20
2012
From Left Field: In Mets’ History, Farm System Has Lacked Strong Hitting
An article by 
After the trade sending R.A. Dickey to the Blue Jays, I started thinking that the Mets really have never developed a top-notch catcher out of their minor league system.
Todd Hundley is closest thing to being a productive home-grown catcher, which isn’t exactly saying much.
Of course, the most productive catchers in team history, Gary Carter and Mike Piazza, were acquired via trade.
Now that the Mets’ catching future in the hands of Travis d’Arnaud, hopefully he can change that trend. Though the Mets didn’t draft him, he will at some point make his Major League debut with the Amzain’s.
Then I also got to thinking: Not only have the Mets really never developed a strong catcher, but they also really have struggled in developing any sort of hitters from their system.
Scouts will say that pitching and defense win championships, but you have to score some runs as well.
The Mets have actually been known in their history to have all sorts of good pitching prospects but not much hitting.
Really the bulk of the Mets’ strong hitters have been acquired via trade or free agency: Piazza, Carter, Keith Hernandez, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Howard Johnson, Cliff Floyd, etc.
I looked back in Mets’ MLB Draft history to see if any of their offensive-minded draft picks ever made it big, and I came up with just two: Darryl Strawberry and David Wright.
That’s right, in all the years of drafting players, they’ve only developed two draft picks into superstar Major Leaguers.
Sure, they drafted role players like Lee Mazzilli, Mookie Wilson, Wally Backman and Lenny Dykstra, but I’m talking about face-of-the-franchise type players.
Now along the way, there have been players that have signed as minor league free agents that became good Major Leaguers, including Cleon Jones, Edgardo Alfonzo and Jose Reyes.
But even so, five players in the history of the franchise? That’s weak.
But on the pitching side, the Mets have been more successful. They drafted Nolan Ryan, Jim McAndrew, Jon Matlack, Dwight Gooden, Bobby J. Jones and Scott Kazmir.
Though not all these pitchers had their success with the Mets (especially Ryan), at least the Mets saw the talent in these arms.
And of course, the Mets signed and developed amateur free agents named Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman.
Currently, guys like Jon Niese and Matt Harvey can continue the trend of strong pitching prospects panning out, and Zack Wheeler (though acquired by the Giants) isn’t too far behind.
Maybe the problem with the Mets organization is that the team has focused so much on developing young pitching that the hitters have suffered. Or maybe the scouts are not taking the proper time to assess young hitters while breaking down pitchers.
Keep in mind, this is an organization that used first round draft picks on Lastings Milledge, Jason Tyner and Terrence Long. Not exactly offensive-minded players.
Maybe this trend will be put to rest if Ike Davis and d’Arnaud develop into the hitters that they are projected to be. But even so, it’s something to be considered.
As it stands, even if Mets’ pitching only allows one run per game, the Mets’ offense will struggle matching that.
You need hitters, especially a few power hitters, in this league, and that’s just something the Mets do not develop well in their minor league system.
About the Author: Jim Mancari
Jim Mancari hails from Massapequa, N.Y. He recently earned a Master's degree in Journalism at Hofstra University. He is a devout Mets fan and takes pride in his team, despite their lack of success over the last few years. Like all Mets fans, Jim has plenty of hope. He also writes as the sports reporter for the Brooklyn Tablet newspaper and the senior editor of metroBASEBALL Magazine. Click my name to view my personal website.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 23 | 18 | .561 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 19 | .548 | 0.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 22 | .476 | 3.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 23 | .410 | 6.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 31 | .262 | 12.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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True enough; however, I will interject that the focus of for the Mets has usually been around pitching because of Shea and now Citi. If you really look across the league there hasn’t been all that many offensive standouts. This sounds crazy but it appears to me to be true. I haven’t done the leg work but I would guess since 62 most teams have only produced a handful of superstar position players. There are a few standouts that come to mind like the Reds but overall I’d be willing to bet Ty Wiggintons are much more plentiful. Role players that last tend to have some great seasons now and then. The challenge to a team is to get them all going at the same time. This has been an area of failure for the Mets in their history, excluding some years.
