Mack’s Morning Report - 1-2-16 – 1st Round OF Draft Picks, Neil Walker, A.J. Reed, Jeff Wilpon, Mark Healey

Good morning.

We discuss a lot of topics on Mack’s Mets and one that continues to rear its ugly head is the ‘fact’ that the Mets just doesn’t seem to draft top outfielders. Really?

Here is a list of first round outfielders that the Mets have drafted since 1990 and what they accomplished -

Jeremy Burnitz – 1st round pick (17th overall) by Mets in 1990… last year in NYC (1994) – hit .238, 3-HR

Al Shirley – 1^st round pick (18^th overall) by Mets in 1991… never played for Mets and never made it to the major leagues. Retired after 1998 season.

Preston Wilson – 1^st round pick (9^th overall) by Mets in 1992… had eight at bats with the Mets in 1998 before being traded to the Marlins/Rockies/Nats/Astros and Cardinals. Finished career with Long Island in the Atlantic League in 2009.

Jay Payton – 1^st round pick (29^th overall) by Mets in 1994… hit .255 in 361-AB in 2001

Rob Stratton – 1^st round pick (13^th overall) by Mets in 1996… never made it out of the minors… retired after the 2006 season.

Jayson Tyner – 1^st round pick (21^st overall) by Mets in 1998… had 41 at-bats (.195) for Mets in 2000…  played for major and minor teams for Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Atlanta, Minnesota, Cleveland (2^nd time), Milwaukee, and Detroit… retired after 2009 season.

Lastings Milledge – 1^st round draft pick (12^th overall) by the Mets in 2003… lasts two years in a Met uniform, hitting .272 in 184-AB in 2007. Has played diminished ball in Japan over the past four seasons.

Brandon Nimmo  - 1^st round pick (13^th overall) by the Mets in 2011 … still in the minors after five seasons

Michael Conforto – 1^st round pick (10^th overall) by the Mets in 2014… in the starting lineup (LF) for the Mets by the end of the season (174-AB, 9-HR, .270/.335/.506/841

I’ll let this portion of my post this morning speak for itself.

David Laurita had this to say about the changes of second baseman going around in the NL East –

How did the respective teams fare in the second-base circus involving Daniel Murphy, Brandon Phillips and Neil Walker? Based on my armchair analysis, the Mets fared best. Acquiring Walker for Jonathon Niese was no steal, but committing to one year of the former Pirate seems more prudent than paying what it would have taken to retain Murphy. Walker is the better player, plus the Mets gain a compensatory draft pick while the Nationals forfeit a first-round selection.

As for the Nationals’ decision to give the former Met $37.5 million over three years, Murphy is Mr. Versatile, but is he any better than Brock Holt, who makes a tiny fraction of that salary in Boston? Probably not. Washington reportedly wanted Brandon Phillips, which would coast them prospects and $27.5 over two years, but the longtime Red was reticent to move east. For my money, the Nats would have been better off had Phillips been willing to waive his no-trade.

 Brian Joura wrote a piece on the 2011 draft, including this little tidbit –

At the time, much was made of the fact that the Mets signed 35 of their 51 picks, including their first 12 selections. In addition to Evans, they also went over the recommended slot bonuses for Nimmo, Fulmer and Verrett. But perhaps the biggest story that’s hardly mentioned from this draft is one that got away. In the 25th-round, the Mets selected two-way player A.J. Reed, who the Mets viewed as a LHP. Reed ended up going to the University of Kentucky, where he split time between the mound and 1B. In 2014, he went 12-2 for the Wildcats with a 2.09 ERA and ended up a second-round pick of the Astros. Houston made him a first baseman and last year he had a .976 OPS in Double-A and is now considered one of the top 1B prospects in the game.

    Mack - I guess we can call the Jacob deGrom drafting (9th round SS in 2010) our own A.J. Reed story...

 Mark Healey wrote a fascinating piece on Jeff Wilpon –

About a year later, the same guy traded Kazmir for a bucket of used baseballs named Victor Zambrano, let his friend and GM Jim Duquette take the heat (and demotion) for it, and stood by while his father yelled at WFAN’s Mike and The Mad Dog for even suggesting the younger Wilpon had any influence in the front office.

I was KeySpan Park that night after the deals were made, and the mood was dark. Wilpon was nowhere to be found, Duquette was on the radio defending the deals, and Jay Horwitz tried to get me fired.  The latter is a story for another chapter.  But that night in 2004, Jeff Wilpon became the passive aggressive puppet master we all know and many loathe today.

Some would say it’s because Jeff is held back on a tight leash by his father and Uncle Saul, and despite his COO title, has little power to effect much change.  “If Jeff were in charge for real, Terry Collins would have been fired mid-season last year,” one Mets insider told me after the season. “Jeff had called Wally to tell him to get ready to come to New York.”

                   

                    Mack – Read this in its entirety, especially if you are a Wilpon hater.

More from  Healey -

Apparently, the 40-60 million the Mets reportedly made during their postseason run has been used to do the same, as popular sluggers Yoenis Cespedes and homegrown Daniel Murphy will, likely be playing elsewhere in 2016.

But a con can only succeed if there are marks willing to go along with the bamboozle in the first place.

The family is in great shape,” Wilpon said in 2013. “We had to stay very tight on everything that was happening. So who would know? Real estate has gone zimbo, OK? We have many, many, many apartment buildings around the country. There is no building, so they are all rented. SNY has done spectacularly. The stock market is up. So we benefitted from all those things.”

So, as the Mets fail to build an offense to support their wonderful pitching staff, where do you stand?