Updated 2/4
ESPN’s Keith Law has ranked the Mets’ farm system at No. 14 in baseball. Law writes:
The R.A. Dickey trade really boosted their system, and several Latin American arms had strong years in 2012 to bolster the system’s total value. First-rounder Gavin Cecchini could move quickly for a prep kid, as he’s pretty advanced for a teenager and doesn’t have much blocking him at shortstop.
Among other NL East teams, the Miami Marlins are ranked 16th, Atlanta Braves 20th,Washington Nationals 21st and Philadelphia Phillies 27th.
Last week Baseball America suggested the Mets ranked No. 18, and John Sickels ranked us at No. 11.
Looks like Law pegged the Mets right in the middle.
Original Post 1/30
The Mets were well represented on MiLB’s Top 100 Prospect List by minor league guru Jonathan Mayo, which was released last night. The Mets were the only team in baseball to have two players in the Top 10, and had three prospects overall in the top 100.
The highest ranked Mets prospect was newly acquired catcher Travis d’Arnaud who checked in at sixth overall, with righthander Zack Wheeler not too far behind and ranked number eighth. Also making the list was newly acquired righthander Noah Syndergaard, who was ranked 29th. All in all, a very spectacular showing to say the least. 🙂
“Honestly, it’s an honor to be ranked really high, but I try not to think about it,” d’Arnaud told MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo. “I just go out and work hard, and try to contribute to each game I play to get a win.”
Meanwhile, John Sickels of Minor League Ball ranked all 30 minor league systems yesterday, and placed the New York Mets at No. 11, a significant jump from No. 15 a year ago. It’s considerably higher than the No. 18 ranking the Mets received from Baseball America earlier this month.
The system rankings in January are driven heavily by Wheeler and d’Arnaud without a doubt. So just as the Nationals and Braves rankings tumbled last year after their top prospects were promoted, you can expect the same thing to happen to the Mets. But don’t worry when that happens. It’s important to keep organizational rankings in perspective because they are tied so much to their best prospects. So as these top guys make it to the pros, it has a direct bearing on these types of rankings. I would venture to say that if Matt Harvey was still in the minors, the Mets may have been ranked in the 6-8 range as an example.
However, Sickels is very high on Wilmer Flores, who could still keep the Mets very respectable after Wheeler and d’Arnaud are promoted. He finally had his long awaited breakthrough season at age 21 and Sickels said the following about him yesterday:
“Despite all the hype and attention he’s received, he is still only 21 years old. Flores has always made contact well, but he’s gradually improved his feel for the strike zone and began maturing into his power last year. Although scouts still wonder exactly how many home runs he’ll hit, there’s no question that he’s made real progress. Flores moved off shortstop last year and performed adequately at both third base and second base…Obviously, there are still a lot of questions about Flores, but his stock with the bat has definitely rebounded.”
It was a great day for the Mets system yesterday as they finally received some well-deserved recognition and have obviously put together a very respectable minor league system that is feeding the major league squad with quality players over the last two years with even more to come.