That seems to be commonplace. Look at the Rays. They churn out pitching but only a few hitters. SF in the last decade pumped out Aces but their lineup is weak. Then you look at a team like Seattle who churned out Griffey, ARod, and Martinez (in addition to fleecing the Yankees on Buhner). The Yankees history is filled with more great hitters than pitchers (they probably have 10 iconic every day players but other than Whitey Ford, no other pitcher really comes close).
Let us hope that some of the bats (Flores, Nimmo, etc..) begin to change that.
The Stanks seem to have 1 distinct advantage in drafting any player: It seems almost any kid wants to play for them. Perhaps it’s their deep pockets or their history, or the fact that they seem to be more consistent in their ideology as well as potential for success.
The Mets have to stay the high road on their current path and not shift plans/directions so frequently. Most young-uns have no memory of the 80s so our 1 hitching point doesn’t exist for them.
and 2 our of best young players grew up Yankee fans LOL
Ike
Matt Harvey
Alderson has ~20mm to improve this team. What is he waiting for, I see plenty of players that are affordable and can help this team: Brian Wilson, Cody Ross, Scott Hairston, Francisco Liriano.
Nice article, Jim. D’arnaud will not change reality of the mets drafting hitters since he is an import. One hitter you forgot is Kevin Mitchell, Who Had some monster years after he was traded away. The scouting department has been poor in drafting pitchers too since the last homegrown pitcher to make an all-star team was Bobby Jones way back in the mid-90′s. It looks like they have a system now stacked with good pitching prospects which is a good thing because Very good pitching can always bring back good hitters IF you have a competent GM.
also Nelson Cruz came from our scouting system…
Cruz was IFA
How about Ken Singleton, Amos Otis, Paul Blair.
Singleton, traded. Otis traded; nuff said.
It seems that the focus on pitching which is important, is no excuse for lack of hitting prospects.
Look at what is coming up, mostly LH hitters, strike out prone, lack of power production, etc.
Whomever is in charge needs to take the chance, if player is available to draft/sign a young power bat for the future.
If not now when, I find this totally embarrassing for this organiztion
Well look at the drafts and you see some reason for thier lack of success in it and expose some of the GMs that have run this franchise….
The Mets have only had 5 Top Overall 1st rounders since they started…
Of those 5 picks all you can credibly say they got was Strawberry (OF) out of it
The failures?
Chilcott (C) a pick before Reggie jackson
Foli (SS) whose biggest note to fame is being traded to get Staub
Abner (OF) who was traded to get McReynolds
Wilson (RHP) he of Generation K fame, was never healthy
They have had 20 top 10 First round picks (includes the 5 picks above)…
Rohr #2 LHP
Matlack #4 LHP
Sterling #4 RHP
Benton #6 C
Brooks #3 (OF at the time he was taken eventually moved to 3B)
Leary #2 RHP
Blocker #4 OF
Gooden #5 RHP
Williams #4 3B
Preston Wilson #9 SS
Presley #8 RHP
Goetz #6 LHP
Humber #3 RHP
Pelfrey #9 RHP
Harvey #7 RHP
When more than half your top 10 picks selected are Pitchers, you are not going to find a lot of Hitters in there….
When you only hit one time out of 5 in the top Overall pick your not going to have any sustained success…
They did get Matlack, Gooden, Pelfrey and Harvey but thats a pretty poor rate (less than 50/50)
They got Brooks and Strawberry so in the end they have had a 30% hit rate on top 10 picks
If you can’t do better than 30% in the top 10 overall how the hell can you expect to do well after that?
And if half your picks are Pitchersyour going to have to find those hits someplace else.
Thanks for that list metsie. Thats a pretty sad track record. Drafting is pretty much a crapshoot anyway. I wonder how that list compares with other teams that were born around the same time as the mets like astros, angels, senators/rangers from 1962 and the 69 expansion clubs.
