17
2013
Featured Post: Where Does The Mets Minor League System Rank?
An article by 
BRANDON NIMMO: The future is coming his way.
The Mets currently boast a minor league system that ranks in the top half amongst the other organizations in the league. This ranking is primarily due to a crop of promising young right-handed pitchers.
In the most recent edition of Baseball America, they gave their 2013 rankings for pitching prospects. They separated it into three categories: Right-Handed Pitchers, Left-Handed Pitchers and Relief Pitchers. The Mets had five right-handed pitchers ranked in the top 75 right-handed pitchers in the minors. They are Zack Wheeler (5), Noah Syndergaard (19), Luis Mateo (65), Rafael Montero (66) and Michael Fulmer (75).
There were very few teams who had as many, or more, right-handed pitching prospects listed in their top 75. After looking at that list, it’s hard to fathom that the Mets aren’t ranked in the top ten, or even top five minor league systems. However, it’s when you look at the rest of the positions that you get a better idea of why the Mets are sitting just outside the top ten, and probably closer to the middle of the pack.
Baseball America goes on to rank the top 50 left-handed pitching prospects, and no Mets’ prospects cracked their top 50. Not even Jack Leathersich (ranked No. 16 on MMO’s Top Prospect List) or Darin Gorski made the list. On Baseball America’s top 35 relief pitcher rankings, Jeurys Familia came in ranked at No. 15.
When you do the math, Baseball America ranked a total of 160 pitchers. The Mets had six players ranked, good for about 4% of the pitchers ranked.
The minor league system is carried by that crop of right-handed power pitchers, two of which cracked the top ten on MLB.com’s rankings (Wheeler and Syndergaard). Travis d’Arnaud and Wilmer Flores lead the pack of position players, but once you get past those names, the system really starts to thin out. The system is very top-heavy, but that doesn’t mean that some of the other guys won’t step this year to help boost the Mets system to new heights. The talent is there, these guys just have to start performing.
Here is a list of position players you should keep an eye on in 2013:
Brandon Nimmo, OF
Gavin Cecchini, SS
T.J. Rivera, 2B
Camden Maron, C
Vicente Lupo, OF
Phillip Evans, SS
Wuilmer Becerra, OF
Wilfredo Tovar, SS
As you can see from the list, there is no shortage of shortstops in the organization, and there are actually a few more that I left off this list. On MLB.com’s position rankings, no Mets’ players rank in the top ten of their respective position aside from d’Arnaud and Flores. While some of the players listed above may never crack a top ten list on MLB.com, they do have the potential to make some noise and boost the system’s prospect rankings. Keep an eye on those guys and look for some Prospect Pulse features on them in the near future.
GAVIN CECCHINI: Brighter days lie ahead.
About the Author: Mitch Petanick
Mitch is currently an Editor and Minor League Analyst for Mets Merized Online. His baseball experience includes being a former All-Conference collegiate baseball player who had numerous professional tryouts, and he is currently a hitting instructor. He has been involved with the game of baseball for over 30 years now as a player, coach, and consultant. Mitch is also a former Featured Columnist on Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @FirstPitchMitch.
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So are there 13 other teams that have better/more prospects than we do ?
Somewhat over simplified, but yes.
As opposed to the 25 teams that had better farms than us 2 years ago.
Which wil go back to 20-25 ahead of us the second Wheeler and D’Arnaud get promoted which just goes to show it doesn’t matter how many teams are ahead or behind because the ranking changeds after every AAA promotion…..
Dont you think other teams will also promote their AAA players?
Nope becauase How many have two top 50′s who could start today if not for some crap about starting clocks?
You see the difference is that MOST teams who have a high ranked Minors have it because they drafted that talent they have….
Not because they traded away Two All Stars, one of whom was a Cy Young Winner to get thier ranking!
If the ranking isn’t due to good drafts and just a firesale, the Ranking is a hollow ranking!
Your just ranking trades without taking into account what you gave away to get it…
If Wheeler busts or gets hurt in a year…and D”Arnaud the same…
Then that ranking of your Minors, this month, this moment, this second, this day really doesn’t amount to much does it?
Especially considering what you paid for it!
“Nope becauase How many have two top 50′s who could start today if not for some crap about starting clocks?”
