11/18/21

Tom Brennan - Retrospective on Mets’ Drafts of Years Past: 2005


Wikipedia states:

retrospective (from Latin retrospectare, "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past.

I thought it might be fun to look back and see:

1) who got drafted by the Mets in rounds 1 thru 5, how they panned out, and 

2) who, after the 5th round, ultimately made it to the dance. 

Not to get too historical, not to get too "retro" in the retrospective, I thought I’d start arbitrarily at 2005 (it was a very good year in life, and perhaps too in baseball) and work forward towards 2021 from there, a year at a time.  A nice 17 part series. 

Here goes the first in the series, with:

2005's Draft:

1st Round, 9th overall….The Big Pelf, Mike Pelfrey. He made the Mets, and in his career spanning 2006-2017, he went 68-103. But 50-54, 4.36 as a Met, which is not great for a first rounder, but certainly not a bust.

He was very hittable in his overall career, with 1,678 hits allowed in 1,476 innings. But he also threw 1,476 innings, which ain't chump change.

No round 2 or 3 picks this year.  And then, disappointingly, they do this:

4th Round: Hector Pellot? .239/.319/.329 in the minors.

5th Round: Drew Butera. The catcher was traded from the Mets early on and still caught some major league games many, many years later, in 2021. Defense-first catcher, but a .196 career.

Beyond Round 5, some good picks:

Jonathan Niese was a quite successful 7th round pick, as was Bobby Parnell in Round 9.  Mets got good mileage out of both. I'd take a 7th and 9th rounder like those two very single year.

Josh Thole was a quality grab in Round 13 (the catcher ended up with 1,336 ABs, hitting .242), and Pedro Beato in Round 17 may not have been Pedro Martinez, but Beato got some MLB time in as well.

VIVE LA FRANCE!!

To digress a tad, 38th rounder Pierre Miville-Deschenes never played in pro ball.  All of Paris wept.  C’est incroiable, n’est pas?


Overall, a pretty decent draft, when it came to pitchers and catchers.

Next up…what else...2006.

7 comments:

Mack Ade said...

This will be a fun series and bring back memories.

Perfect was always respectful of me when I wanted to take his picture.

Those and I became close when he was a Sand Gnat.

I remember he was both excited and petrified the day he was called up to St. Lucie to catch Johan Santana in a rehab game.

Tom Brennan said...

Good memories, Mack.

That would be petrifying.

And some drafts of wildly varying success to come.

Mack Ade said...

*Pelfrey

Mack Ade said...

*Thole

Mack Ade said...

Auto correct sucks

John From Albany said...

Mets needed pitching in 2005 but took Pelfry over Andrew McCutchen and Jay Bruce. Many criticized the pick because of that at the time.

Tom Brennan said...

Those were two big passes, John. Draft the best, not the need.