MLB Draft (June 4-6)

[nymr83]

Mets will pick 12th, then 35th and 71st for losing Reyes, then again at 75th with their own 2nd rounder. A great chance to stock up the system here for the Mets, who need to not fuck this up.

[metirish]

I am very confident in the FO in regards to the draft.

[Edgy MD]

Every other year, fucking up the draft is cool.

[nymr83]

Edgy DC wrote: Every other year, fucking up the draft is cool.

When you are winning, few care about how well you are perceived to have drafted. Also, with so many high picks and Wilpon's buddy not calling in MLB' sloan to help him out or whatever, I want to see if the Mets will pass on anyone to stick to Selig's "slot", which would be another way to fuck up (and I'd argue far less forgiveable than subpar talent evaluation)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Well they are putting some teeth into slot enforcement this year, bringing prices down to a point where cheap teams find them "affordable" and penalizing abusers with taxes and other stuff that could mess yup future drafts.

I believe the Mets will "max out" what's available to them without incurring the penalties. That's what their guys (DePodesta) is on record as saying.

[seawolf17]

The second-best college outfielder IN THE COUNTRY is right out here on Long Island, Mets. MAKE IT HAPPEN.

http://throughthefencebaseball.com/2012-draft-top-10-college-outfielders/19817/

http://www.goseawolves.org/sports/m-basebl/mtt/jankowski_travis00.html

[metirish]

He's Dykstra!

. Travis Jankowski, Stony Brook, 6�-3�, 190 pounds
2012 stats: 27 G, .330 AVG, 26 R, 9 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR, 9 RBI, 17 SB, .420/.569/.989

Jankowski is the prototypical leadoff hitter and should be able to stick in center field due to his speed, range and arm. Hit .355 last season, with 38 RBI, 30 stolen bases and just 22 strikeouts over 58 games. Teams looking for a high-average hitter, with elite speed and a great approach at the plate, would be thrilled to get a guy like Jankowski. Will also be an instant fan favorite because of his hustle and all out style. Should find his name called in the first round.

[Edgy MD]

Will also be an instant fan favorite because of his hustle and all out style.

= White guy, fun Polish name.

[nymr83]

Edgy DC wrote: Will also be an instant fan favorite because of his hustle and all out style. = White guy, fun Polish name.

...Or he turns into Jason Tyner. Or Gomez who had maybe one good year elsewhere. In the first round, give me a guy with some pop in his bat!

[Ceetar]

high-end shortstops? Not really sure what the Mets should be targeting here. Seems like they could use "the next Reyes" that could end up in CF or SS. And pitching, always draft pitching. It's real hard to predict what the team will need when most of these guys are ready, or even how long they'll take.

[Edgy MD]

Which is why the first and second rule of drafting is to not even consider perceived weaknesses at the big league level when making your selections.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Which is why the first and second rule of drafting is to not even consider perceived weaknesses at the big league level when making your selections.

You gotta at least have some thoughts though right? You can't end up drafting only pitchers or only power-hitting right-handed outfielders because they looked the best. It seems to me that the Mets could use some rangy guys in the system to put at the more premium defensive positions.

[Edgy MD]

Ceetar wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Which is why the first and second rule of drafting is to not even consider perceived weaknesses at the big league level when making your selections. You gotta at least have some thoughts though right? You can't end up drafting only pitchers or only power-hitting right-handed outfielders because they looked the best. It seems to me that the Mets could use some rangy guys in the system to put at the more premium defensive positions.

Oh, absolutely none.

You may want to give some thought to getting some positional balance within the draft. Make sure you pick up a few hitters if you only grabbed pitchers in the first 10 rounds. Maybe be sure to get at least two catchers along the way. That's a maybe. But no way do you consider what you have on the big league roster now. The picture will change in countless ways five years down the road, and any redundancies would simply be a blessing, one that can easily be cashed in on by moving a guy over one position or trading.

[Ceetar]

I don't mean the big league roster, I mean the system as a whole. Perhaps the system is weak in a particular tool, you look for it a little more carefully.

Catchers and Shortstops seem to be a little sparse.

[nymr83]

Take the best available players early, later in the draft you can worry about what positions/skills you need to fill out the rosters in St Lucie or Brooklyn, I'd never worry about the big leagues and only a very little about the upper minors (and even then only after the first couple of rounds)

[Frayed Knot]

Nymr83 wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Will also be an instant fan favorite because of his hustle and all out style. = White guy, fun Polish name. ...Or he turns into Jason Tyner. Or Gomez who had maybe one good year elsewhere. In the first round, give me a guy with some pop in his bat!

Like Rob Stratton maybe?

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Frayed Knot wrote: Nymr83 wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Will also be an instant fan favorite because of his hustle and all out style. = White guy, fun Polish name. ...Or he turns into Jason Tyner. Or Gomez who had maybe one good year elsewhere. In the first round, give me a guy with some pop in his bat! Like Rob Stratton maybe?

"Rob Stratton, Rush chairman, damn glad to meet you."

