18
2012
Grading the Omar Regime: The 2006 Draft
An article by Former Writers
There were some complaints about the method I used to grade the 2005 draft so I am going to try and make some adjustments with this version. I am going to do everything I did last time, but in addition to those strategies I am going to take an individual look at the Mets picks in the top 10 rounds.
Although I personally detest when this is done, I will also include some good player the Mets could have taken with their respective pick if they were fortune tellers, so it is not like I am leaving anything out of the conversation. Note: The players had to be taken after the Mets pick in that round.
1st Round (18th overall): Lost pick as compensation for signing Billy Wagner. (Phillies drafted Kyle Drabek with the pick).
Well that certainly stings.
2nd Round (62nd overall): Kevin Mulvey, RHP – Villanova
Mulvey was considered a steal this late in the draft. Baseball America had said about him, “Mulvey doesn’t figure to last past the Phillies at No. 37 overall and could go before that”. He was a college workhorse, with good command three average to slightly above-average pitches, and could reach the majors quickly.
For the 2006 and 2007 Mulvey looked like the real deal. He was already in Triple-A by the end of his first full season and looked like he was only a few months away from contributing at the big league level. The Mets sold high on Mulvey and used him as a piece in the Johan Santana deal that summer.
In 2012 Mulvey seems to be a classic Quadruple-A player. He has not had much of a window to show his worth in the majors, but in his limited action he has been dreadful. Things look like they fell apart for him last year while in the Diamondbacks organization, but he is still just 26 even if at this point his career isn’t expected to amount to much at all.
Grade: If Phil Humber succeeded this one goes down as an incomplete for now.
Mets missed out on: Trevor Cahill, Justin Masterson, and Jon Jay.
3rd Round (94th overall): Joe Smith, RHP – Wright State
It is unusual for a small college reliever who was forced to walk on the team to get drafted this high, but Smith is an unusual pitcher. He adopted his sidearm delivery while in college and took to it immediately, seeing gains on his fastball velocity as well as added movement on his fastball and slider. His new tools allowed him to post a 0.75 ERA in college and the Mets were hoping he could move through the system quickly and help a team that was close to contention.
Smith did just that and won a spot in the bullpen out of spring training in 2007 to make him the second player from the 2006 draft class to reach the majors. He instantly became a fan favorite because of his success and funky delivery, however, after two seasons the Mets decided to trade Smith as part of the J.J. Putz deal in the 2008 off-season. The theory behind that one was to strengthen the bullpen…
Smith has continued his success with the Cleveland Indians and currently has the highest WAR of any player selected in the 3rd round.
Grade: Successful selection by the Mets.
Mets missed out on: No one
4th Round (124th overall): John Holdzkom, RHP – Salt Lake CC
This was the first head-scratcher of the draft. Holdzkom was looked at as a big guy with big time stuff, but he had no command and was considered a head case—he was academically ineligible in high school and dropped out of community college because he got into an argument with his coach. It was an overdraft to say the least.
As expected, Holdzkom showed the big stuff, but hadn’t a clue how to throw a strike. Eventually his poor mechanics and need to throw the ball through a break wall caught up to him and he needed Tommy John surgery in 2009. He came back briefly in 2010, but was released by the Mets in 2011.
To me Holdzkom will be nothing more than that guy who looked like Napoleon Dynamite. If for some reason you would like to read a report on Holdzkom’s potential before his Tommy John surgery, this was a great piece written by Mike Sullivan of Scouting the Sally.
Grade: A complete bust in every way possible. This one could have easily been called at the time of the draft.
Mets missed out on: Chirs Johnson
5th Round (154th overall): Stephen Holmes, RHP – University of Rhode Island
Holmes was as dominant as any college pitcher over his three year career, but only had average stuff that played up because of his command and bull dog mentality. Unfortunately tragedy of a close one struck Holmes just after he signed and he decided to return to school instead of playing professional ball. He attempted to come back with the Mets in 2008, however, in the process he tore his rotator cuff and has yet to pitch a professional inning to this day. I guess this is one of those that we will just never know. Sad.
