Initial Thoughts on the Draft:

1. For the record, the Mets drafted 49 players… only 11 of which came directly out of high school. There were 29 pitchers drafted, of which 22 were right handed.

2. I come away from this draft with the same dull feeling I had last year. I do all this work all year long only to be totally pissed that I had to write down a bunch of names when much better players were left on the board. I don’t claim to be any kind of draft expert, but if you compile articles from every single baseball writer that has written about draft eligible players, for an entire year, and you wind up writing down the name of a Mets draft pick that hasn’t been written about once… well, you get where I’m coming from.


3. This Mets draft was dominated by college players, and, in particular, seniors. For a few times I actually thought I was writing about a small market team, because of so many players that weren’t big time names last year, when they were juniors. College seniors do not have the ammunition to demand over-slot money and this was an obvious attempt by the Mets to save in the pocket.


4. My guess is the Mets didn’t go over-slot for the entire three days. There were so many times that much better talent was left on the board when the Mets announced their pick. This stood out so much when the Mets made their third overall pick (OF Cory Vaughn) and my fellow writer Jack Flynn so accurately pointed out that LHP James Paxton was left on the board. In addition, so were a couple of standout outfielders. Couldn’t you go big time with just one of your picks?


5. It seemed obvious to me that the Mets must be happy with the compliment of everyday players they already have in the system. Omar & Co. seem to be following the adage that “you can’t have enough pitching” and it will be interesting to see how many of these kids sign and where they go. By my count, there are 35 healthy pitchers already in extended camp waiting to see which team they get assigned to (GCL Mets, Brooklyn, or K-Port).


6. I liked the Matt Harvey pick. My choice was C Yasmani Grandal, but I understand his agent wants crazy money. Harvey reminds me of Mike Pelfrey and we sure could use another one of them. The problem is he also reminds me of Phil Humber and Matt Durkin. We’ll see, but I think the Mets got a good one here.


7. No one else jumps off the page for me. This was a weak draft and, if you wanted to score big you needed to get the right players early (how’d you like the Pirates going 1-2 with Jamerson Taillon and Stetson Allie?) C Blake Forsythe was an okay pick, but again, in my opinion there were better catchers available (Micah Gibbs, Cameron Rupp, Stefan Sabol). The same with 5th round pick OF Matt den Dekker. Good pick for a none-pop outfielder, but left on the board were Kevin Keyes, Tyler Holt, and Austin Wilson. Yeah, I know… Wilson will probably not sign, but take a chance anyway.


8. I have absolutely nothing to say about the Mets 4th round pick. This was the 122nd pick overall in a weak draft, so this might have been the last chance for the Mets to get a quality player. Don’t get me started.


9. My dark horse favorite is the Mets 44th round pick, LHP Kevin Gelinas. I can’t believe he fell this low.


10. Overall, I would have to quote my old friend Nitey from NYFS… “MEH”.