Tom Brennan - Major League Lockout, and Retrospective on Mets' 2014 Draft

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' 2014 Draft: 

The first round brought us Michael Conforto 10th overall.  Mets' leadership was popping champagne corks when he slipped down to them.  I'd say that was a very solid 10th overall pick, even if he goes elsewhere.  If he was not a free agent, they'd  do arbitration, and keep him to see if he'd bounce back, or do an extension at a discount.  But he is a free agent.  132 Mets HRs in 2,551 at bats ain't chump change.  I wish him well.  Just not against the Mets, please.

Round 2 - no pick.  No pick = no fun.

Round 3 - Milton Ramos - a bust pick.  Like so many Mets picks, he hit around .240 in the minors without power.  A fine pick several rounds later, but not for his round.  Although, at the time, he was touted in the draft listings, as high as 34th overall.

Mack's take at the time was this:

Milton Ramos may be a very special player and could easily turn out to be the most talented shortstop in the Mets organization. This was a stroke of genius on draft day, who shouldn’t have been around when the 84^th pick came up. He was easily one of the top 50 ballplayers available for the draft that year.  

But…is Ramos going to be another in a serious of excellent defensive Mets shortstop prospects who get their bats knocked out of their hands by quality pitching?

Much too early to tell or worry about. He’ll play 2015 as a 19-year old and his ceiling would be Kingsport. 

Mack was right - it is hard to tell, especially for real young kids, and yes, he mostly got bats knocked out of his hands thereafter.

Round 4 had Eudor Garcia, who seemed to be an emerging hitter of some promise, but PEDs made him short-lived and submerging.  A solid .282 in 940 career ABs with 131 RBIs - then, suddenly, gone.

Round 5 - Josh Prevost - the 6'7" pitcher was big and bad - but "bad" in a bad way, not a good way.  Bust pick.

The only other pick that made the bigs was the traded Brad Wieck, a very tall (6'9"), very high strikeout pitcher with control issues.  He was a PTBNL in the deal that brought the Mets big hat bust wild slinger Alex Torres.  Big Brad has 89 Ks and 24 walks in 59 innings in the majors, after 459 Ks in 326 innings in the minors.  Nasty.

He was cooking for the Cubs this year, with 17 scoreless innings and 28 Ks.  Then, his season went POOF!

Not for an arm injury, as one might instantly assume.  Instead, for this, as reported on MLBTradeRumors site: 

"(The Cubs) transferred lefty Brad Wieck from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL, per a club announcement. Wieck, who is sidelined by an irregular heartbeat, will undergo an ablation procedure in an effort to address the issue, tweets Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. He had a similar procedure performed in February 2020."

Hopefully, he will come back 100%.

All in all, a terrible draft for the Mets, after the all-too-obvious Conforto selection.

Next up?  2015.

Max - back in his Tigers Days, wearing a big D - May he go from D to Straight As with the Mets

P.S. Baseball Lockdown - and Max Scherzer

The baseball lockdown is here.  I will leave it to others to pontificate on the exigencies of a lockdown/lockout.  I'd prefer to have a cookout and watch baseball.

Max Scherzer appears to be a strong and forceful leader and I will leave it, again, to others to parse everything said during yesterday's presser, but I look forward to his standing on a mound and making non-Mets players miserable, a particularly strong skill of his.

Can we just skip the new players' contract stuff and sign a few more great players and start warm and inviting spring training already?  Life these days feels like one big ball of tensions and lockdowns.  I don't want variants.  

I just want baseball, thank you.

Jacob and Max....Max and Jacob...Jacob and Max...Max and Jacob.

All that said, MLB.com had the following information in a Q&A from owners.  I think what the owners propose at a high level is good, and the minor league info is also good, but otherwise I am not trying to analyze this whole thing - millionaires will work something out with other millionaires eventually.

Here are excerpts:

A: ...We offered to establish a minimum payroll for all clubs to meet for the first time in baseball history; to allow the majority of players to reach free agency earlier through an age-based system that would eliminate the Players Association’s concern about alleged “service-time manipulation”; and to increase compensation for younger players, including a historic increase to the minimum salary for players with one or two years of Major League service. 

In an attempt to spur negotiations towards an agreement, we told the Players Association that we were willing to extend the Designated Hitter to the National League; to create a new draft lottery system, similar to those employed by other leagues; and to increase the luxury-tax threshold that affects only a small number of teams. 

Q: Will Spring Training start on time?

A: We are still currently planning for Spring Training to start on time and for a full 2022 season without disruption and will spend every day working around the clock to achieve that goal.

Q: What does this mean for the Minor Leagues?

A: The 2022 Minor League season -- and players who are not on the 40-man roster, or signed to a Major League contract -- will be unaffected. Minor League teams will continue to hold minicamps, Minor League Spring Training, and extended spring training for these players. Teams are continuing to adhere to the terms of all Professional Development League License Agreements with their affiliates and will be operating their Minor League operations uninterrupted.