A retrospective is a look back at past events that took place.
I thought it might be fun to get all retrospective and look back at:
1) How Mets kiddies drafted in rounds 1 thru 5 panned out, and
2) Which of all the Mets' picks actually 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. 2005 thru 2015 done so far.
Today?
The Mets' 2016 Draft
After some truly dreadful draft years, the Mets seemed to be figuring out what I was writing repeatedly by then:
DRAFT POWER ARMS AND POWER BATS. PUH-LEEZ!!
Too many punch-and-Judy hitters and soft-tossing pitchers grabbed by the Mets over the decades.
But 2016? Mostly a good draft in that regard.
Round 1 - Justin Dunn - the hard-throwing righty was traded to Seattle, but has gone 5-4, 3.94 as a Mariner, although he ended the season on the 60 day IL.
Comp Round - hard-throwing lefty Anthony Kay - also traded. He has not been lights out so far, but is 4-2 despite a 5.50 in his career with the Blue Jays.
Round 2 - Pete. Pulse-pounding Pete. Prodigious Pete.
Need I say more, except he is a consummate power bat, I'd hope you'd agree.
Round 3 - Blake Tiberi. They veered sharply away from "power bat" into what turned into this wasted pick low average, low power pick. Tiberi ended up with less than a HR every 100 plate appearances and hit .239. Bust pick in Round 3.
Round 4 - Michael Paez - short guy with power, he just did not hit enough: Also, like Tiberi, hit just .239, but a HR approx. every 50 at bats.
Blake and Michael should have been picked, but in later rounds, IMO.
Round 5 - Colby Woodmansee - looked fairly decent in his 2016 debut, but slid to .151 in 2017 - a complete bust, sad to say. He disappeared quickly. Round 5 guys should last longer than that.
Two guys drafted that year played this fall in Arizona:
9th round Colin Holderman and 36th round Garrison Bryant.
The key there is both of their rounds, when divided by 9, result in a whole number.
Kidding aside, 2022 should be make-or-break seasons for both of these fellas, with the advantage that the minors are bereft of strong pitching prospects. Amazingly, in 2016 thru 2021, a span of 6 years, the duo have compiled just 333 innings so far, going 14-17 combined.
Holderman has a 3.95 career ERA, while Bryant is at 5.04, mostly due to his first two short seasons in rookie ball, where he surrendered 45 earned runs in 45 innings. 60 earned runs in 142 earnings since, which is around a 3.50 ERA.
In round 20, the Mets drafted the now-promising Carlos Cortes.
He did not sign then, but he did sign with our Metsies after being re-drafted in 2018.
Solid 2021 AA season, and then on to the Arizona Fall League. Not added to the 40 man roster, as I assume the Mets feel his having not had any AAA at bats will shield him.
I continue to maintain that Cortes has MLB potential. Danny Muno thinks so, too.
I often wonder if he was actually a descendant of an early explorer of this new world we live in, who likely played 16th century Mexican winter league ball, although I could not find his stats - I think he was a pitcher who once defeated the Aztecs. I assume he set sail for the new world once he got drafted. They say his spin rate nearly equalled mine:
"Born around 1485, Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who defeated the Aztecs and claimed Mexico for Spain. He first set sail to the New World at the age of 19. Cortés later joined an expedition to Cuba. In 1518, he set off to explore Mexico."
Before that, I hear he played sandlot ball with Bartolo Colon.
Enough of my inane humor.
In summary, Pete Alonso alone made this a successful draft; Dunn and Kay added to that, though, not yet in a major way.
Next up? 2017.
2 comments:
Dunn and Kay- so far, neither loss has come back to haunt us.
Pete - you might remember I was thrilled to get him in the second round.
I remember that, Mack. You called that one.
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