Texas, Seattle, St Louis, KC, not to mention some of those guys in the top 50 will get traded.
It’s every team.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/02/service-time-considerations-for-top-prospects.html
I don’t suppose any of the pitchers who’s teams lead their respective leagues in A-, A and A+ in ERA, WHIP and K/BB will develop and fill the void of ZW and TDA will they?
Actually, this time next year, I expect to be in about the same place. Because, while Vegas will be weak, Bingo will have some hot new arrivals ready to shoot up. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see 2 or 3 of them in the top 50.
We do have a bit of a gap, but that will settle soon.
The Mets farm system is certainly much better now than it was in previous years. While Omar ignored the draft for many years, his last draft (2010) was very strong and his accumulation of good young latin prospects (the Brooklyn arms) along with the rebuilding effort and Sandy’s very strong 2011 draft have made our system much better. We are likely one year away from having a top 10 system…
However, we still lack impact bats and LH SP although I suspect the Mets will go after a LHP and collegiate OF with at least one of their three top 75 picks in the upcoming draft.
Keep in mind Oleo that most likely Wheeler and TDA will graduate during this year and thus we may not reach that top 10 status with what remains.
that is certainly true although remember that the other teams will be graduating players as well.
Last season our system’s strength was in low minors so while D’Arnaud, Flores, Familia and Wheeler might be graduating we could very well gain more overall since the guys being promoted to St. Lucie and Binghamton in 2014 will be much much stronger than in years past.
It depends on how real all those young arms are. If even one or two have a breakout season then we could be talking about Syndergaard, Flores, Nimmo, Cecchini, Fulmer top 5 with a lot of depth past that.
The reason we are ranked this high is because of Carlos Beltran and R.A. Dickey, both products of Minaya, and not because of any developing at the hands of this regime. Nimmo and Cecchini have yet to produce in Rookie Ball and have shown a greater propensity to swing and miss than to make contact, but in the .240 range.
Also, let’s see where this system ranks in September when D’Arnaud (Thanks R.A.) and Wheeler (Thanks Carlos) are no longer prospects and hopefully solid major leaguers like Matt Harvey and Ike Davis (Thanks Omar).
Do we not attribute any of Wheeler’s development to the Mets?
Too early to tell? How do you know he’s developed and what we developed until he tastes success in the majors first?
Well in that case Maniac how do you even rank a minor league system if you are only basing on success in the majors?
Wheeler has certainly moved up the ranks since he arrived so if we give any credit to Omar (as faulty of a logic as it is) for Wheeler being in the system then we would have to give credit to the current Mets on his rise up that ladder.
somehow not surprised that this took another turn to the past instead of looking toward the future.
like it or not, these are all sandy’s guys now after a couple years to keep/trade/groom them all.
and technically, Dickey was a Sandy signing (he was the one that inked him to the very good contract that he was playing under when traded).
Just wanted to make sure credit was properly allocated, since that seems to be a big concern around here!
Whats he doing now that he didn’t do when he was with the Giants?
If nothing then no you can’t credit their development of a player who was already developed when he got here….
Especially true for d’Arnaud as well…
Top 15 farm is about right. And Omar’s last draft in ’10 was tremendous.
Yes it was. We had two very strong drafts back to back in 2010 and 2011. Factor that with the trades Sandy has made and Omar’s latin kids and we are building a pretty nice foundation.
I wonder how much the change in player development mattered after Bernazard was gone. Obviously no one can make a player have more talent but the way those early draft classes were rushed makes me wonder if there might have been a few more MLB quality players in there.
Those pictures of Nimmo and Cecchini are cool.
Others to look out for to me (In the very very low minors):
OF Stefan Sabol
C Tomas Nido
3B Pedro Perez
3B Elvis Sanchez
OF Jeffrey Diehl
Great Post Mitch!
Right now, our minor league system looks much improved.
Who knows where it will rank next year? So much depends on the continued development of our younger prospects, any trades we make for prospects, what the other 29 teams will look like.
And I honestly do not understand the obsession of some Met fans on which FO these prospects were brought it under. Who cares?
