Paul Articulates - The missing ingredient

This year, as always, the staff at Mack’s Mets has been following the prospects.  It is always very intriguing to watch talented young players make their way through the player development ladder.  All of them came from stardom at lower levels, whether that was high school, college, or independent ball.  As the levels of difficulty rise, some continue the trajectory and others fall by the wayside.  With all the analytics in baseball now, and with years of wisdom passed along by the scouts, it is still difficult if not impossible to predict who will rise to the top and become a MLB superstar.

It takes more than just one superstar to build a consistent winner in the major leagues.  It takes a combination of stars, solid contributors, and some role players who can mesh together to create a whole better than its parts.   There is no single formula for putting that together – it is a lot of hard work, a lot of investment, and the collaboration of very smart baseball minds to bring it to fruition.

Sometimes, like a high difficulty jigsaw puzzle, there are pieces that look like they go together but they don’t really fit.  The Mets have had that feeling lately as some of the pieces had to be tossed back – and maybe there are more to come.  The player development organization recently took a hit as director of player development Kevin Howard, director of pro player evaluation Jeff Lebow and Jim Cavallini, director of performance were all let go.  They were pieces that looked good but didn’t fit.

Some things have worked though.  The acquisition of several very talented prospects at the mid-season deadline has begun to look very promising.   The last few years’ worth of draft picks are also beginning to show some promise as they move through the system.  In an example of either brilliant thinking or just pure coincidence, many of these prospects have ended up in one place – Binghamton, New York.  

That sleepy little town in upstate New York that has held a AA franchise since 1992 is suddenly the epicenter of the Mets’ future talent.  Several players on their own paths through talent development are in the same place at the same time and the result is something that the Mets’ system has needed very desperately – WINNING.  Since August 1st the Binghamton Rumble Ponies have a 20-9 record.  That is a .689 pace that sounds like success to anyone in the business.  

The development of players’ talent, instruction on how to play the game at a high level, and experience against other talented players is very important.  But one thing that has very high but intangible value is the experience of winning.  It breeds a mentality that adversity can be overcome; it builds trust in fellow teammates that everyone will do their job.  Winning creates winners, and the Mets desperately need winners.  The current MLB team can’t find that attitude, having no better than a six game win streak all year (July 1-6).  

Watch this AA team, watch its players, and hope that this run continues because I believe this is a critical ingredient in the formula for building a future NY Mets team that wins consistently.