Are these guys prospects?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I confess I don't know shit about how to properly judge whether a minor-league guy has the goods or not, and I'll go even further and say that guys who think they know shit about that probably don't know shit about it either.

Maybe ignorance is bliss, but just kinda f-ing around I came across (not literally) a few guys who, hey, might have the goods...

Jim Fuller, LHP, Brooklyn:
5-10 lefty starter in 8 starts is 3-4, 2.16 with 10-53 BB-K in 50 IP

Brandon Moore, RHP, Brooklyn
6-3 righty, even better control: 8 starts, 4-2, 2.50 with 7-49 BB-K in 50 IP

Jeff Flagg, 1B, Kingsport: 333/404/514 //918

Sean Ratfliff, CF, Savannah: 282/327/485 // 812 LH hitting CFer with 14 dingers

Of course there's also RJ Harris, future star.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I was thinking of adopting Flagg. Honestly, though, experience tells me that almost nobody the organziation has any hopes for comes through Kingsport.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I was thinking the same thing about Savannah. It's not a good sign that the Mets have let Ratfliff stay there long enough to hit 14 homers.

[Frayed Knot]

Of that group, only Ratliff is NOT a later-round pick and he's also the only one currently playing at a full-season league, ergo he's the only one who it would be even remotely possible to call a prospect. 23 year-olds drafted in the 20-something round playing in short-season ball don't get that kind of respect.

It's not a big del, IMO, that Ratliff is spending an entire season at Savannah. A level per season (through AA anyway) is a perfectly acceptable rate of progress.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

="Frayed Knot"]Of that group, only Ratliff is NOT a later-round pick and he's also the only one currently playing at a full-season league, ergo he's the only one who it would be even remotely possible to call a prospect. 23 year-olds drafted in the 20-something round playing in short-season ball don't get that kind of respect. It's not a big del, IMO, that Ratliff is spending an entire season at Savannah. A level per season (through AA anyway) is a perfectly acceptable rate of progress.

Indeed.

Most other teams' player development systems wait for either (A) at least a solid, well-above-average year or ( a half-season of incontrovertible evidence of outright dominance (1.100 OPS, a 10/1 K/BB ratio and sub-1 WHIP) before advancement. It's funny-- and a little sad-- that our sense of that has gone away because of the tempo at which most Met players move through this system.

And we have seen a few short-seasoners make it up to the bigs-- if either of the Cyclones can put something together in full-season ball next year, it's possible we see some quick advancement to fill vacuums created by likely Holt, Mejia and Niese promotions, ya nah?

[seawolf17]

Fuck it. Call 'em all up and let's see what they've got.

[Benjamin Grimm]

My suspicion doesn't stem from the fact that he's at Single A, but that he's at Savannah instead of St. Lucie.

[Frayed Knot]

The Mets in recent years have been aggressively pushing their high-ceiling guys up the ladder (particularly the younger Latin-American signs) even to the point of skipping over levels entirely. Too aggressively in the opinion of many.

For the majority of players though it seems like they're content to move more "normally" on the order of a level per year if progress is shown, which, if nothing else, seems to be a change for the better as compared to the Steve Phillips years. Back then is was generally assumed that any player who was NOT one of the chosen few (1st, maybe 2nd round picks) was deemed to have little or no future value and were occasionally prematurely traded (Jason Bay) with little consideration to how they were looking.
At least the Omar administration is getting contributions from the likes of Murphy (13th), Niese (7th), Parnell (9th) and is keeping their eye on the a guy like Thole (13th) plus several later-round pitchers.

[Frayed Knot]

="Benjamin Grimm":1d0i13go]My suspicion doesn't stem from the fact that he's at Single A, but that he's at Savannah instead of St. Lucie.[/quote:1d0i13go] First one then the other. Low-A is the logical step after the short-season NY-Penn league. Wright & Reyes did it that way with a full year at the lower level before jumping up to St, Lucie for another full year in Wright's case or a partial one in Reyes's. Now both of them were younger than this guy at the time, but were both much more heralded coming in too.

Edgy DC Aug 06 2009 11:41 AM

One guy who got pushed and was seemingly set back by it was Hector Pellot, debuting at 19 in the Sallie League. He was underwater there, ended up spending a second season, and now is on his second season in the Florida State League. Milledge-Gomez-Martinez. Outfielders who went through quickly. All still looking to establish themselves.

[Guest Edgy DC]

One guy who got pushed and was seemingly set back by it was Hector Pellot, debuting at 19 in the Sallie League. He was underwater there, ended up spending a second season, and now is on his second season in the Florida State League.

Milledge-Gomez-Martinez. Outfielders who went through quickly. All still looking to establish themselves.