Who cares? The ones who seem so desperate to pat Sandy on the back for improving an MiL system but can’t say it based on drafts only trades for All Stars and Cy Young Winners…
I bet the Marlins have one of the top ranked Minors right now and it sure isn’t because of the bang up job the GM is doing…
But if the same criteria was used for him that is being attempted to use on Sandy he would be a frikken Genius! LOL
You know what I don’t really care about?
The Rankings of our MiL system…
Because it isn’t going to do squat for tomorrow’s game and may never do anything for ANY game as F-Mart and Generation K proved….
If you don’t care about the rankings of the Met’s farm then why click on, read, then comment multiple times in a post specifically about the rankings of the Met’s farm?
To Catch the propagandists and show the weakness of thier attempt at crediting Sandy for something he hasn’t really done because he is a good GM just that he was left a GOOD TEAM with Valuable trade chips that makes his higher ranking easier to achieve because he sacrificed MLB performance to get it….
Untill Wheeler wins a Cy Young and D’Arnaud leads this team in HRs the ranking is just a consolation prize to deals that we probably wound up on the losing side!
A risk you take when you trade knows for UNKNOWNS and UNPROVEN….
“To Catch the propagandists”
You channeling Hugo Chavez now?
Well if it was Fidel at least he’d have an idea about how baseball works.
So even though you have absolutely no interest in the content of the post or addressing its merits, you’re here to annoy other posters? Remember it’s not a contest, there is no way you can ‘win’ this website.
It’s merits are based on Cielings and hopes..no HARD FACTS!
There is NOTHING OBJECTIVE about these rankings at all…
All based on Subjective opinion.
I don’t have to win the Website….Just the debate which is why the website is here!
JoeD didn’t start this because he felt Met fans needed a place to perform self therapy…
Your dismisal of all things minor leagues is astonishing. There is, surprisingly enough, both a correlation and causation between the majors and the minors. Every single major league player, save for unusual cases like posted Japanese players or Cuban defectors, was at one point a minor league player.
While grading prospects is an imperfect science it doesn’t mean its valueless and can be dismissed to cavalierly like you do. Whether you like it or not there is meaning to a players minor league performance. There are very few good major league players that weren’t good minor league players.
And if you’re trying to win the argument you’re doing a terrible job.
Yeah and the Majority of them were never ranked or projected to have high Cielingsand in many cases those guys are much better tha the players who were!
Hernandez and Piazza were never highly ranked prospects….
But F-Mart was!
Tells you all you need to know about how good those ranking really are!
Absolutely completely wrong. Piazza was very highly ranked after blowing up in A ball, BA had him as the top ranked prospect in the Dodgers system. Hernandez, no idea which one of the hundreds you mean so I’ll assume Keith and not Felix or Anderson, was a budding prospect in the Cardinals organization and while his development years predate any sort of independent rankings system by a half decade, was thought highly enough by the Cardinals to trade away their starting first baseman.
If your point is that it’s difficult to project with a high degree of accuracy what 17 – 20 year-olds will do 5 -15 years in the future, well no sh!t. You didn’t just crack the da Vinci code. Of course people can’t do that with perfect accuracy, hell look at how many crappy contracts are handed out to proven players. Did anyone see Jason Bay falling off a cliff or Johan Santana only playing about half the time because of injury? Of course not. What makes you think that volatility would be any less for minor league prospects? No one can predict a torn rotator cuff or velocity loss or failure to improve on pitch selection, but using a variety of factors like measurable physical attributes and performance in the minors relative to peers/age can get you close.
Yeah keep trying there….
He was picked in the 62nd round!
Yet you say he was a Top ranked prospect after A ball….
SHow us a link to the BA list who had him that high…
Can’t can you….So you figured I couldn’t find it either and you could make up whatever story you wanted…
Piazza was ranked in the beginning of 1993: Rated #38 Prospect
Piazza had just completed AAA
In A ball, Piazza hit .268 with 6 HR
In A+ ball, Piazza hit .250 with 8 HR
it wasnt until his 3rd year in the minors that Piazza blew up, that was the first sign that he was even a blip on the radar.
the 4th year he appeared on some rankings, where we went up to #38 on baseball america
this was either 92/93
but Piazza, unlike Travis, went from complete unknown, to crown jewel of the system
Pizza A ball age 22 1991
.277 .344 .540 .884
So yes it was his third year, which I never knew was in contention, but it was A-ball after which he became a top 10 prospect in the Dodgers system, then the next year a top prospect in general. Sickels just did a prospect retrospective.
http://www.minorleagueball.com/2013/2/15/3992344/mike-piazza-mets-dodgers-prospect-retrospective
Actually, the Marlins front office, the actual baseball people, was pretty good (not sure how it will be with all the shake ups), it was Loria and Sampson that drove away all the big talent.