Grade: Unknown?/No contest
Mets missed out on: David Herndon
6th Round (184th overall): Scott Schafer, RHP – Pasadena Memorial HS
Ah the legend of Scott Schafer. Schafer was considered an overdraft, so he quickly took his money and signed with the team. He had some upside, but was your cliche high school arm with some okay stuff, no polish, and projection.
Much to everyone’s surprise, he never allowed an earned run in his Mets career…because it lasted all of two innings. To put a long story short the kid was an ignoramus. For details of his escapades you can read them here.
Grade: Mark this one down as a major bust.
Mets missed out on: Andrew Bailey (in their own backyard!) and Bud Norris
7th Round (214th overall): Daniel Stegall, OF – Greenwood HS
Stegall is the type of pick Mets fans drool over. He was a two-sport star with a commitment to play quarterback and “The U” of Miami. He had a ton of tools and the Mets got him to sign for relatively cheap price. As tends to happen with those types of players they either turn into stars or never make it past A-ball. Unfortunately Stegall turned out to be one of the guys who never makes it past A-ball because his tools just never translate to the baseball diamond. He finished with a career line of .219/.296/.299 before being released in 2009.
Grade: Classic bust.
Mets missed out on: No one
Round 8 (244th overall): Nathan Hedrick, RHP – Barton Country CC
Hedrick was an imposing presence on the mound at 6’10″ and listed at 215 lbs., although it certainly looked like he weighed more. At the time of the draft he only threw in the upper-80′s and had a “frisbee” slider, but was a nice upside play because of the obvious projection in his frame and the fact that was posting great stats despite pitching to tough competition for the first time (he was home schooled in high school and never faced top guys). In his brief stint with the Mets he showed atrocious command with a 7.9 BB/9 and was released by the Mets in 2008.
Grade: Yet another classic bust.
Mets missed out on: Dellin Betances (This is an example of why I hate these things. Everyone new Betances was a top guy, but only the Yankees could sign him so the Mets didn’t really “miss out” here.) and Allen Craig
Round 9 (274th overall): Jeremy Barfield, OF – Klein HS
Barfield was an exciting pick because of his monster power potential with his unbelievable strength and great frame that he inherited from former All-Star father, Jesse Barfield. It seemed ironic that “scouts liked his makeup” because he was arrested shortly after being drafted for throwing his father down the stairs and hospitalizing him. As a result the Mets did not sign Barfield. He is currently in the A’s farm system and has a career line of .264/.334/.394.
Grade: I’m not sure if he counts as a bust since he didn’t sign, but he is definitely close. Wash/No contest.
Mets missed out on: Ryan Kalish and Mark Melancon
10th Round (304th overall): Phillips Orta, RHP – Western Nebraska CC
I remember liking this pick a lot, which in hindsight is clearly a lot more than I should have. He had a mid-90′s fastball and nice curveball in his repertoire that gave him more potential than your average 10th round pick. He actually performed fairly well upon signing with the Mets a draft-and-follow, although as he tried to move through the system is command got worse and worse. Eventually the Mets released him in 2010. He finished his career with a 3.66 ERA and 82:132 BB:K ratio.
Grade: Bust.
Mets missed out on: Kris Medlen
Other picks of note:
13th Round (394th overall): Daniel Murphy, 3B – Jacksonville
This was just a tremendous scouting job by the Mets. Murphy just tore up the minor leagues and quickly made it to the show. He is now the Mets projected second baseman for 2012.
16th Round (484th overall): Tobi Stoner, RHP – Davis & Elkins
Davis & Elkins? I guess by default you have to give the Mets credit for finding a talent in Davis & Elkins that was able to make the major leagues. Stoner only has five MLB appearances and may never see another one after elbow surgery seems to have sapped him off his already fringe stuff. At one time though it did look like he could be a “Dillon Gee” for this ballclub.
