Frayed Knot

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Mets go with Cory Mozzoni, RHP from NC State. Sickels: "Slightly above average stuff ... outstanding command ... I like him a lot"

dgwphotography wrote: Fritz Peterson Would you get it directly from the foot of Mrs. Kekich's bed or through another source?

John Sickels on Nimmo: The Mets have been conservative in recent drafts, but the new front office promises more investment in the farm system. This is a good test of that philosophy, for Brandon Nimmo has been floating large bonus demands to skip college ball at the University of Arkansas. The Mets are wise to invest in him: he's got an exceptional set of skills and tools. A 6-2, 185 pound left-handed hitter, Nimmo is a one of the best athletes in the draft and features both above-average speed and power. Most surprisingly, he demonstrats excellent strike zone judgmetn and offensive polish, all the more remarkable given that his state lacks high school baseball. He does have experience in Legion ball and showcase events, and Nimmo has less risk than you might expect given his background. Nimmo also offers excellent makeup, and this looks like a very fine pick for the Mets.

BA's take: Many expected the Mets to take a college player when Sandy Alderson (general manager) and Paul DePodesta (scouting and player development director) took over the organization. But scouting director Chad McDonald, also in his first year with the organization, took a liking to Brandon Nimmo, the best high school player ever out of Wyoming. And he persuaded the front office to take the player he wanted, drafted Nimmo 13th overall. Nimmo was believed to be putting out a big signing bonus number in the $2.5 million range. The Mets must have confidence that they can make a deal with Nimmo and keep him from going to Arkansas.

seawolf17 wrote: "Best player in the history of Wyoming," eh? Beats being called the best ice hockey player in Peru Can we just start calling him 'Captain' now?

#2 -- Seattle - Danny Hultzen - LHP - U-Virginia

As rumored - Gerrit Cole to the Pirates He spurned the Yanx three years ago so I like him already.

Kicking off now. Mets picking 13th - or in about an hour

Willets Point wrote: Bruins. The British Columbians are Coming! The British Columbians are Coming! P.S. No telling what Sarah Palin would make of this scenario. On the other hand I think she can see Vancouver from her front porch.

In the meantime, Duda's been as hot as the wings in Buffalo (9-21 w/4 HRs, 1 2B, 5 BBs, 8 RBIs last week) You hate to bring him up for more part-time work, especially since he's been so bad at that in his brief two tries, but with Ike out for who knows how long it might be a good time. Biggest problem is that you don't want his time to take away from either Murph or Turner and we know both Duda & Muffy are adventures in the OF.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Been reading about Williams Jerez in the Snooze. Dominican "kid" (18? 19? 31??) going to high school in Bushwick, hitting the crap out of the ball (.692/.738/1.385 // 2.123!!) and hit some balls into the second deck at Shea during a workout there this weekend. Could go top 50. "Ultra-athletic and toolsy ... but extremely raw" says BP's Kevin Goldstein and projects him going to ... the Yanquis at #51 With no 1st round pick (thanx to Steinbrenner bros & Raphael Soriano) the Yanx could go for an "upside" guy and he's from the same HS as Yanx pitching prospect Dellin Betances

I think the new guys were reluctant to start throwing out huge contracts immediately upon arrival because - well maybe because they couldn't with finances being up in the air and all - but also because they wanted to get the lay of the land. Reyes, after all, did NOT have this kind of year last season and has had the best parts of two entire seasons blown out of the water due to a variety of injuries. Also, as much of a cliche about how players are able to turn it on in a contract year, that's one of those things that's true except for when it isn't so let's not kid ourselves into believing that this kind of start was inevitable for Jose even if this is the kind of production from him we've imagined all these years. Now that Sandy et al have seen him up close and personal and now that a minority investor is (most of the way) in place I think things have changed and there will definitely be talks prior to the FA period in November. Whether those talks go anywhere or not ... "Crawford money", btw, is 7 years at just over $20/per and he was approx 1 year older at the time of his deal than Jose will be this fall.

Buster Olney said last night - both in the pre-game and once during it - the the team is prepared to make him an offer "sometime this summer" (was I believe the wording he used). Not sure where Buster was getting his info from but I don't recall hearing something that concrete prior to now. Presumably that means they try something before the trading deadline just to see if the two sides are miles apart or just somewhat apart, or maybe just to see if the Reyes camp even wants to talk at all. Project out a little further and you get the idea that if they don't like what they hear (or don't hear) they'd be open to trading him but then that opens up a whole 'nother can of worms because, as Bobby said during the game, if you can't sign him then what can you realistically do and/or if you're dealing him away then you might as well deal everyone (Wright included) and start all over. And even if you do that you're still going to be stuck with Bay and Santana (or a large portion of their contracts) so how low is your payroll going to be anyway? Reyes is already making $11 this year so it's not like the payroll is going up by $19/yr if that's what his salary winds up being via a new deal because you're already 2/3 of the way there now. Shit, the Castillo deal coming off the books pays for most of the difference.

