Well, no meaningful October baseball for the Mets this year (WHAT ELSE IS NEW?), so let's look at the 2021 draft.
Did the draftees do well overall?
Hint: the answer is a 3 letter word that starts with the letter Y.
Before I proceed: If you want to know more about any of the draftees below, Mack posted separate articles on each of the 20 draftees from July 11 through July 15. I won't be repeating that info here, but feel free to use the site's search engine to look into any of those Macks notes. This is a high level look at the 2021 crop - I will separately be doing some Top 30 write ups soon.
We know the team's # 1 pick, Kumar Rocker, was not signed.
Remind me when he wins his 200th major league game, will ya?
Anyway, let's move on to the other fellas, the ones that actually took pen in hand and signed, shall we?
Rounds 2 thru 20. Yep, all of them signed.
A surprising number (6 of the 19) were assigned as high as low A St Lucie, and by and large did well there.
As a point of comparison, back in 2019 and prior, before the draft was shrunk from 40 rounds to 20, I do not off hand recall any pre-2020 drafted hombres playing substantial time in low A in their debut year. Most did not make it to low A in their debut year at all. I like that more aggressive change. Challenge those who can be successfully challenged.
Let's get rolling:
2nd rounder, P Calvin Ziegler - the 18 year old righty did not pitch. He was the 46th overall pick and was # 123 in the MLB Pipeline rankings. Throws hard, but not super hard, at least at age 18. I do not mind a cautious approach with an 18 year old high value draftee. I'd love to see him start out in low A next year, but that may be too aggressive. As you read on below, though, the Mets were putting just-drafted guys in low A, so one can hope he is ready for an aggressive 2022 placement.
3rd rounder, P Dominic Hamel - his pro debut was short, but very sweet. He threw 3 perfect innings in the rookie ball Florida Complex League (FCL), fanning 7. What's not to like?
4th rounder, 1B JT Schwartz - the lefty hitter only fanned 12 times in 25 St Lucie (Low A) Mets games, which is good, but hit just .195/.320/.296, which is not so good. But, a challenging Low A assignment - remember that Pete Alonso started his career one level lower. Schwartz can look forward to 2022, most likely starting out in St Lucie.
5th rounder, P Christian Scott - 22 year old 6'4" righty in the FCL fanned 1 in 3 IP, and allowed 1 run. How's that for dipping the toe in - 3 innings?
6th rounder, P Carson Seymour - 6'6" righty got his big toes wet in the FCL, walking 6 in 4.1 IP with 4 Ks and 1 run allowed.
7th rounder, SS Kevin Kendall - the lefty bat excelled for the St Lucie Mets, 113 at bats, .327/.421/.451, 8 of 10 in steals. Some fans do feel that the Mets need a SS. Realistically, the Lindor Wall stands in his way.
8th rounder, 6'5" lefty P Mike Vasil - FCL dazzler: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 10 Ks. Gotta love that.
9th rounder, 6'5" P Levi David - DNP. Don't know why.
10th rounder, lefty Keyshawn Askew - great FCL debut, 9 IP, 1.00 ERA, 14 Ks, 2-0. Keyshawn!!
11th rounder, S/H OF Jordan Rowdey - for St Lucie Mets, .229/.333/.294 in 109 ABs. Not a bad immediately-assigned-to-Low-A-ball pro debut.
12th rounder, OF Jack Wold - for St Lucie Mets, 86 ABs, 8 XBHs, .279/.315/.442, 17 Ks in 25 G. Very nice career kick off.
13th rounder, IF Matt Rudick - for the FCL squad, the 5'9" OF generated .303/.404/.447 in 76 at bats, 6 for 6 in steals. Nice!
14th rounder, P Nate Lavender - the 6'2" lefty in 4 FCL games, 6.2 IP, 1 run, 12 Ks. Excellent! My new favorite color? You guessed it.
15th rounder, 5'7" IF Wyatt Young - FCL darling, hitting a scintillating .370/.426/.478. A lot better than fellow former Hawaiian Mets draft bust Branden Kaupe, that's for sure.
16th rounder, righty P Trey McLaughlin - 6.10 FCL ERA, with 19 Ks in 20.2 IP and a 1.31 WHIP. Lots of innings, relatively speaking.
17th rounder, lefty P Nick Zwack - FCL dazzler: 7.1 IP, 13 Ks, 0.00 ERA. Sweet! A Big Zwack Attack!
18th rounder, P Koby Kubichek - a rare struggler in this debut season, 0-3, 7.71 ERA, 18.2 IP, 11 BB, 12K - but he pitched in Low A, so that was a challenging assignment right out of the box. Onward to 2022.
19th rounder, C Drake Osborn - His FCL debut was soft on hitting, 8 for 45, .178/.296/.222. Not all catchers are to be confused with Francisco Alvarez.
20th rounder, IF Justin Guerrera - the 5'9" IF started out strong in the FCL, got promoted to St Lucie and hit less there, but overall, a very solid season: .286/369/.495 in 30 games. Far better than the most likely washed up Greg Guerrero.
Overall, very fine debuts for the 17 of the 19 draftees who signed and played, and started climbing the mountain.
