NYM Record vs all 30 teams
2011 19th place…
2010 20
2009 25
2008 7
2007 10
2006 2
2005 11
2004 22
2003 27
2002 19
2001 15
2000 5
1999 6
1998 9
1997 7

Or do you believe that there are 300 job openings in Major League baseball every year?

Don’t forget either that the Astros 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th best prospect may not even be a part of a true 300 top prospect list and yet are there because each team automatically gets 10.

The better list to look at is the top 100 (no limits – a team could have 5, 10, 15, 20 or none at all) That type of a list has a far bigger success ratio than the team top 10.

The list I prefer is the top 20 in each of the 13 minor leagues. That one is the most relevant in my opinion. Best 20 out of about 700.

The Met’s results with prospects takes a complete 180 degree turn coinciding with the Wilpon’s becoming full partners in Nov. 1986.

Everyone is aware of how big a role was played by scouting, drafting and developing the mid 80′s championship team but after that the following are the best players who made their debut with the Mets over a 25 year period.

Catcher: Todd Hundley Vance Wilson Alberto Castillo

1B Ike Davis Daniel Murphy Mike Jacobs

2B Edgardo Alfonzo Marco Scutero Fernando Vina

SS Jose Reyes Rey Ordonez Jeff Keppinger

3B David Wright Ty Wiggenton none

LF Terrence Long Benny Agbayani Jayson Tyner

CF Jay Payton Preston Wilson Carlos Gomez

RF Jeremy Burnitz Alex Ochoa Butch Huskey

SP Bobby Jones Pete Schrouk Mike Pelfrey

RP Octavio Dotel Heath Bell Jason Isringhausen

Total of 19 All Star seasons 13 of them for us.

In addition Gerry Hunsiker was the Met Farm director from 1988 -91. Steve Phillips was the Met farm director from 1991 until 1995 (During the unfortunate disintegration of Generation K) and Jack Z (current Seattle GM) from 96- 98. Duquette 1999 – 2000. Guy Conti 2001 – 2004 Tony Tijerina 2005-2007. Luis Aquayo 2007-2009. Terry Collins 2010.

not one team had above 51 prospects out of 100!

It’s a coin flip dude you just refuse to admit it!

What was the record of the teams who had the most prospects over that period of time?

Teams who lost a lot will always have more PROSPECTS on BA’s list because they get the top picks in every draft and since BA stated that performance is not the key but PROMISE is, that just puts anyone drafted at the top of the 1st round immediatly on the list (AS Nimmo has with us) because if he does EVERYTHING expected of him at the time he was picked in the top of the first round he will be the best player!

This list is based on PROMISE and all SCOUTS being correct! Not how those guys actually do or what they have done. That on;ly comes into play after they have failed to remove them off the list!

So basically any team who has a bad record over the last 10 years will by the parameters used have the most top prospects on BA’s list over that period of time! Because they will pick high and get the most PROMISING HIGH POTENTIAL players.
And the only thing that would change that advantage is blowing the pick or failing to sign that pick. The Exceptions (ie Atl) have to do with them making trades for some of those names on BA’s list!

And you seem to miss the main point about the BA lists, it’s not about who they call top 100 PER TEAM it is the top 100 of ALL rookies you guys use to trash our current MiL system.

How many of those Rookies that get listed actually make the team you credit with having them?
How many were actually drafted by the team and how many were traded?

As usual with your research it is the info you don’t include that explains WHY the numbers you present are the way they are!

You hide them because if you show them you see that the reason they have the numbers they do is either due to losing wholesale to acquire them or via trades which have nothing to do with how well they draft themselves but how well they trade their bigger names to get those guys who are listed!

So this goes back further than just the Wilpons sole ownership and Omar at the helm. I find that very interesting, considering so many comments at this sight lately have done nothing but debate Omar vs. Sandy as if either/or are solely responsible for the current state of the Mets. Then again, I’m not sure who how much turnover there has been in player development and scouts over the past 15 years. I’ll be honest in saying I never paid much attention until the Bernazard debacle.