Ashie62 wrote: Didn't the Mets spend a million half on Kazmir? I'm pretty sure it was more than that. Some teams supposedly passed on him that year based on the idea that he was going to ask for a huge bonus because he had a U-Texas scholarship in his pocket. But he wound up going to the Mets for right around where a guy picked in his spot (15th overall) was slotted to get. The larger point is that procuring talent doesn't come cheap (nor should it). The knock against the Mets in the past is that they haven't always gone for the best available player if they thought it was going to cost them more than what MLB wants a player picked in that spot to cost. They have occasionally spent more than daddy Bud wishes they would but have also passed up on doing so more often than a large market team should.

btw, the biggest name on the bonus-busting front this year could be Irving, Texas HS OF Josh Bell. Considered by many to be the best HS bat this year, Bell has written a letter to MLB asking that he NOT be drafted as he has every intention of attending U-Texas in the fall. Whether he actually means that or if it's merely a ploy to push his selection downward towards a team that is willing to pay him big bucks to forego college remains to be seen. He wouldn't be the first to declare no interest in the draft only to sign later on.

Their RiSP hitting in the Braves series was about .500 -- a little lower and we wouldn't have survived last night's late inning onslaught either. With even a moderately successful bullpen this would have been a great home-stand.

Beato came under the (no-longer existing) 'draft-and-follow' rules where you could draft a HS kid and watch his progress through a year of JuCo then choose to sign him (or not) until a week before the following draft. The since-imposed hard August 15th deadline for all draftees did away with that option. As a HS kid who did well in his JuCo year, the Mets offered the 17th round pick the equivalent of 2nd round money but Beato wanted 1st round cash and when neither side would give in he wound up going back into the draft where he was picked by Baltimore (and wound up getting just about the midway point between what he wanted and what the Mets were offering). Whether the Mets held the line on their offer because they thought that's all he was worth or if they were pressured by MLB into not going any higher will probably never be known for sure and I suppose either side of the 'Mets are/aren't cheap' debate can point to that case as evidence; either they were right to hold the line seeing as how six years later he's still just a middle reliever, or that they were fortunate to get back the player they shouldn't have lost over a measly 700K in the first place. And, yeah, in general trying to judge a draft by total amount of dollars spent is a pretty shallow bit of analysis. Where you pick determines how much gets spent more often than does some sort of philosophy (two drafts ago the Mets didn't pick until #78). It's true that the Mets have rarely rocked Bud's boat on the whole unofficial cap situation - and almost certainly to their own detriment at times - but there's also a lot of misinformation out there as to exactly how it affects who they draft.

It bears repeating, but the problem with the Mets reluctance to spend has NOT been with 1st round picks it's been with not taking chances on later round guys. With a draft as deep as this one is supposed to be several good prospects are going to get to you at #13. Maybe someone with big $$ demands is still around at #44 and then it becomes a question of whether you think it's worth paying him 1st round money too. Later on there might be HS players who, while raw, are worth taking a chance on over-paying. Those are the kinds of picks the Mets have not been taking due to their adherence to the slotting system.

Ridiculing Atlanta Dickey Yeah he just gave up a run, but it's the 7th inning so one run is about four or five below our norm.

Ashie62 wrote: Fouled off the ankle. Stayed in game. Glad there is no game tomorrow. Stayed in the finish the AB - but then left the game.

(Irwin) Sonny Fox is still living apparently, but at 86 y/o is probably pretty gray.

bmfc1 wrote: No Bay, no Chipper. On the downside: ESPN storylines in lieu of actual game discussion. I'm guessing that we'll see a review of Terry's "tirade" and then the ESPN cameras cut to a shot of the booth as Bobby V. discusses whether managerial rants can work. Plus plenty of Reyes trade speculation ... mostly to the Yanquis of course.

Ashie62 wrote: I'd like Sonny Gray if he slips. Plus he sounds like a guy who'd make a great game show host if the baseball thing doesn't work out.

BP's Kevin Goldstein concocts his mock 1st round and includes with it a number of hints and notes (often conflicting) he's gathered on each team recently from various sources. 13. New York Mets: Taylor Jungmann, RHP, Texas While many have assumed a safe college position player, their focus seems to be on pitching. Jungmann shouldn't be a difficult sign, and has the polish to breeze through the system and catch up to Matt Harvey and Juerys Familia's timetable. - Jungman, Gray, and Barnes - Mikie Mahtook - Javier Baez/Levi Michael � in lead, like the SS thought - Hearing nothing but pitching of late - Go crazy and shock if there is a drop? Mixed.

But it works out fine so you're forgiven. Open books, insert game.