LOL
Lets look at this top 10 list of Braves prospects from 8 years ago…
1. Andy Marte, 3b
2. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, c
3. Elvis Andrus, ss
4. Yunel Escobar, ss
5. Anthony Lerew, rhp
6. Joey Devine, rhp
7. Chuck James, lhp
8. Brandon Jones, of
9. Eric Campbell, 3b
10. Beau Jones, lhp
and the next year…
1. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, c
2. Elvis Andrus, ss
3. Matt Harrison, lhp
4. Brandon Jones, of
5. Van Pope, 3b
6. Eric Campbell, 3b
7. Scott Thorman, 1b/of
8. Jo-Jo Reyes, lhp
9. Joey Devine, rhp
10. Yunel Escobar, inf
or how about the tampa bay rays…
in 2006…
1. Delmon Young, of
2. Jeff Niemann, rhp
3. Jason Hammel, rhp
4. Reid Brignac, ss
5. Elijah Dukes, of
6. Wade Davis, rhp
7. Wes Bankston, 1b/of
8. Chad Orvella, rhp
9. Matt Walker, rhp
10. Chris Mason, rhp
hell how about the mets…in 2007…
1. Mike Pelfrey, rhp
2. Fernando Martinez, of
3. Carlos Gomez, of
4. Philip Humber, rhp
5. Deolis Guerra, rhp
6. Kevin Mulvey, rhp
7. Jon Niese, lhp
8. Mike Carp, 1b
9. Joe Smith, rhp
10. Alay Soler, rhp
the Billy Beane Oakland A’s top prospects of 2005
1. Daric Barton, 1b
2. Javier Herrera, of
3. Cliff Pennington, ss
4. Travis Buck, of
5. Kevin Melillo, 2b
6. Santiago Casilla, rhp
7. Craig Italiano, rhp
8. Shane Komine, rhp
9. Vince Mazzaro, rhp
10. Kurt Suzuki, c
Oakland 2006
yes, that is the SAME cris carter aka…the animal…ranked higher than Gio Gonzalez…
1. Brett Anderson, lhp
2. Trevor Cahill, rhp
3. Michael Inoa, rhp
4. Aaron Cunningham, of
5. Adrian Cardenas, 2b/ss
6. Chris Carter, 1b/3b/of
7. Gio Gonzalez, lhp
8. Vin Mazzaro, rhp
9. Jemile Weeks, 2b
10. James Simmons, rhp
The Giants – 2008
1. Angel Villalona, 3b
2. Tim Alderson, rhp
3. Madison Bumgarner, lhp
4. Nate Schierholtz, of
5. Henry Sosa, rhp
6. Nick Noonan, 2b/ss
7. Eugenio Velez, of/2b
8. Wendell Fairley, of
9. John Bowker, of
10. Emmanuel Burriss, ss
Giants in 07
1. Tim Lincecum, rhp
2. Jonathan Sanchez, lhp
3. Angel Villalona, 3b
4. Emmanuel Burriss, ss
5. Brian Wilson, rhp
6. Kevin Frandsen, 2b
7. Fred Lewis, of
8. Nate Schierholtz, of
9. Eddy Martinez-Esteve, of
10. Billy Sadler, rhp
yes, 1 out of 10 became a star, 1 closer was good for a few years, career almost over after 4 seasons.
thats 2 out of 10
my point is, u folks have wheeler and travis and noah all lined up for the 2014 team….
u gotta see how the kids pan out first…
its more likely Dickey wins another Cy Young than Travis becomes a regular catcher in the league
its more likely Beltran hits 30 HR for another 2-3 years than Wheeler becomes more than a #3 starter.
this seems like blasphemy…but think about it…
Cleveland traded CC Sabathia away and got a boatload of Milwalkee’s top prospects…
and they got NOTHING out of that deal…
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/11/21/matt-laporta-goes-unclaimed-on-waivers-sent-to-triple-a/
How about Seattle trading away Cliff Lee for Justin Smoak…in 2010, the top ranked 1B in the minors??
