Wikipedia states:
A 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 who got drafted by the Mets in rounds 1 thru 5, how they panned out, and which of them (and those from rounds beyond round 5) made it to the dance.
Not to get too historical, I thought I’d start at 2005 and work forward towards 2021 from there, a year at a time.
Today?
The Mets' 2011 Draft
One of the Mets' most prolific drafts ever.
Which says a lot after the excellent 2010 pitchers' solid gold draft.
Round 1 brought us the biggest smile in sports, Brandon Nimmo. Many (including me) doubted him for years after he got drafted. Some still do. Despite his career .393 OBP. Willie Mays? Career .384 OBP. Of course, the two are otherwise not comparable, but lighten up on Nimmo a bit, will ya? Or I'll stick Cameron Maybin in your Christmas stocking.
Comp Pick Michael Fulmer was a great pick, but similar to Matt Harvey, not sufficiently durable. Traded to Detroit for some boaring guy named Yoenis Cespedes.
2nd rounder Cory Mazzoni barely pitched in the majors, 3rd rounder Logan Verrett pitched more in the bigs but was done in by being HR-and-injury-prone.
4th rounder Tyler Pill got a brief cup of major league java but was really (as it turned out) a better hitter than the reasonably successful finesse pitcher that he was. Seriously. In 245 minor league plate appearances, he went .301/.358/.408, with just 35 Ks. How many Mets' hitting prospects can do that?
Jack Leathersich was a 5th round lefty who fanned tons of guys in the minors, walked a lot of them too, and got to the majors finally and, yes, got hurt. He had a 2.70 ERA in the bigs, with 21 Ks in 17 innings. He was a minor league version of Josh Hader, fanning 496 hitters in 310 minor league innings.
Danny Muno was a great pick in the 8th round. Why great?
Because I said so, Mack.
His claim to fame was hitting .355 in Brooklyn in his debut season, a place where most hitters wilt. I expected greater things from him after hitting so high in such a tough hitters' park. Turned out I was mostly wrong, as he could only muster a few weak MLB ABs.
Robert Gsellman was an excellent value considering he was nabbed in the 13th round. Maybe it's the 13 inches of hair.
Phillip Evans - signed in the 15th round as an over-slot, he picked up his minor league hitting enough (after his first few quiet hitting minors seasons, he won a batting title in 2016) to eventually get to the bigs, and in 307 at bats, has hit .231, including 13 for 54 as a Met.
John Gant was an excellent 21st round pick, as he has gone 24-26, 3.89 in his MLB career, all of it, however, NOT with the Mets. He and Rob Whalen were traded in 2015 for Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson. As that season turned out, that was a great trade.
Back-to-back in the 34th and 35th rounds were Seth Lugo and Chasen Bradford.
Lugo was (in hindsight) an incredible 34th round selection - in 6 Mets' seasons, he's had 213 outings with the Mets, going 29-22, 3.46, with slightly more than a K per inning. Spotrac has him earning $3.75 million in 2022 as an ARB-3, and perhaps a big payday lies ahead in 2023. Not bad for a guy who went 3-7 in college, allowing 57 runs in 73 innings. Oh, and his real first name? Jacob.
Bradford meanwhile pitched in 2017, 2018, and 2019 in the majors, going 7-0, 3.89 in 104 innings! He pitched in AAA in 2021 for Atlanta and went 5-0. Never loses!!
NINE drafted pitchers and 3 drafted position players got to play in the big leagues. Incredible. Of course, the 12 above, other than Nimmo, Lugo, and to a lesser extent Gsellman, had virtually no cumulative playing impact for the Mets, so quantity does not necessarily equate to quality.
Next up? 2012
Nice job.
ReplyDeleteMets land exactly what they needed offensively with signing Starling Marte.
Starling is a solid bat, age tested and true. The Mets did not have a true "one more" top of the order batter to go with Brandon Nimmo. Now they certainly do.
Well done and congrats to the Mets Brass.
Bingo!
