Tomorrow Never Knows --- Mets Prospect Lists in 2014

[Edgy MD]

John Sickels assesses his top 20 Met prospects. Most notable isn't necessarily who's on top, but it's all pitching-pitching-pitching from 12 to 20, most of them slotted in as starters. So hopefully, with that big a bag of C+s, some of it can shake out.

1) Noah Syndergaard, RHP, Grade A-: Borderline A
2) Travis D�Arnaud, C, Grade B+: Borderline A-
3) Rafael Montero, RHP, Grade B+: Borderline A-
4) Dominic Smith, 1B, Grade B: Borderline B-
5) Kevin Plawecki, C, Grade B: Borderline B-
6) Wilmer Flores, INF, Grade B: Borderline B-
7) Brandon Nimmo, OF, Grade B-
8) Amed Rosario, SS, Grade B-
9) Gavin Cecchini, SS, Grade B-
10) Cesar Puello, OF, Grade B-
11) Dilson Herrera, 2B, Grade B-
12) Jake DeGrom, RHP, Grade B-
13) Vic Black, RHP, Grade B-
14) Steven Matz, LHP, Grade C+
15) Cory Mazzoni, RHP, Grade C+
16) Gabriel Ynoa, RHP, Grade C+
17) Luis Cessa, RHP, Grade C+
18) Robert Whalen, RHP, Grade C+
19) Chris Flexen, RHP, Grade C+
20) Michael Fulmer, RHP, Grade C+

[smg58]

I think/hope he's spot-on with Montero. I'm optimistic one of the two shortstops will pan out, but they're both a couple of years away. You can't have too much pitching depth in your system, but position players are generally safer bets and we appear short on them. Still, it's the best the system has looked in a while.

[Edgy MD]

Well, don't let a wealth of one area necessarily imply a paucity in another. But yeah. There are certainly other potential shortstops. Our man Tovar is one of them.

This challenge/interesting part is that they've taken high school position players #1 three years in a row. If position palyers are safer picks, that's certainly less true of high school ones. High ceilings and low floors. Kevin Plawecki, who came with three years of college under his belt, has come along smoothly though.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm not familiar with Amed Rosario. I'll have to look him up.

[Edgy MD]

Big ticket foreign signee. It's all in the tools right now, as he's pushed above his age, a practice that was more typical in the Bernazard era. He played in the Appy league at 17, and the stats reflect that. Interesting to see if he jumps to a full season league this year (Savannah or maybe even St. Loo), or they hold him back for Brooklyn.

[Vic Sage]

more than the quantity of pitchers at the bottom of the list, I like that 9 of the top 11 are position players; that's where we have historically been less successful.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

New name to me there is Luis Cessa.

[Edgy MD]

He's gonna be great. Proposals are already being entertained to change the name of the place to the Cess Pool Forum.

Cessa's a veteran of the 2012 Brooklyn rotation that I fell in love with, but couldn't generate the sort of interest over that I was going for.

[ashie62]

I'd like to see Dominic Smith become a Metly big slugger type guy.

At this point would consider using Wilmer Flores as trade fodder..

[MFS62]

The Baseball Almanac 2014 edition is out. It names Montero as the team's minor league player of the year (not to be confused with best prospect). Is that their pick, or have the Mets named one yet?


Later

[Edgy MD]

The Mets "official" awards are the Sterling Awards, formerly the Sterling/Doubleday Awards. They come at the end of the minor league season, and are good in that they are all about actual performance, whether the guy has prospect stock or not. The 2013 Sterling Player of the Year was co-awarded to Alan Dykstra and Kevin Plawecki. The Sterling Pitcher of the Year was Gabriel Ynoa, because Ynoa great season when you see one, and 106 strikeouts to 16 walks is a great season.

[MFS62]

Thanks.
Later

[Edgy MD]

So, who's got the skinny on Robert Whalen? Chris Flexen?

[nymr83]

For the prediction archives, though i think i have said this before, Plawecki will have a better career than d'Arnaud.

Also, Kevin just got engaged (according to twitter), so congrats!

[Edgy MD]

Go Kev!

Kiss it, ladies!

[ashie62]

Robert Whalen is a 2012 12th round draftee pitcher.

A Florida native he was happy to be drafted by the Mets as his folks are from Flushing.

He describes himself as built like Roger Clemens and topping out at 88-94 mph with a 12-6 curve and developing slider..