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/24/mariners-send-down-189-hitting-justin-smoak/
How about Carlos Beltran ( astros )
Mark Teahan
Pre-2005: Rated #85 Prospect
Mike Wood
http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=wood–001mic
and John Buck…
2002: Rated #43 Prospect
So the Royals traded for 2 top 100 prospects and another prospect, and got 0 out of it…
The Mariners got 0 for Lee
The Indians got 0 for Sabathia
The Blue Jays got some prospects for trading DOC, but wisely flipped the best one for more established players…like RA DICKEY
When the Indians had Cliff Lee, they traded him for
Jason Knapp (minors),
Carlos Carrasco,
Jason Donald and
Lou Marson.
The Phils traded away Lee to Seattle…they got back
J.C. Ramirez (minors),
Tyson Gillies (minors) and
Phillippe Aumont.
then when Seattle traded him to Texas, they got back
Matthew Lawson (minors),
Blake Beavan,
Josh Lueke and
Justin Smoak.
Cliff Lee has been traded for 11 prospects and NOT ONE has made more noise than a Queen Latifah beer belly fart
so yes, we have much reason to be skeptical when we trade an established STAR for a prospect
Looking at ” failed prospects” is too simple.
One can also look at the Bartolo Colon for Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee and Brandon Phillios trade or the A’s deal of Trevor Cahill for Jarrod Parker and Ryan Cook or the – fortunate trade – of Mark Teixeira to ATL for Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison and Jarrod Saltalamacchia for example.
Those trades have worked out extremely well for the teams receiving the prospects for example.
And if you look at some prospects list for the Braves, Nats or Reds of recent years, those have been very productive systems…
It all depends on finding the right mix of veteran players and young players and knowing when your time comes to strike swiftly in trades or free agency.
The Mets system has produced a significant number of decent major leaguers – but for now – very little true ” impact types ” over the past several years. Hopefully Matt Harvey, Jon Niese and Ike Davis will eventually change that perceiption and will be joined by Wheeler and d’ Arnaud as a good core ( along with Wright) going forward.
As for d’ Arnaud and Wheeler, if just one of them becomes a high impact player, that’d probably be worth more than having Beltran and Dickey around at 25 million $ overall or so per year right now from a structural point of view.
I don’t have anyone lined up for anything. You’re the one who thought they were being so clever by posting prospect lists of players that didn’t pan out. Simple fact is there are no great players out there that didn’t appear on a teams prospect list, not that every prospect is a future all-star.
And your the one who thought you were clever by posting prospects lists of teams who haven’t won anything yet as if that said something to prove your point….
In 05
1. Nick Swisher, of
2. Javi Herrera, of
3. Joe Blanton, rhp
4. Dan Johnson, 1b
5. Huston Street, rhp
6. Jairo Garcia, rhp
7. Richie Robnett, of
8. Omar Quintanilla, ss
9. Kurt Suzuki, c
10. Nelson Cruz, of
I am confused , besides taking up a lot of room what is this proving.
How about the Padres…in 2005
1. Cesar Carrillo, rhp
2. George Kottaras, c
3. Josh Barfield, 2b
4. Ben Johnson, of
5. Chase Headley, 3b
6. Clay Hensley, rhp
7. Jared Wells, rhp
8. Paul McAnulty, 1b/of
9. Nick Hundley, c
10. Freddy Guzman, of
How about the Brewers in 05
1. Prince Fielder, 1b
2. Mark Rogers, rhp
3. Ryan Braun, 3b
4. Yovani Gallardo, rhp
5. Corey Hart, of/3b
6. Alcides Escobar, ss
7. Dana Eveland, lhp
8. Nelson Cruz, of
9. Jose Capellan, rhp
10. Will Inman, rhp
What did they win with that?
or the Reds
1. Homer Bailey, rhp
2. Jay Bruce, of
3. Travis Wood, lhp
4. B.J. Szymanski, of
5. Chris Denorfia, of
6. Rafael Gonzalez, rhp
7. Miguel Perez, c
8. Tyler Pelland, lhp
9. Joey Votto, 1b
10. Travis Chick, rhp
And wha have THEY won with that?
