For the first time ever, John Sickels of Minor League Ball has released a formal ranking of the 30 minor league systems. He put the Mets square in the middle as the 15th best system saying this:
15) New York Mets: Solid depth in pitching, especially at the top with Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, and Jeurys Familia.
It is hard to argue the Mets should be any higher than this looking at the teams ahead. Bryce Harper alone has the Washington Nationals ahead of the Mets (not bothering to even count Anthony Rendon or the rest of that terrific 2011 draft cast), the Colorado Rockies would probably be below the Mets had they not snagged Drew Pomeranz from the Cleveland Indians, and then in my opinion the Pittsburgh Pirates begin a new tear of top level talent.
I was actually a bit surprised Sickels put the Mets above the Yankees, but I think that speaks worlds about the turnaround the Mets system has undergone recently. It is not expected that any of the Mets top guys will graduate from prospect status this year, except for maybe Jenrry Mejia, so with a couple of nice years from guys like Cory Mazzoni, Wilmer Flores, Phillip Evans, etc. The system could rank securely in the top 10 next year.
Sickels links to two rankings of farm systems that fans of the site formulated using Sickels’s grades and they had the Mets 11th and 20th.