Also I remember them picking elvis presleys cousin with a top pick and a couple of relief pitchers under minayas watch.
Well maybe the draft as a whole might be a crap shoot….
But if your in the top 10 you should not be throwing dice and hoping for a good roll….
What seems to make the picks so unpredictable these days is this prevalence on drafting HS kids and running them through a hyper long development cycle where in most cases your changing everything you liked about them when you took them.
Sure you have a better bet of picking a kid who is ready at age 20 and can give you a lot of years but in most cases they bust, get hurt or never materialize into anything…
Instead of going for guys who COULD be great (High Cieling) if they do whatever you tell them to do (the coachable variable) Get guys who are already good without your help, do NOT press a batting philosophy on them, and at most tweak a flaw in the swing that could be exploited and spend the rest of your development working on how to make adjustments to thier natural approach.
But everyone fancies themselves a Philisophical Genius and we have kids being told to worry about their PPPA instead of thier BA and how to NOT K (which increases PPPA better than any learning of patience and pitch selection at the plate EVER will) and you will get yourself some fine hitters with good BA, Low K and guys who get GOOD hits as opposed to all the slap singles hitters we see because they are more focused on OBP than the BA and SLG that actually drives in those runs.
We all say DEVELOPMENT is as important as scouting and it is true to some degree….
The problem is if your development ignores what the scouting said they had and imposes a philosophy that ruins what made you like them in the first place you wasted your time and the kid busts because he is no longer the player you liked he is the player you wanted him to be but wasn’t.
I wish we had the Braves scouting department. They seem to hit on their draft picks more often than most other teams. Just think of all the good position players and pitchers who have come up through their system over the last 20 years.
metsie,
I have no idea what pppa is. It seems like you are very knowledgeable in this area. I dont know why the mets with thier resources dont just raid another teams best scouts and copy thier system. Whats your take on that? Also what do you know of our minor league scouting dept. Have there been many changes under the SA regime?
PPPA = Pitches Per Plate Appearance….
It’s a stat that is meant to show how deep into counts you get and how many pitches you see per plate appearance (usually used by averaging). The relevance for it is to suggest how hard a Batter makes a Pitcher work to get a result.
SandyA seems to think that PPPA is an indicator of being patient at the plate….And that being patient at the plate makes the Pitcher work more (this is the Philisophical divide between him and me)
But truth is at best patience can only get you a PPPA of 5 cause at that point your at a full count and the next pitch is decisive….UNLESS you follow what I believe is WAY more important than plate Patience and that is PLATE PROTECTION and SITUATIONAL HITTING….
You can take pitches you don’t think you can hit well right up till strike 2 then the philosophy of PATIENCE falls apart!
Your no longer able to be passive and wait for a pitch you like because if it’s a strike your out!
So if you REALLY want to increase the workload of the Pitcher it is better to teach these kids Situational Hitting….
That means they should be looking for pitches to drive early in the count and when ahead (2-0, 2-1, 3-0, 3-1) as that is the SITUATION where a Pitcher is not going tobe too coy and paint a corner but throw a fat pitch you can drive to make sure he throws a strike. To note if a Pitcher is a notorious first pitch fastball type and if he is be prepared to take him deep, taking advantage of a Pitchers desire to get ahead early by sneaking a fat pitch fastball by you on the first pitch.
And then to teach the SITUATION that is the most important no matter what philosophy you think is important, To earn how to protect the plate with two strikes on you, learning how to foul off balls that are not great for getting a hit but close enough to call a strike by the umpire (taking the Umpire out of the results)
And if you can do that most important part well you can get the PPPA up much more than just 5 Pitches as you can extend a PA to 10 and 15 Pitches as we have seen guys like Tejada and Murphy do so well.
So regardless of your belief in OBP or BA, Patience and Discipline….None of it works if the guy can’t protect the plate with 2Ks in the count and make sure e keeps seeing pitches until the Pitcher makes a great one to beat him or makes a mistake that you can crush.