I find it very weird that people who are impressionable enough to quote an opinion on a baseball matter from a media source like Mike Francesca, Evan Roberts, Michael Kay or even John Sterling would take issue with a very reputable source like Baseball America.

Baseball America is really more like a trade magazine dedicated to covering the industry of baseball all across the nation, and elsewhere, not just a bunch of talking heads from a relatively small geographic area concerned with just the Major Leagues.

In a business in which industry professionals who hit on three good amateur signings a year are at the top of the leaderboard being able to rank the top 10 even 25% is pretty damn good plus the fact that one organization’s # 8 may very well be another organizations # 18.

The BA list I most enjoy is their top 20 in each of the minor leagues. That’s the one which puts rankings into the context of performance relative to the prospects their competing against.

I think that your research points out overall how poorly we have done is the area of prospect development. Obviously giving away so many top draft choices ( 7 1st rnd, 5 2nd rnd, and 3 3rd rnd since 1991) through the years has certainly hindered our ability to pick up potential high impact amateurs and the way they get rushed up here to “fill holes” has a big effect on the development of the few we have drafted or signed.

Case in point is Jose Reyes himself. 2002 he starts out the season in Pt. St. Lucie (A+) as an 18 year old. 14 months later he’s in the Majors. Did he have the talent at 19 to be in the Majors? Hell yeah. Did he have any glaring deficincies when he got up here? Not really but were there things that he could have refined and improved upon and developed even more so with a slower ascent? Absolutely. .269/.333/.356 in AAA is not exactly screaming promotion even for a SS, especially a 19 year old one and the crown jewel of the organization.

What was the rush? I’m convinced it was business reasons, not baseball reasons. I’m quite sure it was partly due to the thinking Reyes could be one of those very rare players that are in the Majors as teenagers and into there 40′s which seemed like a good idea to the Met decision makers and the need to clean the stench from Steve Phillips latest version of the worst team money could buy being the primary motivator.

The following year it was deemed to be a good idea for the crown jewel to learn 2B in the Majors.

The question that really needs to be asked is would you prefer Jose Reyes 20 and 21 year old season or his 28 and 29 year old season?

Same can be said of Pelfrey and Kunz. Both of them up here in their first professional season.

2010 saw us bring up 20 year olds Jenry Mejia and Ruben Tejada. Mejia was instructed by Jerry Manuel to only throw one pitch, his cutter. Forget about anything else and for what? To pitch the 6th inning in blowouts? Tejada’s hands were being knocked off the bat and he hadn’t learned to lay off the high strike, a pitch he wasn’t able to get on top of or able to do anything with when not getting on top of and again you have to ask yourself, would you prefer to have Mejia and Tejada’s 20 year old season or their 27 year old season?

There was one reason and one reason only why these guys were up here. There was no one else. The lack of prospects in the system actually has inhibited our ability to develop the few we do have.

Why was Murphy given the starting LF job on a team hoping to win it all? No one else. Why is Thole the starting catcher? No one else. Why is Duda the RFer? No one else. Why do we have to import 5 bullpen arms every year? No one else.

All of this really begs the question of whether this was a team that really should have been giving other teams their best draft choices every year. I mean how could it be? There just isn’t a guy ready to fill a spot for you ever and even when there is they are frequently asked to learn a new position.

I thought that was something you did in the minors.

The following year

I’d say luck aside, there has to be credence to the fact that compared with the other teams you did research on, we’re lagging here. Question is….is anyone affiliated with the Mets smart enough to be doing the same type of analysis and looking for improvement?

Sigh……

I think you got my point. I’m not suggesting BA is always right, but why are they so much better at predicting some teams and other teams they fail at? To be the WORST NL Team in quality of Top 10′s over 10 years says something more to me than “Baseball America is wrong.”