26th Round (784th overall): Dustin Martin, OF – Sam Houston State University
Best known for being dealt, along with Drew Butera, for Luis Castillo. Has yet to crack a major league roster, but is still floating around with the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate. He could probably hold down a fifth outfielder role in the mold of Jason Pridie if called upon because of injuries.
37th Round (1114th overall): Josh Stinson, RHP – Northwood HS
A high school pitcher with potential if he made adjustments to his mechanics. He made those necessary corrections and he made the majors in a relief role last year. He didn’t put up stellar numbers, but he is on the 40 man roster and it wouldn’t be surprising for him to see more time with the Mets out of the pen.
Because I went in depth on the picks above, I am only going to give brief comments on the graphs, since they are pretty self explanatory, and then sum everything up.
Now to the statistical comparison side of the case…
I think it is kind of interesting that the exact same number of players from the Mets made the majors from the 2006 draft as the 2005 and that the average numbers of players (4.533 in 2005 and 4.6 in 2006) was practically exactly the same. This has nothing to do with grading the Mets draft just a fun tidbit.
The Mets five players ranks 11th best of all major league teams. The players who made it where Kevin Mulvey (2.62), Joe Smith (3.94), Daniel Murphy (13.394), Tobi Stoner (16.484), and Josh Stinson (37.1114).
This graphs demonstrates how this draft was dominated by a few teams and the majority of the draft classes were pretty terrible, I will touch on this later. Again the Mets are right at the average and their 6.1 WAR is 12th best and is lead by Daniel Murphy (3.5 WAR) and Joe Smith (3.4 WAR).
The Mets aren’t still reaping the (minimal) rewards of this as they are from the 2005 draft. Murphy and Josh Stinson were the only ones to contribute and Stinson didn’t even do all that much to help the team win.
Summary:
Of the Mets picks in the top 10 rounds they have one success, five busts, one incomplete, and two no contests. It doesn’t take a theoretical physicist to figure out those are not good results.
The Mets had a clear type when drafting in the early rounds. They went heavy on pitchers, and more specifically pitchers who were behemoths and/or had a fastball but nothing else. That plan did not turn out very well.
Schafer, Stegall, and Barfield are the perfect examples of the danger of drafting high school players. Stegall based on the obvious fact that you just never know how their skills will develop and Schafer and Barfield go beyond that to the maturity and makeup factors.
The only of the early picks that have had any form of success were the two college guys at the top who were the “safer” picks.
The Mets desperately saved this class with outstanding job of scouting Murphy. Getting Stinson that late was nice, but he was pretty well known at the time of the draft. Murphy on the other hand had no buzz despite great performances at Jacksonville. This is one we owe to Tony Bernazard because I doubt the Mets even know who Daniel Murphy was had Murphy not played on Tony’s son’s team.
Overall, as evidenced by the WAR graph, this was a very weak draft for everyone—not just the Mets. Of the 30 first round picks only 7 have a career WAR above 1.5 for their career. That is not good. Granted some of the high school guys are just getting established and show some potential (Snider, Marrero, Jeffress, Drabek, Parmelee, Cogner), but they are far from a guarantee to switch this from a poor to a good first round.
If I had to grade this draft only by the Mets’s success at finding players, taking into consideration they had no first round pick, I could probably only give it a D+. If I take into account the relativity of how poor this class as a whole looks right now, I would be around a C+/B-. Because of that I think it is only fair to give Omar a grade somewhere in the middle.
Final Grade: C-
About the Author: Former Writers
24 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 30 | .583 | - |
| Phillies | 35 | 37 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Nationals | 34 | 36 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Mets | 27 | 40 | .403 | 12.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 48 | .314 | 19.0 |
Last updated: 06/19/2013
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Murphy is only a tremendous pick if the Mets trade him for someone who a. has a position b. can run the bases c. can field and d. does not swing at everything and can take walks.
