12/2/16

Tom Brennan - METS AND YANKS IN MLB TOP 100 PROSPECTS






Tom Brennan - METS AND YANKS IN MLB TOP 100 PROSPECTS

You can have all the decent prospects you want on your favored team (mine being the Mets), and the MLB Top 100 list is not an exact harbinger of which players will have major league success, but if you’re good enough to be in that Top 100, your chances of being an impactful major leaguer seem pretty good.

Following that analogy, if your favorite prospect guy is not in the Top 100, unless he is a neophyte who will climb the list in the next year or two, his chances are not as good.

In the venerable Top 100, the Mets have a grand total of two (ugh!) guys:

# 11 – Amed Rosario SS

# 54 – Dominic Smith 1B

The Yanks, helped by trades, have 6, five of whom are in the Top 50:

# 15 – Clint Frazier OF

# 17 – Gleyber Torres SS

# 18 – Jorge Mateo IF

# 22 – Aaron Judge 1B

# 50 – Blake Rutherford, OF

# 78 – Justus Sheffield, LHP

Of course, the Yanks’ list was padded by 2016 trades.

So, the Mets guys you may root for that fall out of the Top 100 are: Robert Gsellman, Gavin Cecchini, and Brandon Nimmo.  Missing the Top 100 is a reality check, but given Gsellman’s significant MLB success in 2016, I find his exclusion from the Top 100 quite puzzling.  Also, a guy like TJ Rivera most likely never made a MLB Top 200, but he did pretty darned good in September for the Mets.  So the list is not foolproof, nor is an exclusive indicator of success.

Most of the other guys in the Mets’ Top 20 who failed to crack the Top 100(Justin Dunn, Des Lindsay, Wuilmer Becerra, Tom Szapucki, Anthony Kay, Luis Carpio, Marcos Molina, Milton Ramos, Peter Alonzo, Andres Giminez, Merandy Gonzalez, and Tomas Nido) are new or very young guys, or in the case of Becerra, hurt much of last year, impacting his ranking.

If I had to project a year from now which Mets could well crack the venerable Top MLB 100, I’d say Dunn, Lindsay, Szapucki, and possibly Molina, Alonzo, and Giminez, but it is very unlikely all of those will.  It is a tough list to crack.

What do you think, folks?

P.S.  Last thought: getting Zach Wheeler back in 2017 could be like adding a Top 10 prospect to the Mets.  Sure, he’s pitched a lot in the bigs, but not in 2015 and 2016.  He compares favorably, if healthy, to any pitcher in the Top 100.

10 comments:

Dallas said...

I'm already seeing Evans name show up in Rule 5 draft lists for other teams. If you sign a marquee FA for a bunch of money, you can definitely trade them for value (see Andrew Miller). Hey maybe that should be the new money ball! Sign all the top tier guys then package them off for top prospects around the trade deadline. You pay 3 months salary of a superstar for cost control of 1 or more top tier prospects for years!

Mack Ade said...

You can instantly replenish this by trading Bruce for three prospects, two of which would already be in this Top 100 list.

Eddie from Corona said...

I totally agree Mack ...I would love a Bruce trade to toronto that would bring back Reese Mcguire (catcher)
Even if we would have to sweeten the deal...

Tom Brennan said...

Dallas, Mack, and Eddie, the Yanks played that signing the top guy and trading for top prospects thing like a violin. Now we get our chance with Cousin Brucie, although to me, Miller and Chapman were more valuable.

Dallas said...

Yankees made the smart move. I'm just saying it seems like a good way to pay some $$ for prospects :)

What can we realistically get for Bruce? The Brewers just dumped the HR leader who had a similar profile for nothing! He would have cost about $5 million less than Bruce. Look at Bruces WAR over the last 3 years (-1.1, 0.8, 0.6). Is it a surprise that all the teams would rather have Granderson? (1.3, 5.1, 2.5). They might not be able to get anything for him without eating some of the salary. GM's are getting smarter, hopefully we can convince someone he is worth something. Too bad the Diamondbacks fired Dave Stewart, that would have given us a better chance. I think he forgot he worked for the Diamondbacks and not the Braves.

Anonymous said...

Why don't ML teams trade fringe ML players like Logan Verrett with enough time where they could have protected a player like Sewald or Evans?

Anyway, Bruce for prospects would be a great move and the right one. I would have liked for the Mets to trade Granderson as well in order to open up an everyday spot for Conforto and Lagares but I can see them not wanting to keep Granderson as he is a money player.

Last chance for D'No.

Hey Mack and Thomas, if Harvey comes back strong in 2017, do you see the Mets trading him for a package of young players since there is no way that Boras would sign with only one year to go until FA? what kind of package would Harvey be worth?

Tom Brennan said...

Hey Anon, if you ask me, if the elite pitchers show real health, Harvey will get traded. if 2017 is anything like 2016, but Harvey stays healthy and productive, I think they keep him. He'd be very attractive to another team if he returns to being the Dark Knight. Great for box office sales, not just a quality pitcher.

Mack Ade said...

Dallas -

Why do teams all of a sudden hot want hitters that can hit over 30 home runs a year?

Bruce can still, even in this depressed 'big bat' market, get us 2 top prospects. Maybe not 3, but 2 is a go.

Mack Ade said...

Anon -

I think Harvey becomes instant (just ad water) trade bait after 4 decent outings in a row.

Mack Ade said...

One more thing Anon -

I'm told he is considered, both by his fellow teammates and the front office, as a total pain in the ass.