Yep, it's me again. Bringing holiday cheer from a gloomy, roomy Citifield.
I got some great Christmas decorations at my favorite shopping outlet, A Wreath o' Franklin, where did you get yours?
Anyway, I thought it might be fun over a stretch of a few laborious weeks to get all retrospective and what-not, and look back at:
1) How Mets kiddies drafted in rounds 1 thru 5 panned out, 2012-2023, and
2) Which of all the Mets' picks actually made it to the dance.
Today? We go all retro on the Mets' 2016 Draft
Round 1 - Justin Dunn - the hard-throwing righty was traded to Seattle, but has gone 6-7, 4.44 in 32 starts as a Mariner. Barely pitched in 2022, out all of 2023, now a free agent. Already?? Time flies.
Comp Round - hard-throwing lefty Anthony Kay - also traded. He has not been lights out so far, but is 4-2 in his 86 inning MLB career, despite a 5.50 ERA, mostly with the Blue Jays. Just 17 innings in 2022 and 2023. Released by the Mets; in a pitching-strapped game, he should, one would suppose, have a chance to resurrect his so-far-limited career in 2024.
Round 2 - Pete. Pulse-pounding Pete. Prodigious Pete. Pay-me Pete.
He is a consummate power bat, unlike any home-grown Mets’ bat ever. I recommend drafting power arms and power bats. The Mets normally don't listen to me, but in this case, they did. You of course know he is their most prolific home-grown power hitter ever, so let's move on.
Round 3 - Blake Tiberi. They veered sharply away from "power bat Pete" into what turned into this wasted low average, low power pick. Tiberi ended up with less than a HR every 100 plate appearances and hit .239. Verdict?
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 approximately every 50 at bats. Verdict?
Bust pick in Round 4.
Round 5 - Colby Woodmansee - looked fairly decent in his 2016 debut, but slid to .151 in 2017. Verdict?
A complete bust. He then disappeared quickly.
9th round Colin Holderman was converted by the Mets in 2022 into Daniel Vogelbach. Holderman was a solid reliever in 58 outings for Pittsburgh in 2023. Verdict?
Wish we had him back.
In round 20, the Mets drafted Carlos Cortes. He didn't sign then. In 2018 he went in the 3rd round, and got 3rd round $$. He showed real promise, then disappointed in 2022 and 2023, and seems to be topping out in AAA. Decent pop. Mediocre hitter and fielder. Long shot to become a major leaguer, in my opinion, given the team’s other minor league IF/OF players.
In summary, Pounding Pete Alonso alone made this a successful draft; Dunn and Kay added to that success, though only in a marginal way. Holderman, once he got his several minors injuries out of the way, has pitched well, and has made this a good draft.
Next up? 2017 Draft retrospective.
Were you as excited as I was to read this announcement?
The Mets officially announced Yamamoto’s signing.
In the team press release, Yamamoto said:
“I’d like to thank everyone in the Orix organization, the Mets organization and all the people close to me who have given me so much support throughout this free-agent process.
I am truly excited to wear Mets garb and can’t wait to play in front of a packed Citifield.”
Well, we Metsies all wished he'd have said that.
News alert: he didn't say that. I just made it up. Fake news.
It was the Dodgers. They signed him. Palm trees. 100+ wins.
Sunshine galore.
Drat!
But you knew that. All I can think to say is:
RE-SIGN JORDAN YAMAMOTO INSTEAD! ARE YOU WITH ME?
OR JUST BE GLAD WE GOT ADRIAN HOUSER. "YO, ADRIAN!"
7 comments:
So
A Pete Draft
I'd be keen to know who they should have drafted instead.
The first two picks were killer picks. Both projected to be big stars in the game
Pete was projected as a long shot due to high K/9 and poor defense
Go figure
I also wish we had Colin Holderman back. Maybe by the end of this off-season we can strike a deal. We need the bullpen help from someone with his stuff rather than the collection of 7+ ERAs that we have picked up in garage sales.
Ray, it is about 3 weeks away in this series, but you will see some eye-popping conclusions for years 2012-20.
But a way to see who they could have picked instead is to look at this list published annually by Baseball Almanac:
https://www.baseball-almanac.com/draft/baseball-draft.php?yr=2016
Which, for instance, will show you that when the Mets nabbed low-talent Blake Tiberi with the 100th pic, within the next 15 picks came Corbin Burnes and our own Joey Lucchesi, drafted by another team.
Mack, with Pete, it is hard to distinguish an interviewee's BS from reality, but Pete was for real in his zeal. His insatiable drive to improve is what made him great. He has always worked out like a focused beast. Great power bat pick.
That sounds like Mark Vientos. Or Dave Kingman.
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