If Murphy wasn’t one of our own home grown guys, people would beg to unload him. Everyone tends to fall in love with home grown guys or guys that get dirty despite the warts. Murphy can’t even stay on the field because he is an awkward ballplayer that hurts himself trying to do the routine things i.e. running bases, or sliding. I can’t wait until he boots the last out of a Johan gem like he did in left field a few years ago when the Mets thought they could hide him out there. THE BALL WILL FIND YOU SOONER OR LATER! I’d bet anything that he either hurts himself again or loses his 2b job to someone who is (imagine this) an actual second baseman.
Metsr1 — When Murphy got hurt, he had the 9th BEST AVG in the major leagues when compared to all qualifiers. So our guy Murphy obviously doesn’t swing at everything.
What are you smoking??? Murph may have the best plate discipline than anyone else on the team right now.
C’mon now. Murph’s basic position is 3B–but he was proving to be an adequate 1st baseman, until Ike came down the pike. i agree he has much to learn to play 2B adequately and safely, but the kid’s a bulldog and i’m rooting for him. He is a solid hitter and he may well wind up at 3B for us, given the state of our finances. Here’s hoping he stays healthy.
Nick, I just can’t understand how you could “detest” comparing who we drafted with who else was on the board (and passed over for) What else could we possibly measure our results against?
That doesn’t mean there weren’t very good reasons for taking a particular guy over another one or perhaps the draft budget necessitated taking more signable choices or something along that line or maybe we’re drafting as well as anyone else but we’re not developing well or something but the idea should be to see if there’s anything we can learn from our results in order to improve them.
For example with the 4th pick (Holdzkom) great stuff and a real cheap price because he had no where else to go having been kicked out of HS and college. Not ideal obviously but probably just a practical reality that taking a flyer on the guy and saving money allowed for a more expensive pick later.
Futhermore I found your list of “could have had’s” incomplete as well as how some of them are making it more difficult for us in our own Division right now.
The two picks that the Phillies got for “losing” Wagner helped them acquire Blanton and Halliday which goes right to my oft stated point that 1st and 2nd round draft choices can wind up seriously assisting your Major league team in as little as a year even when they wind up ultimately busting as it appears Cardonis (2006 supp rnd pick – Blanton) may have.
By keeping your top picks you can talk to any team about any player instead of limiting your choices to just those players that are free agents and the more choices that are available the better your results should be.
Among players passed up that could have been selected with the #1 draft choice were also Ian Kennedy, Hank Conger, Joba Chamberlain and Daniel Bard.
Mulvey was a workhorse at Villanova and as a smaller guy I think that’s a red flag especially as a strike out pitcher who uses a slider extensively at 18-20. (Braves don’t allow their prospects to throw a slider until AA) In three college seasons he had 244 innings, 222 strikeouts, 96 walks 8 complete games, .264 BA, 4.43 ERA. He was a very well regarded prospect but maybe the workload and his 6’1″ 170 lbs frame is why he slid. Not saying he was a bad choice but high walks and high strikeouts equal high pitch counts.
Joe Smith was a college relief pitching pick that hit as well as you could hope for.
All teams can look back and see guys they missed out on and review what their thought process was at the time and once you get past the 5th round the differences are very small. Some guys make it, most by far don’t but some teams do consistently get more success than others. David Robertson went in the 17th round 2006 and Dellin Bentences in the 11th to the NYY. That’s not to complain about the 29 teams that passed them over but just to say those were big hits and will be paying big dividends for the NYY for years to come.
Doug Fister went after Scott Schafer. Mike Leake went after Stegall but no complaints. Why not hunt the potential conerstone? Most guys here don’t make it here so why not try for the guy who if he does, makes it huge. Alan Craig went after Nathan Hendrick. David Freise and Desmond Jennings went after Barfield. Padres got Matt Latos in the 11th. Phillies took big risk/reward 5 tool HS kid Dominick Brown in the 20th round. Red Sox got Josh Reddick 27th.
We did select some HS players which give you the best chance for top production but I wonder if we took one’s that were the least expensive due to no college committments (other than Stegell) and maybe weren’t fully vetted for off the field stuff and therefore weren’t as costly to sign.