By my count, 12 of the 20 did well, 5 not so well, 2 did not play, and one rocker chose to play music or otherwise occupy himself.
Too bad that we did not draft - and sign - a willing first rounder. Next time we want a true rocker, try Leslie West. I saw Leslie play at the tennis stadium across from Shea in the summer of 1973 - he knocked it out of the park. The half of the audience that day who showed up for the other act, Sly and the Family Stone, was quite agitated that Sly decided not to show up. Two very different music genres.
Funny how that works. I don't think Sly blamed Covid.
The Mets lost 4-2 to the Braves at Shea earlier that day - Hank Aaron hit 2 homers. So, he knocked it out of the park, too.
Anyway, I found the date the two bands played together - odd to think that some of the drafted kids' parents may not have been born by July 1973 - time does fly:
7/8/1973 New York, NY, Louis Armstrong Stadium Sly & The Family Stone,
14 comments:
Considering we lost Rocker, I still think we did good in this draft.
Most scouts don't agree with me, but I think we will get 2-3 mid-rotation pitchers out if this one.
I am particularly high on Vasil.
Mack I am happy you said that considering the debacle of kumar. But I also remember you saying we could have and perhaps should have chosen others
Are you saying that based on who we chose they look good and we did well or that considering we chose below slot players we didn’t do so badly
That sounds cryptic so let me say it this way
Just because some says something is not bad doesn’t make something good….
So are they good or not bad…
Eddie, Mack can address your question, but to me, considering that they picked underslot, their picks have been surprisingly good in small samples. Especially considering how many started out in low A. If you go back thru each year's drafts per-Covid, I can't recall ANY players drafted starting out in Low A.
I personally do not know who else we could have picked and if it would have been better. I am not thrilled with the Schwartz pick, given that he is another 1B at a time we have Alonso, Smith, Cano, Davis, and Vientos who can play 1B.
I think the only way to analyze what the Mets draft might have been like would be to take the team that drafted just behind them and see who they picked and how they do.
One negative: I don't see much power in the drafted hitters. MLB ball is a power hitters' game, by and large.
I have, to digress, never seen such a power hitting crop of real prospects at one time as Vientos, Baty, Alvarez, Mauricio and Cortes. Especially when you adjust for the negative drag of Brooklyn Cyclone Park on the 2021 #s of Alvarez, Baty, and Mauricio.
McLoughlin and Kubicheck did well in the FCL and then were promoted to St Lucie where they did not do so well. A lot of the other pitchers only pitched in the FCL. We will have to see how they do in St. Lucie next year.
The Farm system lost a lot of starting pitchers to TJ Surgery at the beginning of the year. The organization then went ahead and hired pitchers from the independent leagues to pitch in the farms. So we needed pitchers and the Mets went ahead and drafted mostly pitchers in this draft. Because of this and looking at the initial results I feel this was a very good draft for them minus the round one disappointment. Most of the position players they picked have been doing well.
No
I still think we left better names on the board... especially after our 2nd round pick... but what we picked in later rounds may pay huge dividends.
Tom
I understand your concern for the Schwartz pick but this might have been a roster fill pick.
Org. Was very lite on 1Bmen
All you need is one to work out and it becomes a good draft.
Very true on draft - a gem or two and it all looks different.
And occasionally you get lucky signing free guys like Adam Oller. Still remains to be seen if he'll be MLB successful, and he could get hammered tonight, but boy has he been superb.
My dark horse to keep climbing the ranks and making it is 13th rounder Matt Rudick. I like those undersized guys that can just play. Jose Altuve one I look up to (haha).
The Mets minor league development staff were extremely attentive this season...more
than I've ever seen before. Not counting the DSL teams or draft picks, the Mets have
acquired 90 players this season...the vast majority of them minor leaguers
(yes, I have a list), some of whom had to be called up to the majors because of all
the injuries.
Additionally, the minor league development staff were very aggressive at
monitoring and promoting players as the season progressed. I count 77 players
who were promoted this season (yes, I have a list of those too) (and a few
demotions, naturally). A couple of players like Tylor Megill and Joshua Walker
were promoted twice, and Mark Vientos, who skipped High-A Brooklyn entirely, and
opened at Binghamton, was promoted yet again, to Syracuse.
My point is that now, as a result, most minor league players appear to already be
where they would start next season without a lot of off-season maneuvering. A few
top prospects may open at a higher level still, but I think most of the rest have
already received their promos. Unusual & interesting.
I really like Kevin Kendall who hit the ground hitting. This is a guy who batted leadoff in college and you know how hard it is to bat .300 leading off because you get SO MANY ABs.
"Career slash line of .309/.375/.419 including a career-best .356 average in 2021 ... Pac-12 leader in hits per game (1.6) in 2021."
Nickel, nice insight on Kendall.
Nickel, great to have such lists. If you ever feel like sharing them on this site, let us know.
Yes, very exciting to see them push guys along, and for so many to do well.
Overall, the teams themselves did not do well, but that is to me a picture of a good number of well-functioning players, but a high number who did not play well. Part of that being the Mets' insatiable need for call ups all year. Good for the call ups.
Post a Comment