With yet another dismal Mets campaign in the books, it appears the focus in the Mets blogosphere has been centered around the rash of injuries that derailed the 2009 season. Recently however, I have noticed some grumblings about the ineptitude of the Mets front office on the Amateur Draft front. While ego/pride won't allow me to admit that I, myself, was a classic waste of Fred Wilpon's money, at least I only cost the Mets the price of a Dell Laptop - which is what I spent my whopping $1500 signing bonus on back in 2006. Anyways...
Other bloggers have already covered the subject of the Mets' poor drafting practices better than I can, but I want to go a little deeper and look at how the Mets' haven't put the guys they have drafted to good use.
Take one look at the Atlantic League All-Star game box score and you'll notice a bunch of former Mets Prospects that either hit the wall or were simply let go before reaching there full potential in the Mets system.
http://www.atlanticleague.com/2009scores/atl6230.php
Right away, I notice Jason Jacobs, Ryan Cullen, Wayne Lydon, Michael Hernandez, and Salomen Manriquez. Keep sifting the stats from the past few years and you'll also see .300 seasons from Jay Caligiuri, "Pooky" Batista, and more.
A skeptic will say that Indy Ball stats don't mean anything and if these guys were so good, then why didn't they produce as such while with the Mets? That's a valid point, except for the fact that some of the names I just listed actually did produce good numbers for the Mets, and for one reason or another, were let go while the majority of the remaining Mets minor leaguers went on to lose games in droves and put up paltry statistics.
JJ Jacobs was one year removed from leading the NY-Penn League in home runs when he was let go. Jay Caligiuri was a perennial .300 hitter from the day he stepped onto the field in Brooklyn and won a Sterling Award. Ryan Cullen followed up his best minor league season with an invite to Mets big league camp, only to be released shortly thereafter (Not even assigned to AAA). Michael Hernandez nearly won the Florida State League Triple Crown in 2007 for Detroit's A+ affiliate. When the Mets picked him up the following season, he had one injury riddled year before disappearing without being given at least a one-month opportunity to prove himself.
Now every system has players that perform well but are let go. It's a cruel reality in minor league baseball, and its hardly localized to "Los Mets". But the difference is usually that the reason these talented ball players are let go is because of younger, better talent coming up that overtakes their spot. This, one has to agree, is not the case in the Mets system. The lower levels of the Mets Minor Leagues are almost comically terrible. Perhaps Win/Loss records in the minor leagues aren't supposed to matter as much as I feel they do, but when minor league teams finish 40 games below .500 every year, it's safe to say that the system could use some help.
My gripe with the draft is not just that LOTS of money is spent on specific players that never pan out. It goes beyond that...its the fact that as soon as 6 figures are pumped into a draftee or international signee, hire-ups feel the need to justify that bonus by giving 3rd, 4th, and 5th chances to "prospects" that shouldn't have been given a second chance in the first place.
So back to my original point...after Binghamton's 54-86 season, and losing records from basically everybody else, don't you think some of those Indy Ballers still hanging on could have contributed in some way? Maybe I'm overly sentimental about the guys that I played with and wish things worked out differently for them. But if what I read in BaseballAmerica and around the internet about the current state of the Mets is even a little bit true, then maybe they fired my @$$ at just the right time, because I have never seen such hatred for a management team or for an entire organization for that matter, as we are all seeing right now with the NY Mets.
Other bloggers have already covered the subject of the Mets' poor drafting practices better than I can, but I want to go a little deeper and look at how the Mets' haven't put the guys they have drafted to good use.
Take one look at the Atlantic League All-Star game box score and you'll notice a bunch of former Mets Prospects that either hit the wall or were simply let go before reaching there full potential in the Mets system.
http://www.atlanticleague.com/2009scores/atl6230.php
Right away, I notice Jason Jacobs, Ryan Cullen, Wayne Lydon, Michael Hernandez, and Salomen Manriquez. Keep sifting the stats from the past few years and you'll also see .300 seasons from Jay Caligiuri, "Pooky" Batista, and more.
A skeptic will say that Indy Ball stats don't mean anything and if these guys were so good, then why didn't they produce as such while with the Mets? That's a valid point, except for the fact that some of the names I just listed actually did produce good numbers for the Mets, and for one reason or another, were let go while the majority of the remaining Mets minor leaguers went on to lose games in droves and put up paltry statistics.
JJ Jacobs was one year removed from leading the NY-Penn League in home runs when he was let go. Jay Caligiuri was a perennial .300 hitter from the day he stepped onto the field in Brooklyn and won a Sterling Award. Ryan Cullen followed up his best minor league season with an invite to Mets big league camp, only to be released shortly thereafter (Not even assigned to AAA). Michael Hernandez nearly won the Florida State League Triple Crown in 2007 for Detroit's A+ affiliate. When the Mets picked him up the following season, he had one injury riddled year before disappearing without being given at least a one-month opportunity to prove himself.
Now every system has players that perform well but are let go. It's a cruel reality in minor league baseball, and its hardly localized to "Los Mets". But the difference is usually that the reason these talented ball players are let go is because of younger, better talent coming up that overtakes their spot. This, one has to agree, is not the case in the Mets system. The lower levels of the Mets Minor Leagues are almost comically terrible. Perhaps Win/Loss records in the minor leagues aren't supposed to matter as much as I feel they do, but when minor league teams finish 40 games below .500 every year, it's safe to say that the system could use some help.
My gripe with the draft is not just that LOTS of money is spent on specific players that never pan out. It goes beyond that...its the fact that as soon as 6 figures are pumped into a draftee or international signee, hire-ups feel the need to justify that bonus by giving 3rd, 4th, and 5th chances to "prospects" that shouldn't have been given a second chance in the first place.
So back to my original point...after Binghamton's 54-86 season, and losing records from basically everybody else, don't you think some of those Indy Ballers still hanging on could have contributed in some way? Maybe I'm overly sentimental about the guys that I played with and wish things worked out differently for them. But if what I read in BaseballAmerica and around the internet about the current state of the Mets is even a little bit true, then maybe they fired my @$$ at just the right time, because I have never seen such hatred for a management team or for an entire organization for that matter, as we are all seeing right now with the NY Mets.
- feel free to email me with any feedback or comments - teddy.dziuba@gmail.com
3 comments:
stop beating around the bush....
Mack, I don't think their is a sports franchise in the world right now that is so unilaterally despised by its fan base as the New York Mets right now.
Thank God its football season
and I could add 20+ more names, like Evan MaClane, who did nothing wrong and were cut by the Omar regeme for not being one of their guys...
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