Mets started out Monday night with two very solid picks to start off the draft, but they came in extremely heavy-handedly today in round three. The Mets took Seminole High School right-hander Matthew Allan. Allan was projected to go in the first round yesterday and just happened to fall through. Jeff Passan of ESPN tweeted that the Cubs were said to have been close to taking Allan, but did not do so due to signability concerns.

Reports early on were that Allan wanted four million dollars to sign. While that could seem like a concern for a slot worth just $678,500, the Mets seem to have done everything they could with the rest of their picks today to ensure that the money would be there by taking a slew of low-bonus college seniors in the ensuing rounds. The assumption is also that the Mets will go under slot on first-round pick Brett Baty, and second-round pick Josh Wolf. The Mets are confident that they will come to an agreement.

There is some recent speculation that the original four million dollar mark was an overshoot, and it will not take as much to get Allan to go pro rather than see his commitment to the University of Florida through. Getting all three of their first picks to sign would not only transform how this draft looks for the Mets for the best, but it would also have a similarly significant, and immediate, impact on the state of their farm.

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With their fourth-round pick, the Mets took a familiar name in Jake Mangum, center fielder out of Mississippi State University, who they drafted in the 32nd round of last years draft. The speedy center fielder was ranked the 171st best draft prospect by MLB.com, and 338th by Baseball America. Mangum hit .375/.427/.490 this season, showing excellent bat-to-ball skills again, but showing very limited power in his profile. Mangum’s contact ability and strong defensive profile will be his calling card as he moves up through the Mets organization. Brief writer’s note: a credit to our own Dilip Sridar for calling the Mets redrafting Mangum in the draft preview linked overhead.

Rounds 5-10:

Round 5: 148 Overall, Nathan Jones, RHP, Northwestern State University
Round 6: 178 Overall, Zach Ashford, OF, Fresno State University
Round 7: 208 Overall, Luke Ritter, 2B, Wichita State University
Round 8: 238 Overall, Connor Wollersheim, LHP, Kent State University
Round 9: 268 Overall, Joe Genord, C/1B, University of South Florida
Round 10: 298 Overall, Scott Ota, OF, University of Illinois-Chicago

Mets, as aforementioned, went heavy on drafting college seniors with their last seven picks. Clearly, they’re trying to save money in these rounds to increase the bonus offer to third-round pick Matthew Allan. Nevertheless, while these names may not jump off the page for anyone – Wollersheim was the only one of the last 6 picks to be ranked by any outlet as he was ranked 378th by Baseball America- but each one of these guys has at least some tools that they excel in.

Ashford, like Mangum, is a speedy center fielder who could stick at the position, and exhibits excellent bat-to-ball skills. He also walked more than twice as much as he struck out (38 walks to 17 strikeouts).

Ritter has an interesting profile with a solid combination of glove and bat. From the sound of it, Ritter seems to have a “handyman” profile, as in he’s good at most things, but not great at anything. Definitely doesn’t hurt to have a well-rounded profile.

Mets went for power bats for the last two picks of day two in Genord and Ota. While neither player was ranked by any major media, they seem to have enough profile in their bats to at least be interesting to watch develop. It will be interesting to see if the Mets play Genord at catcher.

One thing to watch is where the Mets place these guys within the organization. They were all seniors and saw their highest crop of competition. Now it’s time to see how they stack up.

The draft will continue today at 1 PM EST. We will be continuing our coverage of rounds 11-40 over at MetsMinors.net.