The Diamondbacks in 2008
1. Jarrod Parker, rhp
2. Gerardo Parra, of
3. Daniel Schlereth, lhp
4. Mark Hallberg, ss/2b
5. Wade Miley, lhp
6. Kevin Eichhorn, rhp
7. Cesar Valdez, rhp
8. Billy Buckner, rhp
9. Collin Cowgill, of
10. Reynaldo Navarro, ss
in 07
1. Justin Upton, of
2. Chris Young, of
3. Carlos Gonzalez, of
4. Alberto Callaspo, 2b
5. Miguel Montero, c
6. Micah Owings, rhp
7. Mark Reynolds, if
8. Dustin Nippert, rhp
9. Tony Pena, rhp
10. Brett Anderson, lhp
Is any of those guys going to win them a WS?
I see you didn’t make this reply the Giants list. Should I post some of the Card’s lists or maybe some Yankee ones so you can see the host of prospects like Jeter, Posada, Williams, Rivera and so on that contributed mightily to that late 90′s dynasty. Maybe you’d like to take a look at the players who played a significant role on the various World Series roster and see where they came from, spoiler alert pretty much all spent time in a teams prospect list.
I’ll even do the Giants for you.
The only key positional player for the Giants who wasn’t a decent prospect was Pagan, Posey was a top prospect, both Cabrera and Belt were good ones and Sandoval was a mid level c+ type. On their pitching staff 4 were top prospects and Vogelsong was a good one before getting hurt.
This can be done with most any WS winner because shockingly enough there is a strong correlation between good prospects becoming good players and an even stronger one between good players and winning.
I see you ignored the replies I did make…
I also know even a broken clock is right twice a day….
In your case once since you only named one actual WS winner…
I’m actually just seeing them now, there’s a limit to how many of your posts I can read in one day as each is so devoid of any reason or fact that it makes my head hurt.
Yeahthey are devoid of any reason to you because your idea of reason is REVERSE LOGICAL!
You think it takes Kids to win but every example you show of having kids has never one (BUT ONE!) And the ones you show as past success all REQUIRED a lot of VETS and BOUGHT TALENT to get the winning…INCLUDING those Giants you think proves your point!
So the on’y reason why you don’t understand my reason is because you couldn’t RECOGNIZE reason if it bit you in the face!
Yes, and noticed the Yanks did NOT have to trade away John Wetteland or Donnie baseball or ANY of their established VETERANS for young prospects…
The prospects were SUPPLEMENTS for a VETERAN TEAM that was the HIGHEST PAID IN BASEBALL !!!
sweet jesus why is this logic so hard for folks to understand.
The Yankees had the HIGHEST PAYROLL IN BASEBALL when Jeter, Mariano, WIlliams, were in their pre-arb years. Posada rode the bench in 98/99 and was understudy to Jim Leyritz / Joe Giradi
You guys act like the Yanks were the Rays….
The Yanks have always been the YANKS
Jeter Mariano Williams were the Cano / David Robertson / Brett Gardner of their day…
u cant have a roster of over 85% free-agents and say its home-grown…
that is unless ur a yankee fan or a met fan trying to pretend that Sandy is doing something the Yanks never really did !!!
You’re exactly right except for that fact that it was completely the other way around. The 90′s dynasty was built on the backs of those great prospects being supplemented by smart free agent signings and trades. Their best player, Jeter, best pitcher, Pettite, and best reliever, Rivera were all home grown guys. Coincidentally they have had far less success the past decade in comparison to the dynasty years by depending on expensive free agents who quickly become overpaid.
Real success starts with acquiring young talent either through the draft, trades, or international signings, and then developing that talent. That young talent always appears on prospect lists, that’s why they’re not meaningless.
Oh please it was built on the FA Pitching and sluggers they bought every year to fill all the holes around those FIVE KIDS (JUST FIVE!!!!!) Two of which were Pitchers and one of them pitched one inning per game!
The other once every 5 days!
