13 is that superstitious number. WHOOOO!
What good can come from the number 13?
Well, if I get paid on the 13th, I am not too superstitious to spend it, thank you very much. Although I try to never have less than 13 bucks in my wallet once I'm done spending. I could come up with 13 more quips, but I won't.
Our on-site deep-diving Draft Expert, Mack Ade, knows that every draft pick counts - and some can turn out to really surprise you.
I took a look at 13th round Mets selections back to 1970 and found a surprising number of 13th rounders with some MLB success:
Lenny Dykstra - 1981 - they really "nailed" that one. 1,298 career hits, although only 30% or so of those with the Mets. Did his best ballin' with the Phillies, including one incredible season where he racked up an astonishing 143 runs. Compare that doozy to Carlos Beltran's all time Mets' season record of 127.
Rob Gsellman - 2013. The only active 13th round Mets selection who's reached the majors. Rob's compiled a 20-15, 4.67 ERA record, with 14 saves. Great (if at times erratic) value earned from that pick, with hopefully more to come in 2021.
Matt Bowman - 2012. 7-13, 4.02 career in 181 IP with the Mets and Cardinals.
Rick Ownbey - 1980. Career 3-11, with a 4.11 ERA, and probably a love for 7-11. And, of course, he was part of the trade that brought the Mets KEITH.
Jeff Innis - 1983 - 10-20, despite a 3.05 ERA as a Met over 7 seasons and 288 outings. Throw like that for a top team (like, say, the 2021 Mets) and you're 20-10 instead.
Boy, Bowman, Ownbey, and Innis combine for a 20-44 record despite an ERA collectively in the high 3's, proving it is often better to be lucky than good. And, how unlucky it used to be to pitch for the Mets. After all, Anthony Young, Paul Sewald, and Tyler Bashlor, as Mets, are a combined 6-56. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Terry Bross - 1987. The tall fella can always tell friends that his Mets' career ERA was 1.80. Just don't tell them that it was over a mere 10 innings.
Darin Erstad - 1992. He sadly did not sign with the Mets that year. As a later 1st round pick for the Angels, he compiled 1,697 non-Mets hits, including a .355 season in the year 2000.
Daniel Murphy - 2006. They only got unlucky when they let this 13th pick go after 2015. Similar to Erstad with the bat, he totaled 1,572 career hits, and .296. Hit .347 one season as a non-Met. A four leaf clover career for this leprechaun.
PJ Conlon - 2015. More luck o' the Irish - just not as much. This Belfast-born leprechaun has just 7.2 MLB innings and an 8.22 ERA in 2018 to his credit. Still just 27 years young, you Irish lovers.
Carlos Muniz - 2003 - 26 innings and a 1-1 record with the Mets. Why couldn't he be another Carlos, say like Carlos Zambrano, some like myself might ask.
Looking ahead, the Mets still hope for big things with 13th rounder in 2019, Blaine McIntosh. The error-less lefty hitting CF in 24 games is remarkably still not quite 20, despite missing all of 2020 because - well you know the answer to that. The 6'4" McIntosh, you see, started his career just as he turned 18.
May Blake be their biggest 13th rounder ever? McIntosh is considering changing his name to Kelenic so Mets fans will pay gobs more attention to him.
Of course, how could I not bring this next thing up again?
The best 13th rounder the Mets didn't take? 1999's Albert Pujols. Instead, in round 12 that year, their last pick before Pujols was selected, they picked RHP Paul Viole, a kid from nearby Englewood, NJ whose last pro season with St. Lucie in 2002 was 3-9, 5.99, making him 4-14 career at St. Lucie.
Tough choice...I no doubt would have been stupid and picked Viole, too, of that much I'm sure. I imagine you would have, too. Because the pick was just so darned obvious(ly stupid). You can, you see, just never have too much fringy pitching. Even if the pitching never gets closer to Queens than Englewood, NJ.
Of course, I need to add (to be fair and balanced) that by the end of 2002, Pujols in his 2 MLB seasons to that point had a very undesirable (to Mets' owners) 87 doubles, 71 HRs, and 257 RBIs. Pish, pish.
Thankfully, Steve Cohen finally took away the Wilpons' keys so they could no longer drive the Metsmobile, because for decades, they sure drove me nuts. I'm sure I could find at least 13 Wilpon starts that turned out gosh-awful.
Nuts passing on Pujols. Pounding-head-against-wall-crazy. That much I can tell you.
Under Steve Cohen, though, I don't ask for much.
How about 13 WS crowns in the next 13 seasons.
And 13 straight great drafts.
We should be so lucky.
Apparently the Mets were very interested in Albert Pujols but the story was that somehow the Mets thought he wanted $250,000 to sign and the Mets decided to pass. Pujols has denied that he wanted that amount. Don't think that will be the type of mistake the Mets will make in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe Mets would have traded Pujols for a reliever and an expensive washed up second baseman as a favor to our new GM.
ReplyDeletePujols non-draft by Mets is emblematic, Gus and John, of how unlucky we were to have the Wilpons as owners. More than 13 years too long.
ReplyDeleteI'll second that, Tom.
ReplyDeleteYes, in our history, we've had such a terrible record of draft picks and international signings.
ReplyDeleteStraw, Doc, David, Jose, Jake, Tom, Koos, Thor, Mookie, Lenny, Wally, Ron, Pete, Squirrel, Nimmo, Kelenic, and even the player formerly known as Fonzie (who knows what his name is now, since he entered the WPP?).
Nothing but bums, no decent player among the bunch.