6/10/16

Thoughts On The Mets First Three Picks In The Draft


Hey everybody.

I thought I would come online this morning and give you my comments on the Mets first day in the 2016 draft. 

Most important, I give Sandy and Company all the credit in the world to not cave to the #MetsTwitter demand for new bats and a new third baseman. It's always been the Mets policy to draft the top player on their board (though I have questioned the names found there.)

I also give them credit for going after three college juniors. This is an obvious attempt to improve on the talent depleted minor league system, especially the pitchers (after all those trades last year).


It takes guts to pass on both Nolan Jones and Will Craig, who were both still on the board when the Mets 19th pick came around, Nobody was rising up the mock drafts faster in the past ten days than RHP Justin Dunn, who is just the kind of starter the Mets are famous for, Dunn throws a 99-mph fastball and could easily find himself in Queens by the end of 2018.


So could LHP Anthony Kay and 1B Peter Alonzo, though I do question the drafting of Alonzo with the 64th pick. There obviously is some concern in the front office with the growth/potential of Dominic Smith. The last ting I expected was a first baseman this high.




10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is nice to get good pitchers but who do the Mets have coming from the minors that has true power? Smith? no, Becerra? no.

Pitching is great but we have seen Harvey lose by giving up only 1 run. Granderson is on his last legs, Cespedes may leave after the year and Lagares has no power. Duda and Wright cannot be counted on to stay healthy and the minors don't have replacements for either. Walker is gone after the year so as you can see, it would have made a lot of sense for the Mets to draft a couple of good hitters.

Mets have to either pay for pitcher or pay to get good hitters as free agents.

Mack Ade said...

Anonymous -

This was a complicated draft.

First, there was very little premium power bats in it and they were gone early.

The Mets could have made a stretch pick or a high schooler with much more potential, but they chose to pick the top college pitcher that was still on the board.

Stacking up quality future starters makes guys like Wheeler, Gsellman, etc. more available for trades for bats

Charles said...

I agree Mack. Pitching is so expensive in MLB. The Mets have it cheap for now but in a few years this rotation will cost upwards of 50 million. That number will continue to rise.

You want good bats? As Harvey gets too expensive and he won't sign an extension before free agency, you trade him for some team's top prospect bat, or two or three.

But, he must be replaced right? That's why you draft the pitching. The Mets have little quality starting prospects and they needed to address that.

Stubby said...

For all its changes over the centuries, the fundamental nature of baseball remains the same. If you want to build a winning team and keep it winning (without outspending every other team out there), the ingredients you need--in order of importance--are:

Pitching
Pitching
Pitching
Defense
More pitching
Offense

I know people hate to hear it and don't agree with me, but that's the game and it always has been. If you have the pitching we have and gold glovers up the middle, yes, you will win far more 1-0 games than you'll lose.

We depleted our resources going for it last year (btw, totally worth it) and needed to (pardon the pun) re-arm.

Tom Brennan said...

So good to see the Mack mug in the article heading. Don't stay scarce.

Picks look good. Hopefully, Dunn stays healthy...only 6'1", 170.

We have an unlikely "power hitter" in the system...in his last 139 at bats, he has hit. 381 with 13 doubles, 4 triples, and 5 Homers. .670 slug % in those at bats. His name? Brandon Nimmo

BTW, Cecchini has hit. 410 in his last 95 at bats. Two problems: 1) no power and 2) 43 errors in his last 145 games started at SS. Still looks like a bust...no one who has no power and has an extreme error rate is going to play regularly in the bigs.

Tom Brennan said...

So good to see the Mack mug in the article heading. Don't stay scarce.

Picks look good. Hopefully, Dunn stays healthy...only 6'1", 170.

We have an unlikely "power hitter" in the system...in his last 139 at bats, he has hit. 381 with 13 doubles, 4 triples, and 5 Homers. .670 slug % in those at bats. His name? Brandon Nimmo

BTW, Cecchini has hit. 410 in his last 95 at bats. Two problems: 1) no power and 2) 43 errors in his last 145 games started at SS. Still looks like a bust...no one who has no power and has an extreme error rate is going to play regularly in the bigs.

Unknown said...

Watching the video footage of Dunn he really reminded me of Pedro so no pressure kid LOL. Do we really have a choice at this point to let Ces and Walker both leave next winter? It should certainly make for a very interesting off season once again. Nice offense in Vegas last night and good season's from a number of them so far so Mack what's your take on the youngsters lighting it up in the desert?

Tom Brennan said...

Post on the subsequent rounds tomorrow, Mack

Tom Brennan said...

Post on the subsequent rounds tomorrow, Mack

Michael S. said...

I was a bit disappointed with the Kay pick as I thought there were better pitchers on the board.

I realize this is a lazy comparison for Alonso (just because he's a big, RH college 1B with tremendous power), but the first player I thought of was Goldschmidt, who was not himself a high pick. Is there anything in Alonso's skillset that points to his ability to develop into that kind of middle order bat?