He is kinda funny looking and his face beams with unbridled enthusiasm...

http://metsmerizedonline.com/2013/03/meet-2012-draft-pick-rhp-robert-whalen-a-die-hard-met-fan.html

[ashie62]

Chris Flexen is a HS Pitcher drafted in the 14th round.. It appears there was a strong sentiment that he would honor his college commitment to AZ and dropped from about a 4th or 5th round round pick to 14.

The Mets signed him for $374,400...100K over slot.

He throw hard..very hard...like most the development of his secondaries will tell the tale..Kind of a sleeper..I like..

[Edgy MD]

A group from the Mets development office takes questions via Twitter. As much as they avoid tipping their hands/committing to anything, if you look with a magnifying glass, you might find something.

[Edgy MD]

Best exchange

RobvanEyndhoven
@RobvanEyndhoven
@MetsFarmReport does the mets have any player from the kingdom of the netherlands in the farm? #askmetsfarm
_________________________________________________


Mets Farm Report @
MetsFarmReport
.@RobvanEyndhoven we have 0 players from the kingdom #askMetsFarm

Think that's our old friend DutchMetsFan?

[Edgy MD]

MLB Pipeline has been releasing lists of top prospects by position. Yesterday, they have released the catcher rankings, with d'Arnaud on top and Plawecki given special honorable mention as a heatseeker just outside of the top ten.

Today, they released the first base rankings, with Dom Smith number two.

[nymr83]

Edgy MD wrote: MLB Pipeline has been releasing lists of top prospects by position. Yesterday, they have released the catcher rankings, with d'Arnaud on top and Plawecki given special honorable mention as a heatseeker just outside of the top ten. Today, they released the first base rankings, with Dom Smith number two.

Syndergaard 3rd on the RHP rankings

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Edgy MD wrote: MLB Pipeline has been releasing lists of top prospects by position. Yesterday, they have released the catcher rankings, with d'Arnaud on top and Plawecki given special honorable mention as a heatseeker just outside of the top ten. Today, they released the first base rankings, with Dom Smith number two.

Lotta expectations being foisted on this 18 year old.

[Edgy MD]

Flores drops from seventh (in 2013) to 10th among secondbase prospects. Dilson drops off the list despite his relative youth.

Prospects are rated in various departments on the scouting range from 20-80, but (as is common) nobody on this list is graded above 60 or below 40 on anything --- the lone exception being Flores, who was given a "20" for his range.

[smg58]

I'm rather annoyed that the #3 prospect at second base is some guy named Mookie Betts. That nickname's been retired, son.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Maybe we can appropriate it for our guy on that list, Mookie Dilson.

[Edgy MD]

What a smorgasbord of delectable nomenclature the whole list amounts to:

[list:3bsn5wbz]1. Kolten Wong
2. Rougned Odor
3. Mookie Betts
4. Arismendy Alcantara
5. Devon Travis
6. Jonathan Schoop
7. Taylor Lindsey
8. Eddie Rosari
9. Micah Johnson
10. Wilmer Flores[/list:u:3bsn5wbz]

How crazy to be coming to the table with an ace of a name like "Wilmer Flores" and realize it probably doesn't even qualify for the top five on this list. What a great time to be young and collecting cards. "Rougned Odor"!!

[Edgy MD]

Top ten third base prospects... NO METS!

Sell the team NOW!!!!

[Frayed Knot]

MLB.com kicked off the overall prospect list season by revealing their Top-100 last night: Top-50 via countdown, 51-100 just on the bottom-screen crawl.
Jonathan Mayo & Jim Callis are the main drivers of the list. Former GM John Hart also in on the discussions.

Syndergaard = 11
d'Arnaud = 22
Montero = 85

- Not much was said about Syndergaard except that he's the 3rd-ranked pitcher overall; Archie Bradley (Az) and Taijuan Walker (Sea) came in at 5th & 6th
- d'Arnaud was involved in a side discussion about best catching prospect. Austin Hedges (SD) at #25 is considered the superior defensive catcher but d'Arnaud's better bat gave him a slight nod for the overall package.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I have to say, d'Arnaud was awfully underwhelming in his debut last summer, not that I was to expect all that much from a rookie catcher. And so I'm hoping he will surprise me this time.

But really. Did the guy do anything memorable? I can barely remember what he looks like.

[Frayed Knot]

Quite underwhelming.
On the other hand, his trial added up to less than 100 ABs, and it says a lot about his perceived potential when, coming on the heels of two consecutive injury-interrupted seasons, he's still being talked about as either #1 or 1A among catching prospects.