One other question is the large amount of college players selected indicative of looking for quick help even without the higher upside or a product of a miniscule draft budget? I’d say both and if that’s the case then it really begs the question of why you would hire a GM who’s strength is in amateur talent evaluation and then hamstring him with a low draft budget.
Murphy in the 13th has really been a good hit but I really can’t credit our scouting dept on him as Bernazard’s son put us on to him although the college player with one tool is a very typical type Met draft choice.
There were also some HS kids drafted in later rounds who didn’t sign but were clearly identified by their respective teams scouts and scouting Director like Mike Minor TB, Paul Goldschmidt LAD, Brett Anderson AZ, Andrew Cashner Colorado Matt Laporta and Brandon Belt Red Sox and theoretically with a little more to work with in the draft.all these chronic holes to fill could be whittled down to a manageable few pretty quickly.
One thing about the 2006 draft is that it was new hire Amateur Scouting Director Rudy Terrases’ first of 5 consecutive drafts he ran for Minaya and while the draft itself wasn’t great certain teams did pretty well even just pulling one top prospect out of it like SD with Matt Latos who gave them a couple good years and a top notch catcher.
Best draft this year? NYY Ian Kennedy, Joba Chamberlain (both obtained by losing Tom Gordan) Zach McCalister, Dellin Bentances, and David Robertson.
Boston did nicely as well with Bard, Masterson, Kalish, Belt (dns) La Porta (dns) Reddick and Lars Anderson.
The books not finished on the 2006 draftees yet and while it wasn’t terrible there is definitely room for improvement.
“Murphy in the 13th has really been a good hit but I really can’t credit our scouting dept on him as Bernazard’s son put us on to him although the college player with one tool is a very typical type Met draft choice.” HERE-HERE!
Agee we’ve discussed this in the past. I think it’s more of a budget issue when it comes to the Mets and the draft. They’ve spent the 2nd fewest amount of money on the draft over the past 10-15 years not including 2011 when they spent the most in franchise history.Only the Pirates have spent less and that has also changed the last 3 years with the Pirates spending the most ever on a 2nd rounder,Josh Bell last year. There’s a reason why we’ve only developed 3 really good players since the Cashen administration.Fonzie,Reyes and Wright.Other than those 3 we’ve mostly produced serviceable major leaguers. The really good player we did draft we failed to sign. Not being able to develope them once they’ve been drafted is part of the problem as well but the draft budget has been the biggest issue.
Completely agree Fonzie. To me just hard to believe that with so much riding on just getting a good catcher, RFer or starting pitcher we would skimp in the exact area where those players are most likely to be found.
Then half the time we do get a guy we trade him before he’s fully developed and turn that guy into yet another below average player.
Sixty percent of the position players we have had 100 or more AB’s from in a year have produced somewhere between 0.9 WAR and a negative WAR. SIXTY PERCENT! it would be hard to have these inept results even if you were trying to get them and I’ll bet it’s not that much better on the pitching side either.
Can it really be a surprise that we’ve only made the post season 3 times in 23 years even while sporting the Leagues highest payroll?
Incidentally Fonzie was an IFA, I’m sure you already know this because after all, you are the Fonz.
Yes I know abut Fonzie. One of my alltime favs. Agee do you know if Juan Mercado is still a Intl scout in the organization? He’s the guy that scouted and signed Nelson Cruz and also was instrumental in finding Reyes.He never gets recognition and I haven’t heard his name mentioned in years. He’s a very good evaluator of talent.
Fonz, Mercado’s the Latin American Scouting supervisor for the Pirates and before that he had the same position with the Cardinals and the other scout Eddy Toledo runs the DR for the Marlins.
Those two guys are the one’s who got us started in Latin America…….finally. Dotel, Cruz, Scutero, Escobar, Chavez.
