METS62FAN January 27, 2011 at 10:10 am

        North, oh contrare, the isuue is two fold we haven’t been bad enough as draft order is based upon reversed standings which ostensibly has led to the Braves domionance of the 90s predicated upon sucking throughout the 80s, The Rays current success backed by their prior ineffectiveness. EWen our own plethora of young talent in the late 60s,early 70s can be tracked back to the bumbling early steps which we virtually repeated in the 80s built upon the mid-late 70s;

        No, North, the game of draft building has subsequently changed since JD Drew balked at being dictated to supported by Scott Boras’ holdout strategy enabling these unproven,untested amateur suspects to set guidelines(demands) for their imprimatur. this prompted a retaliation from owners to deliberately skip those initially few top tier amateurs perceived to have the more outlandish demands, eventually this caused a number of former touted first round selections to slip into second round availability where their original demand levels were unlikely to be tolerated let alone met, coincedently occuring about that same timeframe was the alteration of the F/A compensation methodology to include draft picks instead of unprotected rostered players.

        it did not take the ubercompetitive Sox & Yanks long to create a loophole to restore their shot at the best available amateurs despite losing first round positioning by openning their wallets in selecting the “fallen” high demand first rounders with their second round pick by agreeing to meet their original financial demands regardless of it being a second round selection slot odstensiblyretoring their pick by willingly paying the firstround freight for a secondround selection. Small & mid sized franchises unable to meet these demands in the first place in the initial round cried foul at being out muscled for the top talent the standings reversal was intended to give them a first shot at.

        Those anguished cries of FOUL PLAY were heard & addressed by the Commissioner, Selig, onetime sm-mid sized owner. Enforcable Rules changes must be subject to a full Ownership vote, lacking that Selig used his powers under “best interest” to publish VOLUNARY SLOTTING GUIDELINES that deliniated acceptable ranges of remuneration/bonuses/roster positioning that can be acceptably used to secure the signature of a player based upon the position of his selection within the draft process. Thus paying first round level monies to players selected in subsequent rounds was no longer allowed under “THE GUIDELINES”. As, it’s a guideline & not a RULE participation is Voluntary.
        UNFORTUNATELY of all the major market teams, the New York Mets, owned by Fre Wilpon, volutarily agreed to abide by them as if they were rules.
        NORTH IT IS FOR THIS VERY REASON WHY THE ADHERANCE TO THESE GUIDELINES IS, IN MY OPINION, THE MOST SELF-DESTRUCTIVE,ILL ADVISED DECISION IN FRANCHISE HISTORY.

        Fred’s public decalaration of NYM adherance/subjugation had been addressed to no avail internally by Minaya & Alderson has already stated his belief that the organization’s position vis a vis adhereance should be reviewed.
        • Mr North Jersey January 27, 2011 at 10:52 am

          1st I want to say your reply was very well written and you made some very good points. Thanks for taking the time to help me better understand.

          Now The bad part. The comment I made that you replied to was not about the Mets. I was talking about the Royals.

          sorry I was not more clear on that.
          • METS62FAN January 27, 2011 at 12:48 pm

            No matter, KC doesn’t consider themselves bound to the slots.
            • Mr North Jersey January 27, 2011 at 12:54 pm

              
  • t agee January 26, 2011 at 4:48 pm

    Drafting 1st 2nd and 3rd is not where you want to be drafting and certainly helps a lot with minimizing mistakes but the Royals have picked up guys on this list in the late first round, 2nd round, 3rd, 4th and 5th rounds. Those players were available to everyone, some a number of times.

    Drafting well doesn’t preclude you from making the playoffs and making the playoffs doesn’t preclude you from drafting well. Drafting Dustin Pedroia in the 2nd round #65 overall, didn’t prevent the Red Sox from winning the World Series a few months later and it certainly didn’t keep them from winning it a few years later when Pedroia had made it up here.

    Everything else being the same had we not drafted Matthew Durkin (a typical Met washout) with our #3 pick in the 2nd round that year Pedroia almost certainly would have been the difference between us finishing out of the post season in both 2007 and 2008 by only a game or two AND would have spared us signing Castillo to a 4 year 24 million dollar contract because as the refrain goes “but who else were we going to get to play 2B?”

    Arguably the 24 million saved on Castillo, plus another 24 million or so in extra post season revenue, and who knows maybe even a World Championship could have helped buy ourselves another ace.

    The Royals have also been to the playoffs 3 less times than we have in the last 23 years and have exactly the same number of World Championships during that time.

    They also have been to the post season as often as we have in 7 less seasons
    • Donal January 26, 2011 at 4:54 pm

      Thats a lot of faith in the Mets talent developement. For all we know, Pedroia would have been part of the Putz deal.
      • t agee January 26, 2011 at 5:24 pm

        Why not Donal, Everyone else Seattle wanted wound up there. Drafting well isn’t the whole thing anyway, you also need patience, develop the players well and bring them up when their ready.

        My point really isn’t whether we would have pulled another Kazmir, it’s more along the lines of how other teams address their needs. For a team with as many needs as we have every year I would think it pretty reasonable to see how our competitors do things.

        Boston acquires free agents but they also acquire veterans a couple of years away from free agency and then let them go collecting extra high round draft choices which they combine with going over slot to help insulate them from getting slaughtered in the free agent market every year.

        They put time, energy and money into their draft and farm system. We have given away 3 #1 or supplementary picks in the last 5 years, failed to take back 3 more and handed over a couple of other #1′s and a couple more #2′s. Combine that with the staggering number of top round pitching busts when we do keep the pick and IFA stagnation and then rushing ill prepared prospects and it’s obvious why this team has so many holes in the starting rotation, bullpen, starting eight and the bench year after year.

        The last time we had 2 front line starters in the rotation was 2000. We haven’t developed a RFer in 25 years, LFer in 40, One SS and One 3B in 50 years. We’ve been looking for Fonzie’s replacement for 10 years, we spent 50 million on 2 guys who didn’t work out. Most teams would have had a guy already groomed to replace Alfonzo WHEN he left, we couldn’t be bothered.

        Other teams drafting behind us or in later rounds draft AND develop players that go on to represent them in the All-Star Game, get MVP votes, even win the MVP and Cy Young.

        No one holds the scouting director accountable. The Wilpon’s cheaping out on the draft, Omar doling out draft choices left and right rather than BUILDING a team. More often than not when we lose a free agent we don’t even offer arb to get a couple of picks back, and way more often than not when our players leave it’s to retire after a couple of crummy seasons here.

        If anyone ever looked under the hood to see WHY we have had such poor results on the field and lead the Major Leagues in only 1 category, cost per win, they’d trace it right back to the neglect of the draft and the disdain of the farm system.

        Everyone else has caught on when are we going to?