I wonder if, when all is said and done, Sandy Alderson will look back on his time as Mets General Manager, and show some form of regret for not offering Jose Reyes a contract back in 2010...It seems to me that the Mets have spent every day since trying to find a suitable replacement for Reyes, and four years later are still left without a viable MLB shortstop...I get it, paying 22 million annually for the next three years of an already breaking down leadoff hitter is going to get ugly...But I just miss watching that guy play every night...There has never been a player I enjoyed watching more. I've only been seriously paying attention to the MLB draft for about five years, and I thought it might be fun to take a look at what the Mets system would look like if they had taken the guy I wanted with their first pick for the last five years...
2014 Mets Pick My Pick Michael Conforto Sean Newcomb I'm not a scout, so I can only rely on what I read, but I read an awful lot of scouting reports that put Conforto at first base long term...and I just can't understand drafting a first baseman with you're first pick two years in a row...I thought the Mets had a handful of great options with this pick, and picked the one guy I wanted them to stay away from...
2013 Mets Pick My Pick Dominick Smith Dominick Smith This was the only instance where the Mets actually chose the guy I wanted them to. In fact, I loved nearly every pick through the first ten rounds...
2012 Mets Pick My Pick Gavin Cecchini Marcus Stromen Leading up to this draft, I feared that the Mets would take Cecchini...The problem with Cecchini is that he lacks the upside that you look for from a first round pick...The best case scenario puts Cecchini as an average defender at short with below average speed and power...As soon as I read that scouting report I said to myself "Isn't that Ruben Tejada"? People were leary of Stromen because of his lack of height, but from everything I read I saw a #2 starter, or at worst a solid MLB Relief pitcher..
2011 Mets Pick My Pick Brandon Nimmo Matt Barnes I really like Brandon Nimmo, probably more than most...but I really disliked this pick initially. In Nimmo I saw an extreme roll of the dice given he never even played high school ball...and in Barnes, I saw a proven college righty who I was sure would slot into the Mets rotation by the following spring...Fast forward to 3 years later and Barnes is a highly rated prospect, but has yet to make an mlb start...It just goes to show you that taking the near-ready college amateur is no guarantee of MLB help in the short term.
2010 Mets Pick My Pick Matt Harvey Yasmani Grandal Ouch!! Any Mets fan who tells you they wanted the Mets to take Harvey is probably lying...All I knew at the time was that the Mets catchers sucked and Grandal was supposed to be the next big thing...Another example of why you shouldn't draft based on MLB positional need..I'll take best available every time, and i'm glad the Mets took Harvey... Overall, I think its fairly obvious theres a reason i'm not in charge of the Mets draft :)...Stromen would have been a better pick than Cecchini but other than that, I think I'll leave this up to Sandy and Depo!! Colon for Kemp? Dodgers kick in 75 million? Thor, Montero, and Wheeler for Tulo? How about the old quantity over quality trade offer? Torres, Gorski, Rice, Abreu, Dykstra, and EJY for Stanton? Look, I love a good blockbuster trade idea as much as the next guy, but the question we should be asking isn't can the Mets pull off a blockbuster deal...but should they? The Mets clearly are more than one great player away from sustained success...Before Carter/Hernandez, the Mets made several key small trades that brought them players like Sid Fernandez and Ron Darling...
The Mets should be looking to stack up valuable pieces, until they are one blockbuster deal away from the World Series...The guy they should target first IMO is SS Elvis Andrus...There seems to be a consensus around baseball that Andrus has an albatross of a contract, but I disagree...15 million a year for a 25 year old shortstop who plays great defense, and steals 40-50 bases a year doesn't seem like an albatross to me...and theres a good chance that Andrus will continue to improve...To be honest I much prefer Andrus to Starlin Castro of the Cubs and he would cost alot less in terms of what the Mets would have to give up...
The Mets are finally starting to see the fruits of being patient with their young bullpen arms...There was a time with this orgnaization that if a young releif pitcher came up and struggled intitally, he would find himself with another team the following year...It got really old watching Met castoffs like Heath Bell and Matt Lidstrom go on to be closers for other teams...The Mets finally have a bullpen to be excited about!
1 comment:
I totally agree about Andrus. Texas is having a down year and may see this as a opportunity to convert Andrus into a few less expensive assets and also free up SS for Profar. Since it's a big contract, maybe Texas accepts a package built around Plawecki and some arms. Dunno. But Andrus would be a super building block for the Mets.
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