[Frayed Knot]

Nymr83 wrote: When you are winning, few care about how well you are perceived to have drafted.

They should.

Also, with so many high picks and Wilpon's buddy not calling in MLB' sloan to help him out or whatever, I want to see if the Mets will pass on anyone to stick to Selig's "slot", which would be another way to fuck up (and I'd argue far less forgiveable than subpar talent evaluation)

The so-called 'slot-drafting' wasn't what most fans seem to think it was.
The Mets, even while sticking strictly to Bud's notion of a voluntary cap, weren't passing on known higher talent while intentionally grabbing lesser/cheaper guys. Where the slot stuff kicked in was in not taking chances in later rounds with usually raw but high-ceiling HS kids who weren't polished enough for the upper rounds but could frequently command bigger bucks because they had a scholarship in their back pocket.

Under the new rules what MLB is trying to cap is a team's total expenditure in one year. The plan has various complicated rules but the basic idea wouldn't necessarily limit one player's bonus but would require a team to cut down elsewhere if they did go high on one or two selections.

[Edgy MD]

And it's just a terribly wrong thing for the league to do and it needs to be combatted.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

But it won't, not in this lifetime.

[Frayed Knot]

There's already talk about how/if teams are going to get around such limits.


From BA just this week.
Q: What's to prevent a team from circumventing the draft spending cap by signing picks at or below their assigned values and then handing out a million-dollar contract to a family member as a "consultant" or "interpreter"? MLB can't tell teams who they can and can't hire as front-office personnel or how much they can spend on them, can they?

A: MLB has tried to curb amateur bonus spending almost forever. In 1946, 19 years before the creation of the draft, baseball instituted the first of several variations of a bonus rule. None of them proved effective, in part because under-the-table payments were rampant.

"We'd pass a bonus rule and by the time we got out of the room, we already figured out how to skin the cat," former Tigers GM Jim Campbell told me years ago. "There was no way to really police it. You could hire a kid's uncle as a scout. He might actually be qualified, but it was still questionable."

Don't expect to see similar hijinks with the draft rules in the new CBA, however. MLB has informed clubs that any attempt to avoid the tax and draft-pick penalties for overspending is prohibited, specifically mentioning undisclosed agreements between teams and draftees. If a club hires a relative of a draftee and pays him an exorbitant salary, Commissioner Bud Selig will step in.

[Edgy MD]

It only takes one owner to say, "Yeah, well, sue me."

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy DC wrote: Von Ohlen was a Flushing High product who became a free agent after a couple of years at Tidewater without getting a call. He signed with the Cards and fashioned a 4+-year career for himself.

Until that son of a bitch blew off Roland's head.

[Frayed Knot]

seawolf17 wrote: The second-best college outfielder IN THE COUNTRY is right out here on Long Island, Mets. MAKE IT HAPPEN. http://throughthefencebaseball.com/2012-draft-top-10-college-outfielders/19817/ http://www.goseawolves.org/sports/m-basebl/mtt/jankowski_travis00.html

- I'm seeing Jankowski's name in late-1st and/or Supp round mocks, so that 2nd NYM pick remains a possibility.

- For those interested in catchers, there are two being talked about in the 1st round
The one - Mike Zunino - out of U-Florida is almost certainly NOT lasting until the 12th pick.
The other is a HS kid out of Louisiana who should be drafted on account of his name alone: Stryker Trahan sounds like a guy who has some kind of super-powers

- For those interested in short-stops might want to look to the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy and pick up Jesmuel Valentin-Diaz, the switch-hitting son of former MLer (and NYM) Jose Valentin.

[bmfc1]

Frayed Knot wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Von Ohlen was a Flushing High product who became a free agent after a couple of years at Tidewater without getting a call. He signed with the Cards and fashioned a 4+-year career for himself. Until that son of a bitch blew off Roland's head.

Applause for FK.

[Frayed Knot]

Hey, you never want to miss a chance to slide in a Warren Zevon reference.



A catching prospect might exist right around the time that the 1st round supp pick comes up from, of all places, the Univ of Buffalo.
In fact, a mock draft on John Sickels site sent the U of B's Tom Martin right to the Mets with the 35th overall pick.
-- The Mets could use a catching prospect, and there's an intriguing home-state talent available here with University of Buffalo backstop Tom Murphy. He has considerable power, a good measure of athleticism, and has made progress with his defense this year.


Draft starts on June 4th - three weeks from Monday.

[ashie62]

Nimmo, please dont be a bust.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=nimmo-000bra

[Frayed Knot]

Those stats are from less than 40 ABs last year.
He's in extended instructional league right now which is nothing unusual for a kid in his first year drafted out of HS and not signed until the deadline.
Expect to see him start in one of the short-season leagues come mid-June, probably Brooklyn - something which should be a nice culture shock for a Wyoming kid.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, come on. Framing it fearfully as "please don't be a bust" and linking to a presumably ominous stat line of a few dozen at-bats just isn't healthy. Mets are amazin'.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

uh, avi