Often times we talk about either hitter-friendly parks or pitcher-friendly ones. It’s an easy concept for major league teams, which we get to see on a regular basis and can confirm the results with our own eyes. The concept is easy with minor league teams, too, but there it requires a little more faith for [...]
One of the challenges for ranking the Mets’ prospects is how to handle when a player goes from a pretty good hitter’s park in Kingsport to a pretty good pitcher’s park in either Brooklyn or Columbia. Last year’s top hitting prospects from the APPY did not repeat their numbers at the higher levels. How much [...]
It would have been great to have been a fly on the wall in the war room for the Mets’ 2019 Draft. In the first three rounds, they took two guys who ended up signing for significantly more money that their slot level or pool allotment for those picks. In order to do that, they [...]
There has been considerable talk this season and offseason about the idea that there are too many minor league levels and that baseball might consider getting rid of some of them. Juggling the names, I have to admit that the number of short season leagues seems a bit high and the number of players a [...]
After posting a mediocre .695 OPS in a full season of AA baseball, many scouts and pundits soured on Andres Gimenez. For example, he dropped two ranks in my 2019 Top 50 Prospect List. He was still young (20 years old through most of 2019), he still showed promise (36 XBH and 28 SB) but [...]
Much was made of the Mets' decision to draft Matthew Allan, the top rated high school pitcher in the 2019 draft, in the third round. The risk was that Allan would skip out on signing with the Mets in order to go to college and attempt for an even higher draft position in two years. [...]
Many sports pages and blogs only list a Top 10 prospects. That is fine and dandy but many more than a team's Top 10 wind up making an impact on the roster eventually. Just ask Jeff McNeil who may have never sniffed the Top 10 before emerging as an MLB star. When you list a [...]
We've talked about tiers and we've talked about floors and ceilings, but what separates a Tier 2 player from the elite names in the first tier of prospects? Often times it isn't their overall talent, often times it is, but the concerns one has over one or more elements of their game. I refer to [...]
On Friday we reached the third tier prospects in the Met’s system and today we will list out the ten remaining players who fall within this grouping. It occured to me that a basic understanding of how my tiered system would be helpful to the readers. Tier 1 - The Elite Prospects: To be [...]
Prospects cannot help but be ranked and grouped into like tiers. First Tier prospects are the elite players towards the Top of one's Top 10 or, on a very good farm, beyond that. Second tier players look to have major league futures but are not in the same class regarding needing to protect them. Going [...]
Each year I write up a Top 50 list but in most years I'm spending a few weeks scrambling to put my thoughts in order to make sure I am listing everyone who deserves to be listed and not listing anyone (cough cough... Tim Tebow) that shouldn't be. In 2019 I did something different. I [...]
The Minor League season is winding down and I’ve started work on my Top 50 Met prospect list for the offseason but the Mets are keeping things interesting with some late season promotions. Typically you’ll see teams trying to give minor leaguers a taste of the playoffs by tossing them into a higher level for [...]