Excellent piece Nick! This work blatantly points out why the Mets farm system is languishing in the middle-of-the-pack these days. The Mets drafting back in 2006 was an absolute disgrace. It shows what happens when clueless “talent evaluators” are given the keys to the family car. Sure they totally lucked out with Murphy. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once-in-a-while. Stinson was a classic example of what can happen with an over-slot signing strategy, a strategy the Mets rarely employed back in those days. Take those two players out of the equation and what have you got? Bupkis! That’s what you’ve got. This draft really sucked the big one.
I think calling a draft where the Mets get a really good hitter in Murphy, a pretty good RP in Joe Smith, and a potentially useful RP in Stinston, as an “absolute disgrace” is a little harsh. And Mulvey was used the aquire Johan Santana, who at the time of the trade was regarded as the best pitcher in baseball.
So while I don’t think it’s a good draft, it’s certainly not an awful draft either.
It’s impossible to fully know the impact a miniscule budget has on a draft and it’s equally impossible to say how a prospect would have developed in our system had we taken the same guy, all we can really look at is how we did relative to other teams.
Certainly having Mulvey in the system allowed for us to make the Santana deal but was he the best pick we could have made in the 2nd round? Mulvey and Smith both allowed us to make trades but they kind of go under separate headings in the GM’s ledger called horse trading.
As for the pure draft itself I would say we got a tremendous bench/reserve/PH in Murphy with a shot at being more than that but the history of guys moving from corner IF to MI isn’t exactly littered with success stories and the only reason Murphy has had so many chances is because of the pitiful condition of the farm system to begin with, as well as a decent set up/cross over guy.
We also gave up our #1 pick to make up another defficiency in our bullpen to prop up our 2006 – 2009 team and busted on our 2nd rounder.
Stinson will get a shot, Stoner hopefully won’t be needed and no one else from the draft is still even playing ball other than Edgar Ramirez and plenty of guys drafted by other teams still have a chance, some of them a pretty good one.
Smith and Murphy are both competently able to fill a role on the ML roster but neither is likely to be a cornerstone and there were a fair number of cornerstones taken anywhere from the pick we gave up for Wagner all the way down to the 10th and 11th round.
Joe Smith in the 3rd is decent but David Robertson in the 17th is outstanding and Bentances and Latos in the 11th and Desmond Jennings in the 10th are the type of difference making draft choices that really move an organizations future in a positive direction and rather than constricting your options like Wagner did, they expand them starting one year after being drafted.
Failing to have picked up any real difference makers in the 2006 draft we still could have salvaged something from it by turning our #1 pick (Billy Wagner) into the 20th and 39th best picks in the 2010 draft which would have been a very effective use of free agency and maybe picked up a difference maker in that draft. Sadly we dumped the remaining portion of his salary (4 M), his buyout (1.5 M) and the signing bonuses those two picks would have commanded (3 M) for Chris Carter who was no difference maker himself and there is no way that I will ever believe that anyone even in a position to be a GM would have made that trade for any reason other than being directed to from ownership.
Difference makers! That’s what the whole ******* draft is all about. We didn’t get any. some other teams did, some a them a few.
Plenty of room for improvement here.
I believe Murphy is going to be a difference maker.
and again, I’m not saying it’s a good draft, I’m just saying it isn’t an awful draft.
I see Murphy as a solid hitter,a very good complimentary player on a good team but he has too many warts in his game to be considered a difference make imo.Good hitter,not a whole lotta power,a flat out terrible baserunner,terrible defender and zero baseball instincts. If he developes some more power and goes to the AL to DH then he could probably be more of a difference maker.
at 2nd his defense is terrible because he isn’t a 2ndbaseman. But I think if you put him at his natural position(3B), his defense won’t be terrible – It won’t be good, but I don’t think he’ll be terrible there.
Murphy may not have great HR power, but he has great gap power – He was in the top five in the league in doubles befroe he got hurt, which is pretty amazing considering that he started the year on the bench.
And I think with Citi Field now being a normal size, i can see Murphy hitting 15-20HR’s a year – He has more power than you think.