Bingo, I agree.
ReplyDeleteNimmo - hated the pick at the time
ReplyDeleteFulmer thought they stole him
Variety- him and I would sit pre game in dugout and talk pitching
Gsellman - a wise ass
Gant - wise ass 2.0
On Maxwell M. Scherzer
ReplyDeleteNot sure at the moment.
I love his recent and historical stats, a lot. Who wouldn't. But sinking that much salary budget (estimated at over $40 million a season) and his age factor of being 37 is somewhat risky sounding to me. Nothing lasts forever and eventually all pitchers arms wear down thus making them less effective. Sitting on say a three year deal with Scherzer could prove more difficult for any team than it probably seems right now. Max has not had a big injury that I could find, but he's 37 years old, with a contract ending age 40. This is a bit risky to me.
Would probably rather take that same total of money, and sign like a LSP Carlos Rodon, who is 28 years old and coming off a really solid 2021 season.
But the Mets really do need two (and not just one) really good starters added in, so that the NY Mets don't end up like they did in 2021 bailing water and pitching 42 year old starters from the 1980's. Let's be honest here. It's not a good thing.
What I might instead do is work a trade package deal for another team's young-ish starter (and like an MiLB player) from that team with promise for the Mets MiLB. A team with perhaps too many younger starters on it for instance, and not enough allotted budget to continue on with them all there.
Wouldn't matter if that pitching trade acquisition was a lefty or righty.
Then go with a rotation of something like this instead:
1. Jacob deGrom 2. Carlos Rodon 3. New Acquisition from another team via a trade deal 4. Taijuan Walker 5. Tyler Megill and possibly too 6. Which would be a Spring Training type "old school competition" between three or four of the best young Mets MiLB arms coming to camp.
Why six?
A: 2021 season as a learned lesson. This idea will not 0f course definitively end arm injuries. But it could help and do two things.
- Help give the Mets starter's arms more rest/down time, which could conceivably help keep them on the field and out of the sickbay and Dr. Andrew's office.
- It would have also have built into this the opportunity for a really good young Mets' starter (already here and in the system) to get their MLB proverbial teeth cut in the bigs over a longer duration of time so that if one of the five Mets starters ahead of him were to go down hurt (say second half when the games really count and matter the most for standings placement and playoff hopes) there is this sixth young starter experienced enough to assume the Mets fifth starter role in the rotation. It also takes away this young starter's pressure factor that coming up late in a season to the "bigs" tends to create. As we have all seen before.
Mack, I am guessing your tablet called Verrett "variety", and it is cool when guys are open and humble, not wise guys.
ReplyDeleteFulmer looked great until he got the injury bug.
Nimmo? For years, my brother and I thought "same old Mets." But they somehow nailed Nimmo, who turned into a very good player. Obviously, with how he works the strike zone, he is a true student of hitting.
Anonymous, this is a draft retrospective article.
ReplyDeleteTom is right! This was a great draft. People don't give Nimmo the credit he is due - how many players have you seen that improve year after year.
ReplyDeleteLugo was a great find - in the 34th round?! That's value.
I thought Fulmer was a lot to give up, but history proved me wrong.
Thanks for the puns, Tom - made my day.
Paul, you bet. Have a great day.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on the puns...thought you'd typoed the word "boring" until I thought about Yo's history...very well done.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Reese. He went from super exciting…to playing footsie…to boaring…all too quickly.
ReplyDeleteback to the article... Nimmo was a horrible pick, Jose Fernandez was picked next... you always get the best player available.
ReplyDeleteFulmer could not be said about his durability since there is zero guarantee he gets hurt here. we just take the talent so it was a great pick.
while Nimmo has been solid it was the wrong pick.
Eddie, maybe they knew Fernandez had a penchant for speedboats. Kidding aside, Fernandez was truly a beast of a pitcher. A true shame. Like when the Mets lost Brian Cole tragically - he looked like a future great.
ReplyDeleteMack might know better why Fernandez slipped that low in the first round.