Conor Glassey of Baseball America reported in on a new tournament that the New York Mets are launching — called the Metropolitan Baseball Classic. It’s an eight-team tournament scheduled to take place in New York over Labor Day weekend. The eight teams will consist of the Evoshield Canes, NorCal Baseball, Marucci Elite, Orlando Scorpions, St. Louis Mets, Team Elite, a team from Texas and a team from the Northeast area.
The teams from Texas and the NorthEast will be hand-picked by the Mets themselves. The travel teams mentioned earlier each have their own merit as well, with NorCal boasting names like Troy Tulowitzki, Jimmy Rollins, Dontrelle Willis, and Xavier Nady — while the Scorpions have Zack Greinke, Chris Sale, and Jonny Venters to their name. You can read more about each specific team in the linked article.
Glassey says it best here:
Weather permitting, every team is guaranteed four games with pool play between two groups of four teams and then a championship game, a third-place game, a fifth-place game and a seventh-place game. Each team will play at least one game at Citi Field, but games will also take place at MCU Park, the home of the Mets’ short-season Brooklyn Cyclones, and at St. John’s Jack Kaiser Stadium.
For the Mets, the tournament allows their staff to become more familiar with the players, while the players and their families become more familiar with the organization. The Mets can learn more about each players’ makeup and can perform various tests, if they choose, on some of 2014’s top prospects.
I think this is an excellent idea by the New York Mets and kudos to their scouting department. Tommy Tanous, scouting director, said that he got the idea from Bob Fontaine Jr.’s Mariner Cup. I, for one, am looking forward to it!