Who won it for them the rest of the time Jeter and Posada? Really?
lets not forget the mighty nationals
1. Chris Marrero, of/1b
2. Ross Detwiler, lhp
3. Collin Balester, rhp
4. Michael Burgess, of
5. Jack McGeary, lhp
6. Josh Smoker, lhp
7. Jordan Zimmerman, rhp
8. Glenn Gibson, lhp
9. Justin Maxwell, of
10. Colton Willems, rhp
Hey cherry picking is fun
Nationals in 2010
1. Stephen Strasburg, rhp
2. Derek Norris, c
3. Drew Storen, rhp
4. Ian Desmond, ss
5. Danny Espinosa, ss
6. Chris Marrero, 1b
7. Jeff Kobernus, 2b
8. Justin Maxwell, of
9. Michael Burgess, of
10. Destin Hood, of
Just to cap off this inane type of posting, there is no one on the planet who argues in good faith that every prospect will pan out. Whether it be from stagnation, injury, or tools just not developing into skills, a high percentage never become decent mlb players. Thing is, not every prospect needs to pan out, only a couple. A good player a year plus a couple role players and a great one every few years and you have a continued strong franchise which should be the goal for every team.
So you agree then Rankings are meaningless for all the reasons you just listed!
awesome genius…
so u concede that its more likely that 8 of our top 10 prospects that Sandy fans have pegged for the Mets HOF will not even be starters…
which makes Omar’s performance look that more amazing.
He was able to turn around a team on the drop of a dime, put on a win-now club AND simultaneously produce prospects that became starters and were good.
When it comes to baseball
Omar >>>> Sandy
When I want someone to notarize a document or go over my bills
Sandy >>>> Omar
J-D-D,
I appreciate all the efforts that you put in to producing the “top 10″ lists. I am Alderson-nuetral, but if that doesn’t wake up the Sandy flock there really isn’t much more to discuss. Even on Sickels list, there are 5, count them 5, pitchers rated above Wheeler. Wheeler, who hasn’t thrown a pitch in MLB, he of 4.4/9 BB rate in AAA last year. Now, I love having a prospect like this, but they are far far far from givens, as you demonstrate. Are all 6 Sickels “top 15″ pitchers going to become aces? Are any? Proven MLB talent is required, and until Alderson starts acquiring that he is essentially going PT Barnum style. We can debate Omar vs. Alderson like we can debate religion, both have strengths and are capable baseball men, but putting ALL the chips on prospects is a VERY risky business. Lastly, this notion of “2014″ when the Mets become big spenders is more illusion. They may well have a pocket full of money with no one to spend it on. That list of available OF next year is not impressive to me, and perhaps the one of most interest, former Met prospect Mr. Gomez, looks like he is staying put with the Brew Crew. This is the trend now, where more teams retain the “quality” FAs. I am a Met fan, and I would rather see them win, see these prospects pan out, and the Mets surge to the top, but this has been one unimpressive offseason as far as I’m concerned.
Well said TJ….Lets hope coming from you (who has not been part of the GM wars) it sinks into some people what the rest of us have been saying….
I have no doubt that guys like Wheeler and d’Arnaud will be MLB players…The only question is how good of an MLB player will they be? Will they be more than what we gave away to get them? In my book being a lesser player for 8 years and cheaper is not an adequate replacement for much better even if it is only for one year, because that one year COULD BE the year you won the WS!
I have no desire to trash or even doubt those kids but I do have an issue with people making them out to be the key pieces to get us to a WS that they felt Beltran and Dickey couldn’t get us to with the same team. The Kids would have to be MUCH Better than those guys to do that. And anyone who suggests they are DEFINITLY going to be better is just outright praying not evaluating based on facts.
D’Arnaud has never had a year like Beltran (vs MLB Pitcfhing) vs Minor leaguers it is just wishfull thinking to think his bat replaces his in the linup or as is suggested he will make us winners where Beltran could notonce he has to face MLB Pitching!
And I have said all offseason that this was a VERY DEEP CLASS of OFers to buy that could have at least solved one problem for the short term meaning less needed to buy next year!
And I happen to believe this pot of gold they expect to find at the end of the 2013 rainbow also will never be found. If ATtendance declines as expected they will either lose more money than just 23 Mil (that they lost last year) but they could lose even more and ERASE any savings they think they got from Bay and Santana coming off the books.