No I know he has power,he’s more of like you said a gap to gap hitter.He hits it where its pitched and he has a very level swing.I could see 15 HR’s I dont know about 20. I like Murphy he’s a gamer.I just don’t see a difference maker.When I think of a difference maker I think more along the lines of a Beltran and Delgado. Even Ike to me will be more of a difference maker. The rest of Murphy’s game just scares me. I cringe when he’s on the bases.
Well I guess it just depends on what your definiton of a “difference maker” is. I think Murphy is going to be a very good player for this team(just get him away from 2ndbase!), and he was a terrific pick in the 13th round in 06.
And I can’t see how a draft where we picked Murphy, a good RP in Smith(had a 2.01 ERA last year), a potentially useful pitcher in stinson, and when our top pick that year was used to trade for the best pitcher in baseball, as an “absolute disgrace”.
I would reserve absolute disgrace for the 2007 draft. This one I would just put in the underwhelming category. If you insist on looking at our 2nd round pick as getting us the best pitcher in baseball you have to realize that Phil Humber (1st rnd #3), Deolis Guerero (IFA) and Carlos Gomez (IFA) has quite a bit to do with that trade as well. Then you have to add in that we traded Joe Smith (along with Heilman, Cleto, Carp, Carrera, Vargas and Chavez, as well and got zippo out of that.
As it stands right this second all we’ve gotten out of that draft is a productive bench player and a cross over guy for the pen with the chance to get something out of Stinson and who knows maybe even Ramirez too.
Bench guys and relief pitchers are important to develop but it’s only in adding them to the Jennings, Latos, and Cahills’ where they really help you.
5 years isn’t enough time to fully evaluate a draft but just the fact that other teams still have some high end hopes alive in their system and we don’t doesn’t make this draft seem like it’s going to look any brighter down the road. Then again if Murphy were to be an average defender it could wind up being an OK draft. We’ll see.
Vinny you often make really good points and you also back up your opinions with facts but I’m really split on Murphy here. I think he’ll hit a bunch. Would not surprise me one iota if he hits 20 HR’s and 40 doubles but I don’t think he will be an average defender at 2B or 3B either.
People are fond of calling 3B his “natural” position and while he knows what to do there he’s just never been very good at it………..anywhere. He’s only had 200 minor league games at 3B and has a .920 FP. That’s not even average.
I don’t see him helping out a shorthanded pitching staff one bit and with Duda, Thole and Wright they need all the help they can get. I don’t think its a sure bet at all that Murphy can 3B and I’m more than open to being wrong but I see Murph as a great piece on the bench and I’m quite sure that almost any other NL team would as well.
“Bentances and Latos in the 11th and Desmond Jennings in the 10th are the type of difference making draft choices that really move an organizations future in a positive direction”
Except the new rules of the CBA are making it so that these types of signings no longer happen. Getting the type of pitchers like Betances in the 11th round and signing them to huge overslot bonuses are trying to be removed to make the draft a more “fair” process. So don’t except to bank on those type of picks to rejuvenate a system. If you want a Betances you are going to have to take him in the 1st round now.
Nick isn’t it a set amount to spend on rounds 1-10 or 1-15 and anything you want afterwards?
Some of those overslot selections will move up but I’ll bet the round after is filled with plenty of hopeful overslot guys.
Still and all back in 2006 – 2010 we could have and should have been doing a heck of a lot more in this area and considering we gave up so many #1′s and #2′s why not spend some of that on a 10th or 11th round overslot selection and “recoup” the pick we gave away?
It’s not like our farm system’s overall weakness wasn’t well known.
Wow, one word describes this draft for the Mets, UGG-LEE! I actually like that you included what you detest, it makes you see how good or bad a particular pick or round was even if it’s second guessing. One thing is certain, this series you’re working on is very compelling to read. Nice job, Nick!
This was an interesting read. Like the way it was laid out comparing the rest of the league.
Overall, just goes to show you that even with top notch scouting – which would be preferable – prospects are often a crap shoot. So the more picks and signings you have, the better the odds are that you’ll have pieces that will either help the major league club, or can be used while still prospects in trades.