Mack – Random Thoughts: Xorge Carillo, Zack Thornton, Dante Bichette Jr., Best Mets Draft Class, Week Before The Draft

Morning,

 

First, we welcome new followers, ex-Mets pitchers Xorge Carrillo and Zack Thornton and Washington minor leaguer Dante Bichette Jr.

 

Carrillo was drafted in the 14^th round of the 2011 draft, out of Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona), and Central Arizona College (Coolidge, Arizona). Hit .330 for ASU in that year.

Spent seven seasons as a Mets minor leaguers, starting off as a backup catcher. Earned the starting job in 2015 for Binghamton and hit .240 that year and .269 in 2016.

Finished his Mets career in 2017 for Las Vegas (252-AB, .270).

Caught for the Tijuana Toros in 2018 (.300) and last year (.307).

You couldn't ask for more from a backup catcher and I am still shaking my head why we cut him.

 

Zack Thornton was drafted in the 23^rd round of the 2010 draft, by the Oakland Athletics, out of Ventura College (Ventura, California), and the University of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon). He was a starter for Oakland and went 9-0 in his final season there.

He pitched for three seasons in the Athletics organization and one full season (2013) for the Pirates.

He was traded in April 2018 by the Pirates to the Mets for 1B Ike Davis.

Thornton was an Ironhorse reliever for Las Vegas for three seasons 2014-2016. He pitched in 145 games there.

Zack’s professional career ended in 2017 for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in Indy ball (47-appearances, 2-4, 3.63).

 

Bichette was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 1^st round of the 2011 draft, out of Orangewood Christian HS (Maitland, FL).

He has played seven season in the Yankees chain, then played Indy ball in both 2018 and 2019, and finished off last year for the Nats AA-Harrisburg team.

His current minor league stat line is .254/.331//.365/.696.

He was released by the Nats on Wednesday night.

 

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/best-mlb-draft-classes-for-each-team -

Best Mets Draft Class –

Mets: 1982

Dwight Gooden took baseball by storm as a 19-year-old in 1984 -- two years after the Mets had taken him with the No. 5 overall pick in the ’82 Draft – to win NL Rookie of the Year honors before capturing the circuit’s Cy Young Award the following year with an MLB-best 1.53 ERA and 268 strikeouts. He accrued 41.6 of his 48.2 career WAR in New York, going 157-85 with a 3.10 ERA and 67 complete games over 11 seasons. The Mets’ ’82 Draft also produced right-hander Roger McDowell (third round), a 12-year big league pitcher, and catcher Greg Olson (seventh round), who would become an All-Star with the Braves in 1990. Southpaw Randy Myers, taken in the June Draft-Secondary Phase, was a 15.1 WAR performer who saved 347 games across 14 big league seasons, five of which came with the Mets.

 

In closing…

This is the last week before the draft. Teams are deciding what prospects they will be placed on their backboard and also what positions will need the most filler.

We talked earlier this week about the glut of players that probably will be placed on one the full season teams.

There are plenty of pitchers and outfielders in the system to hold back some of the ‘filler’ and place them on the GCL team. This will all determine on the quality of the domestic free agents that can be signed after the draft will end.

Reese and Tom call for big bats. I call for power pitchers. The three of us do this ad nauseum.

I love bats. And I try to remind my fellow writers that, in 2019 (NL), the Mets were 5^th in home runs, 6^th in OPS, and 6^th in slugging percentage.

That’s a lot of bats.

I still believe a team should draft ‘the best player available’, but, if we do that all the time, we could wind up with 12 shortstop prospects in the system.

Great football teams happen because of great quarterbacks. And starters are a team’s starting quarterbacks.

Our system is a little light in this area. We probably will lose three members of our current rotation to free agency. Everyone is bragging on Matt Allen and Josh Wolf, but they are years away. David Peterson hasn’t worked out yet. And Thomas Szapucki and Jordan Humphreys still need to prove they have fought back 100% from TJS.

We need pitchers and this is a pitcher draft. Two more studs in the first three picks would do wonders for the future of this team.

 

And… believe me… the scouting and cross checking staff of the Mets are working the phones right now making sure 5-10 guys that would have been drafted in the 5^th through 9^th round will commit to the Mets the microsecond this draft concluds.