Kids are great for having hope….But Hope is only the fallback plan people run to when they know WINNING isn’t something they are going to get this year….
and the year before that
1. Jordan Zimmermann, rhp
2. Ross Detwiler, lhp
3. Chris Marrero, 1b
4. Michael Burgess, of
5. Jack McGeary, lhp
6. Derek Norris, c
7. Destin Hood, of
8. Adrian Nieto, c
9. J.P. Ramirez, of
10. Esmailyn Gonzalez, ss
Fact is…
there is a small small chance that ANY of our top prospects is going to even stick in the majors as a regular player…much less an all-star…much less the 2nd coming of Johnny Bench…
You’re just realizing that?
O and for those few met fans that were giving Sandy a pat in the back for not signing Bourn b/c Carlos Gomez was available next year…u might want to take it back…
Gomez has signed a 3 year 24 mil extension…
that narrows down the list of CF to Ellsbury…and…..Granderson….LOL
Don’t worry between all of Omar’s great CF prospects it would have been a waste anyway.
Just don’t mention Omar traded Gomez away when he was a prospect, that might shatter some people’s worlds who think prospects should be ignored because they almost never pan out.
Did anyone mention Gomez when Santana was putting up the best numbers for a LHP in the NL for 3 seasons straight….while Gomez was benched and traded from Minny?
Nope !
and I was not and am still not a Gomez fan.
Gomez plays in a bandbox for right handed hitters, has an atrocious OBP, does play decent defense
And Omar drafted 2 good defensive CF in MDD and Kirk and signed the best CF to hit the free-agent market in the past 30 years
O and since spring training numbers dictate so much…
that 23 year old OF being paid 450K this season put up some awesome numbers this spring for Houston…
he’s younger than ANY OF we have for this season….and paid peanuts…
too bad Sandy let him go for nothing…
You are right, that MDD and Kirk are very good so thus no need for Bourn. Glad we agree.
Time will tell, but I tend to lean towards the proven commodity that is Bourn than what MDD or Kirk may become.
Maybe you shouldn’t have trolled with the Gomez comment in a post about the farm system. Then you wouldn’t leave yourself open to snarky comments.
Adam Rubin continues to be the biggest liar. In this write up for TJ Rivera, he wrote up the following.
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/44167/farm-report-bronx-cheer-for-rivera
This was the ghastly lie:
“I grew up a Yankee fan all my life,” Rivera said. “Everybody in my family is except my dad. My dad was the only Mets fan, believe it or not. I was actually pretty close. I was right in Throgs Neck, which is about 10 minutes away from Yankee Stadium. And if we took the train, it would be a little longer — 15 minutes maybe. We’d just hop on the 4 train and be right there.”
The 4 train doesn’t run to Throgs Neck. The 6 train does. The 6 runs nowhere near Yankee Stadium. You must go to Harlem’s 125th street station, transfer to the 4 train, and then take the 4 to Yankee Stadium. That’s about a 30-45 minute train ride depending on wait time.
Doesn’t sound like that ‘lie’ was Rubin’s. He’s clearly quoting Rivera there.
Yes, because TJ Rivera CLEARLY forgets what train travels in his neighborhood lol. It’s funny how journalists are believed over athletes.
That’s a ghastly lie? Wonder what you would call Nixon saying I am not a crook? And Rubin didn’t say it anyway. You should worry about your own legacy, which may soon draw to an end at MMO if we don’t see any baseball intellect from you soon.
Does it bother you Rubin obviously MADE up a tale or that I exposed it, Joe? Or are you accusing TJ Rivera of lying? Careful with answering that one.
Don’t say it’s an editing mistake either. The kid did grow up in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx. And the 4 train runs on the opposite side of the Bronx, easily a 10-15 minute drive. Isn’t responsible journalism what posters, readers and sports followers demand from writers?
Lets play Devil’s Advocate for a second. Why would this egregious error be allowed to come to fruition? I would wager 90% of New York City natives catch this error. EVERYONE who rides the 4/6 in NYC catches this error. At the very least, this article makes TJ Rivera appear to be a liar, since reporters are treated like the Pope by the common sports fan.
Maybe someone should ask him that question? If he’s going to embellish a story, he should do it without quoting a young man who he made look like a liar.